<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article  PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd"><article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en" article-type="research article"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">OJS</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Open Journal of Statistics</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="epub">2161-718X</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Scientific Research Publishing</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.4236/ojs.2016.63045</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">OJS-67748</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="Discipline-v2"><subject>Physics&amp;Mathematics</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>
 
 
  Inverse Problem for a Time-Series Valued Computer Simulator via Scalarization
 
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pritam</surname><given-names>Ranjan</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mark</surname><given-names>Thomas</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"><sup>2</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Holger</surname><given-names>Teismann</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"><sup>2</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sujay</surname><given-names>Mukhoti</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref></contrib></contrib-group><aff id="aff1"><addr-line>OM &amp;amp; QT, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore, India</addr-line></aff><aff id="aff2"><addr-line>Department of Mathematics &amp;amp; Statistics, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada</addr-line></aff><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>08</day><month>06</month><year>2016</year></pub-date><volume>06</volume><issue>03</issue><fpage>528</fpage><lpage>544</lpage><history><date date-type="received"><day>25</day>	<month>April</month>	<year>2016</year></date><date date-type="rev-recd"><day>accepted</day>	<month>25</month>	<year>June</year>	</date><date date-type="accepted"><day>28</day>	<month>June</month>	<year>2016</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement>&#169; Copyright  2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. </copyright-statement><copyright-year>2014</copyright-year><license><license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>
 
 
  For an expensive to evaluate computer simulator, even the estimate of the overall surface can be a challenging problem. In this paper, we focus on the estimation of the inverse solution, i.e., to find the set(s) of input combinations of the simulator that generates a pre-determined simulator output. Ranjan et al. [1] proposed an expected improvement criterion under a sequential design framework for the inverse problem with a scalar valued simulator. In this paper, we focus on the inverse problem for a time-series valued simulator. We have used a few simulated and two real examples for performance comparison.
 
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Calibration</kwd><kwd> Computer Experiments</kwd><kwd> Contour Estimation</kwd><kwd> Gaussian Process Model</kwd><kwd> Non-Stationary Process</kwd><kwd> Sequential Design</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front><body><sec id="s1"><title>1. Introduction</title><p>Experimentation with computer simulators has gained much popularity in the last two-three decades for applications where actual physical experiment is either too expensive, time consuming, or even infeasible. The applications range from drug discovery, medicine, agriculture, industrial experiments, engineering, manu- facturing, nuclear research, climatology, astronomy, green energy to business and social behavioural research. A computer simulator (or computer model), built with the help of an application area expert, is often a mathe- matical model implemented in C/C++/Java/etc. which aims to mimic the underlying true physical phenomenon. Thus, the ultimate objective of the (unobservable) experiment with the true physical process (or phenomenon) can be fulfilled via the computer simulators.</p><p>In this paper, we are interested in the inverse problem for deterministic simulators, i.e., find the input(s) of the simulator that corresponds to a pre-specified output<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. That is, if <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> represents the simulator response for an input<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, then the objective is to find<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The inverse problem is also referred to as the history matching problem or (pre-)calibration problem, contour (or iso-surface) estimation, etc. Ranjan et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref1">1</xref>] proposed a sequential design framework for efficient estimation of the inverse solution when the simulator returned a scalar response, whereas the simulator under consideration in this paper gave time-series response. That is, we are interested in a functional inverse problem.</p><p>This research is motivated by two real-life applications. The first application comes from the apple farming industry in the Annapolis valley, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the objective is to find a suitable set of parameters of the two-delay blowfly (TDB) model that corresponds to the reality. TDB model simulates population growth of European red mites which infest on apple leaves and diminish the quality of crop ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref2">2</xref>] ). The data collection for the true population growth of these mites is very expensive, as the field expert would have to periodically count the mites on the leaves of apple trees in multiple orchards. That is, the inverse problem or equivalently, the history matching problem is to find the inputs of the TDB model that generates growth curve close to the actual data collected from a specific apple orchard in Nova Scotia, Canada.</p><p>The second application focuses on the calibration of a simulator which projects the inflation rate of a country over a period of time. Inflation or increase in overall price level is a key metric in determining the economic and financial health of a country, and the central banks are the key policy makers involved in such projections or setting up a target (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/target.htm). To steer the actual inflation towards the target, the central banks control its driver, the interbank interest rate. We use a computer model called Chair-The-Fed (CTF), designed by the Federal Reserve System (referred as the Fed) of United States of America (USA), which simulates inflation rates for a given interbank interest rate over a period of time. The underlying inverse problem (also known as the pre-calibration problem) is to find out an interbank interest rate (the input of the CTF model) that leads to inflation rates closest to the target.</p><p>Though the computer models are cheaper/feasible alternatives of the unobservable/expensive physical pro- cesses, realistic simulators of complex physical phenomena can also be computationally demanding, i.e., one run may take from seconds/minutes to days/months. In such a scenario, a statistical metamodel or surrogate is often used to emulate the outputs of the simulator and draw inference based on the emulated surrogate. In computer experiment literature, Gaussian process (GP) model is perhaps the most popular class of statistical surrogate because of its flexibility, closed form predictors, and ability to incorporate various uncertainties in model specification ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref3">3</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref4">4</xref>] ).</p><p>Given that the simulator is expensive (computationally or otherwise), one has to be very careful in selecting the input points while training the surrogate. One efficient method is to use a sequential design framework that exploits the overall objective. For instance, [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref5">5</xref>] developed an expected improvement (EI)-based design scheme for estimating global minimum, and in the same spirit [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref1">1</xref>] proposed another EI criterion for estimating a pre-specified contour. See [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref6">6</xref>] for a brief review. Since the simulator under consideration returns time-series response, the sequential approach with standard GP model by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref1">1</xref>] cannot directly be used.