The summer school held in Portovenere followed a tutorial format with the purpose of familiarizing postdoctoral or postgraduate students in the basic theories and up-to-date applications of present knowledge. Although, from a teaching point of view, a certain areount of overlapping is always useful, in order to avoid excessive duplication direct contact between lecturers expert in the same subject was encouraged during the preparation phase. In recent years computer facilities and theoretical implementa tion have considerably increased the possibility of solving problems relating to signal...