Applied Interval Analysis

At the core of many engineering problems is the solution of sets of equa tions and inequalities, and the optimization of cost functions. Unfortunately, except in special cases, such as when a set of equations is linear in its un knowns or when a convex cost function has to be minimized under convex constraints, the results obtained by conventional numerical methods are only local and cannot be guaranteed. This means, for example, that the actual global minimum of a cost function may not be reached, or that some global minimizers of this cost function may escape detection. By contrast, interval analysis makes it possible to obtain guaranteed approximations of the set of all the actual solutions of the problem being considered. This, together with the lack of books presenting interval techniques in such a way that they could become part of any engineering numerical tool kit, motivated the writing of this book. The adventure started in 1991 with the preparation by Luc Jaulin of his PhD thesis, under Eric Walter's supervision. It continued with their joint supervision of Olivier Didrit's and Michel Kieffer's PhD theses. More than two years ago, when we presented our book project to Springer, we naively thought that redaction would be a simple matter, given what had already been achieved . . .

This book treats an important set of techniques that provide a mathematically rigorous and complete error analysis for computational results. It shows that interval analysis provides a powerful set of tools with direct applicability to important problems in scientific computing.

An update on the author's previous books, this introduction to interval analysis provides an introduction to INTLAB, a high-quality, comprehensive MATLAB toolbox for interval computations, making this the first interval analysis book that does with INTLAB what general numerical analysis texts do with MATLAB.

Employing a closed set-theoretic foundation for interval computations, Global Optimization Using Interval Analysis simplifies algorithm construction and increases generality of interval arithmetic. This Second Edition contains an up-to-date discussion of interval methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations and global optimization problems. It expands and improves various aspects of its forerunner and features significant new discussions, such as those on the use of consistency methods to enhance algorithm performance. Provided algorithms are guaranteed to find and bound all solutions to these problems despite bounded errors in data, in approximations, and from use of rounded arithmetic.

This brief presents a suite of computationally efficient methods for bounding trajectories of dynamical systems with multi-dimensional intervals, or ‘boxes’. It explains the importance of bounding trajectories for evaluating the robustness of systems in the face of parametric uncertainty, and for verification or control synthesis problems with respect to safety and reachability properties. The methods presented make use of: interval analysis; monotonicity theory; contraction theory; and data-driven techniques that sample trajectories. The methods are implemented in an accompanying open-source Toolbox for Interval Reachability Analysis. This brief provides a tutorial description of each method, focusing on the requirements and trade-offs relevant to the user, requiring only basic background on dynamical systems. The second part of the brief describes applications of interval reachability analysis. This makes the brief of interest to a wide range of academic researchers, graduate students, and practising engineers in the field of control and verification.

Mathematics of Computing -- Numerical Analysis.

Primary Audience for the Book • Specialists in numerical computations who are interested in algorithms with automatic result verification. • Engineers, scientists, and practitioners who desire results with automatic verification and who would therefore benefit from the experience of suc cessful applications. • Students in applied mathematics and computer science who want to learn these methods. Goal Of the Book This book contains surveys of applications of interval computations, i. e. , appli cations of numerical methods with automatic result verification, that were pre sented at an international workshop on the subject in EI Paso, Texas, February 23-25, 1995. The purpose of this book is to disseminate detailed and surveyed information about existing and potential applications of this new growing field. Brief Description of the Papers At the most fundamental level, interval arithmetic operations work with sets: The result of a single arithmetic operation is the set of all possible results as the operands range over the domain. For example, [0. 9,1. 1] + [2. 9,3. 1] = [3. 8,4. 2], where [3. 8,4. 2] = {x + ylx E [0. 9,1. 1] and y E [3. 8,4. 2]}. The power of interval arithmetic comes from the fact that (i) the elementary operations and standard functions can be computed for intervals with formulas and subroutines; and (ii) directed roundings can be used, so that the images of these operations (e. g.

Doing Meta-Analysis with R: A Hands-On Guide serves as an accessible introduction on how meta-analyses can be conducted in R. Essential steps for meta-analysis are covered, including calculation and pooling of outcome measures, forest plots, heterogeneity diagnostics, subgroup analyses, meta-regression, methods to control for publication bias, risk of bias assessments and plotting tools. Advanced but highly relevant topics such as network meta-analysis, multi-three-level meta-analyses, Bayesian meta-analysis approaches and SEM meta-analysis are also covered. A companion R package, dmetar, is introduced at the beginning of the guide. It contains data sets and several helper functions for the meta and metafor package used in the guide. The programming and statistical background covered in the book are kept at a non-expert level, making the book widely accessible. Features • Contains two introductory chapters on how to set up an R environment and do basic imports/manipulations of meta-analysis data, including exercises • Describes statistical concepts clearly and concisely before applying them in R • Includes step-by-step guidance through the coding required to perform meta-analyses, and a companion R package for the book