</p><p>We propose scalarizing this functional inverse problem by first computing the Euclidean distance, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x10.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>for every x and then find the global minimum of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x11.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> using the EI-based sequential approach with GP model proposed by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref5">5</xref>] . Examples in Section 4 illustrates that among all realizations of GP that emulate<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x12.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, a few (in fact numerous) realizations would give negative <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x13.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for x near the global minimum, which is unacceptable as <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x14.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the Euclidean distance. To alleviate this theoretical glitch, we first propose building a non-stationary surrogate of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x15.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> via Bayesian Additive Regression Tree (BART) model ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref7">7</xref>] ) and then find the global minimum of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x16.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> using the EI-based scheme as in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref8">8</xref>] .</p><p>The rest of the article is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a brief review of the statistical surrogates and the sequential design scheme. Section 3 discusses the functional inverse problem, the scalarization step and the resultant scalar inverse problem. In Section 4, we present the results on the performance comparison of y-inverse and w-inverse via both test functions and two real applications: calibration of TDB model, and CTF model. Finally Section 5 concludes the paper with a few remarks.</p></sec><sec id="s2"><title>2. Review</title><p>In this section, we briefly review the GP model, key features of BART model as a non-stationary surrogate for computer models, and the EI-based sequential design scheme for estimating the global minimum of w- and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x17.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>-surface. For this section, we assume that the simulator returns scalar response <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x18.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for d- dimensional input<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x19.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><sec id="s2_1"><title>2.1. Gaussian Process Models</title><p>Sacks et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref3">3</xref>] suggested using realization of a GP for emulating deterministic computer simulator outputs. Since then several variations have been proposed for building surrogates of expensive computer models (see [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref4">4</xref>] , [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref9">9</xref>] ). The simplest version of a GP model with n training points, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x20.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, is given by</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula314"><label>(1)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x21.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x22.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the mean term and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x22.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x23.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a GP with <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x22.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x23.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x24.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and spatial covariance structure defined as</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x25.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, denoted by<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x25.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x26.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The most important com-</p><p>ponent of the GP model, which makes it very flexible, is the correlation structure. Gaussian correlation is perhaps the most popular because of its properties like smoothness and usage in other areas like machine learning and geostatistics, whereas, both power-exponential and Matern can be thought of as generalizations of the Gaussian correlation. The power-exponential correlation is given by</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula315"><label>(2)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x27.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x28.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are the smoothness parameters, and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x28.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x29.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> measures the correlation lengths. Gaussian correlation corresponds to <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x28.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x29.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x30.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for all<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x28.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x29.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x30.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x31.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. This model can be fitted either via the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) or a Bayesian approach. Under the likelihood approach, the best linear unbiased predictor of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x28.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x29.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x30.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x31.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x32.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula316"><label>(3)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x33.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x34.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, and the associated uncertainty</p><p>(mean squared error) is</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula317"><label>(4)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x35.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>It turns out that the actual implementation of both methods (MLE and Bayesian) suffer from numerical instability in computing the determinant and inverse of R. The problem of numerical instability is certainly more pronounced for GP models with Gaussian correlation as compared to other power-exponential and Matern correlation. See [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref10">10</xref>] for more details. Popular implementations of the GP model like mlegp [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref11">11</xref>] , GPfit ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref12">12</xref>] ), GPmfit [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref13">13</xref>] , and DiceKriging ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref14">14</xref>] ) use some sort of numerical fix to overcome the computational instability issue. We used GPfit in R for all implementations of the GP model.</p><p>If the process is believed to be non-stationary (e.g., <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x36.