nls                  package:stats                  R Documentation

_N_o_n_l_i_n_e_a_r _L_e_a_s_t _S_q_u_a_r_e_s

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     Determine the nonlinear (weighted) least-squares estimates of the
     parameters of a nonlinear model.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     nls(formula, data, start, control, algorithm,
         trace, subset, weights, na.action, model,
         lower, upper, ...)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

 formula: a nonlinear model formula including variables and parameters.

    data: an optional data frame in which to evaluate the variables in
          'formula'.  Can also be a list or an environment, but not a
          matrix.

   start: a named list or named numeric vector of starting estimates. 
          Since R 2.4.0, when 'start' is missing, a very cheap guess
          for 'start' is tried (if 'algorithm != "plinear"'). 

 control: an optional list of control settings.  See 'nls.control' for
          the names of the settable control values and their effect.

algorithm: character string specifying the algorithm to use. The
          default algorithm is a Gauss-Newton algorithm.  Other
          possible values are '"plinear"' for the Golub-Pereyra
          algorithm for partially linear least-squares models and
          '"port"' for the 'nl2sol' algorithm from the Port package.

   trace: logical value indicating if a trace of the iteration progress
          should be printed.  Default is 'FALSE'.  If 'TRUE' the
          residual (weighted) sum-of-squares and the parameter values
          are printed at the conclusion of each iteration. When the
          '"plinear"' algorithm is used, the conditional estimates of
          the linear parameters are printed after the nonlinear
          parameters.  When the '"port"' algorithm is used the
          objective function value printed is half the residual
          (weighted) sum-of-squares.

  subset: an optional vector specifying a subset of observations to be
          used in the fitting process.

 weights: an optional numeric vector of (fixed) weights.  When present,
          the objective function is weighted least squares.

na.action: a function which indicates what should happen when the data
          contain 'NA's.  The default is set by the 'na.action' setting
          of 'options', and is 'na.fail' if that is unset.  The
          "factory-fresh" default is 'na.omit'.  Value 'na.exclude' can
          be useful.

   model: logical.  If true, the model frame is returned as part of the
          object. Default is 'FALSE'.

lower, upper: vectors of lower and upper bounds, replicated to be as
          long as 'start'.  If unspecified, all parameters are assumed
          to be unconstrained.  Bounds can only be used with the
          '"port"' algorithm.  They are ignored, with a warning, if
          given for other algorithms.

     ...: Additional optional arguments.  None are used at present.

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     An 'nls' object is a type of fitted model object.  It has methods
     for the generic functions 'anova', 'coef', 'confint', 'deviance',
     'df.residual', 'fitted', 'formula', 'logLik', 'predict', 'print',
     'profile', 'residuals', 'summary', 'vcov' and 'weights'.

     Variables in 'formula' are looked for first in 'data', then the
     environment of 'formula' and finally along the search path.
     Functions in 'formula' are searched for first in the environment
     of 'formula' and then along the search path.

_V_a_l_u_e:

     A list of 

       m: an 'nlsModel' object incorporating the model.

    data: the expression that was passed to 'nls' as the data argument.
           The actual data values are present in the environment of the
          'm' component.

    call: the matched call.

na.action: the '"na.action"' attribute (if any) of the model frame.

dataClasses: the '"dataClasses"' attribute (if any) of the '"terms"'
          attribute of the model frame.

   model: if 'model = TRUE', the model frame.

 weights: if 'weights' is supplied, the weights.

convergence, message: for an 'algorithm = "port"' fit only, a
          convergence code (always 0) and message.

_W_a_r_n_i_n_g:

     *Do not use 'nls' on artificial "zero-residual" data.*

     The 'nls' function uses a relative-offset convergence criterion
     that compares the numerical imprecision at the current parameter
     estimates to the residual sum-of-squares.  This performs well on
     data of the form 

                        y = f(x, theta) + eps

     (with 'var(eps) > 0').  It fails to indicate convergence on data
     of the form

                           y = f(x, theta)

     because the criterion amounts to comparing two components of the
     round-off error.  If you wish to test 'nls' on artificial data
     please add a noise component, as shown in the example below.

