Bayesian network inference using marginal trees

Abstract. Variable Elimination (VE) answers a query posed to a Bayesian network (BN) by manipulating the conditional probability ta-bles of the BN. Each successive query is answered in the same manner. In this paper, we present an inference algorithm that is aimed at maximiz-ing the reuse of past computation but does not involve precomputation. Compared to VE and a variant of VE incorporating precomputation, our approach fairs favourably in preliminary experimental results