OF THE DISSERTATION Mixture Block Methods for Non Parametric Bayesian Models with Applications By Ian Porteous Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science University of California, Irvine, 2010 Professor Max Welling, Chair This study brings together Bayesian networks, topic models, hierarchical Bayes modeling and nonparametric Bayesian methods to build a framework for efficiently designing and imp...

A Bayesain belief network is a graphical representation of the underlying probabilistic relationships of a complex system. These networks are used for reasoning with uncertainty, such as in decision support systems. This requires probabilistic inference with Bayesian belief networks. Simulation schemes for probabilistic inference with Bayesian belief networks offer many advantages over exact in...