### Module tf.contrib.bayesflow.stochastic_gradient_estimators

These functions are meant to be used in conjuction with StochasticTensor (loss_fn parameter) and surrogate_loss.

See Gradient Estimation Using Stochastic Computation Graphs (http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05254) by Schulman et al., eq. 1 and section 4, for mathematical details.

## Score function estimator

The score function is an unbiased estimator of the gradient of E_p(x)[f(x)], where f(x) can be considered to be a "loss" term. It is computed as E_p(x)[f(x) grad(log p(x))]. A constant b, referred to here as the "baseline", can be subtracted from f(x) without affecting the expectation. The term (f(x) - b) is referred to here as the "advantage".

Note that the methods defined in this module actually compute the integrand of the score function, such that when taking the gradient, the true score function is computed.

## Baseline functions

Baselines reduce the variance of Monte Carlo estimate of an expectation. The baseline for a stochastic node can be a function of all non-influenced nodes (see section 4 of Schulman et al., linked above). Baselines are also known as "control variates."

In the context of a MC estimate of E_p(x)[f(x) - b], baseline functions have the signature (st, fx) => Tensor, where st is a StochasticTensor backed by the distribution p(x) and fx is the influenced loss.