State covariances of linear systems satisfy certain constraints imposed by the underlying dynamics. These constraints dictate a particular structure of state covariances. However, sample covariances almost always fail to have the required structure. The renewed interest in using state covariances for estimating the power spectra of inputs gives rise to the approximation problem. In this note, t...

Trade-offs among life-history traits are central to evolutionary theory. In quantitative genetic terms, trade-offs may be manifested as negative genetic covariances relative to the direction of selection on phenotypic traits. Although the expression and selection of ecologically important phenotypic variation are fundamentally multivariate phenomena, the in situ quantification of genetic covari...

Comparative methods analyses have usually assumed that the species phenotypes are the true means for those species. In most analyses, the actual values used are means of samples of modest size. The covariances of contrasts then involve both the covariance of evolutionary changes and a fraction of the within-species phenotypic covariance, the fraction depending on the sample size for that specie...

In this paper the robustness of Kalman filtering against uncertainties in process and measurement noise covariances is discussed. It is shown that a standard Kalman filter may not be robust enough if the process and measurement noise covariances are changed. A new filter is proposed which addresses the uncertainties in process and measurement noise covariances and gives better results than the ...

The inference of causation from correlation is in general highly problematic. Correspondingly, it is difficult to infer the existence of physical synaptic connections between neurons from correlations in their activity. Covariances in neural spike trains and their relation to network structure have been the subject of intense research, both experimentally and theoretically. The influence of rec...