MCMCglmm Poisson with an offset term and splines

Hello Jarrod,

I have attached my code and my file.

Variable age has 3 levels, variables x2, x8, and x9 have two levels 
each, and the rest of the variables are continuous.

I re-ran the spl2 function and this time around I obtained one single 
fixed smoother (l_lfvcspo)?and one single random smoother (l_lfvcspn). 
Last time around I got 8 variables with suffixes from 1-8 for 
l_lfvcspn and I did not know what to do with those.

Also, as I had 11 fixed effects (corresponding to 11 variables), I 
thought it was appropriate to choose k=11. I was not sure whether the 
intercept needed to be counted as well as the levels of the 
categorical fixed predictors (except for their reference categories). 
Because I kept on getting the "mu" error for k=11, I tried k=13 (which 
includes the intercept and the 2 levels for the 3-level age variable, 
which I did not consider before). I am not sure this is the way to go, 
I guess I need to read more to be able to model properly fixed effects 
in R, but for now I was wondering whether this consideration of fixed 
effects?sounds ok in this particular example.

The MCMC model worked properly based on the prior using k=13.

Please see the code below:

*#spl2 function*

library(mgcv)

spl2<-function(formula, data, p=TRUE, dataX=data){
aug<-nrow(data)-nrow(dataX)
? if(aug!=0){
? ? if(aug<0){
? ? ? stop("sorry nrow(dataX) must be less than or equal to nrow(data)")
? ? }else{
? ? ? augX<-matrix(0, aug, ncol(dataX))
colnames(augX)<-colnames(dataX)
dataX<-rbind(dataX, augX)
? ? }
? }
smooth.spec.object<-interpret.gam(formula)$smooth.spec[[1]]
sm<-smoothCon(smooth.spec.object, data=data, 
knots=NULL,absorb.cons=TRUE, dataX=dataX)[[1]]
? Sed<-eigen(sm$S[[1]])
? Su<-Sed$vectors
? Sd<-Sed$values
? nonzeros <- which(Sd > sqrt(.Machine$double.eps))
? if(p){
Zn<-sm$X%*%Su[,nonzeros, drop=FALSE]%*%diag(1/sqrt(Sd[nonzeros]))
? }else{
? ? Zn<-sm$X[,-nonzeros, drop=FALSE]
? }
return(Zn[1:(nrow(data)-aug),,drop=FALSE])
}

*$spline terms*
*
*
newdatab1$l_lfvcspo<-spl2(~s(f_lfv_c,k=10), data=newdatab1, p=F)
newdatab1$l_lfvcspn<-spl2(~s(f_lfv_c,k=10), data=newdatab1)
summary(newdatab1$l_lfvcspo)
summary(newdatab1$l_lfvcspn)

summary(newdatab1)
dim(newdatab1)
str(newdatab1)

*#PRIOR*


k<-13 # number of fixed effects

prior<-list(B=list(V=diag(k)*1e4, mu=rep(0,k)),
? ? ? ? ? ? R=list(V=1, nu=0),
G=list(G1=list(V=1, nu=0),
?G2=list(V=1, nu=0),
?G3=list(V=1, nu=0)))

prior$B$mu[k]<-1 # assuming the offset term is last
prior$B$V[k,k]<-1e-4

*# MCMC model*

mcmc <- MCMCglmm(y ~ age+x2+x8+x9+x3+l_lfvcspo+x4+x5+x6+x7+offset,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?random =~ STUDYID+class+idv(l_lfvcspn),
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?data ? = newdatab1,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?family = "poisson", prior=prior)
summary(mcmc)


This model has worked, so I would like to thank you so much for all 
your help so far. I guess I just want to make sure I understand how to 
model the fixed effects in MCMCglmm and I also would like to make sure 
that my model is correct.

I truly appreciate all your invaluable?help!
Best regards,
Dani NM
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Jarrod Hadfield <j.hadfield at ed.ac.uk>
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 26, 2017 12:01:19 PM
*To:* dani; Ben Bolker
*Cc:* Matthew; r-sig-mixed-models at r-project.org
*Subject:* Re: [R-sig-ME] MCMCglmm Poisson with an offset term and 
splines

Hi Dani,


It is still not possible for us to diagnose the problem. You need to 
provide code+data that reproduces the error. f_lfv_c does not appear 
in newdatab.


Cheers,


Jarrod


On 25/09/2017 18:08, dani wrote:

Hello again,


Thank you so much for your prompt response. I apologize for the silly 
questions, I am a true beginner and I am ashamed of my ignorance. I 
guess I should explain what I did:


I used the spl2 function and obtained the fixed and random factors 
corresponding to the variable I needed the smoother for (named?f_lfv_c).


newdatab$l_lfvcspo<-spl2(~s(f_lfv_c,k=10), data=newdatab, p=F)
newdatab$l_lfvcspn<-spl2(~s(f_lfv_c,k=10), data=newdatab)

I am not sure how to attach the random effects corresponding to the 
l_lfvcspn. I get this array of 8 variables and I am really not sure 
how to include them in the model. Should I get forget about spl2 and 
simply add the variable f_lfv_c as a fixed term and spl(f_lfv) in the 
idv random term?

Also, it seems to me that I have 11 fixed effects, I am not sure what 
to do.

I am really sorry about all these silly?questions, I really do not 
understand how these things work, but I would like to know more about 
this.

Best regards!


Sent from Outlook <http://aka.ms/weboutlook>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Jarrod Hadfield <j.hadfield at ed.ac.uk>
*Sent:* Monday, September 25, 2017 8:51:09 AM
*To:* dani; Ben Bolker
*Cc:* Matthew; r-sig-mixed-models at r-project.org
*Subject:* Re: [R-sig-ME] MCMCglmm Poisson with an offset term and 
splines

Hi,

The example is not reproducible: l_lfvcspn does not exist.

The error is telling you that you don't have 11 fixed effects in the 
model. Change k to the number of fixed effects in the model.

Jarrod



On 25/09/2017 16:39, dani wrote:

mc_spl1gna <- MCMCglmm(y ~ 
age+x2+x8+x9+x3+l_lfvcspo+x4+x5+x6+x7+offset,
? ? ? ?random =~ STUDYID+class+idv(l_lfvcspn),
? ? ? ?data ? = newdatab,
? ? ? ?family = "poisson"