This overview paper presents and compares different methods traditionally used for estimating damped sinusoid parameters. Firstly, direct nonlinear least squares fitting the signal model in the time and frequency domains are described. Next, possible applications of the Hilbert transform for signal demodulation are presented. Then, a wide range of autoregressive modelling methods, valid for damped sinusoids, are discussed, in which frequency and damping are estimated from calculated signal linear self-prediction coefficients. These methods aim at solving, directly or using least squares, a matrix linear equation in which signal or its autocorrelation function samples are used. The Prony, Steiglitz-McBride, Kumaresan-Tufts, Total Least Squares, Matrix Pencil, Yule-Walker and Pisarenko methods are taken into account. Finally, the interpolated discrete Fourier transform is presented with examples of Bertocco, Yoshida, and Agrež algorithms. The Matlab codes of all the discussed methods are given. The second part of the paper presents simulation results, compared with the Cramér-Rao lower bound and commented. All tested methods are compared with respect to their accuracy (systematic errors), noise robustness, required signal length, and computational complexity.

In her fiction Olga Tokarczuk evokes a spectrum of belief systems rooted in diverse religious traditions and entrenched in their literary‑theological redoubts. This article is an attempt of presenting an overview of the belief systems and worldviews that can be found in all of Tokarczuk's novels. It also examines her view of religion, including her opinions and reactions that belong primarily to the narrower context of the Polish hic and nunc, and the religious entanglements of literature. The fact that Olga Tokarczuk, herself a graduate of psychology, has done of lot reading in neighbouring fields such as anthropology may explain her persistent preoccupation with the soul. It holds the key both to her religious imaginarium and to her fictions. The empathic soul represents the potential transgressiveness of existence. It is also, in her own words, "the most tender narrator", a story‑telling 'persona' endowed with the faculty of fostering engagement and a sense of responsibility for the state of the world. The article argues that Tokarczuk's aim is to conjure up and activate its 'persona', or soul, and while making it interact with the reader's soul, initiate a chain reaction that breaks barriers between human beings, and reaches out beyond the confines of the human world. That process begins with her playing around with multiple religious traditions to demonstrate that their borders and defences are anything but impregnable.