A Gaussian mixed model for learning discrete Bayesian networks

In this paper, we address the problem of learning discrete Bayesian networks from noisy data. A graphical model based on a mixture of Gaussian distributions with categorical mixing structure coming from a discrete Bayesian network is considered. The network learning is formulated as a maximum likelihood estimation problem and performed by employing an EM algorithm. The proposed approach is relevant to a variety of statistical problems for which Bayesian network models are suitable—from simple regression analysis to learning gene/protein regulatory networks from microarray data.