[R] nonlinear least squares fitting Trust-Region"

Spencer Graves spencer.graves at pdf.com
Sat Sep 2 20:04:53 CEST 2006


      May I also suggest Bates and Watts (1988) Nonlinear Regression 
Analysis and Its Applications (Wiley).  This book carefully explains the 
difference between "parameter effects" and "intrinsic" curvature in 
non-linear fitting. I don't know if this idea was original with Bates or 
Watts, but I believe that Bates' PhD dissertation made important, 
original contributions to our understanding of it -- and it helped get 
him the faculty position in Statistics at the University of Wisconsin, 
where he still is.  Bates is also a leading contributor to R. 

      hope this helps. 
      spencer graves

RAVI VARADHAN wrote:
> As suggested by Prof. Ripley, you should read a good book in the optimization area.  One that I would highly recommend is the book by Dennis and Schnabel (1983) - Numerical methods for unconstrained optimization, which does a great job of explaining both "line-search" and "trust-region" approaches for achieving globally-convergent versions of a fast numerical scheme such as Gauss-Newton.
>
> Best,
> Ravi.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>
> Date: Saturday, September 2, 2006 5:51 am
> Subject: Re: [R] nonlinear least squares fitting Trust-Region"
> To: Martin Ivanov <tramni at abv.bg>
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>
>   
>> I believe people (including me) did not reply because you appeared 
>> not to 
>> have done your homework.  The help page for ?nls _does_ have a 
>> reference 
>> to the 'port' documentation, and RSiteSearch("trust region") is 
>> informative and leads to an R package that does trust-region 
>> optimization.  
>> (So would looking in the R FAQ.)
>>
>> You say:
>>
>>     
>>> Since I am not an expert in the field of optimization, I am just 
>>> conforming to what matlab documentation
>>>       
>> Please note that some of the R developers are really expert in 
>> that area, 
>> and their advice (in the R documentation) should be taken as 
>> seriously as 
>> that in some commercial package that is merely commenting about 
>> the very 
>> sparse choice it offers.  Or if R is not in your personal trust 
>> region, 
>> just use 'matlab'.
>>
>> Please
>>
>> 1) do not shout at your helpers: using all caps is regarded as 
>> shouting.
>> 2) study and follow the posting guide.  People are much more 
>> likely to 
>> help you if you demonstrate you have made efforts to help yourself.
>>
>> 3) read the literature.  The R FAQ leads to books that cover 
>> fitting 
>> non-linear models in S/R in considerable detail.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 2 Sep 2006, Martin Ivanov wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Dear Mr Graves,
>>>       
>>> Thank you very much for your response. Nobody else from this 
>>>       
>> mailing 
>>     
>>> list ventured to reply to me for the two weeks since I posted my 
>>> question. "nlminb" and "optim" are just optimization procedures. 
>>>       
>> What I 
>>     
>>> need is not just optimization, but a nonlinear CURVE FITTING 
>>>       
>> procedure.
>> Which is just optimization: usually by least squares (although you 
>> have 
>> not actually specified that and there are better modern 
>> statistical 
>> ideas).
>>
>>     
>>> If there is some way to perform nonlinear curve fitting with the 
>>> "Trust-Region" algorithm using any of these functions, I would 
>>>       
>> me much 
>>     
>>> obliged to you if you suggest to me how to achieve that. You 
>>>       
>> asked me 
>>     
>>> why I do not want Gauss-Newton. Since I am not an expert in the 
>>>       
>> field of 
>>     
>>> optimization, I am just conforming to what matlab documentation 
>>> suggests, namely: "Algorithm used for the fitting procedure: 
>>> Trust-Region -- This is the default algorithm and must be used 
>>>       
>> if you 
>>     
>>> specify coefficient constraints. Levenberg-Marquardt -- If the 
>>> trust-region algorithm does not produce a reasonable fit, and 
>>>       
>> you do not 
>>     
>>> have coefficient constraints, you should try the Levenberg-
>>>       
>> Marquardt 
>>     
>>> algorithm. Gauss-Newton --THIS ALGORITHM IS POTENTIALLY FASTER 
>>>       
>> THAN THE 
>>     
>>> OTHER ALGORITHMS, BUT IT ASSUMES THAT THE RESIDUALS ARE CLOSE TO 
>>>       
>> ZERO. 
>>     
>>> IT IS INCLUDED FOR PEDAGOGICAL REASONS AND SHOULD BE THE LAST 
>>>       
>> CHOICE FOR 
>>     
>>> MOST MODELS AND DATA SETS. I browsed some literature about the 
>>>       
>> garchfit 
>>     
>>> function, but I did not see the "Trust-Region" algorithm there 
>>>       
>> either: 
>>     
>>> algorithm = c("sqp", "nlminb", "lbfgsb", "nlminb+nm", 
>>>       
>> "lbfgsb+nm"), 
>>     
>>> control = list(), title = NULL, description = NULL, ...)
>>>
>>> Thank you for your attention. I am looking forward to your reply.
>>> Regards,
>>> Martin
>>>
>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>> vbox7.com - ??????? ????? ???????!
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> 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
>>     
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>>       
>> -- 
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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.htmland provide commented, minimal, self-contained, 
>> reproducible code.
>>
>>     
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>



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