非线性再生散度模型的Bayes估计

非线性再生散度模型是指数族非线性模型、广义线性模型和正态非线性回归模型的推广和发展,唐年胜等人研究了该模型参数的极大似然估计及其统计诊断。本文基于Gibbs抽样和MH抽样算法讨论非线性再生散度模型参数的Bayes估计。模拟研究和实例分析被用来说明该方法的有效性。     

Fitting Social Network Models Using Varying Truncation Stochastic Approximation MCMC Algorithm

The exponential random graph model (ERGM) plays a major role in social network analysis. However, parameter estimation for the ERGM is a hard problem due to the intractability of its normalizing constant and the model degeneracy. The existing algorithms, such as Monte Carlo maximum likelihood estimation (MCMLE) and stochastic approximation, often fail for this problem in the presence of model degeneracy. In this article, we introduce the varying truncation stochastic approximation Markov chain Monte Carlo (SAMCMC) algorithm to tackle this problem. The varying truncation mechanism enables the algorithm to choose an appropriate starting point and an appropriate gain factor sequence, and thus to produce a reasonable parameter estimate for the ERGM even in the presence of model degeneracy. The numerical results indicate that the varying truncation SAMCMC algorithm can significantly outperform the MCMLE and stochastic approximation algorithms: for degenerate ERGMs, MCMLE and stochastic approximation often fail to produce any reasonable parameter estimates, while SAMCMC can do; for nondegenerate ERGMs, SAMCMC can work as well as or better than MCMLE and stochastic approximation. The data and source codes used for this article are available online as supplementary materials.     

An Approximation Method for Improving Dynamic Network Model Fitting

There has been a great deal of interest recently in the modeling and simulation of dynamic networks, that is, networks that change over time. One promising model is the separable temporal exponential-family random graph model (ERGM) of Krivitsky and Handcock, which treats the formation and dissolution of ties in parallel at each time step as independent ERGMs. However, the computational cost of fitting these models can be substantial, particularly for large, sparse networks. Fitting cross-sectional models for observations of a network at a single point in time, while still a nonnegligible computational burden, is much easier. This article examines model fitting when the available data consist of independent measures of cross-sectional network structure and the duration of relationships under the assumption of stationarity. We introduce a simple approximation to the dynamic parameters for sparse networks with relationships of moderate or long duration and show that the approximation method works best in precisely those cases where parameter estimation is most likely to fail—networks with very little change at each time step. We consider a variety of cases: Bernoulli formation and dissolution of ties, independent-tie formation and Bernoulli dissolution, independent-tie formation and dissolution, and dependent-tie formation models.     

Conditional Logistic Regression With Longitudinal Follow-up and Individual-Level Random Coefficients: A Stable and Efficient Two-Step Estimation Method

The analysis of data generated by animal habitat selection studies, by family studies of genetic diseases, or by longitudinal follow-up of households often involves fitting a mixed conditional logistic regression model to longitudinal data composed of clusters of matched case-control strata. The estimation of model parameters by maximum likelihood is especially difficult when the number of cases per stratum is greater than one. In this case, the denominator of each cluster contribution to the conditional likelihood involves a complex integral in high dimension, which leads to convergence problems in the numerical maximization. In this article we show how these computational complexities can be bypassed using a global two-step analysis for nonlinear mixed effects models. The first step estimates the cluster-specific parameters and can be achieved with standard statistical methods and software based on maximum likelihood for independent data. The second step uses the EM-algorithm in conjunction with conditional restricted maximum likelihood to estimate the population parameters. We use simulations to demonstrate that the method works well when the analysis is based on a large number of strata per cluster, as in many ecological studies. We apply the proposed two-step approach to evaluate habitat selection by pairs of bison roaming freely in their natural environment. This article has supplementary material online.     

一类零膨胀广义线性模型极大似然估计的相合性与渐近正态性

讨论了响应变量为单参数指数族且在零点处膨胀的广义线性模型的大样本性质,对其参数进行了极大似然估计,给出了一些正则条件.基于所提出的正则条件,证明了模型参数极大似然估计的相合性与渐近正态性.     

Bayesian Model Selection for Exponential Random Graph Models via Adjusted Pseudolikelihoods

Models with intractable likelihood functions arise in areas including network analysis and spatial statistics, especially those involving Gibbs random fields. Posterior parameter estimation in these settings is termed a doubly intractable problem because both the likelihood function and the posterior distribution are intractable. The comparison of Bayesian models is often based on the statistical evidence, the integral of the un-normalized posterior distribution over the model parameters which is rarely available in closed form. For doubly intractable models, estimating the evidence adds another layer of difficulty. Consequently, the selection of the model that best describes an observed network among a collection of exponential random graph models for network analysis is a daunting task. Pseudolikelihoods offer a tractable approximation to the likelihood but should be treated with caution because they can lead to an unreasonable inference. This article specifies a method to adjust pseudolikelihoods to obtain a reasonable, yet tractable, approximation to the likelihood. This allows implementation of widely used computational methods for evidence estimation and pursuit of Bayesian model selection of exponential random graph models for the analysis of social networks. Empirical comparisons to existing methods show that our procedure yields similar evidence estimates, but at a lower computational cost. Supplementary material for this article is available online.     

