Parameter estimation is a subject that is standard fare in the many books available on statistics. These books range from the highly theoretical expositions written by statisticians to the more practical treatments contributed by the many users of applied statistics. This text is an attempt to strike a balance between these two extremes. The particular audience we have in mind is the community involved in the design and implementation of signal processing algorithms. As such, the primary focus is on obtaining optimal estimation algorithms that may be implemented on a digital computer. The data sets are therefore assumed to be samples of a continuous-time waveform or a sequence of data points. The choice of topics reflects what we believe to be the important approaches to obtaining an optimal estimator and analyzing its performance. As a consequence, some of the deeper theoretical issues have been omitted with references given instead. <...>

We report the results of permeability measurements of fault gouge and tonalitic cataclasite from the fault zone of the Median Tectonic Line, Ohshika, central Japan, carried out during triaxial compression tests. The experiments revealed marked effects of deformation on the permeability of the specimens. Permeability of fault gouge decreases rapidly by about two orders of magnitude during initial loading and continues to decrease slowly during further inelastic deformation. The drop in permeability during initial loading is much smaller for cataclasite than for gouge, followed by abrupt increase upon failure, and the overall change in permeability correlates well with change in volumetric strain, i.e., initial, nearly elastic contraction followed by dilatancy upon the initiation of inelastic deformation towards specimen failure. If cemented cataclasite suffers deformation prior to or during an earthquake, a cataclasite zone may change into a conduit for fluid flow. Fault gouge zones, however, are unlikely to switch to very permeable zones upon the initiation of fault slip. Thus, overall permeability structure of a fault may change abruptly prior to or during earthquakes and during the interseismic period. Fault gouge and cataclasite have internal angles of friction of about 36j and 45j, respectively, as is typical for brittle rocks.

Crystal growth of diamonds at the Earth’s mantle depths of 150–800 km had been accompanied by a fragmentary capturing minerals, melts and volatile compounds (as diamond-hosted inclusions) from the parental melts. This indicates convincingly that diamonds were originated jointly with the phases of primary hermetic inclusions in a common parental medium. This opens up possibilities for evaluating the general chemistry of natural diamond-producing systems from the compositions of significantly different phases associated with diamonds in primary inclusions. Of particular value is that it has been made possible to determine the boundary compositions for the experimental systems which duplicate the natural ones responsible for genesis of diamonds and associated phases. As a consequence, the principal problems of diamond genetic mineralogy may be formulated. It became apparent, that the methodology of physico-chemical experiments is of crucial importance in solution of the genetic problems for diamonds and associated phases. <...>

Gale is pleased to present the third edition of Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia. This is the first new edition of Geo-Data since 1989, and it represents a complete revision and updating of that work. The purpose of the book remains unchanged: to provide the reader with the most detailed and comprehensive descriptions available for the physical geography of countries. Geo-Data’s focus and design is unique.