J.Shavlik & S. Natarajan (2009).
Speeding Up Inference in Markov Logic Networks by Preprocessing to Reduce the Size of the Resulting Grounded Network. Proceedings of the Twenty-first International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Pasadena, California.
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Abstract:

Statistical-relational reasoning has received much attention due to its ability to robustly model complex relationships. A key challenge is tractable inference, especially in domains involving many objects, due to the combinatorics involved. One can accelerate inference by using approximation techniques, ``lazy'' algorithms, etc. We consider Markov Logic Networks (MLNs), which involve counting how often logical formulae are satisfied. We propose a preprocessing algorithm that can substantially reduce the effective size of MLNs by rapidly counting how often the evidence satisfies each formula, regardless of the truth values of the query literals. This is a general preprocessing method that loses no information and can be used for any MLN inference algorithm. We evaluate our algorithm empirically in three real-world domains, greatly reducing the work needed during subsequent inference. Such reduction might even allow exact inference to be performed when sampling methods would be otherwise necessary.

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