Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing Commons^™

Rngforgpd: An R Package For Generation Of Univariate And Multivariate Generalized Poisson Data, Hesen Li, Hakan Demirtas, Ruizhe Chen

The R Journal

This article describes the R package RNGforGPD, which is designed for the generation of univariate and multivariate generalized Poisson data. Some illustrative examples are given, the utility and functionality of the package are demonstrated; and its performance is assessed via simulations that are devised around both artificial and real data.

Species Distribution Modeling Using Spatial Point Processes: A Case Study Of Sloth Occurrence In Costa Rica, Paula Moraga

The R Journal

Species distribution models are widely used in ecology for conservation management of species and their environments. This paper demonstrates how to fit a log-Gaussian Cox process model to predict the intensity of sloth occurrence in Costa Rica, and assess the effect of climatic factors on spatial patterns using the R-INLA package. Species occurrence data are retrieved using spocc, and spatial climatic variables are obtained with raster. Spatial data and results are manipulated and visualized by means of several packages such as raster and tmap. This paper provides an accessible illustration of spatial point process modeling that can …

Tulip: A Toolbox For Linear Discriminant Analysis With Penalties, Yuqing Pan, Qing Mai, Xin Zhang

The R Journal

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a powerful tool in building classifiers with easy computation and interpretation. Recent advancements in science technology have led to the popularity of datasets with high dimensions, high orders and complicated structure. Such datasetes motivate the generalization of LDA in various research directions. The R package TULIP integrates several popular high-dimensional LDA-based methods and provides a comprehensive and user-friendly toolbox for linear, semi-parametric and tensor-variate classification. Functions are included for model fitting, cross validation and prediction. In addition, motivated by datasets with diverse sources of predictors, we further include functions for covariate adjustment. Our package is …

Testing The Equality Of Normal Distributed And Independent Groups’ Means Under Unequal Variances By Doex Package, Mustafa Cavus, Berna Yazıcı

The R Journal

In this paper, we present the doex package contains the tests for equality of normal distributed and independent group means under unequal variances such as Cochran F, Welch-Aspin, Welch, Box, Scott-Smith, Brown-Forsythe, Johansen F, Approximate F, Alexander-Govern, Generalized F, Modified Brown-Forsythe, Permutation F, Adjusted Welch, B2, Parametric Bootstrap, Fiducial Approach, and Alvandi Generalized F-test. Most of these tests are not available in any package. Thus, doex is easy to use for researchers in multidisciplinary studies. In this study, an extensive Monte-Carlo simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of the the tests for equality of normal distributed group means …

News From The Bioconductor Project, Bioconductor Core Team

The R Journal

Bioconductor provides tools for the analysis and comprehension of high-throughput genomic data. Bioconductor 3.12 was released on 28 October, 2020. It is compatible with R 4.0.3 and consists of 1974 software packages, 398 experiment data packages, 968 up-to-date annotation packages, and 28 workflows. Books are a new addition, built regularly from source and therefore fully reproducible; an example is the community-developed Orchestrating Single-Cell Analysis with Bioconductor.

Kuhn-Tucker And Multiple Discrete-Continuous Extreme Value Model Estimation And Simulation In R: The Rmdcev Package, Patrick Lloyd-Smith

The R Journal

This paper introduces the package rmdcev in R for estimation and simulation of KuhnTucker demand models with individual heterogeneity. The models supported by rmdcev are the multiple-discrete continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model and Kuhn-Tucker specification common in the environmental economics literature on recreation demand. Latent class and random parameters specifications can be implemented and the models are fit using maximum likelihood estimation or Bayesian estimation. The rmdcev package also implements demand forecasting and welfare calculation for policy simulation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the model estimation and simulation framework and to demonstrate the functionalities of rmdcev using …

A Unified Algorithm For The Non-Convex Penalized Estimation: The Ncpen Package, Dongshin Kim, Sangin Lee, Sunghoon Kwon

