[R-sig-ME] glmer in R

[Leena Hamberg]

Hi!

I have estimated GLMMs in R using function glmer in library lme4. I 
realized that quasi error distributions cannot be used when glmer 
function is used. Thus, I would like to verify that I have understand 
instructions concerning glmer in R correctly. Is it so that you can - 
instead of quasi distributions - put your observation unit as a random 
factor into models?:

model1=glmer(height~treatment+basaldm+treevolume+saplnum+browsing+(1|sampleplot)+(1|obs),family=poisson(link 
= "log"),niter=100,data=sorbaucu)

Sample plot in the model above is a real random factor (including 
several observations) but variable "obs" means observation units (as a 
factor). Thus, does this handle the same thing as does quasi error 
distribution?

Kind regards,

Leena Hamberg

Finnish Forest Research Institute
Vantaa Research Unit
P.O. Box 18
FI-01301
Vantaa - Finland
e-mail: leena.hamberg at metla.fi
tel. + 358 10 211 5400, + 358 40 801 5400
fax  + 358 10 211 2202