Conjunctive Bayesian networks

Conjunctive Bayesian networks (CBNs) are graphical models that describe the accumulation of events which are constrained in the order of their occurrence. A CBN is given by a partial order on a (finite) set of events. CBNs generalize the oncogenetic tree models of Desper et al. by allowing the occurrence of an event to depend on more than one predecessor event. The present paper studies the statistical and algebraic properties of CBNs. We determine the maximum likelihood parameters and present a combinatorial solution to the model selection problem. Our method performs well on two datasets where the events are HIV mutations associated with drug resistance. Concluding with a study of the algebraic properties of CBNs, we show that CBNs are toric varieties after a coordinate transformation and that their ideals possess a quadratic Grobner basis.