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Distribution-free Learning of Bayesian Network Structure

2008

Conference Paper

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We present an independence-based method for learning Bayesian network (BN) structure without making any assumptions on the probability distribution of the domain. This is mainly useful for continuous domains. Even mixed continuous-categorical domains and structures containing vectorial variables can be handled. We address the problem by developing a non-parametric conditional independence test based on the so-called kernel dependence measure, which can be readily used by any existing independence-based BN structure learning algorithm. We demonstrate the structure learning of graphical models in continuous and mixed domains from real-world data without distributional assumptions. We also experimentally show that our test is a good alternative, in particular in case of small sample sizes, compared to existing tests, which can only be used in purely categorical or continuous domains.

Author(s): Sun, X.
Book Title: ECML PKDD 2008
Journal: Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases: European Conference, ECML PKDD 2008
Pages: 423-439
Year: 2008
Month: September
Day: 0
Editors: Daelemans, W. , B. Goethals, K. Morik
Publisher: Springer

Department(s): Empirical Inference
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (inproceedings)

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-87481-2_28
Event Name: European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases
Event Place: Antwerpen, Belgium

Address: Berlin, Germany
Digital: 0
Language: en
Organization: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
School: Biologische Kybernetik

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BibTex

@inproceedings{5253,
  title = {Distribution-free Learning of Bayesian Network Structure},
  author = {Sun, X.},
  journal = {Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases: European Conference, ECML PKDD 2008},
  booktitle = {ECML PKDD 2008},
  pages = {423-439},
  editors = {Daelemans, W. , B. Goethals, K. Morik},
  publisher = {Springer},
  organization = {Max-Planck-Gesellschaft},
  school = {Biologische Kybernetik},
  address = {Berlin, Germany},
  month = sep,
  year = {2008},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-87481-2_28},
  month_numeric = {9}
}