thr3ads.net - R help - [R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik [Dec 2005]

If this information is useful, please help other people find it:
Share via:

Ivar Herfindal

2005-Dec-14 10:34 UTC

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

Hello

I have a problem when fitting a mixed generalised linear model with the 
lmer-function in the Matrix package, version 0.98-7. I have a respons 
variable (sfox) that is 1 or 0, whether a roe deer fawn is killed or not 
by red fox. This is expected to be related to e.g. the density of red 
fox (roefoxratio) or other variables. In addition, we account for family 
effects by adding the mother (fam) of the fawns as random factor. I want 
to use AIC to select the best model (if no other model selection 
criterias are suggested).

the syntax looks like this:
 > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2, family=binomial)

The output looks ok, except that the deviance is extremely high 
(1.798e+308).

 > mod
Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
    Data: manu2
  Family: binomial(logit link)
            AIC           BIC         logLik      deviance
  1.797693e+308 1.797693e+308 -8.988466e+307 1.797693e+308
Random effects:
      Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
         fam (Intercept)      17.149      4.1412
# of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58

Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5940245

Fixed effects:
             Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
(Intercept) -2.60841    1.06110 -2.45820  0.01396 *
roefoxratio  0.51677    0.63866  0.80915  0.41843

I suspect this may be due to a local maximum in the ML-fitting, since:

 > mod at logLik
'log Lik.' -8.988466e+307 (df=4)

However,

 > mod at deviance
       ML     REML
295.4233 295.4562

So, my first question is what this second deviance value represent. I 
have tried to figure out from the lmer-syntax 
(https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/Matrix/R/lmer.R)
but I must admit I have problems with this.

Second, if the very high deviance is due to local maximum, is there a 
general procedure to overcome this problem? I have tried to alter the 
tolerance in the control-parameters. However, I need a very high 
tolerance value in order to get a more reasonable deviance, e.g.

 > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2, 
family=binomial, 
control=list(tolerance=sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(.Machine$double.eps))))))
 > mod
Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
    Data: manu2
  Family: binomial(logit link)
       AIC      BIC    logLik deviance
  130.2166 141.6247 -61.10829 122.2166
Random effects:
      Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
         fam (Intercept)      15.457      3.9316
# of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58

Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5954664

Fixed effects:
             Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
(Intercept) -2.55690    0.98895 -2.58548 0.009724 **
roefoxratio  0.50968    0.59810  0.85216 0.394127

The tolerance value in this model represent 0.1051 on my machine. Does 
anyone have an advice how to handle such problems? I find the tolerance 
needed to achieve reasonable deviances rather high, and makes me not too 
confident about the estimates and the model. Using the other methods, 
("Laplace" or "AGQ") did not help.

My system is windows 2000,
 > version
          _
platform i386-pc-mingw32
arch     i386
os       mingw32
system   i386, mingw32
status
major    2
minor    2.0
year     2005
month    10
day      06
svn rev  35749
language R

Thanks

Ivar Herfindal

By the way, great thanks to all persons contributing to this package 
(and other), it makes my research more easy (and fun).

Doran, Harold

2005-Dec-14 11:11 UTC

head link

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

If you suspect a local maxima, have you tried different starting to
values to see if the likelihood is maximized in the same place? 

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Ivar Herfindal
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 5:34 AM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

Hello

I have a problem when fitting a mixed generalised linear model with the
lmer-function in the Matrix package, version 0.98-7. I have a respons
variable (sfox) that is 1 or 0, whether a roe deer fawn is killed or not
by red fox. This is expected to be related to e.g. the density of red
fox (roefoxratio) or other variables. In addition, we account for family
effects by adding the mother (fam) of the fawns as random factor. I want
to use AIC to select the best model (if no other model selection
criterias are suggested).

the syntax looks like this:
 > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,
family=binomial)

The output looks ok, except that the deviance is extremely high
(1.798e+308).

 > mod
Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
    Data: manu2
  Family: binomial(logit link)
            AIC           BIC         logLik      deviance
  1.797693e+308 1.797693e+308 -8.988466e+307 1.797693e+308 Random
effects:
      Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
         fam (Intercept)      17.149      4.1412
# of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58

Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5940245

Fixed effects:
             Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
(Intercept) -2.60841    1.06110 -2.45820  0.01396 *
roefoxratio  0.51677    0.63866  0.80915  0.41843

I suspect this may be due to a local maximum in the ML-fitting, since:

 > mod at logLik
'log Lik.' -8.988466e+307 (df=4)

However,

 > mod at deviance
       ML     REML
295.4233 295.4562

So, my first question is what this second deviance value represent. I
have tried to figure out from the lmer-syntax
(https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/Matrix/R/lmer.R)
but I must admit I have problems with this.

