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Help with lme

4 messages · Bert Gunter, R. Michael Weylandt, Annie Hoen

#
Hi, 

This is my first time posting to the list so please forgive any breeches
of etiquette!
I am new to mixed-effects modeling.

This is my dataset:

   subject treatment day replicate outcome
       1         1   1         1     0.0
       1         1   4         1     0.0
       1         1   8         1    14.5
       1         1   8         2    15.4
       2         1   2         1     0.0
       2         1   4         1     0.0
       2         1   7         1    12.1
       2         1   7         2    11.9
       3         1   2         1     0.0
       3         1   4         1     0.0
       3         1   7         1     0.0
       4         1   2         1     4.2
       4         1   2         2     5.0
       4         1   4         1     8.5
       4         1   4         2    10.0
       4         1   6         1    16.4
       4         1   6         2    18.1
       5         1   2         1     0.0
       5         1   4         1     0.0
       5         1   7         1     0.0
       6         2   2         1     0.0
       6         2   4         1     9.1
       6         2   4         2     9.7
       6         2   7         1    12.6
       6         2   7         2    10.3
       7         2   1         1     3.3
       7         2   1         2     4.8
       7         2   4         1     6.2
       7         2   4         2     6.4
       7         2   7         1    12.9
       7         2   7         2    13.1
       8         2   2         1     0.0
       8         2   4         1     0.0
       8         2   8         1     0.0
       9         2   2         1     2.7
       9         2   2         2     3.2
       9         2   4         1     5.6
       9         2   4         2     5.4
       9         2   8         1    14.9
       9         2   8         2    14.8
      10         2   1         1     0.0
      10         2   4         1    10.7
      10         2   4         2    11.0
      10         2   7         1    13.7
      10         2   7         2    12.9
      11         2   1         1     0.0
      11         2   4         1     0.0
      11         2   7         1     0.0
      12         2   1         1     0.0
      12         2   4         1     0.0
      12         2   7         1     0.0


It can be made using this:

subject=c(1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10,
10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12)
treatment=c(rep(1, 20), rep(2, 31))
day=c(1, 4, 8, 8, 2, 4, 7, 7, 2, 4, 7, 2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 2, 4, 7, 2, 4, 4,
7, 7, 1, 1, 4, 4, 7, 7, 2, 4, 8, 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 1, 4, 4, 7, 7, 1, 4, 7,
1, 4, 7)
replicate=c(1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1) 
outcome=c(0, 0, 14.5, 15.4, 0, 0, 12.1, 11.9, 0, 0, 0, 4.2, 5.0, 8.5,
10.0, 16.4, 18.1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 9.1, 9.7, 12.6, 10.3, 3.3, 4.8, 6.2, 6.4,
12.9, 13.1, 0,0,0, 2.7,3.2, 5.6, 5.4, 14.9, 14.8, 0, 10.7, 11.0, 13.7,
12.9, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

data<-data.frame(cbind(subject, treatment, day, replicate, outcome))

I have two groups of subjects, each given a different treatment. The
outcome (growth) was observed post-treatment on each of three days. If
there was growth, it was measured in duplicate measurements.

There are uneven numbers of subjects in my two treatment groups. Also, the
outcome was always observed on 3 days, but the exact day of observation is
not always consistent.

I just want to know the effect of treatment on outcome.

This is the model I've run:

model <- lme(outcome ~ treatment * day, random = list(subject = pdDiag(~
day)), data = data)
summary(model)


Can any experts out there let me know if I'm doing this right? Thanks!!!
#
Well, you've posted to the wrong list!

First off, you're almost always better off posting to an R SIG list
when one exists in your area of concern,as it does here:
r-sig-mixed-models.

Second, this appears to be primarily a statistics question, and R-help
is not a statistics help list (though, I admit, the intersection is
nonempty, and that may be the case here). For statistics primarily
questions,you should generally post to a statistics help list like
stats.stackexchange.com.

Otherwise, you're fine.  :-)

Cheers,
Bert
On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 9:15 AM, Annie Hoen <anniehoen at gmail.com> wrote:

  
    
#
On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Bert Gunter <gunter.berton at gene.com> wrote:
Seconding Bert's advice to repost to R-SIG-Mixed-models (it's a great
mailing list with brilliant statisticians) and commending a really
good reproducible example. The only thing I'd note is that you
generally don't want to use constructs like:

data.frame(cbind(....))

cbind() will create a matrix object before data.frame() is called. The
disadvantage of that is that a matrix can have only one sort of data,
so cbind() will force it all to be the same (usually either numeric or
character). You can loose information here, but, more importantly
data.frame() doesn't know what went into cbind() so it doesn't bother
to convert back to the original data type. Then you're left with a
data.frame of all one data type, which more or less defeats the point
of data.frames in the first place. :-)

It's better to just call data.frame() directly with something like

data.frame(subject, treatment, day, replicate, outcome)

You'll also get the added bonus of R figuring out names for columns here.

Of course, in your case, it doesn't hurt because your data really is
all of the same type. But good practice and all that!

Cheers and welcome!

Michael
#
Thank you both!! Great to know. I've posted my question to
r-sig-mixed-models.
Thanks again!
Annie

On 11/9/12 12:53 PM, "R. Michael Weylandt" <michael.weylandt at gmail.com>
wrote: