In JointAI, models are estimated in the Bayesian framework, using MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) sampling. The sampling is done by the software JAGS (“Just Another Gibbs Sampler”), which performs Gibbs sampling. JointAI pre-processes the data to get it into a form that can be passed to JAGS and writes the JAGS model. The R package rjags is used as an interface to JAGS.
This vignette describes how to specify the arguments in the main functions that control MCMC related settings. To learn more about how to specify the other arguments in JointAI models or the theoretical background of the statistical approach, check out the vignettes Model Specification and TheoreticalBackground.
In this vignette, we use the NHANES data for examples in cross-sectional data and the dataset simLong for examples in longitudinal data. For more info on these datasets, check out the vignette Visualizing Incomplete Data, in which the distributions of variables and missing values in both sets is explored.
Note:
In several examples we use
progress.bar = 'none'
which prevents printing of the
progress of the MCMC sampling, since this would result in lengthy output
in the vignette.
In MCMC sampling, values are drawn from a probability distribution. The distribution of the current value is drawn from depends on the previously drawn value (but not on values before that). Values, thus, form a chain. Once the chain has converged, its elements can be seen as a sample from the target posterior distribution.
To evaluate the convergence of MCMC chains it is helpful to create
multiple chains that have different starting values. The argument
n.chains
selects the number of chains (by default,
n.chains = 3
).
For calculating the model summary, multiple chains are merged.
JAGS has an adaptive mode, in which samplers are optimized (for
example the step size is adjusted). Samples obtained during the adaptive
mode do not form a Markov chain and are discarded. The argument
n.adapt
controls the length of this adaptive phase.
The default value for n.adapt
is 100, which works well
in many of the examples considered here. Complex models may require
longer adaptive phases. If the adaptive phase is not sufficient for JAGS
to optimize the samplers, a warning message will be printed (see example
below).
n.iter
specifies the number of iterations in the
sampling phase, i.e., the length of the MCMC chain. How many samples are
required to reach convergence and to have sufficient precision depends
on the complexity of data and model, and may range from as few as 100 to
several million.
Convergence can, for instance, be evaluated visually using a traceplot()
or using the Gelman-Rubin diagnostic criterion1 (implemented in GR_crit()
,
but also returned with the model summary). The latter compares within
and between chain variability and requires the JointAI object to have at
least two chains.
The precision of the MCMC sample can be checked with the function MC_error()
.
It calculates the Monte Carlo error (the error that is made since the
sample is finite) and compares it to the standard deviation of the
posterior sample. A rule of thumb is that the Monte Carlo error should
not be more than 5% of the standard deviation.2
In settings with high autocorrelation, i.e., there are no large jumps in the chain but sampled values are always close to the previous value, it may take many iterations before a sample is created that sufficiently represents the whole range of the posterior distribution.
Processing of such long chains can be slow and take a lot of memory.
The parameter thin
allows the user to specify if and how
much the MCMC chains should be thinned out before storing them. By
default thin = 1
is used, which corresponds to keeping all
values. A value thin = 10
would result in keeping every
10th value and discarding all other values.
n.adapt = 100
and thin = 1
with 100
sampling iterations
The relevant part of the model summary (obtained with summary()
)
shows that the first 100 iterations (adaptive phase) were discarded, and
the 100 iterations that follow form the posterior sample. Thinning was
set to 1 and there are 3 chains.
#> [...]
#> MCMC settings:
#> Iterations = 101:200
#> Sample size per chain = 100
#> Thinning interval = 1
#> Number of chains = 3
mod2 <- lm_imp(SBP ~ alc, data = NHANES, n.adapt = 10, n.iter = 100, progress.bar = 'none')
#> Warning in rjags::jags.model(file = modelfile, data = data_list, inits = inits, : Adaptation
#> incomplete
#> NOTE: Stopping adaptation
Specifying n.adapt = 10
results in a warning message.
The relevant part of the model summary from the resulting model is:
#> [...]
