1. Home
  2. RNONNEGATIVE procedure

RNONNEGATIVE procedure

Fits a generalized linear model with nonnegativity constraints; synonym FITNONNEGATIVE (P.W. Goedhart & C.J.F. ter Braak).

Options

PRINT = string tokens Printed output required (model, deviance, summary, estimates, correlations, fittedvalues, accumulated, monitoring); default mode, summ, esti
CONSTANT = string token How to treat the constant (estimate, omit); default esti
POOL = string token Whether to pool ss in accumulated summary between all terms fitted in a linear model (yes, no); default no
DENOMINATOR = string token Whether to base ratios in accumulated summary on rms from model with smallest residual ss or smallest residual ms (ss, ms); default ss
NOMESSAGE = string tokens Which warning messages to suppress (dispersion, leverage, residual, aliasing, marginality); default *
FPROBABILITY = string token Printing of probabilities for variance ratios (yes, no); default no
TPROBABILITY = string token Printing of probabilities for t-statistics (yes, no); default no
MAXCYCLE = scalar Maximum number of iterations; default 100
TOLERANCE = scalar Value against which the Kuhn-Tucker values are tested; default 10-8
INITIALMODEL = string token Initial model from which to start the iterative procedure (null, full, positive, own); default null
OWNINITIAL = variates Specifies the variates that compose your own initial model; this option must be set when INITIALMODEL=own; default *
FORCED = formula Model formula which is fitted irrespective of nonnegativity constraints; default *

Parameter

X = variates List of predictors which are subject to nonnegativity constraints

Description

It is sometimes useful to impose nonnegativity constraints on regression coefficients. For example, the fitting of monotone regression splines (Ramsay 1988) requires nonnegative regression coefficients. Another example is regression of spectral data to determine the amounts of substances in a mixture. If an additive model holds, with the absorbance profiles as regressors, the amounts are estimated by the regression coefficients which should therefore be nonnegative. Note that an ordinary regression problem with general linear inequality constraints may be solved by using the solution to a derived regression problem with nonnegativity restrictions (Kennedy & Gentle 1980).

A call to RNONNEGATIVE must be preceded by a MODEL statement which defines the response variate and, if required, all other aspects of a generalized linear model. Only the first response variate is analysed. The only parameter, X, must be set to a list of explanatory variates which are subject to the nonnegativity constraints. The predictors with nonnegative coefficients are found by an iterative procedure which is explained in the method section. RDISPLAY and RKEEP can be used subsequent to RNONNEGATIVE.

Options PRINT, CONSTANT, POOL, DENOMINATOR, NOMESSAGE, FPROBABILITY and TPROBABILITY are similar to the options of the FIT directive. Setting PRINT=monitoring provides monitoring of the iterative procedure. The MAXCYCLE option can be used to specify the maximum number of iterations. If the iterative procedure has not converged within the maximum number of iterations, a warning message is printed. The INITIALMODEL option provides different starting points for the iterative procedure. Setting null starts with no predictors in the initial model, full starts with all predictors, while the positive setting starts with those predictors that have a strictly positive regression coefficient in the full model. Finally, INITIALMODEL=own enables you to specify your own starting point. Option OWNINITIAL must then be set to a subset of predictors listed by the X parameter. Aliased terms, if any, are dropped after fitting the initial model. The use of the TOLERANCE option is explained in the method section.

It is sometimes desirable to include some predictors irrespective of the sign of their regression coefficient. Such predictors may be specified by means of the FORCED option. FORCED can be set to any model formula, i.e. it may contain factors and interactions as well as variates. The FORCED model formula is fitted first.

Units with one or more missing values in any term of the FORCED formula or the X predictors are excluded from the analysis. This implies that FIT used for a subset of predictors may give different results than RNONNEGATIVE.

Options: PRINT, CONSTANT, POOL, DENOMINATOR, NOMESSAGE, FPROBABILITY, TPROBABILITY, MAXCYCLE, TOLERANCE, INITIALMODEL, OWNINITIAL, FORCED.

Parameter: X.