The R Journal

Various R packages have been developed for the non-convex penalized estimation but they can only be applied to the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) or minimax concave penalty (MCP). We develop an R package, entitled ncpen, for the non-convex penalized estimation in order to make data analysts to experience other non-convex penalties. The package ncpen implements a unified algorithm based on the convex concave procedure and modified local quadratic approximation algorithm, which can be applied to a broader range of non-convex penalties, including the SCAD and MCP as special examples. Many user-friendly functionalities such as generalized information criteria, cross-validation …

User-Specified General-To-Specific And Indicator Saturation Methods, Genaro Sucarrat

The R Journal

General-to-Specific (GETS) modelling provides a comprehensive, systematic and cumulative approach to modelling that is ideally suited for conditional forecasting and counterfactual analysis, whereas Indicator Saturation (ISAT) is a powerful and flexible approach to the detection and estimation of structural breaks (e.g. changes in parameters), and to the detection of outliers. To these ends, multi path backwards elimination, single and multiple hypothesis tests on the coefficients, diagnostics tests andgoodness-of-fit measures are combined to produce a parsimonious final model. In many situations a specific model or estimator is needed, a specific set of diagnostics tests may be required, or a specific f …

Editorial, Michael J. Kane

The R Journal

On behalf of the editorial board, I am pleased to present Volume 12 Issue 2 of the R Journal. This is my third and final issue as the Editor-in-Chief. In the last year, we have made some substantial changes to the journal that I believe will continue to increase our capacity to support the growing data science and computational statistics communities, and continue to raise the visibility of the journal. In the last few months we recruited 10 Associate Editors and we are continuing the recruitment process. I’d like to publicly welcome our new Associate Editors, and thank each of …

Openland: Software For Quantitative Analysis And Visualization Of Land Use And Cover Change, Reginal Exavier, Peter Zeilhofer

The R Journal

There is an increasing availability of spatially explicit, freely available land use and cover (LUC) time series worldwide. Because of the enormous amount of data this represents, the continuous updates and improvements in spatial and temporal resolution and category differentiation, as well as increasingly dynamic and complex changes made, manual data extraction and analysis is highly time consuming, and making software tools available to automatize LUC data assessment is becoming imperative. This paper presents a software developed in R, which combines LUC raster time series data and their transitions, calculates state-of-the-art LUC change indicators, and creates spatio-temporal visualizations, all in …

E-Rum2020: How We Turned A Physical Conference Into A Successful Virtual Event, Mariachiara Fortuna, Francesca Vitalini, Mirko Signorelli, Emanuela Furfaro, Federico Marini, Gert Janssenswillen, Riccardo Porreca, Riccardo L. Rossi, Andrea Guzzo, Roberta Sirovich, Andrea Melloncelli, Lorenzo Salvi, Serena Signorelli, Filippo Chiarello

The R Journal

The European R Users Meeting 2020 (e-Rum2020) was a conference that was held virtually in June 2020. Originally, e-Rum2020 had been planned as a physical event to be held in Milano. However, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of a nationwide lockdown induced the Organizing Committee to fully rethink the event, and to turn it into a live virtual conference. In this article, we describe the challenges that we encountered during the organization of e-Rum2020, and how wereacted to them. In doing so, we aim to provide future conference organizers with useful information on how to organize …

Miwqs: Multiple Imputation Using Weighted Quantile Sum Regression, Paul M. Hargarten, David C. Wheeler

The R Journal

The miWQS package in the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) utilizes weighted quantile sum regression (WQS) in the multiple imputation (MI) framework. The data analyzed is a set/mixture of continuous and correlated components/chemicals that are reasonable to combine in an index and share a common outcome. These components are also interval-censored between zero and upper thresholds, or detection limits, which may differ among the components. This type of data is found in areas such as chemical epidemiological studies, sociology, and genomics. The miWQS package can be run using complete or incomplete data, which may be placed in the first quantile, …

News From The Forwards Taskforce, Heather Turner

The R Journal

Forwards is an R Foundation taskforce working to widen the participation of under represented groups in the R project and in related activities, such as the useR! conference. This report rounds up activities of the taskforce during the second half of 2020.

