Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Encoding spatial priors with VAEs for small-area estimation   Gaussian processes (GPs), implemented through multivariate Gaussian
distributions for a finite collection of data, are the most popular approach in
small-area spatiotemporal statistical modelling. In this context they are used
to encode correlation structures over space and time and can generalise well in
interpolation tasks. Despite their flexibility, off-the-shelf GPs present
serious computational challenges which limit their scalability and practical
usefulness in applied settings. Here, we propose a novel, deep generative
modelling approach to tackle this challenge: for a particular spatiotemporal
setting, we approximate a class of GP priors through prior sampling and
subsequent fitting of a variational autoencoder (VAE). Given a trained VAE, the
resultant decoder allows spatiotemporal inference to become incredibly
efficient due to the low dimensional, independently distributed latent Gaussian
space representation of the VAE. Once trained, inference using the VAE decoder
replaces the GP within a Bayesian sampling framework. This approach provides
tractable and easy-to-implement means of approximately encoding spatiotemporal
priors and facilitates efficient statistical inference. We demonstrate the
utility of our VAE two stage approach on Bayesian, small-area estimation tasks.

12
The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
35
The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
6
The categories of this paper are: astro-ph
19
The categories of this paper are: eess
34
The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
2
The categories of this paper are: math
7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
36
The categories of this paper are: cmp-lg
30
The categories of this paper are: q-alg
20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
5
The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
4
The categories of this paper are: cond-mat
33
The categories of this paper are: plasm-ph
28
The categories of this paper are: alg-geom