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Musculoskeletal models (MSKMs) are used to estimate the muscle and joint forces involved in human locomotion, often associated with the onset of degenerative musculoskeletal pathologies (e.g. osteoarthritis). Subject-specific MSKMs offer more accurate predictions than their scaled-generic counterparts. This accuracy is achieved through time-consuming personalisation of models and manual tuning procedures that suffers from potential repeatability errors, hence limiting the wider application of this modelling approach. In this work we have developed a methodology for identifying and ranking the muscles that are more important to the determination of the joint forces, thus producing reduced but still accurate representation of the musculoskeletal system in shorter timeframes. The methodology hinges on Sobol's sensitivity analysis (SSA) for ranking the muscle importance. The thousands of data points required for SSA are generated using Gaussian Process emulators, a Bayesian technique to infer the input-output relationship between nonlinear models from a limited number of observations. Results show that there is a pool of muscles whose personalisation has little effects on the model predictions. Furthermore, joint forces in subject generic and subject generic models are influenced by different set of muscles, suggesting the existence of a model specific component of the sensitivity analysis.

Habitat suitability index (HSI) models are commonly used to predict habitat quality and species distributions and are used to develop biological surveys, assess reserve and management priorities, and anticipate possible change under different management or climate change scenarios. Important management decisions may be based on model results, often without a clear understanding of the level of uncertainty associated with model outputs. We present an integrated methodology to assess the propagation of uncertainty from both inputs and structure of the HSI models on model outputs (uncertainty analysis: UA) and relative importance of uncertain model inputs and their interactions on the model output uncertainty (global sensitivity analysis: GSA). We illustrate the GSA/UA framework using simulated hydrology input data from a hydrodynamic model representing sea level changes and HSI models for two species of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in southwest Everglades National Park: Vallisneria americana (tape grass) and Halodule wrightii (shoal grass). We found considerable spatial variation in uncertainty for both species, but distributions of HSI scores still allowed discrimination of sites with good versus poor conditions. Ranking of input parameter sensitivities also varied spatially for both species, with high habitat quality sites showing higher sensitivity to different parameters than low-quality sites. HSI models may be especially useful when species distribution data are unavailable, providing means of exploiting widely available environmental datasets to model past, current, and future habitat conditions. The GSA/UA approach provides a general method for better understanding HSI model dynamics, the spatial and temporal variation in uncertainties, and the parameters that contribute most to model uncertainty. Including an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis in modeling efforts as part of the decision-making framework will result in better-informed, more robust decisions.

In this paper we show that it is possible to extend the use of quasi-Monte Carlo for applications of high effective dimension. This is achieved through a combination of a careful construction of the Sobol sequence and an appropriately chosen decomposition of a covariance matrix. The effectiveness of this procedure is demonstrated as we price average options with nominal dimensions ranging up to 550 (effective dimension around 300). We believe the method we present is easy to implement and should be of great interest to practitioners.Neste artigo mostramos que é possível usar métodos de simulação quase-Monte Carlo em problemas de alta dimensão efetiva. Isto é feito por meio de uma combinação de uma cuidadosa construção das seqüências de Sobol e de uma decomposição apropriada da matriz de covariância dos fatores de risco. A eficácia do método é ilustrada por meio da precificação de opções que envolve a solução de problemas com dimensão nominal da ordem de 550 (e dimensão efetiva da ordem de 300). Acreditamos que o método apresentado seja de fácil implementação e de grande interesse para os participantes do mercado financeiro.

Block motion estimation is a cpu intensive task for video encoding. Many fast algorithms have been developed to solve this problem, trying to improve both block searching and block matching. Some of them reduce the image quality compared to the full search method in order to improve performance. The algorithm presented in this paper, called Sobol Partial Distortion (SPD) algorithm, is a full search (lossless), fast matching, block motion estimation algorithm, applying partial distortion elimination. It uses a new matching strategy to quickly compute distortion and reduce block matching computation. Image-dependent computation is not required, since the matching strategy does not depend on the frame sequence. The proposed algorithm performs well in terms of computational speedup in comparison with other existing full search algorithms.

We use adaptive sparse grid interpolation to produce accurate and efficient estimates of the sensitivity coefficients of Sobol’ and to guide the design of experiments based on model output. We illustrate this method on two models of the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade, one with 3 uncertain parameters and one with 18 uncertain parameters.

