A couple weeks ago I posted a message on this topic to r-help, the response was that this seemed like odd behavior, and that I ought to post it to one of the developer lists. I posted to r-sig-mixed-models, but didn't get any response. So, with good intentions, I decided to try posting once more, but to this more general list. The goal is (1) FYI, to make you aware of this issue, in case it is an error in gls (2) For my information, in case I have made an error, in the hope that one of you folks might be able to correct me. Thanks in advance for your time. The issue is in 2 parts. (A) I've used gls to fit a model with two fixed effects and a corExp object. By my count, this fitting process estimates 5 parameters: (Intercept), l10area, newx, range, and nugget. With 118 total df, there should be 118 - 5 = 113 residual df. However, the output from summary.gls reports 115 residual degrees of freedom. Is this an error in summary or gls, or is there an error in my count? (B) Summary.gls reports logLik=-273.6. Using my count of 5 estimated parameters, the AIC should be -2*(-273.6) + 2*5 = 557.2. However, summary.gls reports an AIC of 559.2. If one works backwards from the reported AIC of 559.2, it seems that gls believes it has estimated 6 parameters in the fitting process. Again, is this an error in gls, or an error on my part? Copied from R terminal:
summary(sppl.i.ex)
Generalized least squares fit by maximum likelihood
Model: all.all.rch ~ l10area + newx
Data: gtemp
AIC BIC logLik
559.167 575.7911 -273.5835
Correlation Structure: Exponential spatial correlation
Formula: ~x + y | area
Parameter estimate(s):
range nugget
15.4448835 0.3741476
Coefficients:
Value Std.Error t-value p-value
(Intercept) 7.621306 0.7648135 9.964921 0.0000
l10area 6.332931 0.5589199 11.330659 0.0000
newx 0.066535 0.0204417 3.254857 0.0015
Correlation:
(Intr) l10are
l10area -0.605
newx 0.358 -0.024
Standardized residuals:
Min Q1 Med Q3 Max
-3.0035983 -0.5990432 -0.2226852 0.5113270 2.4444263
Residual standard error: 2.820337
Degrees of freedom: 118 total; 115 residual
Tim Handley
Fire Effects Monitor
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
401 W. Hillcrest Dr.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
805-370-2347