Second, if the very high deviance is due to local maximum, is there a
general procedure to overcome this problem? I have tried to alter the
tolerance in the control-parameters. However, I need a very high
tolerance value in order to get a more reasonable deviance, e.g.

 > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,
family=binomial,
control=list(tolerance=sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(.Machine$double.eps))))))
 > mod
Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
    Data: manu2
  Family: binomial(logit link)
       AIC      BIC    logLik deviance
  130.2166 141.6247 -61.10829 122.2166
Random effects:
      Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
         fam (Intercept)      15.457      3.9316
# of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58

Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5954664

Fixed effects:
             Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
(Intercept) -2.55690    0.98895 -2.58548 0.009724 **
roefoxratio  0.50968    0.59810  0.85216 0.394127

The tolerance value in this model represent 0.1051 on my machine. Does
anyone have an advice how to handle such problems? I find the tolerance
needed to achieve reasonable deviances rather high, and makes me not too
confident about the estimates and the model. Using the other methods,
("Laplace" or "AGQ") did not help.

My system is windows 2000,
 > version
          _
platform i386-pc-mingw32
arch     i386
os       mingw32
system   i386, mingw32
status
major    2
minor    2.0
year     2005
month    10
day      06
svn rev  35749
language R

Thanks

Ivar Herfindal

By the way, great thanks to all persons contributing to this package
(and other), it makes my research more easy (and fun).

______________________________________________
R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide!
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html

vmuggeo@dssm.unipa.it

2005-Dec-14 12:10 UTC

head link

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

Hi,
I am not able to explain fully your results..However note that the
deviance obtained in GLM with binary data (i.e Bernoulli 0/1) is
meaningless..you should group your observations to get a valid GoF-type
statistic.

Point estimates are OK, of course.

regards,
vito
> Hello
>
> I have a problem when fitting a mixed generalised linear model with the
> lmer-function in the Matrix package, version 0.98-7. I have a respons
> variable (sfox) that is 1 or 0, whether a roe deer fawn is killed or not
> by red fox. This is expected to be related to e.g. the density of red
> fox (roefoxratio) or other variables. In addition, we account for family
> effects by adding the mother (fam) of the fawns as random factor. I want
> to use AIC to select the best model (if no other model selection
> criterias are suggested).
>
> the syntax looks like this:
>  > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,
family=binomial)
>
> The output looks ok, except that the deviance is extremely high
> (1.798e+308).
>
>  > mod
> Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
> Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
>     Data: manu2
>   Family: binomial(logit link)
>             AIC           BIC         logLik      deviance
>   1.797693e+308 1.797693e+308 -8.988466e+307 1.797693e+308
> Random effects:
>       Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
>          fam (Intercept)      17.149      4.1412
> # of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58
>
> Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5940245
>
> Fixed effects:
>              Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
> (Intercept) -2.60841    1.06110 -2.45820  0.01396 *
> roefoxratio  0.51677    0.63866  0.80915  0.41843
>
> I suspect this may be due to a local maximum in the ML-fitting, since:
>
>  > mod at logLik
> 'log Lik.' -8.988466e+307 (df=4)
>
> However,
>
>  > mod at deviance
>        ML     REML
> 295.4233 295.4562
>
> So, my first question is what this second deviance value represent. I
> have tried to figure out from the lmer-syntax
> (https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/Matrix/R/lmer.R)
> but I must admit I have problems with this.
>
> Second, if the very high deviance is due to local maximum, is there a
> general procedure to overcome this problem? I have tried to alter the
> tolerance in the control-parameters. However, I need a very high
> tolerance value in order to get a more reasonable deviance, e.g.
>
>  > mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,
> family=binomial,
> control=list(tolerance=sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(.Machine$double.eps))))))
>  > mod
> Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
> Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
>     Data: manu2
>   Family: binomial(logit link)
>        AIC      BIC    logLik deviance
>   130.2166 141.6247 -61.10829 122.2166
> Random effects:
>       Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
>          fam (Intercept)      15.457      3.9316
> # of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58
>
> Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5954664
>
> Fixed effects:
>              Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
> (Intercept) -2.55690    0.98895 -2.58548 0.009724 **
> roefoxratio  0.50968    0.59810  0.85216 0.394127
>
> The tolerance value in this model represent 0.1051 on my machine. Does
> anyone have an advice how to handle such problems? I find the tolerance
> needed to achieve reasonable deviances rather high, and makes me not too
> confident about the estimates and the model. Using the other methods,
> ("Laplace" or "AGQ") did not help.
>
> My system is windows 2000,
>  > version
>           _
> platform i386-pc-mingw32
> arch     i386
> os       mingw32
> system   i386, mingw32
> status
> major    2
> minor    2.0
> year     2005
> month    10
> day      06
> svn rev  35749
> language R
>
> Thanks
>
> Ivar Herfindal
>
> By the way, great thanks to all persons contributing to this package
> (and other), it makes my research more easy (and fun).
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>

