The mixtools package for R provides a set of functions for analyzing a variety of finite mixture models. These functions include both traditional methods, such as EM algorithms for univariate and multivariate normal mixtures, and newer methods that reflect some recent research in finite mixture models. In the latter category, mixtools provides algorithms for estimating parameters in a wide range of different mixture-of-regression contexts, in multinomial mixtures such as those arising from discretizing continuous multivariate data, in nonparametric situations where the multivariate component densities are completely unspecified, and in semiparametric situations such as a univariate location mixture of symmetric but otherwise unspecified densities. Many of the algorithms of the mixtools package are EM algorithms or are based on EM-like ideas, so this article includes an overview of EM algorithms for finite mixture models.

The tolerance package for R provides a set of functions for estimating and plotting tolerance limits. This package provides a wide-range of functions for estimating discrete and continuous tolerance intervals as well as for estimating regression tolerance intervals. An additional tool of the tolerance package is the plotting capability for the univariate and regression settings as well as for the multivariate normal setting. The tolerance package's capabilities are illustrated using simulated data sets. Formulas used for the estimation procedures are also presented.

We present an algorithm for estimating parameters in a mixture-of-regressions model in which the errors are assumed to be independent and identically distributed but no other assumption is made. This model is introduced as one of several recent generalizations of the standard fully parametric mixture of linear regressions in the literature. A sufficient condition for the identifiability of the parameters is stated and proved. Several different versions of the algorithm, including one that has a provable ascent property, are introduced. Numerical tests indicate the effectiveness of some of these algorithms.

We extend the standard mixture of linear regressions model by allowing mixing proportions to be modeled nonparametrically as a function of the predictors. This framework allows for more flexibility in the modeling of the mixing proportions than the fully parametric mixture of experts model, which we also discuss. We present an EM-like algorithm for estimation of the new model. We also provide simulations demonstrating that our nonparametric approach can provide a better fit than the parametric approach in some instances and can serve to validate and thus reinforce the parametric approach in others. We also analyze and interpret two real data sets using the new method.

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