Font Size: a A A

Bayesian Methods for Gaussian Graphical Models

Posted on:2011-04-16Degree:Ph.DType:Thesis
University:University of Toronto (Canada)Candidate:Mitsakakis, NikolaosFull Text:PDF
GTID:2448390002961071Subject:Biology
Abstract/Summary:
This thesis contributes to the field of Gaussian Graphical Models by exploring either numerically or theoretically various topics of Bayesian Methods in Gaussian Graphical Models and by providing a number of interesting results, the further exploration of which would be promising, pointing to numerous future research directions.;In addition, we look at the marginal likelihood of a graphical model given a set of data. This is proportional to the ratio of the posterior over the prior normalizing constant. We explore methods for the estimation of this ratio, focusing primarily on applying the Monte Carlo simulation method of path sampling. We also explore numerically the effect of the completion of the incomplete matrix Dnu, hyperparameter of the G-Wishart distribution, for the estimation of the normalizing constant.;We also derive a series of exact and approximate expressions for the Bayes Factor between two graphs that differ by one edge. A new theoretical result regarding the limit of the normalizing constant multiplied by the hyperparameter delta is given and its implications to the validity of an improper prior and of the subsequent Bayes Factor are discussed.;Gaussian Graphical Models are statistical methods for the investigation and representation of interdependencies between components of continuous random vectors. This thesis aims to investigate some issues related to the application of Bayesian methods for Gaussian Graphical Models. We adopt the popular G-Wishart conjugate prior WG(delta, D) for the precision matrix. We propose an efficient sampling method for the G-Wishart distribution based on the Metropolis Hastings algorithm and show its validity through a number of numerical experiments. We show that this method can be easily used to estimate the Deviance Information Criterion, providing a computationally inexpensive approach for model selection.
Keywords/Search Tags:Gaussian graphical models, Bayesian methods
Related items