Method

For ordinary regression problems, the problem is to find the linear least squares solution subject to nonnegativity constraints, i.e.

min b ║y – X b║                        subject to b ≥ 0

The Kuhn-Tucker conditions (Kennedy & Gentle 1980) are necessary and sufficient for finding the regression model with minimal sums of squares. These conditions are

KT1j = [XT (y – X b)] j = 0      if bj > 0

KT2j = [XT (y – X b)] j ≤ 0       if bj = 0

These conditions also hold when only a subset of regression coefficients are subject to the nonnegativity constraint. In weighted regression, with diagonal matrix of weights W, the Kuhn-Tucker values are given by [XT W (y – X b)].

Lawson & Hanson (1974) use these conditions in an algorithm which begins with b = 0. Next, bj is allowed to enter the model where j is selected as the index of the maximum positive element of KT2j. If at any stage negative regression coefficients are found, the predictor with the most negative bj is dropped from the model. In this way predictors are added and dropped until the Kuhn-Tucker conditions are satisfied. Lawson & Hanson (1974) proved that this stepwise method always finds the model with minimal sums of squares. Their proof can be generalized to show that the minimum will be found irrespective of the initial model used.

McDonald & Diamond (1990) show that the Kuhn-Tucker values for generalized linear models are given by

[XT (y – μ) {V(μ) ∂η/∂μ}-1]

where μ is the mean, V(μ) the variance function and η the linear predictor. These values can be calculated as follows

RKEEP ITERATIVEWEIGHTS=iter; YADJUSTED=yadj;\

       LINEARPREDICTOR=lin

CALCULATE kuhntuck = X * iter * (yadj - lin)

If the log-likelihood is strictly concave, as is usually the case for generalized linear models, the generalized Kuhn-Tucker conditions are necessary and sufficient and the iterative procedure finds the minimum of the constrained optimization problem. To increase numerical precision for generalized linear models, the procedure sets the TOLERANCE option of the RCYCLE directive to 1.0e-6.

Calculation of the Kuhn-Tucker conditions can be subject to considerable rounding errors. Therefore, before starting the stepwise procedure, the predictors are standardized. Moreover, the response and the fitted values are scaled identically before they are subtracted in the calculation of the Kuhn-Tucker values. Due to rounding errors, an aliased predictor may have a Kuhn-Tucker value slightly larger than 0 and may consequently enter the model. The Kuhn-Tucker values KT2j are therefore not tested against 0 but against the setting of the TOLERANCE option. Subsequent to the iterative procedure, aliased predictors, identified as having zero estimates and zero standard errors of estimates, are removed from the model. In the final fit the original non-standardized predictors are used.

Action with RESTRICT

Any restriction applied to vectors used in the regression model applies also to the results from RNONNEGATIVE.

References

Kennedy, W.J. & Gentle, J.E. (1980). Statistical Computing. Marcel Dekker, New York.

Lawson, C.L. & Hanson, R.J. (1974). Solving Least Squares Problems. Prentice & Hall, New York.

McDonald, J.W. & Diamond, I.D. (1990). On the fitting of generalized linear models with nonnegativity parameter constraints. Biometrics, 46, 201-206.

Ramsay, J.O. (1988). Monotone regression splines in action. Statistical Science, 3, 425-461.

See also

Commands for: Regression analysis.

Example

CAPTION      'RNONNEGATIVE example',\ 
             'Data from Section 8.3 of Kennedy & Gentle (1980).';\ 
             STYLE=meta,plain
VARIATE      [NVALUES=20] x[1...3],y
READ         x[1...3],y
    0.4   94   39   378.4          7.5   63   39   270.3
    6.7   77   85   310.0          2.7   65   50   284.2
    9.3    8   44    99.0          8.9   17   35   129.3
    5.6   41   43   206.0          8.3   31    1   176.0
    8.5   33   20   179.0          8.9   39   16   196.4
   10.0   71   60   285.2          1.9   66   78   286.1
    6.3   88    0   351.9          8.9   77   15   311.6
    0.6   54   37   256.7          5.1   89   35   352.9
    8.8   63   64   266.9          2.8   57    6   266.1
    7.1   66   26   282.6          3.5   22   53   152.9
  :
MODEL        y
RNONNEGATIVE [PRINT=monitoring,estimates] x[]
CALCULATE    x[4] = -x[1]
RNONNEGATIVE [PRINT=monitoring,estimates ; INITIALMODEL=full] x[]
Updated on March 5, 2019

Was this article helpful?