Efficient Algorithm for Computing Maximum Likelihood Estimates in Linear Transformation Models

Linear transformation models, which have been extensively studied in survival analysis, include the two special cases: the proportional hazards model and the proportional odds model. Nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation is usually used to derive the efficient estimators. However, due to the large number of nuisance parameters, calculation of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator is difficult in practice, except for the proportional hazards model. We propose an efficient algorithm for computing the maximum likelihood estimates, where the dimensionality of the parameter space is dramatically reduced so that only a finite number of equations need to be solved. Moreover, the asymptotic variance is automatically estimated in the computing procedure. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the proposed algorithm works very well for linear transformation models. A real example is presented for an illustration of the new methodology.     

Initial conditions estimation for improving forecast accuracy in exponential smoothing

In this paper we analyze the importance of initial conditions in exponential smoothing models on forecast errors and prediction intervals. We work with certain exponential smoothing models, namely Holt’s additive linear and Gardner’s damped trend. We study some probability properties of those models, showing the influence of the initial conditions on the forecast, which highlights the importance of obtaining accurate estimates of initial conditions. Using the linear heteroscedastic modeling approach, we show how to obtain the joint estimation of initial conditions and smoothing parameters through maximum likelihood via box-constrained nonlinear optimization. Point-wise forecasts of future values and prediction intervals are computed under normality assumptions on the stochastic component. We also propose an alternative formulation of prediction intervals in order to obtain an empirical coverage closer to their nominal values; that formulation adds an additional term to the standard formulas for the estimation of the error variance. We illustrate the proposed approach by using the yearly data time-series from the M3-Competition.     

非线性再生散度随机效应模型的贝叶斯分析

非线性再生散度随机效应模型是一类非常广泛的统计模型，包括了线性随机效应模型、非线性随机效应模型、广义线性随机效应模型和指数族非线性随机效应模型等．本文研究非线性再生散度随机效应模型的贝叶斯分析．通过视随机效应为缺失数据以及应用结合Gibbs抽样技术和Metropolis-Hastings算法（简称MH算法）的混合算法获得了模型参数与随机效应的同时贝叶斯估计．最后，用一个模拟研究和一个实际例子说明上述算法的可行眭．     

Linear mixed models and penalized least squares

Linear mixed-effects models are an important class of statistical models that are used directly in many fields of applications and also are used as iterative steps in fitting other types of mixed-effects models, such as generalized linear mixed models. The parameters in these models are typically estimated by maximum likelihood or restricted maximum likelihood. In general, there is no closed-form solution for these estimates and they must be determined by iterative algorithms such as EM iterations or general nonlinear optimization. Many of the intermediate calculations for such iterations have been expressed as generalized least squares problems. We show that an alternative representation as a penalized least squares problem has many advantageous computational properties including the ability to evaluate explicitly a profiled log-likelihood or log-restricted likelihood, the gradient and Hessian of this profiled objective, and an ECME update to refine this objective.     

GEOMETRIC METHOD OF SEQUENTIAL ESTIMATION RELATED TO MULTINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION MODELS

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Bayesian and likelihood inference from equally weighted mixtures

Equally weighted mixture models are recommended for situations where it is required to draw precise finite sample inferences requiring population parameters, but where the population distribution is not constrained to belong to a simple parametric family. They lead to an alternative procedure to the Laird-DerSimonian maximum likelihood algorithm for unequally weighted mixture models. Their primary purpose lies in the facilitation of exact Bayesian computations via importance sampling. Under very general sampling and prior specifications, exact Bayesian computations can be based upon an application of importance sampling, referred to as Permutable Bayesian Marginalization (PBM). An importance function based upon a truncated multivariatet-distribution is proposed, which refers to a generalization of the maximum likelihood procedure. The estimation of discrete distributions, by binomial mixtures, and inference for survivor distributions, via mixtures of exponential or Weibull distributions, are considered. Equally weighted mixture models are also shown to lead to an alternative Gibbs sampling methodology to the Lavine-West approach.     

Iterative Plug-In Algorithms for SEMIFAR Models—Definition,Convergence, and Asymptotic Properties

This article proposes data-driven algorithms for fitting SEMIFAR models. The algorithms combine the data-driven estimation of the nonparametric trend and maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters. Convergence and asymptotic properties of the proposed algorithms are investigated. A large simulation study illustrates the practical performance of the methods.     

Computationally Efficient Estimation for the Generalized Odds Rate Mixture Cure Model With Interval-Censored Data

For semiparametric survival models with interval-censored data and a cure fraction, it is often difficult to derive nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation due to the challenge in maximizing the complex likelihood function. In this article, we propose a computationally efficient EM algorithm, facilitated by a gamma-Poisson data augmentation, for maximum likelihood estimation in a class of generalized odds rate mixture cure (GORMC) models with interval-censored data. The gamma-Poisson data augmentation greatly simplifies the EM estimation and enhances the convergence speed of the EM algorithm. The empirical properties of the proposed method are examined through extensive simulation studies and compared with numerical maximum likelihood estimates. An R package “GORCure” is developed to implement the proposed method and its use is illustrated by an application to the Aerobic Center Longitudinal Study dataset. Supplementary material for this article is available online.     

