A Variational Approximations-DIC Rubric for Parameter Estimation and Mixture Model Selection Within a Family Setting

Mixture model-based clustering has become an increasingly popular data analysis technique since its introduction over fifty years ago, and is now commonly utilized within a family setting. Families of mixture models arise when the component parameters, usually the component covariance (or scale) matrices, are decomposed and a number of constraints are imposed. Within the family setting, model selection involves choosing the member of the …