#> MCMC settings:
#> Iterations = 11:110
#> Sample size per chain = 100
#> Thinning interval = 1
#> Number of chains = 3
Here, iterations 110 until 600 are used in the output, but due to thinning interval of ten, the resulting MCMC chains contain only 50 samples instead of 500, that is, the samples from iteration 110, 120, 130, …
#> [...]
#> MCMC settings:
#> Iterations = 110:600
#> Sample size per chain = 50
#> Thinning interval = 10
#> Number of chains = 3
JAGS only saves the values of MCMC chains for those nodes/parameters for which the user has specified that they should be monitored. This is also the case in JointAI.
Nodes are variables in the Bayesian framework, i.e., everything observed or unobserved. This includes the data and parameters that are estimated, but also missing values in the data or parts of the data that are generally unobserved, such as random effects or latent class indicators.
For this purpose, the main analysis functions *_imp
have
an argument monitor_params
.
For details, explanation and examples see the vignette Parameter Selection.
Initial values are the starting point for the MCMC sampler. Setting
good initial values, i.e., initial values that are likely under the
posterior distribution, can speed up convergence. By default, the
argument inits = NULL
, which means that initial values for
the nodes are generated by JAGS. JointAI only sets the
initial values for the random number generators to allow reproducibility
of the results.
The argument seed
allows the specification of a seed
value with which the starting values of the random number generator can
be reproduced.
It is possible to supply initial values directly as
Initial values can be specified for every unobserved node, that is, parameters and missing values, but it is possible to only specify initial values for a subset of nodes.
Unless the user-specified initial values contain initial values for
the random number generator (named .RNG.name
and
.RNG.seed
), JointAI will add these to the
initial values. This is necessary for reproducibility of the results but
also when the MCMC chains are sampled in parallel.
A list containing initial values should have the same length as the number of chains, where each element is a named list of initial values. Initial values should differ between the chains.
For example, to create initial values for the parameter vector
beta
and the precision parameter tau_SBP
for
three chains:
init_list <- lapply(1:3, function(i) {
list(beta = rnorm(4),
tau_SBP = rgamma(1, 1, 1))
})
init_list
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$beta
#> [1] 0.07066647 1.61611342 0.17059806 -1.73646553
#>
#> [[1]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 1.224685
#>
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$beta
#> [1] -0.6339771 1.7204648 0.6160579 -2.1961826
#>
#> [[2]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 4.661887
#>
#>
#> [[3]]
#> [[3]]$beta
#> [1] -1.9293841 0.5233232 1.2002169 -0.5017082
#>
#> [[3]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 0.39973
The list is then passed to the argument inits
. The
amended version of the user provided lists of initial values are stored
in the JointAI object:
mod4a <- lm_imp(SBP ~ gender + age + WC, data = NHANES, progress.bar = 'none',
inits = init_list)
mod4a$mcmc_settings$inits
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$beta
#> [1] 0.07066647 1.61611342 0.17059806 -1.73646553
#>
#> [[1]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 1.224685
#>
#> [[1]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Mersenne-Twister"
#>
#> [[1]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 77232
#>
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$beta
#> [1] -0.6339771 1.7204648 0.6160579 -2.1961826
#>
#> [[2]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 4.661887
#>
#> [[2]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Marsaglia-Multicarry"
#>
#> [[2]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 95371
#>
#>
#> [[3]]
#> [[3]]$beta
#> [1] -1.9293841 0.5233232 1.2002169 -0.5017082
#>
#> [[3]]$tau_SBP
#> [1] 0.39973
#>
#> [[3]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Marsaglia-Multicarry"
#>
#> [[3]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 41802
Initial values can be specified by a function. The function should
either take no arguments or a single argument called chain
,
and return a named list that supplies values for one chain.
