Functions that perform Gaussian process regression.
       cov_func has signature (cov_params, x, x')

def make_gp_funs(cov_func, num_cov_params):
    """Functions that perform Gaussian process regression.
       cov_func has signature (cov_params, x, x')"""

    def unpack_kernel_params(params):
        mean        = params[0]
        cov_params  = params[2:]
        noise_scale = np.exp(params[1]) + 0.0001
        return mean, cov_params, noise_scale

    def predict(params, x, y, xstar):
        """Returns the predictive mean and covariance at locations xstar,
           of the latent function value f (without observation noise)."""
        mean, cov_params, noise_scale = unpack_kernel_params(params)
        cov_f_f = cov_func(cov_params, xstar, xstar)
        cov_y_f = cov_func(cov_params, x, xstar)
        cov_y_y = cov_func(cov_params, x, x) + noise_scale * np.eye(len(y))
        pred_mean = mean +   np.dot(solve(cov_y_y, cov_y_f).T, y - mean)
        pred_cov = cov_f_f - np.dot(solve(cov_y_y, cov_y_f).T, cov_y_f)
        return pred_mean, pred_cov

    def log_marginal_likelihood(params, x, y):
        mean, cov_params, noise_scale = unpack_kernel_params(params)
        cov_y_y = cov_func(cov_params, x, x) + noise_scale * np.eye(len(y))
        prior_mean = mean * np.ones(len(y))
        return mvn.logpdf(y, prior_mean, cov_y_y)

    return num_cov_params + 2, predict, log_marginal_likelihood