Farmtest: An R Package For Factor-Adjusted Robust Multiple Testing, Koushiki Bose, Jianqing Fan, Yuan Ke, Xiaoou Pan, Wen-Xin Zhou

The R Journal

We provide a publicly available library FarmTest in the R programming system. This library implements a factor-adjusted robust multiple testing principle proposed by Fan et al. (2019) for large-scale simultaneous inference on mean effects. We use a multi-factor model to explicitly capture the dependence among a large pool of variables. Three types of factors are considered: observable, latent, and a mixture of observable and latent factors. The non-factor case, which corresponds to standard multiple mean testing under weak dependence, is also included. The library implements a series of adaptive Huber methods integrated with fast data-driven tuning schemes to estimate model …

Ari: The Automated R Instructor, Sean Kross, Jeffrey T. Leek, John Muschelli

The R Journal

We present the ari package for automatically generating technology-focused educational videos. The goal of the package is to create reproducible videos, with the ability to change and update video content seamlessly. We present several examples of generating videos including using R Markdown slide decks, PowerPoint slides, or simple images as source material. We also discuss how ari can help instructors reach new audiences through programmatically translating materials into other languages.

The R Journal (June 2020) 12(1): Complete Issue, The R Foundation

The R Journal

Editorial, Michael J. Kane

Contributed Research Articles

gk: An R Package for the g-and-k and Generalised g-and-h Distributions, Dennis Prangle

NlinTS: An R Package for Causality Detection in Time Series, Youssef Hmamouche

Mapping Smoothed Spatial Effect Estimates from Individual-Level Data: MapGAM, Lu Bai, Daniel L. Gillen, Scott M. Bartell, and Verónica M. Vieira

mudfold: An R Package for Nonparametric IRT Modelling of Unfolding Processes, Spyros E. Balafas, Wim P. Krijnen, Wendy J. Post, and Ernst C. Wit

tsmp: An R Package for Time Series with Matrix Profile, Francisco Bischoff and Pedro Pereira Rodrigues

Individual-Level Modelling of Infectious Disease Data: EpiILM, …

Provenance Of R’S Gradient Optimizers, John C. Nash

The R Journal

Gradient optimization methods (function minimizers) are well-represented in both the base and package universe of R (R Core Team, 2019). However, some of the methods and the codes developed from them were published before standards for hardware and software were established, in particular the IEEE arithmetic (IEEE, 1985). There have been cases of unexpected behaviour or outright errors, and these are the focus of the histoRicalg project. A summary history of some of the tools in R for gradient optimization methods is presented to give perspective on such methods and the occasions where they could be used effectively.

S, R, And Data Science, John M. Chambers

The R Journal

Data science is increasingly important and challenging. It requires computational tools and programming environments that handle big data and difficult computations, while supporting creative, high-quality analysis. The R language and related software play a major role in computing for data science. R is featured in most programs for training in the field. R packages provide tools for a wide range of purposes and users. The description of a new technique, particularly from research in statistics, is frequently accompanied by an R package, greatly increasing the usefulness of the description.

