R Tricks for dealing with 0/0 and NaNs - r

I have two Gaussian functions for which certain values I am dividing then using the resulting values for if-else statements and integration. As both go to 0 fairly quickly, I eventually get 0/0 which R returns as NaN. This yields errors in the code. Aside from getting greater precision from say Rmpfr, I was wondering how one might go about dealing with stuff that results in 0/0 or NaN.
Edit: Here is the code I'm using for greater clarity
parameters=c(1,1,2)
R<-function(params,z.){
params[2]*exp(-z.^2/(2*params[3]^2))
}
alpha<-function(params,z.,v.){
1/v.[2]*exp(-(z.-v.[1])^2/(2*v.[2]))
}
total.rel.alpha<-function(params,z.,u.){
final=0
species.number<-dim(u.)[1]
if(is.null(dim(u.))){
return(alpha(params,z.,u.)/R(params,z.))
}
for(i in 1:species.number){
final=final+alpha(params,z.,u.[i,])
}
return(final/R(params,z.))
}
Kz<-function(params,z.,v.,u.){
if(total.rel.alpha(params,z.,u.)>=0 & total.rel.alpha(params,z.,u.)<=1){
alpha(params,z.,v.)
}else if(total.rel.alpha(params,z.,u.)>1){
alpha(params,z.,v.)/total.rel.alpha(params,z.,u.)
}
}
K<-function(params,v.,u.){
integrate(Kz,-Inf,Inf,params=params,v.=v.,u.=u.)$value
}
If I run:
K(parameters, c(1,1), c(1,1))
I get
Error in integrate(Kz, -Inf, Inf, params = params, v. = v., u. = u.) : non-finite function value
I think this is because at the tails I get 0/0 in total.rel.alpha

Work with log(p1/p2) where p1 and p2 are the Gaussian densities in question. You will get a difference of quadratic terms plus some other stuff.
Taking logarithms is a standard approach for working with very small but nonzero probability values.

Related

What are the correct Conditions to test for Weighted Die?

I was commanded with the following question. Write a function, named pdice, to simulate a weighted die that has probability of landing on 1:6 of (p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6) respectively. You can simulate this by using the parameter prob = p in the sample function, where p is a vector of non-negative numbers of length 6 (at least one needs to be >0). It will use p/sum(p) as the probabilities. This function has arguments p, n. Check ?sample to find out what conditions you need to check for p. Your function should generate an error message if these conditions are not met. Below is my code thus far, which runs, though giving back a warning about a coercing error of double to logical.
pdice <- function(n, p){
weightofDies <- c(1/40, rep(4/40,4), 23/40)
roll <- sample(1:6, size = n, replace = TRUE, prob = weightofDies)
if(n>0 && all(p=1)) {
return(roll)
}
else {
print("Error, Conditions Not Met")
}
}
I'm confused when the question says use parameter prob = p, then defines p as a vector of non-negative numbers of length 6. How can a probability be defined as a vector? Thus when it came to the conditions my brief understanding made sure the number of rolls (n) was greater than zero. And with p I just went on ahead to make sure the probabilities of this "Vector" added up to one. However not sure if my process thus far is correct. I created my biased probabilities via weightofDies.