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>in this case), one possibility is to modify the covariance parameters to capture this variation, for example, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x36.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x37.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x36.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x37.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x38.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> can be a function of x. Another popular alternative is to use “treed Gaussian process” (TGP) model proposed by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref15">15</xref>] , where the main idea is to split the input space into rectangles and fit separate GP model in each rectangle. Chipman et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref8">8</xref>] found TGP somewhat unreliable and proposed the usage of a more flexible non-parametric statistical metamodel called BART (Bayesian additive regression tree).</p></sec><sec id="s2_2"><title>2.2. BART Model</title><p>Chipman et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref7">7</xref>] proposed BART for approximating the conditional mean of the response given the data using a sum of regression trees. In our context, the computer simulator output can be emulated using the BART model as</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula318"><label>(5)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x39.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. This model assumes the existence of m binary trees <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>) each containing a set of interior node decision rules and b terminal nodes. The parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> represents the set of mean response parameters at each terminal node of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The predicted outcomes of the computer simu- lator are obtained by sequentially following the decision rules for each tree <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x45.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> until reaching a terminal node, and then summing up these terminal node values (i.e., <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x45.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x46.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x45.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x46.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x47.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x45.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x46.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x47.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x48.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>). Thus, viewed as a function of x, tree model <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x41.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x42.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x43.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x44.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x45.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x46.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x47.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x48.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x49.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> produces a piecewise-constant output.</p><p>The “ensemble” of m such tree models in (5) makes the BART model very flexible. It is capable of incor- porating higher-dimensional interactions, by adaptively choosing the structure and individual rules of the T<sub>j</sub>’s. Furthermore, many individual trees <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x50.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> may place split points in the same area, allowing the predicted function to change rapidly nearby, effectively capturing non-stationary behaviour such as abrupt changes in the response.</p><p>The model fitting is done via a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Bayesian backfitting algorithm. Each</p><p>iteration of the this algorithm generates one draw from the posterior distribution of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x51.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Let</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x52.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>denote N draws of the posterior of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x52.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x53.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Given a reasonable burn-in period B and thinning constant<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x52.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x53.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x54.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, estimates of the computer simulator can be obtained as simply the average of the observed posterior draws, i.e.,</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula319"><label>(6)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x55.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x56.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Estimates of the predicted variation can similarly be computed as the 5<sup>th</sup> and 95<sup>th</sup> quantiles or standard deviation of observed posterior draws. We follow the same formulation of prior as in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref7">7</xref>] , i.e., 1) <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x56.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x57.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>are i.i.d.; 2) all elements of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x56.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x57.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x58.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are i.i.d. given all T’s, and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x56.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x57.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x58.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x59.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is independent of all T's and M’s.</p><p>For applying BART to our deterministic computer experiment, we relax the default prior, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> with<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x62.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Choosing a smaller value of k increases the prior variance of output applying less shrinkage (or smoothness) of the response. The deterministic assumption also requires modification to the prior on<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x62.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x63.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. This is accomplished with the same inverted-chi-squared prior for <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x62.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x63.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x64.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref7">7</xref>] , using their recommended value of 3 degrees of freedom, and anchoring the 90th percentile of the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x61.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x62.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x63.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x64.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x65.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> prior at 0.20 &#215; sd(y), where sd(y) is the sample standard deviation of the training y values. This strategy facilitates MCMC mixing for BART, and can also be considered as having a nugget in GPs, for numeric stability and predictive accuracy.</p><p>In this paper we use the freely available R package BayesTree for implementing all BART models. Recently, [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref16">16</xref>] have developed a computationally more efficient surrogate model equipped with parallel computing func- tionality.