For example, to create initial values for the parameter vectors
beta
and alpha
:
inits_fun <- function() {
list(beta = rnorm(4),
alpha = rnorm(3))
}
inits_fun()
#> $beta
#> [1] 1.6340178 0.7752596 -1.8479115 0.6875009
#>
#> $alpha
#> [1] -0.14723665 -0.40487984 0.04389987
mod4b <- lm_imp(SBP ~ gender + age + WC, data = NHANES, progress.bar = 'none',
inits = inits_fun)
mod4b$mcmc_settings$inits
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$beta
#> [1] 0.3286625 -0.3648888 1.1239545 -0.7817184
#>
#> [[1]]$alpha
#> [1] 0.9088884 1.4276123 -0.6176553
#>
#> [[1]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Wichmann-Hill"
#>
#> [[1]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 71812
#>
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$beta
#> [1] 0.4918603 2.2943403 -0.1772390 -0.7571125
#>
#> [[2]]$alpha
#> [1] -1.4507734 1.6926182 -0.6742095
#>
#> [[2]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Mersenne-Twister"
#>
#> [[2]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 77087
#>
#>
#> [[3]]
#> [[3]]$beta
#> [1] 0.05665978 0.49682206 -0.67741294 -0.45705669
#>
#> [[3]]$alpha
#> [1] 1.192915 1.172122 -1.765485
#>
#> [[3]]$.RNG.name
#> [1] "base::Mersenne-Twister"
#>
#> [[3]]$.RNG.seed
#> [1] 98566
When a function is supplied, the function will be evaluated once per chain and the resulting list is stored.
Initial values can be specified for all unobserved stochastic nodes, i.e., parameters or unobserved data for which a distribution is specified in the JAGS model.
Initial values have to be supplied in the format the parameter or unobserved value is used in the JAGS model.
To find out which nodes there are in a model, the function
coef()
from package rjags can be used on a
JAGS model object. It returns a list with the current values of the MCMC
chains, by default the first chain. Elements of the initial values
should have the same structure as the elements in this list.
Example:
We are using a longitudinal model and
the simLong
data in this example. The output is abbreviated
to show the relevant parts.
mod4c <- lme_imp(bmi ~ time + HEIGHT_M + hc + SMOKE, random = ~ time | ID,
data = simLong, no_model = 'time', progress.bar = 'none')
str(coef(mod4c$model))
#> List of 15
#> $ M_ID : num [1:200, 1:5] NA NA NA NA NA 1 NA NA NA NA ...
#> $ M_lvlone : num [1:2400, 1:3] NA NA 0 0 NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
#> $ RinvD_bmi_ID: num [1:2, 1:2] 0.8146 NA NA 0.0719
#> $ alpha : num [1:7] 45.4298 0.1621 -0.0062 0.1256 3.8868 ...
#> $ b_bmi_ID : num [1:200, 1:2] 16 16.9 15.1 15.5 17.3 ...
#> $ b_hc_ID : num [1:200, 1] 44.1 45.4 47.6 48.2 44.3 ...
#> $ beta : num [1:6] 16.4489 -0.0547 -0.0697 0.1392 -1.3559 ...
#> $ delta_SMOKE : num -0.617
#> $ gamma_SMOKE : num [1:2] -1.23 NA
#> $ invD_bmi_ID : num [1:2, 1:2] 1.55 -1.99 -1.99 12.63
#> $ invD_hc_ID : num [1, 1] 0.727
#> $ mu_b_bmi_ID : num [1:200, 1:2] NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
#> $ tau_HEIGHT_M: num 0.0178
#> $ tau_bmi : num 4.64
#> $ tau_hc : num 0.243
M_ID
and M_lvlone
are design matrices
containing the the parts of the variables that belong to a given level
of the hierarchy. In this example, M_ID
contains all the
subject specific variables, M_lvlone
the time-varying
variables. In JointAI, design matrices are always named
M_<level>
, and lvlone
refers to the
lowest level, the level for which there is no grouping variable.
The first eight rows of M_ID
in the data that is passed
to JAGS (which is stored in data_list
in a JointAI object)
are:
#> SMOKE HEIGHT_M (Intercept) SMOKEsmoked until[...] SMOKEcontin[...]