National audience; L’analyse de sensibilité globale peine à se développer dans le champ de la modélisation environnementale. Dans sa formulation initiale, elle est limitée à l’étude de modèles Y = f(X1,...,Xp) où les variables d’entrée Xj et la sortie Y sont scalaires, alors que nombre de modèles environnementaux incluent une dimension spatiale, soit qu’ils fassent appel à des cartes comme variables d’entrée, soit que leurs sorties soient distribuées spatialement. Au travers d’une étude de cas détaillée, nous présentons dans cet article une application de l’analyse de sensibilité globale à l’étude de modèles spatialisés. Le modèle étudié, nommé ACB-DE, est un outil d’évaluation économique du risque d’inondation. Il est ici appliqué sur la vallée de l’Orb (Hérault). Des spécifications spatialisées de l’incertitude sont utilisées pour générer un nombre fini de réalisations aléatoires équiprobables des variables d’entrée qui sont des cartes: les effets de structure spatiale ou d’auto-corrélation dans ces cartes peuvent ainsi être pris en compte. La réalisation de cartes d’indices de sensibilité permet d’étudier les sorties spatialisées du modèle ACB-DE et de rendre compte de la variabilité spatiale des indices de Sobol. L’influence relative des variables d’entrée à différentes échelles d’étude est analysée par la réalisation de cartes d’indices de sensibilité de résolution croissante. L’analyse réalisée permet d’identifier les variables d’entrée incertaines qui expliquent la plus grande part de la variabilité de l’indicateur économique fourni par le modèle ACB-DE; elle apporte un éclairage nouveau sur le choix de l’échelle adéquate de représentation spatialisée de cet indicateur selon la précision des variables d’entrée.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]SYNERGIE [TR2_IRSTEA]ARCEAU; International audience; In order to increase the reliability of flood damage assessment, we need to question the uncertainty associated with the whole flood risk modeling chain. Using a case study on the basin of the Orb River, France, we demonstrate how variance-based sensitivity analysis can be used to quantify uncertainty in flood damage maps at different spatial scales and to identify the sources of uncertainty which should be reduced first.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]SYNERGIE; L'analyse de sensibilité globale peine à se développer dans le champ de la modélisation environnementale. Dans sa formulation initiale, elle est limitée à l'étude de modèles Y = f (X1; : : : ;Xp) où les variables d'entrée Xj et la sortie Y sont scalaires, alors que nombre de modèles environnementaux incluent une dimension spatiale marquée, soit qu'ils fassent appel à des cartes comme variables d'entrée, soit que leurs sorties soient distribuées spatialement. Au travers d'une étude de cas détaillée, nous présentons dans cet article une extension de l'analyse de sensibilité globale à l'étude de modèles spatialisés. Le modèle étudié, nommé ACB-DE, est un outil d'évaluation économique du risque d'inondation. Il est ici appliqué sur la basse-vallée de l'Orb (Hérault). Des spécifications spatialisées de l'incertitude sont utilisées pour générer un nombre fini de réalisations aléatoires équiprobables des variables d'entrée qui sont des cartes : les effets de structure spatiale ou d'auto-corrélation dans ces cartes peuvent ainsi être pris en compte. La réalisation de cartes d'indices de sensibilité permet ensuite d'étudier les sorties spatialisées du modèle ACB-DE et de rendre compte de la variabilité spatiale des indices de Sobol. L'influence relative des variables d'entrée à différentes échelles d'étude est analysée par la réalisation de cartes d'indices de sensibilité de résolution croissante. L'analyse réalisée permet d'identifier les variables d'entrée incertaines qui expliquent la plus grande part de la variabilité de l'indicateur économique fourni par le modèle ACB-DE ; elle apporte un éclairage nouveau sur le choix de l'échelle adéquate de représentation spatialisée de cet indicateur selon la précision des variables d'entrée. L'approche proposée pourrait être aisément appliquée à d'autres modèles spatialisés peu coûteux en temps de calcul. / Variance-based Sobol' global sensitivity analysis (GSA) was initially designed for the study of models with scalar inputs and outputs, while many models in the environmental field are spatially explicit. As a result, GSA is not a common practise in environmental modelling. In this paper we describe a detailed case study where GSA is performed on a spatially dependent model for flood risk economic assessment on the Orb valley (southeast France). Spatial input factors are handled by associating randomly generated map realizations to scalar values sampled from discrete uniform distributions. The realisations of random input maps can be generated by any method including geostatistical simulation techniques, allowing for spatial structure and auto-correlation to be taken into account. The estimation of sensitivity indices on ACB-DE spatial outputs makes it possible to produce maps of sensitivity indices. These maps describe the spatial variability of Sobol' indices. Sensitivity maps of different resolutions are then compared to discuss the relative influence of uncertain input factors at different scales.