</p></sec><sec id="s2_3"><title>2.3. Sequential Design</title><p>Given the fixed budget of n simulator evaluations, a naive method of estimating a pre-specified feature of interest (FOI) would be to first choose n input (training) points in a space-filling manner, build (train) the surrogate, and then estimate the FOI from this fitted emulator. Popular space-filling designs in computer experiment applications are Latin hypercube designs (LHDs) with space-filling properties like maximin, mini- mum pairwise coordinate correlation, orthogonal arrays, etc.</p><p>It has been shown via numerous illustrations in the literature that any reasonably designed sequential sampling scheme outperforms the naive one-shot design approach. The key steps of a sequential design framework is summarized as follows:</p><p>1) Choose an initial set of points <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x66.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> from the input space<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x66.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x67.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>2) Obtain the vector of corresponding simulator outputs<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x68.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>3) Fit a statistical surrogate using the data D and response vector<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x69.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>4) Estimate the feature of interest (FOI) from the trained (fitted) surrogate.</p><p>5) If (the budget is exhausted, or a stopping criterion has met), then exit, else continue.</p><p>6) a) Find a new input point (or set of points) <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x70.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>by optimizing a merit-based criterion (e.g., EI criterion).</p><p>b) Obtain <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x71.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> from the computer simulator.</p><p>c) Append <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x72.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x72.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x73.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> to the current design and computer simulator response, respectively, forming <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x72.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x73.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x74.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x72.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x73.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x74.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x75.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>7) Go back to Step 3 (refit the surrogate with the updated data).</p><p>For the surrogate in Step 3, we consider both the GP model and BART, and the FOI is the global minimum. The most important part of this sequential framework is Step 6(a). Though one can easily come up with a merit- based criterion, proposing a good one, that can lead to the global minimum in the fewest number of follow-up runs, is not easy.</p><p>Jones et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref5">5</xref>] proposed the most popular sequential design criterion in computer experiment literature called the expected improvement (EI) with the objective of finding the global minimum of an expensive deterministic com- puter simulator. The proposed improvement at an untried point <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x76.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is given by<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x76.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x77.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,</p><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x78.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the current best estimate of the global minimum, and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x78.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x79.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Then, EI is simply</p><p>the expected value of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x80.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> with respect to the predictive distribution. That is,</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula320"><label>(7)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x81.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x82.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x82.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x83.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are the standard normal probability density function and cumulative distribution functions, respectively. Finally, the new point to be added to the experimental design is chosen as the point with the largest measured EI value, that is</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula321"><label>(8)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x84.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Inspired by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref5">5</xref>] , a host of EI criteria have been proposed for estimating different FOIs. See [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref6">6</xref>] for a recent review on such merit-based design criteria. Finding the optimal follow-up design point also depends on the accuracy of EI optimization. It turns out that the EI surfaces are typically multi-modal, and the location and number of prominent modes/peaks changes from iteration-to-iteration. Popular optimization techniques used for EI optimization include, genetic algorithm ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref1">1</xref>] ), particle swarm optimization [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref13">13</xref>] , multistart newton-based methods ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref12">12</xref>] ), and branch-and-bound algorithms [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref17">17</xref>] . Thus, one should be careful in choosing the follow-up points to achieve the optimal improvement at every step.</p></sec></sec><sec id="s3"><title>3. Inverse Problem for Time-Series Response</title><p>In this paper, we assume that the computer simulator is deterministic, takes a d-dimensional input <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and returns a time-series response<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Our main objective is find <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x87.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x87.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x88.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for all<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x87.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x88.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x89.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x87.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x88.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x89.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x90.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a pre-specified process output (e.g., the true observed field data in the TDB model application, or the target inflation rates in the CTF model application). This inverse problem with time-series/functional response is also refereed to as the calibration problem, wherein, the main objective is to calibrate the computer model at a certain <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x86.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x87.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x88.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x89.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x90.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x91.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> so that the computer simulator produces desirable (realistic/close to target) response.</p><p>The key idea is to propose a scalarization strategy that transforms the functional inverse problem to a minimization problem for a scalar-valued simulator. That is, for every<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x92.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, first transform the simulator output <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x92.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x93.