Multitype Branching Processes Offspring Distribution Maximum Likelihood Estimation Expectation Maximization Stochastic Context-Free Grammars Inside-Outside Algorithm
Issue Date:
2010
Publisher:
Institute of Mathematics and Informatics Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Citation:
Serdica Journal of Computing, Vol. 4, No 4, (2010), 463p-474p
Abstract:
Multitype branching processes (MTBP) model branching structures, where the nodes of the resulting tree are particles of different types.
Usually such a process is not observable in the sense of the whole tree, but
only as the “generation” at a given moment in time, which consists of the
number of particles of every type. This requires an EM-type algorithm to
obtain a maximum likelihood (ML) estimate of the parameters of the branching process. Using a version of the inside-outside algorithm for stochastic
context-free grammars (SCFG), such an estimate could be obtained for the
offspring distribution of the process.
