Perform sensitivity analysis in structural equation modeling using 
    meta-heuristic optimization methods (e.g., ant colony optimization and others). 
    The references for the proposed methods are: 
    (1) Leite, W., & Shen, Z., Marcoulides, K., Fish, C., & Harring, J. (2022). 
    <doi:10.1080/10705511.2021.1881786>
    (2) Harring, J. R., McNeish, D. M., & Hancock, G. R. (2017)
    <doi:10.1080/10705511.2018.1506925>;
    (3) Fisk, C., Harring, J., Shen, Z., Leite, W., Suen, K., & Marcoulides, K. 
    (2022). <doi:10.1177/00131644211073121>;
    (4) Socha, K., & Dorigo, M. (2008) <doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2006.06.046>.
    We also thank Dr. Krzysztof Socha for sharing his research on ant colony optimization
    algorithm with continuous domains and associated R code,
    which provided the base for the development of this package.

Semiparametric Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Models following a two step procedure: in the first step semiparametric or nonparametric regression techniques are used to relax parametric restrictions of the functional form representing technology and in the second step variance parameters are obtained by pseudolikelihood estimators or by method of moments.

Supports eigenvalue block-averaging p-values (Foldnes, Grønneberg, 2018) <doi:10.1080/10705511.2017.1373021>,
    penalized eigenvalue block-averaging p-values (Foldnes, Moss, Grønneberg, 2024) <doi:10.1080/10705511.2024.2372028>, penalized
    regression p-values (Foldnes, Moss, Grønneberg, 2024) <doi:10.1080/10705511.2024.2372028>, as well as traditional p-values such as Satorra-Bentler. All p-values can
    be calculated using unbiased or biased gamma estimates (Du, Bentler, 2022) <doi:10.1080/10705511.2022.2063870> 
    and two choices of chi square statistics.

Provides miscellaneous tools for structural equation modeling, 
             many of which extend the 'lavaan' package. For example, latent
             interactions can be estimated using product indicators (Lin et al.,
             2010, <doi:10.1080/10705511.2010.488999>) and simple effects probed;
             analytical power analyses can be conducted (Jak et al., 2021,
             <doi:10.3758/s13428-020-01479-0>); and scale reliability
             can be estimated based on estimated factor-model parameters.