svrep 0.7.0

• Added the successive difference replication method, with functions as_sdr_design() and make_sdr_replicate_factors().

• For the generalized bootstrap functions, the default value for the argument tau is now 1 instead of auto.
  This means that generalized bootstrap replicates are not rescaled by default.

• The function rescale_reps() has been deprecated in favor of the replacement rescale_replicates(). The function rescale_replicates() uses an argument new_scale instead of tau, so that users can directly specify the desired scale factor after rescaling. Using rescale_reps() will emit a warning message.

• Added a kernel-based variance estimator (of Breidt, Opsomer, and Sanchez-Borrego 2016) for finely stratified or systematic samples. This can be used by calling as_fays_gen_rep_design(..., variance_estimator = "BOSB") or as_gen_boot_design(..., variance_estimator = "BOSB"). Or you can directly create the quadratic form matrix for this estimator using the function make_kernel_var_matrix(). Currently only supports a single auxiliary variable and only the Epanechnikov kernel function.

• Added the option variance_estimator = "Beaumont-Emond" to the generalized replication methods.

• For Fay's generalized replication, the default value of max_replicates is now Inf, meaning that there is no limit on the number of replicates that will be included in the output.

• Functions for Fay's generalized replication method are now noticeably faster.

• Added more detailed documentation to the Rao-Wu-Yue-Beaumont bootstrap method.

• Added new options to enable users to speed up the creation of replicate weights if they have the 'torch' package installed. For more details, see help('svrep-package-options', package = 'svrep').