This volume contains a re-edition of Max Koecher's famous Minnesota Notes. The main objects are homogeneous, but not necessarily convex, cones. They are described in terms of Jordan algebras. The central point is a correspondence between semisimple real Jordan algebras and so-called omega-domains. This leads to a construction of half-spaces which give an essential part of all bounded symmetric domains. The theory is presented in a concise manner, with only elementary prerequisites. The editors have added notes on each chapter containing an account of the relevant developments of the theory since these notes were first written.

This monograph brings together my work in mathematical statistics as I have viewed it through the lens of Jordan algebras. Three technical domains are to be seen: applications to random quadratic forms (sums of squares), the investigation of algebraic simplifications of maxi mum likelihood estimation of patterned covariance matrices, and a more wide open mathematical exploration of the algebraic arena from which I have drawn the results used in the statistical problems just mentioned. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 present the statistical outcomes I have developed using the algebraic results that appear, for the most part, in Chapter 3. As a less daunting, yet quite efficient, point of entry into this material, one avoiding most of the abstract algebraic issues, the reader may use the first half of Chapter 4. Here I present a streamlined, but still fully rigorous, definition of a Jordan algebra (as it is used in that chapter) and its essential properties. These facts are then immediately applied to simplifying the M:-step of the EM algorithm for multivariate normal covariance matrix estimation, in the presence of linear constraints, and data missing completely at random. The results presented essentially resolve a practical statistical quest begun by Rubin and Szatrowski [1982], and continued, sometimes implicitly, by many others. After this, one could then return to Chapters 1 and 2 to see how I have attempted to generalize the work of Cochran, Rao, Mitra, and others, on important and useful properties of sums of squares.

The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.

This book provides an approach to the study of perturbation and discretization effects on the long-time behavior of dynamical and control systems. It analyzes the impact of time and space discretizations on asymptotically stable attracting sets, attractors, asumptotically controllable sets and their respective domains of attractions and reachable sets. Combining robust stability concepts from nonlinear control theory, techniques from optimal control and differential games and methods from nonsmooth analysis, both qualitative and quantitative results are obtained and new algorithms are developed, analyzed and illustrated by examples.

This text provides an approach to the study of perturbation and discretization effects on the long-time behaviour of dynamical and control systems. It analyzes the impact of time and space discretizations on asymptotically stable attracting sets, attractors and asumptotically controllable sets.