Iteration / Maximization Excel solver in R

I am trying to do a maximization in R that I have done previously in Excel with the solver. The problem is that I don't know how to deal with it (i don't have a good level in R).
let's talk a bit about my data. I have 26 Swiss cantons and the Swiss government (which is the sum of the value of the 26 cantons) with their population and their "wealth". So I have 27 observatios by variable. I'm not sure that the following descriptions are useful but I put them anyway. From this, I calculate some variables with while loops. For each canton [i]:
resource potential = mean(wealth2011 [i],wealth2012 [i],wealth2013 [i])
population mean = mean(population2011 [i],population2012 [i],population2013 [i])
resource potential per capita = 1000*resource potential [i]/population [i]
resource index = 100*resource potential capita [i]/resource potential capita [swiss government]
Here a little example of the kind of loops I used:
RI=0
i = 1
while(i<28){
RI[i]=resource potential capita [i]/resource potential capita [27]*100
i = i+1
}
The resource index (RI) for the Swiss government (i = 27) is 100 because we divide the resource potential capita of the swiss government (when i = 27) by itself and multiply by 100. Hence, all cantons that have a RI>100 are rich cantons and other (IR<100) are poor cantons. Until here, there was no problem. I just explained how I built my dataset.
Now the problem that I face: I have to create the variable weighted difference (wd). It takes the value of:
0 if RI>100 (rich canton)
(100-RI[i])^(1+P)*Pop[i] if RI<100 (poor canton)
I create this variable like this: (sorry for the weakness of the code, I did my best).
wd=-1
i = 1
a = 0
c = 0
tot = 0
while(i<28){
if(i == 27) {
wd[i] = a
} else if (RI[i] < 100) {
wd[i] = (100-RI[i])^(1+P)*Pop[i]
c = wd[i]
a = a+c
} else {
wd[i]= 0
}
i = i+1
}
However, I don't now the value of "p". It is a value between 0 and 1. To find the value of p, I have to do a maximization using the following features:
RI_26 = 65.9, it is the minimum of RI in my data
RI_min = 100-((x*wd [27])/((1+p)*z*100))^(1/p), where x and z are fixed values (x = 8'677, z = 4'075'977'077) and wd [27] the sum of wd for each canton.
We have p in two equation: RI_min and wd. To solve it in Excel, I used the Excel solver with the following features:
p_dot = RI_26/RI_min* p ==> p_dot =[65.9/100-((x* wd [27])/((1+p)*z*100))^(1/p)]*p
RI_26 = RI_min ==>65.9 =100-((x*wd [27])/((1+p)*z*100))^(1/p)
In Excel, p is my variable cell (the only value allowed to change), p_dot is my objective to define and RI_26 = RI_min is my constraint.
So I would like to maximize p and I don't know how to do this in R. My main problem is the presence of p in RI_min and wd. We need to do an iteration to solve it but this is too far from my skills.
Is anyone able to help me with the information I provided?
you should look into the optim function.
Here I will try to give you a really simple explanation since you said you don't have a really good level in R.
Assuming I have a function f(x) that I want to maximize and therefore I want to find the parameter x that gives me the max value of f(x).
First thing to do will be to define the function, in R you can do this with:
myfunction<- function(x) {...}
Having defined the function I can optimize it with the command:
optim(par,myfunction)
where par is the vector of initial parameters of the function, and myfunction is the function that needs to be optimized. Bear in mind that optim performs minimization, however it will maximize if control$fnscale is negative. Another strategy will be to change the function (i.e. changing the sign) to suit the problem.
Hope that this helps,
Marco
From the description you provided, if I'm not mistaken, it looks like that everything you need to do it's just an equation.
In particular you have the following two expressions:
RI_min = 100-((x*y)/((1+p)*z*100))^(1/p)
and, since x,y,z are fixed, the only variable is p.
Moreover, having RI_26 = RI_min this yields to:
65.9 =100-((x*y)/((1+p)*z*100))^(1/p)
Plugging in the values of x,y and z you have provided, this yields to
p=0.526639915936052
I don't understand what exactly you are trying to maximize.

Conducting MLE for multivariate case (bivariate normal) in R

The case is that I am trying to construct an MLE algortihm for a bivariate normal case. Yet, I stuck somewhere that seems there is no error, but when I run the script it ends up with a warning.
I have a sample of size n (a fixed constant, trained with 100, but can be anything else) from a bivariate normal distribution with mean vector = (0,0) and covariance matrix = matrix(c(2.2,1.8,1.8,3),2,2)
I've tried several optimization functions (including nlm(), mle(), spg() and optim()) to maximize the likelihood function (,or minimize neg-likelihood), but there are warnings or errors.
require(MASS)
require(tmvtnorm)
require(BB)
require(matrixcalc)
I've defined the first likelihood function as follows;
bvrt_ll = function(mu,sigma,rho,sample)
{
n = nrow(sample)
mu_hat = c(mu[1],mu[2])
p = length(mu)
if(sigma[1]>0 && sigma[2]>0)
{
if(rho<=1 && rho>=-1)
{
sigma_hat = matrix(c(sigma[1]^2
,sigma[1]*sigma[2]*rho
,sigma[1]*sigma[2]*rho
,sigma[2]^2),2,2)
stopifnot(is.positive.definite(sigma_hat))
neg_likelihood = (n*p/2)*log(2*pi) + (n/2)*log(det(sigma_hat)) + 0.5*sum(((sample-mu_hat)%*%solve(sigma_hat)%*%t(sample-mu_hat)))
return(neg_likelihood)
}
}
else NA
}
I prefered this one since I could set the constraints for sigmas and rho, but when I use mle()
> mle(minuslogl = bvrt_ll ,start = list(mu = mu_est,sigma=sigma_est,rho =
rho_est)
+ ,method = "BFGS")
Error in optim(start, f, method = method, hessian = TRUE, ...) :
(list) object cannot be coerced to type 'double'
I also tried nlm and spg in package BB, but they did not help as well. I tried the same function without defining constraints (inside the likelihood, not in optimization function), I could have some results but with warnings, like in nlm and spg both said the process was failed due to covariance matrix being not positive definite while it was, I think that was due to iteration, when iterating covariance matrix might not have been positive definite, and the fact that I did not define the constraints.
Thus, as a result I need to construct an mle algorithm for bivariate normal, where do I do the mistake?
NOTE: I also tried the optimization functions with the following, (I am not sure I did it correct);
neg_likelihood = function(mu,sigma,rho)
{
if(rho>=-1 && rho<=1)
{
-sum(mvtnorm::dmvnorm(x=sample_10,mean=mu
,sigma = matrix(c(sigma[1]^2
,sigma[1]*sigma[2]*rho,sigma[1]*sigma[2]*rho
,sigma[2]^2),2,2),log = T))
}
else NA
}
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
EDIT : mu is a vector of length 2 specifying the population means, sigma is a vector of length 2 (specifying population standard deviations of the random variables), and rho is a scalar as correlation coefficient between the bivariate r.v s.
You can do it in closed form so there is no need for numeric optimization. See wiki. Just use colMeans and cov and take note of the method argument in help("cov") and this comment
The denominator n - 1 is used which gives an unbiased estimator of the
(co)variance for i.i.d. observations. These functions return NA when
there is only one observation (whereas S-PLUS has been returning NaN),
and fail if x has length zero.