Ken Beath

2005-Dec-15 11:44 UTC

head link

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

Try using method="AGQ" to use the adaptive Gaussian quadrature  
method. This will generally give a more accurate result than PQL. If  
this doesn't give a more meaningful result, then it may be your data.  
Within each mother are the outcomes all identical ? This will give  
the random effects model a lot of problems.

Ken

> From: Ivar Herfindal <ivar.herfindal at bio.ntnu.no>
> Subject: [R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Message-ID: <439FF524.1040403 at bio.ntnu.no>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
> Hello
>
> I have a problem when fitting a mixed generalised linear model with  
> the
> lmer-function in the Matrix package, version 0.98-7. I have a respons
> variable (sfox) that is 1 or 0, whether a roe deer fawn is killed  
> or not
> by red fox. This is expected to be related to e.g. the density of red
> fox (roefoxratio) or other variables. In addition, we account for  
> family
> effects by adding the mother (fam) of the fawns as random factor. I  
> want
> to use AIC to select the best model (if no other model selection
> criterias are suggested).
>
> the syntax looks like this:
>> mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,  
>> family=binomial)
>
> The output looks ok, except that the deviance is extremely high
> (1.798e+308).
>
>> mod
> Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
> Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
>     Data: manu2
>   Family: binomial(logit link)
>             AIC           BIC         logLik      deviance
>   1.797693e+308 1.797693e+308 -8.988466e+307 1.797693e+308
> Random effects:
>       Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
>          fam (Intercept)      17.149      4.1412
> # of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58
>
> Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5940245
>
> Fixed effects:
>              Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
> (Intercept) -2.60841    1.06110 -2.45820  0.01396 *
> roefoxratio  0.51677    0.63866  0.80915  0.41843
>
> I suspect this may be due to a local maximum in the ML-fitting, since:
>
>> mod at logLik
> 'log Lik.' -8.988466e+307 (df=4)
>
> However,
>
>> mod at deviance
>        ML     REML
> 295.4233 295.4562
>
> So, my first question is what this second deviance value represent. I
> have tried to figure out from the lmer-syntax
> (https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/Matrix/R/lmer.R)
> but I must admit I have problems with this.
>
> Second, if the very high deviance is due to local maximum, is there a
> general procedure to overcome this problem? I have tried to alter the
> tolerance in the control-parameters. However, I need a very high
> tolerance value in order to get a more reasonable deviance, e.g.
>
>> mod <- lmer(sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1|fam), data=manu2,
> family=binomial,
> control=list(tolerance=sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(sqrt(.Machine$double.eps))))))
>> mod
> Generalized linear mixed model fit using PQL
> Formula: sfox ~ roefoxratio + (1 | fam)
>     Data: manu2
>   Family: binomial(logit link)
>        AIC      BIC    logLik deviance
>   130.2166 141.6247 -61.10829 122.2166
> Random effects:
>       Groups        Name    Variance    Std.Dev.
>          fam (Intercept)      15.457      3.9316
> # of obs: 128, groups: fam, 58
>
> Estimated scale (compare to 1)  0.5954664
>
> Fixed effects:
>              Estimate Std. Error  z value Pr(>|z|)
> (Intercept) -2.55690    0.98895 -2.58548 0.009724 **
> roefoxratio  0.50968    0.59810  0.85216 0.394127
>
> The tolerance value in this model represent 0.1051 on my machine. Does
> anyone have an advice how to handle such problems? I find the  
> tolerance
> needed to achieve reasonable deviances rather high, and makes me  
> not too
> confident about the estimates and the model. Using the other methods,
> ("Laplace" or "AGQ") did not help.
>
> My system is windows 2000,
>> version
>           _
> platform i386-pc-mingw32
> arch     i386
> os       mingw32
> system   i386, mingw32
> status
> major    2
> minor    2.0
> year     2005
> month    10
> day      06
> svn rev  35749
> language R
>
> Thanks
>
> Ivar Herfindal
>
> By the way, great thanks to all persons contributing to this package
> (and other), it makes my research more easy (and fun).
>

Possibly Parallel Threads

Search for more reasonably related threads

R help - Dec 2005 - Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

[R] Fitting binomial lmer-model, high deviance and low logLik

Possibly Parallel Threads