MCMC, Particle Filtering, and Programmable Hierarchical Modeling

A system for writing hierarchical statistical models largely compatible with 'BUGS' and 'JAGS', writing nimbleFunctions to operate models and do basic R-style math, and compiling both models and nimbleFunctions via custom-generated C++. 'NIMBLE' includes default methods for MCMC, Laplace Approximation, deterministic nested approximations, Monte Carlo Expectation Maximization, and some other tools. The nimbleFunction system makes it easy to do things like implement new MCMC samplers from R, customize the assignment of samplers to different parts of a model from R, and compile the new samplers automatically via C++ alongside the samplers 'NIMBLE' provides. 'NIMBLE' extends the 'BUGS'/'JAGS' language by making it extensible: New distributions and functions can be added, including as calls to external compiled code. Although most people think of MCMC as the main goal of the 'BUGS'/'JAGS' language for writing models, one can use 'NIMBLE' for writing arbitrary other kinds of model-generic algorithms as well. A full User Manual is available at < https://r-nimble.org>.

R Interface to Stan

User-facing R functions are provided to parse, compile, test, estimate, and analyze Stan models by accessing the header-only Stan library provided by the 'StanHeaders' package. The Stan project develops a probabilistic programming language that implements full Bayesian statistical inference via Markov Chain Monte Carlo, rough Bayesian inference via 'variational' approximation, and (optionally penalized) maximum likelihood estimation via optimization. In all three cases, automatic differentiation is used to quickly and accurately evaluate gradients without burdening the user with the need to derive the partial derivatives.

Geographic Data Analysis and Modeling

Reading, writing, manipulating, analyzing and modeling of spatial data. This package has been superseded by the "terra" package < https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=terra>.

Survival Analysis

Contains the core survival analysis routines, including definition of Surv objects, Kaplan-Meier and Aalen-Johansen (multi-state) curves, Cox models, and parametric accelerated failure time models.

Bayesian Graphical Models using MCMC

Interface to the JAGS MCMC library.

Feed-Forward Neural Networks and Multinomial Log-Linear Models

Software for feed-forward neural networks with a single hidden layer, and for multinomial log-linear models.

Complete Environment for Bayesian Inference

Provides a complete environment for Bayesian inference using a variety of different samplers (see ?LaplacesDemon for an overview).

Understand and Describe Bayesian Models and Posterior Distributions

Provides utilities to describe posterior distributions and Bayesian models. It includes point-estimates such as Maximum A Posteriori (MAP), measures of dispersion (Highest Density Interval - HDI; Kruschke, 2015 ) and indices used for null-hypothesis testing (such as ROPE percentage, pd and Bayes factors). References: Makowski et al. (2021) .

Testing Linear Regression Models

A collection of tests, data sets, and examples for diagnostic checking in linear regression models. Furthermore, some generic tools for inference in parametric models are provided.

Multi-Model Inference

Tools for model selection and model averaging with support for a wide range of statistical models. Automated model selection through subsets of the maximum model, with optional constraints for model inclusion. Averaging of model parameters and predictions based on model weights derived from information criteria (AICc and alike) or custom model weighting schemes.