  This dissertation has been submitted to the Faculdade de Ci\^encias da
Universidade do Porto in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD
degree in Astronomy. The scientific results presented herein follow from the
research activity performed under the supervision of Dr. M\'ario Jo\~ao
Monteiro at the Centro de Astrof\'isica da Universidade do Porto and Dr. Hans
Kjeldsen at the Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet. The
dissertation is composed of three chapters and a list of appendices. Chapter 1
serves as an unpretentious and rather general introduction to the field of
asteroseismology of solar-like stars. It starts with a historical account of
the field of asteroseismology followed by a general review of the basic physics
and properties of stellar pulsations. Emphasis is then naturally placed on the
stochastic excitation of stellar oscillations and on the potential of
asteroseismic inference. The chapter closes with a discussion about
observational techniques and the observational status of the field. Chapter 2
is devoted to the subject of data analysis in asteroseismology. This is an
extensive subject, therefore, a compilation is presented of the relevant data
analysis methods and techniques employed contemporarily in asteroseismology of
solar-like stars. Special attention has been drawn to the subject of
statistical inference both from the competing Bayesian and frequentist
perspectives. The chapter ends with a description of the implementation of a
pipeline for mode parameter analysis of Kepler data. In the course of these two
first chapters, reference is made to a series of articles led by the author (or
otherwise having greatly benefited from his contribution) that can be found in
Appendices A to E. Chapter 3 then goes on to present a series of additional
published results.
