Patent ID: 11861508
Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. A computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining observation samples of a plurality of factors and a causal structure indicating a causal relationship among the plurality of factors, each observation sample including a set of observation values of the plurality of factors;
in response to a target factor being identified in the plurality of factors, determining, from the plurality of factors, at least one factor affecting the target factor based on the causal structure;
estimating, for each of the at least one factor, an overall causal effect of the factor on the target factor based on the observation samples and the causal structure; and
ranking the at least one factor based on respective overall causal effects of the at least one factor on the target factor,
wherein the at least one user input comprises an edit operation performed on the first causal structure,
wherein the first causal structure is presented as a causal graph comprising a plurality of nodes corresponding to the plurality of factors and at least one edge connecting the plurality of nodes, the at least one edge indicates the first causal relationship among the plurality of factors, and
wherein the edit operation comprises adding one or more labels to the causal graph, so as to indicate prior knowledge about causality among the plurality of nodes.