     The 'algorithm = "port"' code appears unfinished, and does not
     even check that the starting value is within the bounds. Use with
     caution, especially where bounds are supplied.

_A_u_t_h_o_r(_s):

     Douglas M. Bates and Saikat DebRoy

_R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s:

     Bates, D. M. and Watts, D. G. (1988) _Nonlinear Regression
     Analysis and Its Applications_, Wiley

     Bates, D. M. and Chambers, J. M. (1992) _Nonlinear models._
     Chapter 10 of _Statistical Models in S_ eds J. M. Chambers and T.
     J. Hastie, Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

     <URL: http://netlib.bell-labs.com/netlib/port/> for the Port
     library documentation.

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     'summary.nls', 'predict.nls', 'profile.nls'.

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     DNase1 <- subset(DNase, Run == 1)

     ## using a selfStart model
     fm1DNase1 <- nls(density ~ SSlogis(log(conc), Asym, xmid, scal), DNase1)
     summary(fm1DNase1)
     ## the coefficients only:
     coef(fm1DNase1)
     ## including their SE, etc:
     coef(summary(fm1DNase1))

     ## using conditional linearity
     fm2DNase1 <- nls(density ~ 1/(1 + exp((xmid - log(conc))/scal)),
                      data = DNase1,
                      start = list(xmid = 0, scal = 1),
                      alg = "plinear", trace = TRUE)
     summary(fm2DNase1)

     ## without conditional linearity
     fm3DNase1 <- nls(density ~ Asym/(1 + exp((xmid - log(conc))/scal)),
                      data = DNase1,
                      start = list(Asym = 3, xmid = 0, scal = 1),
                      trace = TRUE)
     summary(fm3DNase1)

     ## using Port's nl2sol algorithm
     fm4DNase1 <- nls(density ~ Asym/(1 + exp((xmid - log(conc))/scal)),
                      data = DNase1,
                      start = list(Asym = 3, xmid = 0, scal = 1),
                      trace = TRUE, algorithm = "port")
     summary(fm4DNase1)

     ## weighted nonlinear regression
     Treated <- Puromycin[Puromycin$state == "treated", ]
     weighted.MM <- function(resp, conc, Vm, K)
     {
         ## Purpose: exactly as white book p. 451 -- RHS for nls()
         ##  Weighted version of Michaelis-Menten model
         ## ----------------------------------------------------------
         ## Arguments: 'y', 'x' and the two parameters (see book)
         ## ----------------------------------------------------------
         ## Author: Martin Maechler, Date: 23 Mar 2001

         pred <- (Vm * conc)/(K + conc)
         (resp - pred) / sqrt(pred)
     }

     Pur.wt <- nls( ~ weighted.MM(rate, conc, Vm, K), data = Treated,
                   start = list(Vm = 200, K = 0.1),
                   trace = TRUE)
     summary(Pur.wt)

     ## The two examples below show that you can fit a model to
     ## artificial data with noise but not to artificial data
     ## without noise.
     x <- 1:10
     y <- 2*x + 3                            # perfect fit
     yeps <- y + rnorm(length(y), sd = 0.01) # added noise
     nls(yeps ~ a + b*x, start = list(a = 0.12345, b = 0.54321),
         trace = TRUE)
     ## Not run: 
     ## terminates in an error, because convergence cannot be confirmed:
     nls(y ~ a + b*x, start = list(a = 0.12345, b = 0.54321),
          trace = TRUE)
     ## End(Not run)

     ## nls() internal very cheap guess for starting values can be sufficient:

     x <- -(1:100)/10
     y <- 100 + 10 * exp(x / 2) + rnorm(x)/10
     nlmod <- nls(y ~  Const + A * exp(B * x), trace=TRUE)

     plot(x,y, main = "nls(*), data, true function and fit, n=100")
     curve(100 + 10 * exp(x / 2), col=4, add = TRUE)
     lines(x, predict(nlmod), col=2)