Numerical precision problems in R?

I have a problem with the following function in R:
test <- function(alpha, beta, n){
result <- exp(lgamma(alpha) + lgamma(n + beta) - lgamma(alpha + beta + n) - (lgamma(alpha) + lgamma(beta) - lgamma(alpha + beta)))
return(result)
}
Now if you insert the following values:
betabinom(-0.03292708, -0.3336882, 10)
It should fail and result in a NaN. That is because if we implement the exact function in Excel, we would get a result that is not a number. The implementation in Excel is simple, for J32 is a cell for alpha, K32 beta and L32 for N. The implementation of the resulting cell is given below:
=EXP(GAMMALN(J32)+GAMMALN(L32+K32)-GAMMALN(J32+K32+L32)-(GAMMALN(J32)+GAMMALN(K32)-GAMMALN(J32+K32)))
So this seems to give the correct answer, because the function is only defined for alpha and beta greater than zero and n greater or equal to zero. Therefore I am wondering what is happening here? I have also tried the package Rmpf to increase the numerical accuracy, but that does not seem to do anything.
Thanks
tl;dr log(gamma(x)) is defined more generally than you think, or than Excel thinks. If you want your function not to accept negative values of alpha and beta, or to return NaN, just test manually and return the appropriate values (if (alpha<0 || beta<0) return(NaN)).
It's not a numerical accuracy problem, it's a definition issue. The Gamma function is defined for negative real values: ?lgamma says:
The gamma function is defined by (Abramowitz and Stegun section 6.1.1, page 255)
Gamma(x) = integral_0^Inf t^(x-1) exp(-t) dt
for all real ‘x’ except zero and negative integers (when ‘NaN’ is returned).
Furthermore, referring to lgamma ...
... and the natural logarithm of the absolute value of the gamma function ...
(emphasis in original)
curve(lgamma(x),-1,1)
gamma(-0.1) ## -10.68629
log(gamma(-0.1)+0i) ## 2.368961+3.141593i
log(abs(gamma(-0.1)) ## 2.368961
lgamma(-0.1) ## 2.368961
Wolfram Alpha agrees with second calculation.

Quantile regression and p-values

I am applying guantile regression for my data-set (using R). It is easy to produce the nice scatterplot-image with different quantile regression lines
(taus <- c(0.05,0.25,0.75,0.95)).
Problem occurs when I want to produce p-values (in order to see statistical significance of each regression line) for each one of these quantiles. For median quantile (tau=0.5) this is not problematic, but when it comes to for example tau=0.25, I get following error message:
>QRmodel<-rq(y~x,tau=0.25,model=T)
>summary(QRmodel,se="nid")
Error in summary.rq(QRmodel, se = "nid") : tau - h < 0: error in summary.rq
What could be the reason for this?
Also: Is it recommendable to mention p-values and coefficients regarding the results of quantile regression model or could it be enough to show just the plot-picture and discuss the results based on that picture?
Best regards, frustrated person
A good way to learn what's going on in these sorts of debugging situations is to find the relevant portion of code that is throwing the error. If you type 'summary.rq' at the console, you'll see the code for the function summary.rq. Scanning through it you'll find the section where it calculates se's using the "nid" method, starting with this code:
else if (se == "nid") {
h <- bandwidth.rq(tau, n, hs = hs)
if (tau + h > 1)
stop("tau + h > 1: error in summary.rq")
if (tau - h < 0)
stop("tau - h < 0: error in summary.rq")
bhi <- rq.fit.fnb(x, y, tau = tau + h)$coef
blo <- rq.fit.fnb(x, y, tau = tau - h)$coef
So what's happening here is that in order to calculate the se's, the function first need to calculate a bandwidth, h, and the quantreg model is refit for tau +/- h. For tau's near 0 or 1, there's a possibility that adding or subtracting the bandwidth 'h' will lead to a tau below 0 or greater than 1, which isn't good, so the function stops.
You have a couple of options:
1.) Try a different se method (bootstrapping?)
2.) Modify the summary.rq code yourself to force it to use either max(tau,0) or min(tau,1) in the instances where the bandwidth pushes tau out of bounds. (There could be serious theoretical reasons why this is a bad idea; not advised unless you know what you're doing.)
3.) You could try to read up on the theory behind the calculation of these se's so you'd have a better idea of when they might work well or not. This might shed some light on why you're running into errors with values of tau near 0 or 1.
Try summary(QRmodel,se="boot")
Have a look at the help for summary.rq as well!

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