Abstract
Vardi’s Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is frequently used for computing the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator of length-biased right-censored data, which does not admit a closed-form representation. The EM algorithm may converge slowly, particularly for heavily censored data. We studied two algorithms for accelerating the convergence of the EM algorithm, based on iterative convex minorant and Aitken’s delta squared process. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the acceleration algorithms converge more rapidly than the EM algorithm in terms of number of iterations and actual timing. The acceleration method based on a modification of Aitken’s delta squared performed the best under a variety of settings.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aitken AC (1926) On bernoulli’s numerical solution of algebraic equations. Proc R Soc Edinb 46:289–305
Asgharian M, M’Lan CE, Wolfson DB (2002) Length-biased sampling with right censoring: an unconditional approach. J Am Stat Assoc 97(457):201–209
Ayer M, Brunk HD, Ewing GM, Reid W, Silverman E et al (1955) An empirical distribution function for sampling with incomplete information. Ann Math Stat 26(4):641–647
Barlow RE, Bartholomew DJ, Bremner J, Brunk HD (1972) Statistical inference under order restrictions: the theory and application of isotonic regression. Wiley, New York
Brookmeyer R, Gail M (1987) Biases in prevalent cohorts. Biometrics 43(4):739–749
Chan KCG, Qin J (2016) Nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation for the multi-sample wicksell corpuscle problem. Biometrika 103(2):253–271
Grotzinger S, Witzgall C (1984) Projections onto order simplexes. Appl Math Optim 12(1):247–270
Huang CY, Qin J (2011) Nonparametric estimation for length-biased and right-censored data. Biometrika 98(1):177–186
Jongbloed G (1998) The iterative convex minorant algorithm for nonparametric estimation. J Comput Graph Stat 7(3):310–321
Kuroda M, Sakakihara M, Geng Z (2008) Acceleration of the em and ecm algorithms using the aitken \({\delta }^2\) method for log-linear models with partially classified data. Stati Probab Lett 78(15):2332–2338
Lange K (2013) Optimization. Springer, New York
McLachlan G, Krishnan T (2008) The EM algorithm and extensions. Wiley, New York
Meilijson I (1989) A fast improvement to the em algorithm on its own terms. J R Stat Soc Ser B 51(1):127–138
Qin J, Ning J, Liu H, Shen Y (2011) Maximum likelihood estimations and em algorithms with length-biased data. J Am Stat Assoc 106(496):1434–1449
Song S (2004) Estimation with univariate “mixed case” interval censored data. Stat Sin 14:269–282
Steffensen J (1933) Remarks on iteration. Scand Actuar J 1933(1):64–72
Traub JF (1964) Iterative methods for the solution of equations. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs
Tsai WY, Jewell NP, Wang MC (1987) A note on the product-limit estimator under right censoring and left truncation. Biometrika 74(4):883–886
Vardi Y (1989) Multiplicative censoring, renewal processes, deconvolution and decreasing density: nonparametric estimation. Biometrika 76(4):751–761
Wang MC (1991) Nonparametric estimation from cross-sectional survival data. J Am Stat Assoc 86(413):130–143
Wellner JA, Zhan Y (1997) A hybrid algorithm for computation of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator from censored data. J Am Stat Assoc 92(439):945–959
Wellner JA, Zhang Y (2000) Two estimators of the mean of a counting process with panel count data. Ann Stat 28(3):779–814
Zhang Z, Sun J (2010) Interval censoring. Stat Methods Med Res 19(1):53–70
Acknowledgments
The author is partially funded by the National Institute of Health Grant R01 HL122212.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chan, K.C.G. Acceleration of Expectation-Maximization algorithm for length-biased right-censored data. Lifetime Data Anal 23, 102–112 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10985-016-9374-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10985-016-9374-z