#> 1.1 1 172.2782 1 NA NA
#> 10.1 1 170.5049 1 NA NA
#> 100.1 3 170.0612 1 NA NA
#> 101.1 1 161.7947 1 NA NA
#> 102.1 1 175.9738 1 NA NA
#> 103.1 NA 163.9138 1 NA NA
#> 104.1 3 174.1171 1 NA NA
#> 105.1 1 154.9146 1 NA NA
If we wanted to specify initial values for the incomplete subject
specific variables we would have to specify a full matrix of initial
values corresponding to M_ID
. That matrix would have to
look like this:
head(coef(mod4c$model)$M_ID, 8)
#> [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5]
#> [1,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [2,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [3,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [4,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [5,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [6,] 2 NA NA NA NA
#> [7,] NA NA NA NA NA
#> [8,] NA NA NA NA NA
The matrix for the initial values has to have the same dimension as
the matrix containing the data, but has NA
wherever the
value in the data is observed (e.g., the first 5 elements of the first
column) and a numeric value where data is missing (e.g., the 6th value
of the first column).
Since SMOKE
is a categorical covariate and coded using
dummy coding, there are columns containing the dummy variables (columns
4 and 5) as well as a column containing the original version of
SMOKE
(first column). The dummy variables are calculated
(not sampled) in the JAGS model and are thus completely empty in the
data matrix (otherwise JAGS would throw an error) and
the matrix of initial values.
The corresponding part of the JAGS model is:
#> [...]
#>
# Cumulative logit model for SMOKE ----------------------------------------------
#> for (ii in 1:200) {
#> M_ID[ii, 1] ~ dcat(p_SMOKE[ii, 1:3])
#>
#> [...]
#>
#> M_ID[ii, 4] <- ifelse(M_ID[ii, 1] == 2, 1, 0)
#> M_ID[ii, 5] <- ifelse(M_ID[ii, 1] == 3, 1, 0)
#> }
#>
#> [...]
RinvD_bmi_ID
refers to the scale matrix in the Wishart
prior for the inverse of the random effects design matrix
D_bmi_ID
. To distinguish random effects of different models
and grouping levels, the names always end with
..._<response>_<level>
.
In the data that is passed to JAGS this matrix is specified as diagonal matrix, with unknown diagonal elements:
These diagonal elements are estimated in the model and have a Gamma prior. The corresponding part of the JAGS model is:
#> [...]
#>
#> for (k in 1:2) {
#> RinvD_bmi_ID[k, k] ~ dgamma(shape_diag_RinvD, rate_diag_RinvD)
#> }
#> invD_bmi_ID[1:2, 1:2] ~ dwish(RinvD_bmi_ID[ , ], KinvD_bmi_ID)
#> D_bmi_ID[1:2, 1:2] <- inverse(invD_bmi_ID[ , ])
#>
#> [...]
The element RinvD_bmi_ID
in the initial values has to be
a 2 \(\times\) 2 matrix, with positive
values on the diagonal and NA
as off-diagonal elements,
since these are fixed in the data:
Elements that are completely unobserved, like the parameter vectors
alpha
and beta
, the random effects
b_<response>_<level>
(e.g. b_bmi_ID
and b_hc_ID
) or scalar
parameters delta_<response>
or
tau_<response>
are entirely specified in the initial
values.
To reduce computational time, it is possible to perform sampling of multiple MCMC chains in parallel on multiple cores. This can be achieved with the help of the package future.
To perform parallel sampling, a plan how to “resolve futures” needs to be specified; this is the specification that determines if sampling is performed sequentially or in parallel. For example,
specifies that the different MCMC chains are sampled in 4 different R sessions.
This specification has to be done before the JointAI model function is called and remains in place until it is overwritten.
To re-set to sequential evaluation,
can be used.
More information on parallel computation can be found in the help files and the vignette of the package future.
Unfortunately, currently it is not possible to obtain a progress bar when using parallel computation and warning messages produced during the sampling are not returned.
There are two more arguments in *_imp()
that are passed
directly to the rjags functions
jags.model()
or coda.samples()
:
quiet
: should messages generated during compilation be
suppressed?progress.bar
: allows to select the type of progress
bar. Possible values are "text"
, "gui"
and
"none"
.