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univariate normal mixtures

1 message · Pikounis, Bill

#
Joke,

Two other places to help you with your objectives in fitting univariate
normal mixtures are:

1) The mclust package by Raftery and Fraley (available at CRAN).  Their
EMclust() function, for example, lets you specify a range of "number of
components" to fit multiple models as well as the ability to specify whether
to assume equal variances or not.  The Schwarz (BIC / SBC) criterion is used
to help distinguish goodness-of-fit amongst the models fitted.  I have found
the fitting routines to be more-than-quick enough under Linux, but did run
into problems when running the same code under Windows.

2) The Venables & Ripley MASS book, Editions 4 and earlier, provide a very
educational and useful discussion of analyses of mixture models beyond the
fitting considerations (which are nicely covered as well).  I do not have my
book copy with me at the moment, but I believe in the 4th edition the
material is covered in the last chapter entitled "Optimization".

Hope that Helps.

Best Regards,
Bill

----------------------------------------
Bill Pikounis, Ph.D.

Biometrics Research Department
Merck Research Laboratories
PO Box 2000, MailDrop RY33-300  
126 E. Lincoln Avenue
Rahway, New Jersey 07065-0900
USA

v_bill_pikounis at merck.com

Phone: 732 594 3913
Fax: 732 594 1565
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