<P>This is the second edition of a highly succesful book which has sold nearly 3000 copies world wide since its publication in 1997.</P>
<P>Many chapters will be rewritten and expanded due to a lot of progress in these areas since the publication of the first edition.</P>
<P>Bernard Silverman is the author of two other books, each of which has lifetime sales of more than 4000 copies. He has a great reputation both as a researcher and an author. </P>
<P>This is likely to be the bestselling book in the Springer Series in Statistics for a couple of years.</P>