The current scientific and technical literature in the fields of medi cine and engineering, in addition to learned society journals, embraces textbooks, monographs and conference proceedings. The last of these cate gories is potentially of prime importance given the increasing pace at which knowledge is advancing. However, traditional conference proceedings often tend to be indigestable, both due to their excessive volume and to the un evenness of the ingredients. Here we have attempted to overcome these deficiencies by selecting a set of contributions which, in our opinion, in the best sense...