Paper List
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Developing the PsyCogMetrics™ AI Lab to Evaluate Large Language Models and Advance Cognitive Science
This paper addresses the critical gap between sophisticated LLM evaluation needs and the lack of accessible, scientifically rigorous platforms that in...
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Equivalence of approximation by networks of single- and multi-spike neurons
This paper resolves the fundamental question of whether single-spike spiking neural networks (SNNs) are inherently less expressive than multi-spike SN...
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The neuroscience of transformers
提出了Transformer架构与皮层柱微环路之间的新颖计算映射,连接了现代AI与神经科学。
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Framing local structural identifiability and observability in terms of parameter-state symmetries
This paper addresses the core challenge of systematically determining which parameters and states in a mechanistic ODE model can be uniquely inferred ...
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Leveraging Phytolith Research using Artificial Intelligence
This paper addresses the critical bottleneck in phytolith research by automating the labor-intensive manual microscopy process through a multimodal AI...
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Neural network-based encoding in free-viewing fMRI with gaze-aware models
This paper addresses the core challenge of building computationally efficient and ecologically valid brain encoding models for naturalistic vision by ...
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Scalable DNA Ternary Full Adder Enabled by a Competitive Blocking Circuit
This paper addresses the core bottleneck of carry information attenuation and limited computational scale in DNA binary adders by introducing a scalab...
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ELISA: An Interpretable Hybrid Generative AI Agent for Expression-Grounded Discovery in Single-Cell Genomics
This paper addresses the critical bottleneck of translating high-dimensional single-cell transcriptomic data into interpretable biological hypotheses ...
Realizing Common Random Numbers: Event-Keyed Hashing for Causally Valid Stochastic Models
Institute for Disease Modeling, Gates Foundation | Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina | Institute for Disease Modeling, Gates Foundation
30秒速读
IN SHORT: This paper addresses the critical problem that standard stateful PRNG implementations in agent-based models violate causal validity by making random draws execution-path-dependent, thereby breaking the fundamental assumption of common random numbers needed for valid counterfactual comparisons.
核心创新
- Methodology Identifies and formalizes the fundamental mismatch between scientific causal structure in ABMs and program-level causal structure induced by stateful PRNGs through the lens of Structural Causal Models (SCMs)
- Methodology Introduces the concept of 'execution invariance' as a necessary property for causally valid ABM counterfactuals, requiring that exogenous noise terms remain stable across intervention scenarios
- Methodology Proposes event-keyed random number generation combining counter-based PRNGs (Philox/Threefry) with event identifiers to decouple random draws from simulation execution order
主要结论
- Standard stateful PRNG practices violate the execution invariance required for valid SCM-style interventions, as demonstrated through formal analysis of the structural causal model framework
- Event-keyed hashing with counter-based PRNGs restores the stable event-indexed exogenous structure assumed by SCMs, enabling proper counterfactual comparisons with variance reduction benefits
- The proposed approach allows ABMs to function as valid structural causal models under interventions, maintaining the critical property that interventions change only structural equations while holding exogenous noise terms fixed
摘要: Agent-based models (ABMs) are widely used to estimate causal treatment effects via paired counterfactual simulation. A standard variance reduction technique is common random numbers (CRNs), which couples replicates across intervention scenarios by sharing the same random inputs. In practice, CRNs are implemented by reusing the same base seed, but this relies on a critical assumption: that the same draw index corresponds to the same modeled event across scenarios. Stateful pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) violate this assumption whenever interventions alter the simulation's execution path, because any change in control flow shifts the draw index used for all downstream events. We argue that this execution-path-dependent draw indexing is not only a variance-reduction nuisance, but represents a fundamental mismatch between the scientific causal structure ABMs are intended to encode and the program-level causal structure induced by stateful PRNG implementations. Formalizing this through the lens of structural causal models (SCMs), we show that standard PRNG practices yield causally incoherent paired counterfactual comparisons even when the mechanistic specification is otherwise sound. We show that a remedy is to combine counter-based random number generators (e.g., Philox/Threefry) with event identifiers. This decouples random number generation from simulation execution order by making random draws explicit functions of the particular modeled event that called them, restoring the stable event-indexed exogenous structure assumed by SCMs.