A Node Sorting Method for K2 Algorithm in Bayesian Network Structure Learning

Abstract

Bayesian network is an important model for reasoning in an uncertain environment. A reliable node rank is required by K2 algorithm to learn Bayesian network structure better. To provide a high-quality node rank tailored for K2 algorithm, we propose a node priority-based sorting algorithm. Given observable data only, our algorithm can be employed to learn a node rank without expert knowledge. Specifically, MCMC algorithm is first utilized to yield some Bayesian network structures that can sufficiently fit the observed data. We then define the priority of each node in these network structures. Node rank is finally obtained through weighted scoring based on the priority. The empirical results show that our sorting algorithm performs significantly better than commonly used methods, e.g., randomly sorting and MCMC algorithm, on an Asia network-learning dataset.