[ADMB Users] Restricting magnitude of random effects estimates, achieving convergence of RE models

[H. Skaug]

Chris and Mark,

No, by default the RE are initialized to zero (or whatever is found in
the .pin file)
at the start of each inner optimization (part of the Laplace approximation).
This has been found to be more robust in general than using the RE estimate
from the previous Laplace appr.

I hoped that it could help here, but it is a shot in the dark. (One
could also hope that -noinit reduces the computational time somewhat)

Hans


> I suppose I'm a bit confused about the -noinit option.  Shouldn't ADMB use
> the previous RE estimates as the starting point for the next optimization by
> default?  Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something.
> Thanks again,
> Christ
>