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> to <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x92.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x93.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x94.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as follows:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula322"><graphic  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x95.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>then find the global minimum of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x96.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. We use EI-based sequential design scheme with GP model as a surrogate (by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref5">5</xref>] ) to efficiently minimize<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x96.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x97.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>It is important to note that the predicted realizations of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> under the GP model will not always be positive. For instance, the prediction near the global minimum has a good chance of being negative (see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>(b) in Section 4). This may not be critical from the inverse problem’s viewpoint, as the negative values of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x99.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> near the global minimum in some iterations of the sequential design scheme do not hinder the efficiency in finding the location of the global minimum, i.e., the inverse solution for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x99.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x100.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. However, a negative value of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x99.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x100.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x101.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> has no real/feasible inverse mapping to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x99.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x100.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x101.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x102.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>One possibility is to fit a log-GP model, i.e., fit a GP model to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x103.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. However, as shown in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3</xref>(c) and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref>(c) <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x103.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x104.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is often non-stationary near the global minima, and a standard GP would not be suitable for this either. We use a flexible surrogate called BART model [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref7">7</xref>] for emulating<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x103.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x104.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x105.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Subsequently, we use the EI-based sequential design scheme with the BART-based surrogate for efficient minimization of the scalarized response <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x103.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x104.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x105.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x106.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (e.g., in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref8">8</xref>] ).</p><p>Next we use simulated and real-life examples to compare the performance of the EI-BART method for minimizing <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x107.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> with the naive EI-GP method for minimizing<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x107.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x108.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p></sec><sec id="s4"><title>4. Results</title><p>In this section, we consider the functional inverse problems for one test function with slight variations that enables 1-, 2- and 3-(dimensional) inputs, TDB model with six-dimensional inputs, and CTF model with 1-dimensional input. For all examples, we use both EI-BART and EI-GP approaches with the same sequential settings, i.e., same <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x109.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (initial design size) + <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x109.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x110.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (follow-up points). In fact, the initial design points are same for both methods. Moreover, we keep the GP and BART settings same for all examples.</p><p>Example 1. Suppose the simulator <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x111.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> takes an input <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x111.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x112.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and generates a time-series response with<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x111.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x112.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x113.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, as per the following model:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula323"><label>(9)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x114.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Let the true field data correspond to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x115.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref> shows the true field data (solid red curve) and the computer model outputs for a few randomly generated inputs <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x115.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x116.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (shown in blue dotted curves). Here, the inverse problem simplifies to finding the input of the simulator <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x115.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x116.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x117.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that the corresponding dashed blue curve overlays completely on the solid red curve.</p><p><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref> illustrates results for EI-GP implementation with <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x118.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x118.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x119.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The estimated <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x118.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x119.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x120.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.5000 and the corresponding minimum <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x118.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x119.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x120.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x121.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.0004.</p><p>It is clear from <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>(d) that the global minimum was located very quickly in this sequential procedure, which was expected given the simplicity of the test function. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>(b) also shows that many realizations of the GP model that emulate the training data would give negative value of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x122.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> in the vicinity of the global minimum (the confidence band shown in red dashed curves around the blue solid curve goes below zero in the interval<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x122.