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.
