Currently, there is renewed interest in the problem, raised by Shafer in 1985, of updating probabilities when observations are incomplete (or set-valued). This is a fundamental problem in general, and of particular interest for Bayesian networks. Recently, Gr unwald and Halpern have shown that commonly used updating strategies fail in this case, except under very special assumptions. In this paper we propose a new method for updating probabilities with incomplete observations. Our approach is deliberately conservative: we make no assumptions about the so-called incompleteness mechanism that associates complete with incomplete observations. We model our ignorance about this mechanism by a vacuous lower prevision, a tool from the theory of imprecise probabilities, and we use only coherence arguments to turn prior into posterior (updated) probabilities. In general, this new approach to updating produces lower and upper posterior probabilities and previsions (expectations), as well as partially determinate decisions. This is a logical consequence of the existing ignorance about the incompleteness mechanism. As an example, we use the new updating method to properly address the apparent paradox in the `Monty Hall' puzzle. More importantly, we apply it to the problem of classification of new evidence in probabilistic expert systems, where it leads to a new, so-called conservative updating rule.

This paper presents new results on the complexity of graph-theoretical models that represent probabilities (Bayesian networks) and that represent interval and set valued probabilities (credal networks). We define a new class of networks with bounded width, and introduce a new decision problem for Bayesian networks, the maximin a posteriori. We present new links between the Bayesian and credal networks, and present new results both for Bayesian networks (most probable explanation with observations, maximin a posteriori) and for credal networks (bounds on probabilities a posteriori, most probable explanation with and without observations, maximum a posteriori). 1

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Credal networks are models that extend Bayesian nets to deal with imprecision in probability, and can actually be regarded as sets of Bayesian nets. Credal nets appear to be powerful means to represent and deal with many important and challenging problems in uncertain reasoning. We give examples to show that some of these problems can only be modeled by credal nets called non-separately specified. These, however, are still missing a graphical representation language and updating algorithms. The situation is quite the opposite with separately specified credal nets, which have been the subject of much study and algorithmic development. This paper gives two major contributions. First, it delivers a new graphical language to formulate any type of credal network, both separately and non-separately specified. Second, it shows that any non-separately specified net represented with the new language can be easily transformed into an equivalent separately specified net, defined over a larger domain. This result opens up a number of new outlooks and concrete outcomes: first of all, it immediately enables the existing algorithms for separately specified credal nets to be applied to non-separately specified ones. We explore this possibility for the 2U algorithm: an algorithm for exact updating of singly connected credal nets, which is extended by our results to a class of non-separately specified models. We also consider the problem of inference on Bayesian networks, when the reason that prevents some of the variables from being observed is unknown. The problem is first reformulated in the new graphical language, and then mapped into an equivalent problem on a separately specified net. This provides a first algorithmic approach to this kind of inference, which is also proved to be NP-hard by similar transformations based on our formalism.

A credal network associates sets of probability distributions with directed acyclic graphs. Under strong independence assumptions, inference with credal networks is equivalent to a signomial program under linear constraints, a problem that is NP-hard even for categorical variables and polytree models. We describe

This paper investigates a representation language with flexibility inspired by probabilistic logic and compactness inspired by relational Bayesian networks. The goal is to handle propositional and first-order constructs together with precise, imprecise, indeterminate and qualitative probabilistic assessments. The paper shows how this can be achieved through the theory of credal networks. New exact and approximate inference algorithms based on multilinear programming and iterated/loopy propagation of interval probabilities are presented; their superior performance, compared to existing ones, is shown empirically. 1

Credal networks are models that extend Bayesian nets to deal with imprecision in probability, and can actually be regarded as sets of Bayesian nets. Evidence suggests that credal nets are a powerful means to represent and deal with many important and challenging problems in uncertain reasoning. We give examples to show that some of these problems can only be modelled by credal nets called non-separately specified. These, however, are still missing a graphical representation language and solution algorithms. The situation is quite the opposite with separately specified credal nets, which have been the subject of much study and algorithmic development. This paper gives two major contributions. First, it delivers a new graphical language to formulate any type of credal network, both separately and non-separately specified. Second, it shows that any non-separately specified net represented with the new language can be easily transformed into an equivalent separately specified net, defined over a larger domain. This result opens up a number of new perspectives and concrete outcomes: first of all, it immediately enables the existing algorithms for separately specified credal nets to be applied to non-separately specified ones.

The propagation of probabilities in credal networks when probabilities are estimated with a global imprecise Dirichlet model is an important open problem. Only Zaffalon [21] has proposed an algorithm for the Naive classifier. The main difficulty is that, in general, computing upper and lower probability intervals implies the resolution of an optimization of a fraction of two polynomials. In the case of the Naive credal classifier, Zaffalon has shown that the function is a convex function of only one parameter, but there is not a similar result for general credal sets. In this paper, we propose the use of an imprecise global model, but we restrict the distributions to only the most extreme ones. The result is a model giving rise that in the case of estimating a conditional probability under independence relationships, it can produce smaller intervals than the global general model. Its main advantage is that the optimization problem is simpler, and available procedures can be directly applied, as the ones proposed in [7].

This paper presents a credal network model of debris flow hazard for the Ticino canton, southern Switzerland. Credal networks [5] are impreciseprobability models based on the extension of Bayesian networks [9] to sets of probability mass functions (see Sec. 2.2). Imprecise probability [11] is a very general theory of uncertainty that measures chance and uncertainty without sharp probabilities

Bayesian network are powerful probabilistic graphical models for modelling uncertainty. Among others, classification represents an important application: some of the most used classifiers are based on Bayesian networks. Bayesian networks are precise models: exact numeric values should be provided for quantification. This requirement is sometimes too narrow. Sets instead of single distributions can provide a more realistic description in these cases. Bayesian networks can be generalized to cope with sets of distributions. This leads to a novel class of imprecise probabilistic graphical models, called credal networks. In particular, classifiers based on Bayesian networks are generalized to so-called credal classifiers. Unlike Bayesian classifiers, which always detect a single class as the one maximizing the posterior class probability, a credal classifier may eventually be unable to discriminate a single class. In other words, if the available information is not sufficient, credal classifiers allow for indecision between two or more classes, this providing a less informative but more robust conclusion than Bayesian classifiers.