The history of R makes clear its connection to data science. …

The Rockerverse: Packages And Applications For Containerisation With R, Daniel Nüst, Dirk Eddelbuettel, Dom Bennett, Robrecht Cannoodt, Dav Clark, Gergely Daróczi, Mark Edmondson, Colin Fay, Ellis Hughes, Lars Kjeldgaard, Sean Lopp, Ben Marwick, Heather Nolis, Jacqueline Nolis, Hong Ooi, Kathik Ram, Noam Ross, Lori Shepard, Péter Sólymos, Tyson Lee Swetnam, Nitesh Turaga, Charlotte Van Petegem, Jason Williams, Craig Willis, Nan Xiao

The R Journal

The Rocker Project provides widely used Docker images for R across different application scenarios. This article surveys downstream projects that build upon the Rocker Project images and presents the current state of R packages for managing Docker images and controlling containers. These use cases cover diverse topics such as package development, reproducible research, collaborative work, cloud-based data processing, and production deployment of services. The variety of applications demonstrates the power of the Rocker Project specifically and containerisation in general. Across the diverse ways to use containers, we identified common themes: reproducible environments, scalability and efficiency, and portability across clouds. We …

Linear Fractional Stable Motion With The Rlfsm R Package, Stepan Mazur, Dmitry Otryakhin

The R Journal

Linear fractional stable motion is a type of a stochastic integral driven by symmetric alpha-stable Lévy motion. The integral could be considered as a non-Gaussian analogue of the fractional Brownian motion. The present paper discusses R package rlfsm created for numerical procedures with the linear fractional stable motion. It is a set of tools for simulation of these processes as well as performing statistical inference and simulation studies on them. We introduce: tools that we developed to work with that type of motions as well as methods and ideas underlying them. Also we perform numerical experiments to show finite-sample behavior …

Bayesmallows: An R Package For The Bayesian Mallows Model, Øystein Sørensen, Marta Crispino, Qinghua Liu, Valeria Vitelli

The R Journal

BayesMallows is an R package for analyzing preference data in the form of rankings with the Mallows rank model, and its finite mixture extension, in a Bayesian framework. The model is grounded on the idea that the probability density of an observed ranking decreases exponentially with the distance to the location parameter. It is the first Bayesian implementation that allows wide choices of distances, and it works well with a large amount of items to be ranked. BayesMallows handles non-standard data: partial rankings and pairwise comparisons, even in cases including non-transitive preference patterns. The Bayesian paradigm allows coherent quantification of …

Rcosmo: R Package For Analysis Of Spherical, Healpix And Cosmological Data, Daniel Fryer, Ming Li, Andriy Olenko

The R Journal

The analysis of spatial observations on a sphere is important in areas such as geosciences, physics and embryo research, just to name a few. The purpose of the package rcosmo is to conduct efficient information processing, visualisation, manipulation and spatial statistical analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation and other spherical data. The package was developed for spherical data stored in the Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelation (Healpix) representation. rcosmo has more than 100 different functions. Most of them initially were developed for CMB, but also can be used for other spherical data as rcosmo contains tools for transforming spherical …

Lspartition: Partitioning-Based Least Squares Regression, Matias D. Cattaneo, Max H. Farrell, Yingjie Feng

The R Journal

Nonparametric partitioning-based least squares regression is an important tool in empirical work. Common examples include regressions based on splines, wavelets, and piecewise polynomials. This article discusses the main methodological and numerical features of the R software package lspartition, which implements results for partitioning-based least squares (series) regression estimation and inference from Cattaneo and Farrell (2013) and Cattaneo, Farrell, and Feng (2020). These results cover the multivariate regression function as well as its derivatives. First, the package provides data-driven methods to choose the number of partition knots optimally, according to integrated mean squared error, yielding optimal point estimation. Second, robust …

Mudfold: An R Package For Nonparametric Irt Modelling Of Unfolding Processes, Spyros E. Balafas, Wim P. Krijnen, Wendy J. Post, Ernst C. Wit

The R Journal

Item response theory (IRT) models for unfolding processes use the responses of individuals to attitudinal tests or questionnaires in order to infer item and person parameters located on a latent continuum. Parametric models in this class use parametric functions to model the response process, which in practice can be restrictive. MUDFOLD (Multiple UniDimensional unFOLDing) can be used to obtain estimates of person and item ranks without imposing strict parametric assumptions on the item response functions (IRFs). This paper describes the implementation of the MUDFOLD method for binary preferential-choice data in the R package mudfold. The latter incorporates estimation, visualization, …

