This function is a constructor for the varConstPower class,
  representing a constant plus power variance function
  structure. Letting \(v\) denote the variance covariate and
  \(\sigma^2(v)\) denote the variance function evaluated at
  \(v\), the constant plus power variance function is defined as
  \(\sigma^2(v) = (\theta_1 + |v|^\theta_2)^2\), where \(\theta_1,\theta_2\) are the variance  
  function coefficients. When a grouping factor is present, different
  \(\theta_1,\theta_2\) are used for each factor level.
varConstPower(const, power, form, fixed)optional numeric vectors, or lists of numeric
    values, with, respectively, the coefficients for the constant 
    and the power terms. Both arguments must have length one, unless a
    grouping factor is specified in form. If either argument has
    length greater than one, it must have names which identify its
    elements to the levels of the grouping factor defined in
    form. If a grouping factor is present in 
    form and the argument has length one, its value will be
    assigned to all grouping levels. Only positive values are allowed
    for const. Default is numeric(0), which
    results in a vector of zeros of appropriate length being assigned to
    the coefficients when object is initialized (corresponding
    to constant variance equal to one).
an optional one-sided formula of the form ~ v, or
    ~ v | g, specifying a variance covariate v and,
    optionally, a grouping factor g for the coefficients. The
    variance covariate must evaluate to a numeric vector and may involve
    expressions using ".", representing  a fitted model object
    from which fitted values (fitted(.)) and residuals
    (resid(.)) can be extracted (this allows the variance
    covariate to be updated during the optimization of an object
    function). When a grouping factor is present in form,
    a different coefficient value is used for each of its
    levels. Several grouping variables may be
    simultaneously specified, separated by the * operator, as
    in ~ v | g1 * g2 * g3. In this case, the levels of each
    grouping variable are pasted together and the resulting factor is
    used to group the observations. Defaults to ~ fitted(.)
    representing a variance covariate given by the fitted values of a
    fitted model object and no grouping factor.
an optional list with components const and/or
    power, consisting of numeric vectors, or lists of numeric
    values, specifying the values at which some or all of the
    coefficients in the variance function should be fixed. If a grouping
    factor is specified in form, the components of fixed
    must have names identifying which coefficients are to be
    fixed. Coefficients included in fixed are not allowed to vary
    during the optimization of an objective function. Defaults to
    NULL, corresponding to no fixed coefficients.
a varConstPower object representing a constant plus power
  variance function structure, also inheriting from class
  varFunc.
Pinheiro, J.C., and Bates, D.M. (2000) "Mixed-Effects Models in S and S-PLUS", Springer.
# NOT RUN {
vf1 <- varConstPower(1.2, 0.2, form = ~age|Sex)
# }
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