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x123.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>).</p><p><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3</xref> shows EI-BART illustration with the same sequential settings as in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref> for finding the minimum of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x124.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The estimated <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x124.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x125.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.4999 and the value of the corresponding minimum <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x124.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x125.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x126.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x124.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x125.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x126.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x127.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (with<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x124.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x125.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x126.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x127.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x128.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>).</p><p>Both EI-BART and EI-GP find the global minimum, but EI-GP exhibit much faster convergence. This is also expected as BART is typically a bit more data-hungry than the GP models. Further note from <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3</xref>(c) that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x129.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> surface is highly non-stationary near the global minimum.</p><fig id="fig1"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref></label><caption><title> A few computer model outputs and the true field data for Example 1</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x130.png"/></fig><fig id="fig2"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref></label><caption><title> Sequential optimization of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x132.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> via the GP-based emulator for Example 1</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x131.png"/></fig><p>Example 2. Consider the same test function as in Example 1, with a small modification that would allow two-dimensional inputs <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x133.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and generates time-series response in the same time domain. That is,</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula324"><label>(10)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x134.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Let the true field data correspond to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x135.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4</xref> shows the true field data (solid red curve) and a few simulator outputs (blue dotted curves).</p><p>For this inverse problem, we used <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x136.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> initial design points and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x136.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x137.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> follow-up points as per the EI criterion. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref> shows the illustration of the EI-GP approach. The estimated <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x136.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x137.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x138.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x136.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x137.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x138.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x139.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and the corresponding minimum <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x136.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x137.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x138.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x139.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x140.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.0344.</p><p><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref>(d) shows that a decent value of the global minimum has been found after 9 - 10 follow-up trials. Of course, the efficiency can perhaps be improved by exploring different <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x141.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x141.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x142.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> combination. As expected</p><fig id="fig3"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3</xref></label><caption><title> Sequential optimization of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x144.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> via BART-based emulator for Example 1</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x143.png"/></fig><p>EI-BART requires a few more points to attain the same accuracy level (see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref>). The estimated <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x145.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x145.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x146.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and the corresponding minimum <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x145.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x146.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x147.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x145.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x146.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x147.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x148.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (i.e.,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x145.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x146.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x147.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x148.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x149.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>).</p><p>Example 3. Again we consider the same base example (as in Example 1) with a slight twist to the simulator to allow a three-dimensional input<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x150.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, i.e.,</p><disp-formula id="scirp.67748-formula325"><label>(11)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x151.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Furthermore, we assume that the true field data correspond to<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x152.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig7">Figure 7</xref> shows the true field data (solid red curve) and a few simulator outputs (blue dotted curves). This inverse problem appears to be a little more challenging than the previous ones.</p><p>As the input dimension grows, we have increased the initial design size and the overall budget to <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x153.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x153.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x154.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> respectively. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig8">Figure 8</xref> compares the performance of EI-GP and EI-BART. As expected EI-GP is</p><fig id="fig4"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4</xref></label><caption><title> A few model outputs and the true field data for the simulator in Example 2</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x155.png"/></fig><fig id="fig5"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref></label><caption><title> Sequential optimization of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x157.