Acoustic Microscopy: System Resolution of the Scanning Tomographic Acoustic Microscope; S.D. Kent, H. Lee. Biomedical: Noninvasive Temperature Imaging Using Ultrasound Echo Strain: Preliminary Simulations; J.C. Bamer, et al. Bone and Cartilage: Bone Elastometric Imaging Using Ultrasound Critrical-Angle Reflectometry (UCR); P.P. Antich, et al. Cardiology: Improvement on Quality of Echocardiograms;Y. Abiko, et al. Components and Systems: Feasibility of Littoral Imaging with a 3 kHz Synthetic Aperture Sonar; S.A. Celuzza, et al. Doppler: 3D Power Doppler Ultrasound Imaging of an In Vitro Arterial Stenosis; L. Allard, et al. Mathematics and Physics: A New Approach to Obtain Nondiffraction Beam with Near-Field Resolution on Linear and Convex Arrays; Z.M. Benenson, et al. Nondestructive Evaluation: Modular System for Detection of Flaws in Metal Blocks; P. Acevedo-Contla, et al. Oceanography: Reconstruction of Flow and Refractive Ocean Parameters by Tomography Methods; S.V. Baykov, et al. Tomography: Synthetic Aperture Computed Tomography; I. Akiyama, K. Yano. 90 Additional Articles. Author Index. Subject Index.

Attilio Ferrari I want to recall here the basic points I raised at the beginning of the Workshop as the main targets of discussion (in the name of the Scientific Committee). I attempted to focus the attention of participants on the fact that, in many instances, we tend to discuss jets in terms of simple physics, more or less as one did at the time extragalactic radio sources were discovered: for instance, we still use equipartition arguments. However, we must realize that processes in jets, leading to their morphologies and energetics clearly depend on complex plasma phenomena. Therefore, the same standard arguments used to derive characteristic parameters should be questioned; some of the speakers were invited to attempt a critical analysis of this point, an~ in fact I believe that this "inquisitive attitude" was actually present all along the Workshop. Observers were asked to choose the parameters to be used in a statistical sample of jets. For this they were urged, first of all, to distinguish between primary and secondary features. For instance, are knots and wiggles common to all jets? Are relativistic flow velocities expected in all active nuclei? Are jets denser or lighter than the external medium? On the theoretical side I asked to discuss whether or not existing models are in accordance with the limited statistical sample that we have today. And which should be the lines of development to be pursued first, and to what extent.

The contents of this volume are the proceedings of the 23'd International Symposium on Acoustical Imaging which took place 13-16 April, 1997, in Boston, Massachusetts. The first Symposium met 25 years ago. Originally the Symposium met in California, then elsewhere within the United States but beginning in 1988 the Symposia began to meet outside of the United States as welL It is now being held about every eighteen months, alternately in the United States and then outside. The present pattern is to hold one meeting in East Asia, then in the USA, then in Europe and again in the USA However, for scheduling reasons the next Symposium will be in Santa Barbara, California, followed by England and then East Asia. It is to be noted that the Symposium is a free standing institution, not associated with any other organization. Each meeting is the total responsibility of its chairman with the advice of past chairmen. Papers are submitted in response to the call for them and reviewed by an International Scientific Advisory Board . . The quality depends entirely on the response to the calL It is gratifYing to note that the Symposium has attained the status that attracts high quality contributions despite (or perhaps because ot) the loose structure. Two factors that have appeal are that there is only one session and that there is time during the meeting for extensive discussion.

Attilio Ferrari I want to recall here the basic points I raised at the beginning of the Workshop as the main targets of discussion (in the name of the Scientific Committee). I attempted to focus the attention of participants on the fact that, in many instances, we tend to discuss jets in terms of simple physics, more or less as one did at the time extragalactic radio sources were discovered: for instance, we still use equipartition arguments. However, we must realize that processes in jets, leading to their morphologies and energetics clearly depend on complex plasma phenomena. Therefore, the same standard arguments used to derive characteristic parameters should be questioned; some of the speakers were invited to attempt a critical analysis of this point, an~ in fact I believe that this "inquisitive attitude" was actually present all along the Workshop. Observers were asked to choose the parameters to be used in a statistical sample of jets. For this they were urged, first of all, to distinguish between primary and secondary features. For instance, are knots and wiggles common to all jets? Are relativistic flow velocities expected in all active nuclei? Are jets denser or lighter than the external medium? On the theoretical side I asked to discuss whether or not existing models are in accordance with the limited statistical sample that we have today. And which should be the lines of development to be pursued first, and to what extent.

Scopo del testo e' introdurre i concetti base della fisica stellare, della fisica delle galassie e della cosmologia con approccio essenzialmente fisico. La prima parte presenta le tecniche osservative sia nella banda ottica, sia nelle alte frequenze e nella banda radio. La parte dedicata alle stelle discute modelli di struttura e l evoluzione. La terza parte e dedicata alle galassie, morfologia, formazione ed evoluzione, per giungere allo studio della distribuzione sulle grandi scale. La sezione di cosmologia presenta i modelli cosmologici relativistici, con la discussione del big-bang, inflazione, materia oscura, energia oscura. Il testo rappresenta la raccolta delle lezioni tenute dall autore per i corsi introduttivi di astrofisica delle lauree specialistiche in Fisica e Astrofisica nei passati 30 anni, ma include elementi avanzati utili per corsi introduttivi di astrofisica nel dottorato in Fisica. Il testo e' anche stato utilizzato in forma preliminare da colleghi di altre sedi.

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