Probabilistic graphical models are currently one of the most commonly used architectures for modelling and reasoning with uncertainty. The most widely used subclass of these models is directed acyclic graphs, also known as Bayesian networks, which are used in a wide range of applications both in research and industry. Directed acyclic graphs do, however, have a major limitation, which is that only asymmetric relationships, namely cause and effect relationships, can be modelled between their variables. A class of probabilistic graphical models that tries to address this shortcoming is chain graphs, which include two types of edges in the models representing both symmetric and asymmetric relationships between the variables. This allows for a wider range of independence models to be modelled and depending on how the second edge is interpreted, we also have different so-called chain graph interpretations. Although chain graphs were first introduced in the late eighties, most research on probabilistic graphical models naturally started in the least complex subclasses, such as directed acyclic graphs and undirected graphs. The field of chain graphs has therefore been relatively dormant. However, due to the maturity of the research field of probabilistic graphical models and the rise of more data-driven approaches to system modelling, chain graphs have recently received renewed interest in research. In this thesis we provide an introduction to chain graphs where we incorporate the progress made in the field. More specifically, we study the three chain graph interpretations that exist in research in terms of their separation criteria, their possible parametrizations and the intuition behind their edges. In addition to this we also compare the expressivity of the interpretations in terms of representable independence models as well as propose new structure learning algorithms to learn chain graph models from data.

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The minimum degree spanning tree problem is a widely studied NP-hard variation of the minimum spanning tree problem, and a generalization of the Hamiltonian path problem. Most of the work done on the minimum degree spanning tree problem has been on approximation algorithms, and very little work has been done studying graph classes where this problem may be polynomial time solvable. The Hamiltonian path problem has been widely studied on graph classes, and we use classes with polynomial time results for the Hamiltonian path problem as a starting point for graph class results for the minimum degree spanning tree problem. We show the minimum degree spanning tree problem is polynomial time solvable for chain graphs. We then show this problem is polynomial time solvable on bipartite permutation graphs, and that there exist minimum degree spanning trees of these graphs that are caterpillars, and that have other particular structural properties.

The necessity of modeling is vital for the purpose of reasoning and diagnosing in complex systems, since the human mind might sometimes have a limited capacity and an inability to be objective. The chain graph (CG) class is a powerful and robust tool for modeling real-world applications. It is a type of probabilistic graphical models (PGM) and has multiple interpretations. Each of these interpretations has a distinct Markov property. This thesis deals with the multivariate regression chain graph (MVR-CG) interpretation. The main goal of this thesis is to implement and evaluate the results of the MVR-PC-algorithm proposed by Sonntag and Peña in 2012. This algorithm uses a constraint based approach used in order to learn a MVR-CG from data.In this study the MRV-PC-algorithm is implemented and tested to see whether the implementation is correct. For this purpose, it is run on several different independence models that can be perfectly represented by MVR-CGs. The learned CG and the independence model of the given probability distribution are then compared to ensure that they are in the same Markov equivalence class. Additionally, for the purpose of checking how accurate the algorithm is, in learning a MVR-CG from data, a large number of samples are passed to the algorithm. The results are analyzed based on number of nodes and average number of adjacents per node. The accuracy of the algorithm is measured by the precision and recall of independencies and dependencies.In general, the higher the number of samples given to the algorithm, the more accurate the learned MVR-CGs become. In addition, when the graph is sparse, the result becomes significantly more accurate. The number of nodes can affect the results slightly. When the number of nodes increases it can lead to better results, if the average number of adjacents is fixed. On the other hand, if the number of nodes is fixed and the average number of adjacents increases, the effect is more considerable and the accuracy of the results dramatically declines. Moreover the type of the random variables can affect the results. Given the samples with discrete variables, the recall of independencies measure would be higher and the precision of independencies measure would be lower. Conversely, given the samples with continuous variables, the recall of independencies would be less but the precision of independencies would be higher.