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Interpreting variances in lme with varIdent weights

Dear Ellison,

Correlation and variance structures in nlme work only on the residuals, not on the random effects.

Best regards,

Thierry


ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature and Forest
team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium
+ 32 2 525 02 51
+ 32 54 43 61 85
Thierry.Onkelinx at inbo.be
www.inbo.be

To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say what the experiment died of.
~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

The plural of anecdote is not data.
~ Roger Brinner

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
~ John Tukey


-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: r-sig-mixed-models-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-sig-mixed-models-bounces at r-project.org] Namens S Ellison
Verzonden: dinsdag 30 juli 2013 12:32
Aan: r-sig-mixed-models at r-project.org
Onderwerp: [R-sig-ME] Interpreting variances in lme with varIdent weights

 We've managed to get ourselves confused in interpreting lme's output and would appreciate clarification; I and a colleague differ on interpreting the words used in lme's help pages and output, and I see his point; it can be read two ways.

Using varIdent weights, lme provides a factor for each varIdent stratum. The question is whether that factor applies to standard deviations for _all_ random effects or just to the sd for the residual term within each stratum.

Any guidance appreciated.

S Ellison
LGC

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