mortalityHazard-class: mortalityHazard
In dfeehan/mortfit: Fit and evaluate mortality models

representation of a mortality hazard function

name: the hazard's name
num.param: the number of parameters the hazard uses
theta.default: default values for the parameters
theta.start.fn: if not NULL, a function which takes a mortalityData object and returns starting values to be used in a numerical optimization routine
binomial.grad.fn: if not NULL, a function which takes a parametr vector and a mortalityData object and returns the gradient of the binomial log-likelihood. Used in some numerical optimization routines
theta.range: if not NULL, a list with one entry for each parameter. Each parameter's entry has a range of plausible values for the parameter, which can be used if an optimization routine wants to choose a random starting value
optim.default: default settings to use with R's optim function
haz.fn: a function which takes two arguments, a vector of parameter values and a vector of ages, and returns the value of the hazard function with the given parameter values at each age.
haz.to.prob.fn: if not NULL a function which takes two arguments, a vector of parameter values and a vector of ages, and returns the value of exp(-\int_{z}^{z+1} -μ(x)dx), ie the result of converting the hazard to conditional probabilities of dying between ages z and z+1 for each age z.