English

Bayesian high-dimensional covariate selection in non-linear mixed-effects models using the SAEM algorithm

Statistics Theory 2024-04-08 v5 Statistics Theory

Abstract

High-dimensional variable selection, with many more covariates than observations, is widely documented in standard regression models, but there are still few tools to address it in non-linear mixed-effects models where data are collected repeatedly on several individuals. In this work, variable selection is approached from a Bayesian perspective and a selection procedure is proposed, combining the use of a spike-and-slab prior and the Stochastic Approximation version of the Expectation Maximisation (SAEM) algorithm. Similarly to Lasso regression, the set of relevant covariates is selected by exploring a grid of values for the penalisation parameter. The SAEM approach is much faster than a classical MCMC (Markov chain Monte Carlo) algorithm and our method shows very good selection performances on simulated data. Its flexibility is demonstrated by implementing it for a variety of nonlinear mixed effects models. The usefulness of the proposed method is illustrated on a problem of genetic markers identification, relevant for genomic-assisted selection in plant breeding.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.01012,
  title  = {Bayesian high-dimensional covariate selection in non-linear mixed-effects models using the SAEM algorithm},
  author = {Marion Naveau and Guillaume Kon Kam King and Renaud Rincent and Laure Sansonnet and Maud Delattre},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.01012},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:37:07.207Z