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> via the GP-based emulator for Example 2</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x156.png"/></fig><fig id="fig6"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref></label><caption><title> Sequential optimization of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x159.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> via the BART-based emulator for Example 2</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x158.png"/></fig><p>leading by a small margin, but EI-BART is a theoretically more correct methodology to follow.</p><p>Under EI-GP, the final estimate of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x161.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and the corresponding estimate of the global minimum of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x161.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x162.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.1259, whereas for EI-BART, the estimated <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x161.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x162.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x163.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x161.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x162.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x163.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x164.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and the estimated global minimum <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x160.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x161.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x162.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x163.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x164.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x165.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is 0.3913. Though the final inverse solution (x-values) and the estimated global minimum appear to be slightly different for the two methods, the simulator responses at the two inverse solution are almost indistinguishable (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig9">Figure 9</xref>).</p><p>Example 4. Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, Canada is popular for its apple farming. Unfortunately, apple orchards are susceptible to the infestation of pests. Of particular interest is the Panonychus ulmi (Koch) or European red mite (ERM).</p><p>Growth cycle of a mite consists of three stages (1) egg (2) juvenile and (3) adult. These mites start their lives</p><fig id="fig7"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig7">Figure 7</xref></label><caption><title> A few computer model outputs and the true data for Example 3</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x166.png"/></fig><fig id="fig8"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig8">Figure 8</xref></label><caption><title> Running estimate of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x168.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> obtained under the two methods of finding inverse solution for Example 3</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x167.png"/></fig><p>as eggs that are laid in the late summer months of the previous year. Once the temperature rises to a sufficient level the following spring, these eggs hatch and emerge as larvae which further grow to juveniles followed by egg-laying adults. During the summer, adult female ERM lay eggs that hatch during the same season due to the warmer climate. Finally, in mid-to-late August, ERM lay eggs and the cycle repeats itself.</p><p>For deeper understanding of the dynamics of ERM population growth, data collection and analysis is important, but the field data collection from apple orchards is very expensive, as the field experts would have to physically go to the orchard on multiple occasions and count the number of mites (in different stages) from the leves of trees. Tiesmann et al. (2009) proposed a two-delay blowfly (TDB) model that tries to mimic the population growth of these mites. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>0 presents a few TDB models output along with the corresponding field data collected with significant effort for the juvenile group.</p><p>Though there are several parameters of this TDB model, the following six parameters turned out to be very</p><fig-group id="fig9"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig9">Figure 9</xref></label><caption><title> Comparison of the best solution found under EI-GP and EI-BART for Example 3.</title></caption><fig id ="fig9_1"><label></label><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x169.png"/></fig><fig id ="fig9_2"><label></label><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x170.png"/></fig></fig-group><p>influential:</p><p>・ <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x171.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>―adult death rate;</p><p>・ <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x172.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>―maximum fecundity (eggs laid per day);</p><p>・ <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x173.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>―non-linear crowding parameter;</p><p>・ <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x174.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>―(first delay) hatching time of summer eggs;</p><p>・ <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x175.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>―(second delay) time to maturation of recently hatched eggs;</p><p>・ Season―average number of days on which adults switch to laying winter eggs.</p><p>The TDB model returns the population growth of all three stages of mite, we focus only on the growth cycle of “juveniles” in this paper. A feasible range of x was elicited by the experts for running the TDB model. The main objective of this study is to use the proposed sequential strategy to efficiently calibrate the TDB model so that it returns realistic outputs. That is, find x (six-dimensional) such that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x176.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> matches (or approximates) the reality.</p><p>As in the earlier examples, we apply both EI-BART and EI-GP with <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x177.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x177.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x178.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> to find the desired inverse solution. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>1 shows the running estimate of the global minimum of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x177.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x178.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x179.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><fig id="fig10"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>0</label><caption><title> A few realisation of juvenile growth curves from the TDB model, and the true average field data collected from the Annapolis valley, NS, Canada</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x180.png"/></fig><fig id="fig11"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>1</label><caption><title> Running estimate of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x182.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> obtained under the two methods of finding inverse solution for TDB simulator</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x181.png"/></fig><p>From <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>1 it is clear than EI-GP outperforms EI-BART. (<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x183.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>and 40.72 for EI-BART and EI-GP respectively). Moreover, the best TDB model match obtained via the two methods (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>2) show that either additional follow-up points or a different (<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x183.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x184.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>) combination may be required to achieve higher accuracy.