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We examine methods for clustering in high dimensions. In the first part of the paper, we perform an experimental comparison between three batch clustering algorithms: the Expectation–Maximization (EM) algorithm, a “winner take all ” version of the EM algorithm reminiscent of the K-means algorithm, and model-based hierarchical agglomerative clustering. We learn naive-Bayes models with a hidden root node, using high-dimensional discrete-variable data sets (both real and synthetic). We find that the EM algorithm significantly outperforms the other methods, and proceed to investigate the effect of various initialization schemes on the final solution produced by the EM algorithm. The initializations that we consider are (1) parameters sampled from an uninformative prior, (2) random perturbations of the marginal distribution of the data, and (3) the output of hierarchical agglomerative clustering. Although the methods are substantially different, they lead to learned models that are strikingly similar in quality. 1

The EM algorithm is a popular method for parameter estimation in a variety of problems involving missing data. However, the EM algorithm often requires signi cant computational resources and has been dismissed as impractical for large databases. We presenttwo approaches that signi cantly reduce the computational cost of applying the EM algorithm to databases with a large number of cases, including databases with large dimensionality. Both approaches are based on partial E-steps for which we can use the results of Neal and Hinton (1998) to obtain the standard convergence guarantees of EM. The rst approach is a version of the incremental EM, described in Neal and Hinton (1998), which cycles through data cases in blocks. The number of cases in each block dramatically e ects the e ciency of the algorithm. We provide a method for selecting a near optimal block size. The second approach, which we call lazy EM, will, at scheduled iterations, evaluate the signi cance of each data case and then proceed for several iterations actively using only the signi cant cases. We demonstrate that both methods can signi cantly reduce computational costs through their application to high-dimensional real-world and synthetic mixture modeling problems for large databases. Keywords: Expectation Maximization Algorithm, incremental EM, lazy EM, online EM, data blocking, mixture models, clustering.

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This literature review discusses different methods under the general rubric of learning Bayesian networks from data, and includes some overlapping work on more general probabilistic networks. Connections are drawn between the statistical, neural network, and uncertainty communities, and between the different methodological communities, such as Bayesian, description length, and classical statistics. Basic concepts for learning and Bayesian networks are introduced and methods are then reviewed. Methods are discussed for learning parameters of a probabilistic network, for learning the structure, and for learning hidden variables. The presentation avoids formal definitions and theorems, as these are plentiful in the literature, and instead illustrates key concepts with simplified examples.