[ADMB Users] all point estimates are reasonable although the objective function fails to be calculated

[Saang-Yoon]

Hello, Dr. Sibert.
Thank you very much for your response.   Yes, I double-checked whether
the cor, std files (xxx.cor, xxx.std) were generated from the TPL of
concern.   Yes, they were.   I monitored running of the resultant
executable file.  Initially the objective function (f) value was
*calculated*, but ultmately f was nan (i.e., not calculated).
Interestingly those cor, and std files were successfully generated,
and all point estimates looked very reasonable.
Saang-Yoon

On May 18, 11:55 pm, John Sibert <sib... at hawaii.edu> wrote:
> You should be deeply suspicious.
>
> Even though the point estimates look "reasonable" (agree with your
> preconceptions), you will never be able to do any rigorous statistical
> testing such as likelihood ratio tests against alternative hypotheses.
> Or even a simple AIC comparison.
>
> Are you sure the std and cor files came from the same fit as the nan?
> Delete them and run the model again.
>
> Where did the nan come from? Check for divide by zero.
>
> John
>
> On 05/18/2011 05:04 PM, Saang-Yoon wrote:
>
> > Dear all.
> > I have interesting results where although the ultimate objective
> > function (i.e., negative loglikelihood) is nan (i.e., failure), all
> > point estimates of parameters look very reasonable, and interestingly
> > correlation and standard deviation outputs (i.e., xxx.cor, xxx.std)
> > are also generated.    Under the circumstance (i.e., f = nan), are
> > reliable those point estimates and their standard deviation
> > estimates?    I am very interested in learning your ideas.
> > Saang-Yoon
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Us... at admb-project.org
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>
> --
> John Sibert
> Emeritus Researcher, SOEST
> University of Hawaii at Manoa
>
> Visit the ADMB projecthttp://admb-project.org/
>
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