MARK Version 5.1 April 2008

[gwhite]

The following new features are now available from the MARK download site. As noted below, you may want to back up your old MARK files before opening them with this new version, just in case the transition to the new version isn't quite as seamless as I think it is.

April, 2008 Version 5.1

151. Design matrix functions (add, product, power, min, max, log, exp, lt gt, le, ge, eq) can now be called recursively. So, an entry in the design matrix such as
log(add(age,30))
will now work. The price of this recursion is that the "COLx" capability to refer to a prior column in the design matrix had to be removed. See the help file on design matrix functions for full details.
152. The ability to enter missing encounter history data with a dot ('.') has been extended to the robust design and multi-state closed robust design data types. This capability was already available for the Cormack-Jolly-Seber (see # 139 above) and the multi-state data types.

153. The Pradel seniority (γ) and Pradel recruitment (f) data types now produce the full variance-covariance matrix of the derived lambda parameters. Therefore, variance components on lambda can now be conducted with these lambda estimates.

154. Four additional variables have been added to the Results File: BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion), -2log(Likelihood), a Time Stamp, and a memo field to contain notes about the model. To see these variables in the Results Browser window, you have to go to File | Preferences and click on the appropriate checkboxes. If you select BIC, then AICc will not be displayed, and the model weights and model likelihood values will reflect BIC values, instead of AICc values. The Results Browser can be ordered (sorted) by BIC. I should have included -2log(Likelihood) in the Results File from the beginning, but at the time, Deviance seemed adequate. However, with the inclusion of many data types in MARK where the computation of Deviance is not clear, -2log(Likelihood) seems necessary. The Time Stamp is included so that you can see when the model was run. The format is YY:MM:DD:HH:MM:SS, i.e., last 2 digits of year, month, day, hour, minute, and seconds. The Results Browser can be ordered (sorted) on the Time Stamp. Model Notes can be included to describe some details about the model. An icon is on the tool bar, or a menu choice is available under the Adjustments menu. The conversion of old files to the new format that includes these four additional variables should be seamless, but just to be safe, you may want to back up your old Results File (both the DBF and FPT files) before opening the Results File with the new version. The MARK Help File has been updated to describe these new capabilities.

155. The capability to add notes about the entire analysis is now included. The File Notes menu choice is under the Output menu choice in the Results Browser, or available with an icon on the tool bar.

156. A bug was fixed so that the mean value of an individual covariate is now correctly computed when the encounter history frequency is >1.


Let me know of any issues you encounter.

Gary White

[cooch]

The following new features are now available from the MARK download site...

Meaning, both on Gary's primary site, and here

http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/download/