非线性再生散度随机效应模型参数置信域的曲率表示

该文基于Laplace逼近建立了非线性再生散度随机效应模型在Euclid空间中的几何结构, 并在此基础上研究了此模型参数和子集参数的置信域, 进一步推广和发展了 Hamilton, Watts 和 Bates^[1]关于正态非线性回归模型, Wei^[2,3]关于嵌入模型和指数族非线性模型, Zhu, Tang 和 Wei^[4]关于半参数非线性模型,唐年胜、韦博成和王学仁^[5]关于非线性再生散度模型, Tang 和 Wang^[6]关于拟似然非线性模型等的结果.     

指数族非线性模型最大似然估计的相合性和渐近正态性

本文我们提出了一些正则条件, 这些条件减弱了Zhu and Wei (1997)文中的条件. 基于所提的正则条件, 我们证明了指数族非线性模型参数最大似然估计的相合性和渐近正态性. 我们的结果可被认为是Zhu and Wei (1997)工作的进一步改进.     

Exponential family non-linear models for categorical data with errors of observation

We present a general framework for treating categorical data with errors of observation. We show how both latent class models and models for doubly sampled data can be treated as exponential family nonlinear models. These are extended generalized linear models with the link function substituted by an observationwise defined non-linear function of the model parameters. The models are formulated in terms of structural probabilities and conditional error probabilities, thus allowing natural constraints when modelling errors of observation. We use an iteratively reweighted least squares procedure for obtaining maximum likelihood estimates. This is faster than the traditionally used EM algorithm and the computations can be made in GLIM.¹ As examples we analyse three sets of categorical data with errors of observation which have been analysed before by Ashford and Sowden,² Goodman³ and Chen,⁴ respectively.     

Problems with the estimation of stochastic differential equations using structural equations models

The present paper deals with the identification and maximum likelihood estimation of systems of linear stochastic differential equations using panel data. So we only have a sample of discrete observations over time of the relevant variables for each individual. A popular approach in the social sciences advocates the estimation of the “exact discrete model” after a reparameterization with LISREL or similar programs for structural equations models. The “exact discrete model” corresponds to the continuous time model in the sense that observations at equidistant points in time that are generated by the latter system also satisfy the former. In the LISREL approach the reparameterized discrete time model is estimated first without taking into account the nonlinear mapping from the continuous to the discrete time parameters. In a second step, using the inverse mapping, the fundamental system parameters of the continuous time system in which we are interested, are inferred. However, some severe problems arise with this “indirect approach”. First, an identification problem may arise in multiple equation systems, since the matrix exponential function denning some of the new parameters is in general not one‐to‐one, and hence the inverse mapping mentioned above does not exist. Second, usually some sort of approximation of the time paths of the exogenous variables is necessary before the structural parameters of the system can be estimated with discrete data. Two simple approximation methods are discussed. In both approximation methods the resulting new discrete time parameters are connected in a complicated way. So estimating the reparameterized discrete model by OLS without restrictions does not yield maximum likelihood estimates of the desired continuous time parameters as claimed by some authors. Third, a further limitation of estimating the reparameterized model with programs for structural equations models is that even simple restrictions on the original fundamental parameters of the continuous time system cannot be dealt with. This issue is also discussed in some detail. For these reasons the “indirect method” cannot be recommended. In many cases the approach leads to misleading inferences. We strongly advocate the direct estimation of the continuous time parameters. This approach is more involved, because the exact discrete model is nonlinear in the original parameters. A computer program by Hermann Singer that provides appropriate maximum likelihood estimates is described.     

离散型指数族非线性模型的变离差检验

It is necessary to test for varying dispersion in generalized nonlinear models. Wei,et al (1998) developed a likelihood ratio test,a score test and their adjustments to test for varying dispersion in continuous exponential family nonlinear models. This type of problem in the framework of general discrete exponential family nonlinear models is discussed. Two types of varying dispersion, which are random coefficients model and random effects model, are proposed ,and corresponding score test statistics are constructed and expressed in simple ,easy to use ,matrix formulas.     

TESTING FOR VARYING DISPERSION IN DISCRETE EXPONENTIAL FAMILY NONLINEAR MODELS

§ 1　 Introduction and modelsThe general form of exponential family nonlinear models isg(μi) =f(xi,﹀) , (1 )where,g(· ) is a monotonic link function,f is a known differentiable nonlinear functionand﹀ is a p-vectoroffixed population parameters;μi=E(yi) and the density of response yiisp(yi) =exp{[yiθi -b(θi) -c(yi) ] -12 a(yi,) } ,(2 )whereθi is the natural parameter, is the dispersion parameter.From [1 1 ] ,μi=b(θi) ,Vi=Var(yi) =- 1 b(θi) .If f(xi,β) =x Ti ﹀,then mod…