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The author has identified the following significant results. Results show that the new algorithm produced cleaner classification maps in which holes of small predesignated sizes were eliminated and significant boundary information was preserved. These cleaner post-processed maps better resemble true life timber stand maps and are thus more usable products than the pre-post-processing ones: Compared to an accepted neighbor-checking post-processing technique, the new algorithm is more appropriate for timber stand mapping.

The theory and applications are presented of a new image enhancement algorithm which refines computer classification maps of multispectral data. The refinement eliminates connected sets smaller than a prespecified size and merges them to the surrounding area. Conventional practices in forestry timber stand mapping requires small geographic areas to be absorbed by surrounding large areas to form homogeneous stands. This homogeneity is often incompatible with the statistical formulation of homogeneity. Elements within a timber stand which should be labeled as one feature often correspond to more than one class mapped by existing computer classification techniques. The new algorithm is designed to postprocess classification maps to result in more usable timber stand maps. The new image enhancement technique is compared with an accepted neighbor-checking postprocessing technique, demonstrating the superiority of the new technique for forestry stand mapping.

A generalization of Bucy's (1965) representation theorem is obtained under very weak hypotheses. The generalized theorem is shown to play the same role in the case of general optimal estimation for an arbitrary random process as does the Bucy theorem in the case of optimal filtering for a diffusion process. At least for the models considered, the possibility is pointed out to reduce all sequential estimation problems to the problem of filtering. Hence, filtering theory is seen to represent the core of estimation theory, and is believed to define the direction in which future research should be focused.