</p><p>Example 5. Inflation and unemployment are two key tools to measure the financial health of a country. Typically central bank of a country, like the Federal Reserve System (referred to as the Fed) in the United States of America (USA), is mandated to minimize unemployment rate and stabilize prices of goods and services. Central banks aim to do so by controlling the interbank borrowing rate, i.e. the rate of interest at which banks and credit institutions can raise fund overnight from other similar institutions. Decision on interest rate is thus a</p><fig id="fig12"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>2</label><caption><title> Best TDB model runs obtained via the two sequential procedure</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x185.png"/></fig><p>crucial component of monitory policy for a country.</p><p>The monetary policy making body of the Fed, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announces pro- jected inflation (measured using personal consumption expenditures) and unemployment rates based on the analysis of its members for the current year as well as next two years. In this paper, we focus on the inflation rates. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>3 presents the projected inflation rate from the January meeting announcements of FOMC for each year during 2006-2015 (see https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm and https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomc_historical.htm).</p><p>Several interesting theories and models have been proposed thus far to understand the rates projected by the Fed (e.g., [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref18">18</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.67748-ref19">19</xref>] ). We focus on the simulator called Chair-the-Fed (CTF)</p><p>(http://sffed-education.org/chairthefed/WebGamePlay.html), wherein one can select the interbank borrowing rate (i.e., funds rate, the input-x) and observe the simulated inflation rates for the next 10 time points (years). The CTF model allows x to vary between 0 and 20 with an increment of 0.25. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>3 depicts a few simulated model runs overlay with the projected rates. Assuming that the Fed funds rate remains static for the next 10 time points, one can play the game (i.e., run the CTF model) and generate a set of inflation fund rates. Our main objective is to find the fund rate (x) which generates the inflation rates curve closest to the target (projected values) set by FOMC.</p><p>Since the CTF simulator is only one-dimensional, we started the sequential approach in both EI-GP and EI- BART with only <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x186.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> initial points, however, added upto 35 follow-up points to ensure the global minimum. The results from the sequential search of the inverse solution are displayed in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>4 and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>5. Both sequential approaches led to the same inverse solution. As shown in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>4, EI-BART converged to the global</p><fig id="fig13"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>3</label><caption><title> A few realisation of the inflation rates curve from the CTF model (blue dashed curves), and the true projected rates set by the Fed and FOMC (red solid curve)</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x187.png"/></fig><fig id="fig14"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>4</label><caption><title> Running estimate of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x189.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> obtained under the two methods of finding inverse solution for CTF simulator</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x188.png"/></fig><fig id="fig15"  position="float"><label><xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>5</label><caption><title> Best Chair-The-Fed (CTF) model runs obtained via the two se- quential procedure (EI-GP and EI-BART). The solid (red) curve denotes the truth (target inflation rates curve) and the dashed (blue) curve represents the best match found by the CTF model</title></caption><graphic mimetype="image"   position="float"  xlink:type="simple"  xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x190.png"/></fig><p>minimum with relatively fewer additional model evaluations as compared to the number points needed by EI-GP.</p><p>The discrepancy in the target inflation rates curve and the best match produced by CTF model is perhaps attributed to the discreteness in the x-space (CTF allows inputs in the interval (0.20) with a jump of 0.25), or the fact that x is not allowed to vary with time, or perhaps additional input variables have to be included to get a closer match. Furthermore, higher efficiency can perhaps be achieved by exploring the right <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x191.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> combination.</p></sec><sec id="s5"><title>5. Concluding Remarks</title><p>In this paper, we focused on an inverse problem for deterministic computer simulator with time-series (or functional) outputs. Our main focus was on reducing the complexity of the problem from time-series response to scalar by scalarization, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x192.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x192.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x193.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x192.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x193.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x194.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> were the target (pre-specified) and simu- lator (time-series) response, respectively. We were also interested in solving the inverse problem with as few simulator runs as possible. This is particularly useful if the simulator is expensive to evaluate, and/or if the input dimension is large which prohibits thorough exploration of the input space.</p><p>The efficiency (minimizing the number of simulator runs) is achieved by using EI-based sequential design scheme and surrogate-based approach. It is explained in Section 3 that the most popular choice of surrogate in computer experiment (GP model) is theoretically inappropriate, however, as illustrated through multiple ex- amples, EI-GP approach works equally well for finding the inverse solution. Even if we ignore this theoretical glitch, there is no clear winner between EI-GP and EI-BART.</p><p>There are several interesting issues that should be investigated further and we wish to work on it in our future research endeavours. A few of them are listed as follows: 1) A more thorough comparison between the two methods (EI-GP and EI-BART) should be conducted. For instance, we should use a variety of test functions, repeat the simulations to average out the effect of initial design choice, find optimal (<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="http://html.scirp.org/file/13-1240710x195.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>) combination in the sequential procedure, and so on; 2) The scalarization process should be further strengthened by using more informative discrepancy measure as compared to Euclidean distance; 3) Does this scalarization procedure affect the likeliness of finding the inverse solution? That is, can this scalarization approach be used for every inverse problem with functional/time-series outputs without risking the accuracy and efficiency? A thorough com- parison with non-scalarization based methods should be conducted; 4) Is it straightforward to view the percentile estimation as a generalization of the inverse problem in this setup as well?</p></sec><sec id="s6"><title>Acknowledgements</title><p>Preliminary work was done by Corey Hodder during his BSc honours thesis at Acadia University, NS, Canada. Thanks to the Acadia Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Computation (ACMMaC) facility for providing access to clusters for conducting simulations. The authors also thank the reviewers for their comments.</p></sec><sec id="s7"><title>Cite this paper</title><p>Pritam Ranjan,Mark Thomas,Holger Teismann,Sujay Mukhoti, (2016) Inverse Problem for a Time-Series Valued Computer Simulator via Scalarization. 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