A nonlinear mixed-effects model is a way of understanding or predicting what will happen in a situation when there are a lot of things that can affect the outcome. It looks at how different things like time, place, or people can have an effect on the final result. It is useful when the situation you are looking at is complex and there are lots of different things that could affect the final outcome. For example, if you wanted to predict how successful a student would be in school, you could look at how other students with similar characteristics were doing, what grade they were in, and how much they had studied. With a nonlinear mixed-effects model, you can use all of this information to create a more accurate prediction.