<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Cliff,<div><br></div><div>I don't understand why the next age of death would be 2. Perhaps I don't know enough about your data.<div><br></div><div>Anyway, it sounds like you might be better off fixing a minimum age to condition the model upon. e.g. add "minAge=1" as an argument to your model. The aim of this argument is to take account of the fact that you have no knowledge of the fate of very young individuals, and can only follow those that have reached a certain age.</div><div><br></div><div>In your case, the basta function will not produce a life table (since the individuals will be truncated), but the model (Gompertz) parameters will be estimated so you can see the trajectories. You could also use the MakeLifeTable function afterwards, as I described earlier, to produce a life table conditioned on individuals reaching that particular age.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Owen</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 7 Nov 2011, at 12:03, Cliff Cunningham wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Owen,<div><br><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>That worked beautifully!</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I seem to have a catch 22, however. The first year these animals were marked was 1979. If I put in 1979 as the birthdate, then the first set of ages of death is "zero", with the next age of death being "2"</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>When I input 1978 as the birthdate, then the first set of ages at death is "2", and counts up from there. This seems OK, except I get all the error messages I mentioned before.</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thanks for the trouble.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>All the best!</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Cliff Cunningham</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> Professor</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Biology Department</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Duke University</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "> 130 Science Drive</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Durham NC 27708<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Phone 919-660-7356<br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="http://www.biology.duke.edu/cunningham">http://www.biology.duke.edu/cunningham</a></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On Nov 7, 2011, at 11:58 AM, Owen Jones wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">MakeLifeTable(out$Xq[1,])</span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>