1: Interpolated Marlov Chain (IMaCh program)
2:
3: This program is GPL licensed for the part the code that we wrote at
4: INED. But currently (version 0.97b may 2004) maximization routines use
5: a modified version of the patented routines from "Numerical Recipes in
6: C". If you have the right to use the sources of their software you can
7: get access to the source code and to the CVS tree of IMaCh.
8:
9: The program estimates Health Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal
10: studies.
11: The main publication is Lievre, A. Brouard. N, Heathcote
12: Ch. Estimating Health Expectancies from Corss-longitudinal surveys,
13: Mathematical Population Studies, 10(1), 2003, pp. 1-52.
14:
15: To be brief, for each people interviewed we have the age and health
16: states at each interview. Also the month of death is known. We model
17: the probability to be observed in any state at any age via a
18: parametric model and estimate the parameters and their confidence interval
19: by maximum likelihood, many tables and graphs are output in
20: HTML. Graphs are built using gnuplot.
21:
22: In the Windows version, gnuplot is also distributed. Version 4 is out
23: since early 2004 and is used by latest version of Imach (at least
24: version 0.38i is required).
25: IMaCh is supposed to work on Linux, MacIntosh and Windows (9X or
26: NT/XP).
27:
28: WINDOWS
29: On Windows it is distributed via a setup file (no more a zip file). As
30: usual you can put the 'imach' directory in Program Files or
31: wherever. The directory contains at least 2 directories, 'bin' for the
32: binaries which are imach.exe and gnuplot.exe, doc for some of the
33: documentation, and 'mytry' in order to test the program on a parameter
34: file name 'mypar.imach'.
35:
36: You still can click on the imach.exe icon (which opens a DOS window)
37: and drag your parameter file into the DOS windows and enter
38: return. But with the newly installable version (>0.97) you can use the right
39: click (once your mouse cursor is on an foo.imach file) to either edit the
40: parameter file (with wordpad) or execute this parameter file via
41: imach.
42: If the program runs well you get a main foo.htm file which can be viewed
43: with your browser and which includes all the results.
44:
45: As the program output a file named foo.gp which is executed by gnuplot
46: in order to draw all the graphs, you can edit it and customize it at
47: your will.
48:
49: By default the file gnuplot.exe is located on the same directory as
50: imach and is used by imach with its absolute path. Thus if you have
51: another gnuplot program which is in your path it will not be used by
52: imach (we tried to simplify the installation process).
53:
54: If you download a newer version of IMaCh you are supposed to Uninstall the
55: former version with the standard Install/Uninstall process of Windows.
56:
57: The Windows version is compiled via cygwin (gcc -mno-cygwin -o imach
58: imach.c). It can be used on a command line with the command "imach
59: foo.imach". But then imach.exe must be in your path.
60: The program can be used (with more comfort?) on Linux or on a
61: MacIntosh.
62:
63: Enjoy (?) using IMaCh.
64:
65: You may subscribe to imach-users@listes.ined.fr by sending a mail at
66: imach-users-subscribe@listes.ined.fr and you can unsubscribe with a
67: mail to imach-users-unsubscribe@listes.ined.fr .
68:
69: Nicolas Brouard (brouard at ined point fr)
70: Agnès Lièvre (lievre chez ined dot fr)
71: Christopher Heathcote
72:
73:
74:
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