2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/131080We claim to give the definitive theory of what we call the `knee-jerk mapping', which is the basis for a class of optimization algorithms introduced by Baum, and promoted by Dempster, Laird, and Rubin under the name `EM algorithm'.Version dated 5 October 1998. Freely redistributable (GNU FDL)ProbabilityStatistics Theory60J22; 65C40; 49M29text