Variational properties, properties of an organism relating to the production of variation among its offspring in evolutionary biology
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Variational Bayesian methods, a family of techniques for approximating integrals in Bayesian inference and machine learning
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Calculus of variations, a field of mathematical analysis that deals with maximizing or minimizing functionals
The last four equations describe the evolution of slowly varying wave trains over bathymetry in interaction with the mean flow, and can be derived from a variational principle: Whitham's average Lagrangian method.
Finite element method is a variational method for finding approximate solutions to boundary value problems in differential equations.
His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a variational Free energy principle (active inference in the Bayesian brain).
His publications include the book Variational methods (Applications to nonlinear PDE and Hamiltonian systems) (Springer-Verlag, 1990), which was praised by Jürgen Jost as "very useful" with an "impressive range of often difficult examples".
Komkov, Vadim (1986) Variational principles of continuum mechanics with engineering applications.