# "Nested" random factors in mixed (multilevel or hierarchical) models

Setup Import Models as nested using “tank” nested within “room” as two random intercepts (using lme4 to create the combinations) A safer (lme4) way to create the combinations of “room” and “tank”: as two random intercepts using “tank2” Don’t do this This is a skeletal post to show the equivalency of different ways of thinking about “nested” factors in a mixed model. The data are measures of life history traits in lice that infect salmon.

Background Comparing marginal effects to main effect terms in an ANOVA table First, some fake data Comparison of marginal effects vs. “main” effects term of ANOVA table when data are balanced Comparison of marginal effects vs. “main” effects term of ANOVA table when data are unbalanced When to estimate marginal effects keywords: estimation, ANOVA, factorial, model simplification, conditional effects, marginal effects Background I recently read a paper from a very good ecology journal that communicated the results of an ANOVA like that below (Table 1) using a statement similar to “The removal of crabs strongly decreased algae cover ($$F_{1,36} = 17. # Can a linear model reproduce a Welch t-test? This doodle was motivated Jake Westfall’s answer to a Cross-Validated question. The short answer is yes but most R scripts that I’ve found on the web are unsatisfying because only the t-value reproduces, not the df and p-value. Jake notes the reason for this in his answer on Cross-Validated. To get the adjusted df, and the p-value associated with this, one can use the emmeans package by Russell Lenth, as he notes here. # Normalization results in regression to the mean and inflated Type I error conditional on the reference values Fig 1C of the Replication Study: Melanoma exosomes educate bone marrow progenitor cells toward a pro-metastatic phenotype through MET uses an odd (to me) three stage normalization procedure for the quantified western blots. The authors compared blot values between a treatment (shMet cells) and a control (shScr cells) using GAPDH to normalize the values. The three stages of the normalization are first, the value for the Antibody levels were normalized by the value of a reference (GAPDH) for each Set. # A comment on the novel transformation of the response in " Senolytics decrease senescent cells in humans: Preliminary report from a clinical trial of Dasatinib plus Quercetin in individuals with diabetic kidney disease" Motivation: https://pubpeer.com/publications/8DF6E66FEFAA2C3C7D5BD9C3FC45A2#2 and https://twitter.com/CGATist/status/1175015246282539009 tl;dr: Given the transformation done by the authors, for any response in day_0 that is unusually small, there is automatically a response in day_14 that is unusually big and vice-versa. Consequently, if the mean for day_0 is unusually small, the mean for day_14 is automatically unusually big, hence the elevated type I error with an unpaired t-test. The transformation is necessary and sufficient to produce the result (meaning even in conditions where a paired t-test isn’t needed, the transformation still produces elevated Type I error). # What is the consequence of a Shapiro-Wilk test-of-normality filter on Type I error and Power? Set up Normal distribution Type I error Power Right skewed continuous – lognormal What the parameterizations look like Type I error Power This 1990-wants-you-back doodle explores the effects of a Normality Filter – using a Shapiro-Wilk (SW) test as a decision rule for using either a t-test or some alternative such as a 1) non-parametric Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon (MWW) test, or 2) a t-test on the log-transformed response. # What is the bias in the estimation of an effect given an omitted interaction term? Some background (due to Sewall Wright’s method of path analysis) Given a generating model: $$$y = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2 + \beta_3 x_3$$$ where \(x_3 = x_1 x_2$$; that is, it is an interaction variable. The total effect of $$x_1$$ on $$y$$ is $$\beta_1 + \frac{\mathrm{COV}(x_1, x_2)}{\mathrm{VAR}(x_1)} \beta_2 + \frac{\mathrm{COV}(x_1, x_3)}{\mathrm{VAR}(x_1)} \beta_3$$. If $$x_3$$ (the interaction) is missing, its component on the total efffect is added to the coefficient of $$x_1$$.
• page 1 of 5

#### R doodles. Some ecology. Some physiology. Much fake data.

Thoughts on R, statistical best practices, and teaching applied statistics to Biology majors.

Jeff Walker, Professor of Biological Sciences

University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, United States