Mapping Smoothed Spatial Effect Estimates From Individual-Level Data: Mapgam, Lu Bai, Daniel L. Gillen, Scott M. Bartell, Verónica M. Vieira

The R Journal

We introduce and illustrate the utility of MapGAM, a user-friendly R package that provides a unified framework for estimating, predicting and drawing inference on covariate-adjusted spatial effects using individual-level data. The package also facilitates visualization of spatial effects via automated mapping procedures. MapGAM estimates covariate-adjusted spatial associations with a univariate or survival outcome using generalized additive models that include a non-parametric bivariate smooth term of geolocation parameters. Estimation and mapping methods are implemented for continuous, discrete, and right-censored survival data. In the current manuscript, we summarize the methodology implemented in MapGAM and illustrate the package using two example simulated …

Nlints: An R Package For Causality Detection In Time Series, Youssef Hmamouche

The R Journal

The causality is an important concept that is widely studied in the literature, and has several applications, especially when modelling dependencies within complex data, such as multivariate time series. In this article, we present a theoretical description of methods from the NlinTS package, and we focus on causality measures. The package contains the classical Granger causality test. To handle non-linear time series, we propose an extension of this test using an artificial neural network. The package includes an implementation of the Transfer entropy, which is also considered as a non linear causality measure based on information theory. For discrete variables, …

Editorial, Michael J. Kane

The R Journal

Onbehalf of the editorial board, I am pleased to present Volume 12, Issue 1 of the R Journal and mysecond issue as the Editor in Chief. Since the last issue Simon Urbanek has joined the editorial board and we have made a few structural changes. First, the R Foundation has approved the R Journal having Associate Editors. This change will allow us to address the increase in submission volume. The addition of the new AE positions should help alleviate some of the workload the editors have been dealing with and will result in shorter turn-around times for submissions. Second, complete …

Gk: An R Package For The G-And-K And Generalised G-And-H Distributions, Dennis Prangle

The R Journal

The g-and-k and (generalised) g-and-h distributions are flexible univariate distributions which can model highly skewed or heavy tailed data through only four parameters: location and scale, and two shape parameters influencing the skewness and kurtosis. These distributions have the unusual property that they are defined through their quantile function (inverse cumulative distribution function) and their density is unavailable in closed form, which makes parameter inference complicated. This paper presents the gk R package to work with these distributions. It provides the usual distribution functions and several algorithms for inference of independent identically distributed data, including the finite difference stochastic approximation …

Similar: R Code Clone And Plagiarism Detection, Maciej Bartoszuk, Marek Gagolewski

The R Journal

Third-party software for assuring source code quality is becoming increasingly popular. Tools that evaluate the coverage of unit tests, perform static code analysis, or inspect run-time memory use are crucial in the software development life cycle. More sophisticated methods allow for performing meta-analyses of large software repositories, e.g., to discover abstract topics they relate to or common design patterns applied by their developers. They may be useful in gaining a better understanding of the component interdependencies, avoiding cloned code as well as detecting plagiarism in programming classes.

Ameaningful measure of similarity of computer programs often forms the basis of such …

Coxphlb: An R Package For Analyzing Length Biased Data Under Cox Model, Chi Hyun Lee, Heng Zhou, Jing Ning, Diane D. Liu, Yu Shen

The R Journal

Data subject to length-biased sampling are frequently encountered in various applications including prevalent cohort studies and are considered as a special case of left-truncated data under the stationarity assumption. Many semiparametric regression methods have been proposed for length biased data to model the association between covariates and the survival outcome of interest. In this paper, we present a brief review of the statistical methodologies established for the analysis of length-biased data under the Cox model, which is the most commonly adopted semiparametric model, and introduce an R package CoxPhLb that implements these methods. Specifically, the package includes features such as …