  We consider approaches for improving the efficiency of algorithms for fitting
nonconvex penalized regression models such as SCAD and MCP in high dimensions.
In particular, we develop rules for discarding variables during cyclic
coordinate descent. This dimension reduction leads to a substantial improvement
in the speed of these algorithms for high-dimensional problems. The rules we
propose here eliminate a substantial fraction of the variables from the
coordinate descent algorithm. Violations are quite rare, especially in the
locally convex region of the solution path, and furthermore, may be easily
detected and corrected by checking the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. We extend
these rules to generalized linear models, as well as to other nonconvex
penalties such as the $\ell_2$-stabilized Mnet penalty, group MCP, and group
SCAD. We explore three variants of the coordinate decent algorithm that
incorporate these rules and study the efficiency of these algorithms in fitting
models to both simulated data and on real data from a genome-wide association
study.
