error messages

[mckinn98]

Good day !

I am currently using MARK nest survival analysis for the first time. I have been successful with a few files but when running one of the files I receive an error message as follows: WARNING Error #2 from VA09AD optimization routine . I still receive results but I am not sure if there is a problem with the results.

Also, when selecting files, I continuously receive the message that I have too many semicolons in the file when I am sure there are not. I have checked the files in many different formats to see if there are hidden semicolons but I cannot find them . Will this affect the results?

Merci,
Laura.

[gwhite]

Laura:
Thanks for sending your data files so that I could check what was going on.

The error message concerning optimization goes away if you switch to a different link function, e.g., logit. The results are the same, so the original results were correct. The "WARNING Error #2 from VA09AD optimization routine" typically means that something was not quite right, but in your case, with only one parameter being optimized, I think it was just rounding error that caused the problem.

The second error I think you mis-interpreted. You only have 30 animals in the analysis, but with 192 occasions. I think the error message you received for this was because MARK is wondering if you have enough data for this large number of occasions, so the warning message is asking you to be sure that you have correctly specified the data. MARK counts the number of semicolons in the input file as a measure of the amount of data present.

Gary

[mckinn98]

Thank you Gary !
Your help has been very much appreciated

Laura.