Dr Sofia Massa (Oxford)

Combining information from graphical Gaussian models

In some recent applications, the interest is in combining information about relationships between variables from independent studies performed under partially comparable circumstances. One possible way of formalising this problem is to consider combination of families of distribution respecting conditional independence constraints with respect to a graph G, i.e., graphical models. In this talk I will introduce some motivating examples of the research question and I will present some relevant types of combinations and associated properties, in particular the relation between the properties of the combination and the structure of the graphs. Finally I will discuss some issues related to the estimation of the parameters of the combination.