The contents of this book correspond to Sessions VII and VIII of the
International Workshop on Instabilities and Nonequilibrium Structures
which took place in Vifia del Mar, Chile, in December 1997 and December
1999, respectively. We were not able to publish this book before and we
apologize for this fact to the authors and participants of the meeting.
We have made an effort to actualize the courses and articles which have
been reviewed by the authors. Both Workshops were organized by Facultad
de Ciencias Fisicas y Matematicas, Universidad de Chile, Instituto de
Fisica of Universidad Cat61ica de Valparaiso and Centro de Fisica No
Lineal y Sistemas Complejos de Santiago. We are glad to acknowledge here
the support of the Facultad de Ingenieria of Universidad de los Andes of
Santiago which also be from now on one of the organizing Institutions of
future Workshops. Enrique Tirapegui PREFACE This book is divided in two
parts. In Part I we have collected the courses given in Sessions VII and
VIII of the Workshop and in Part II we include a selection of the
invited Conferences and Seminars presented at both meetings.