[R] modelling nested random effects with interactions in R

[Michael Rennie]

Hi there

Please excuse this elementary question, but I have been fumbling with this for 
hours and can't seem to get it right.

I have a nested anova, with random factor "lakefac" nested within 
factor "fishfac" (fixed), with an additional fixed factor "Habfac". If I 
consider everything as fixed effects, it's addmittedly not the correct model, 
but I can at least get this to work:

> nested <- anova(lm(ltotinv ~ habfac + fishfac/lakefac + habfac:fishfac + 
habfac:(lakefac %in% fishfac)))
> nested
Analysis of Variance Table

Response: ltotinv
                       Df  Sum Sq Mean Sq F value    Pr(>F)    
habfac                  2 17.3140  8.6570 25.0568 3.534e-08 ***
fishfac                 1  0.9131  0.9131  2.6428   0.11057    
fishfac:lakefac         2  2.3802  1.1901  3.4447   0.04000 *  
habfac:fishfac          2 13.0101  6.5050 18.8281 9.196e-07 ***
habfac:fishfac:lakefac  4  3.0103  0.7526  2.1783   0.08557 .  
Residuals              48 16.5838  0.3455                      
---

So now I try to run it using the lme4 package, treating lakefac as random;

> 
> lakernd <- lme(ltotinv ~ habfac + fishfac/lakefac + habfac:fishfac + habfac:
(lakefac %in% fishfac), random = ~ lakefac)
Error in .class1(object) : Argument "data" is missing, with no default
> lakernd
Error: Object "lakernd" not found

The lme help file suggests that if "data" is not specified, that it defaults to 
whatever object is currently in use in the environment (as was the case in the 
fixed effects model- I am using a matrix called "use" in this example). If I 
(naively) simply try to add data= use to the above formula, this happens:

> lakernd <- lme(ltotinv ~ habfac + fishfac/lakefac + habfac:fishfac + habfac:
(lakefac %in% fishfac), data = use, random = ~ lakefac)
Error in as(data, "data.frame") : No method or default for coercing "matrix" 
to "data.frame"

So how do I get lme to use my data matrix "use" for the model? My guess is that 
my syntax is off, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it? 
Unfortunately, the only resources I have available to me at the moment are 
an "S-plus v. 4. guide to statistics", the archived help files on the R 
website, an the examples and help files in R.  

Your help with this problem is greatly appreciated- I do hope to hear from 
someone as to how I might get this to work.

Sincerely,   

-- 
Michael Rennie
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Toronto at Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Rd. N.
Mississauga ON  L5L 1C6
Ph: 905-828-5452  Fax: 905-828-3792