3 and a fraction mayor may not respond to treatment. On the behavioral level, animal research shows that a variety of experimental conditions can induce de pression. The same is true in the field of treatment, where pharmacologically highly different drugs can equally alleviate depression in animals and hu mans. The question as to whether this is due to a heterogeneity of depressive subjects based on different pathogenetic mechanisms is open to discussion. We can look for common features of all possible causal factors in the hope of finding a single basic mechanism. Many divergent findings may also be ex plained as peripheral changes of a highly complicated dynamic system. In the field of psychopharmacology, a circular reasoning has become evident in the sense that originally the clinical antidepressive response was founded on empirical grounds only. In a second step, an attempt was made to characterize some clinically active compounds pharmacologically, and in a third, further compounds were developed based on aspects of the pharmaco logical profiles. Moreover, the post hoc development of a pharmacological screening method has the serious disadvantage of delaying breakthroughs into new fields."

The scientific work of Walther Birkmayer is grounded on his ability to turn what was often a mass of clinical details into the basis for a hypothesis for a new therapeutic approach toward solving the problems of a patient's illness. Birkmayer first became known when, during the Second World War, he built up a clinic for brain injuries in Vienna, in which over 3000 patients were treated. The study of changes in the autonomic functions of the nervous system in these patients as well as the problems of rehabilitation were published in a monograph, "Hirn- verletzungen". Consequently, this was his major scientific interest during the post-war years. His book, "Klinik und Therapie der vegetativen Funktionsstorungen" published with W. Winkler, brought Birkmayer recognition in the German-speaking world. In 1954 he took over the Neurological Department of the Geriatric Hospital of Vienna in Lainz, where he remained until his retirement in 1975. International acclaim followed his breakthrough with the clinical application of L-DOPA in Parkinson's disease. Birkmayer, as a strong adherent to the scientific interpretation of neurological and psychiatric disease, has encouraged multidisciplinary research. This is reflected in his establishment of the former Ludwig Boltzmann- Institute of Neurochemistry, in which pharmacological, biochemical and histopathological research into neuropsychiatric diseases was performed under one roof. Further to his initial work on L-DOPA, Birkmayer has been in the forefront of supplementary parkinsonian therapy using enzyme inhibitors: benserazide in 1967, unselective monoamine oxidase inhibitors in 1962 and deprenyl in 1975.

Over the last three decades, the evolution of techniques for the experimental testing of composite materials has struggled to keep up with the advances and broadening areas of application of the composite materials themselves. In recent years, however, much work has been done to consolidate and better understand the test methods being used. Finally, a consensus regarding the best available methods exists, and definitive recommendations can be made. Experimental Characterization of Advanced Composite Materials provides a succinct, authoritative treatment of the best available methods for determining the mechanical properties, thermal expansion coefficients, and fracture and strength data for composite materials. With an emphasis firmly on practical matters, it presents processing techniques, specimen preparation, analyses of test methods, test procedures, and data reduction schemes. Five chapters covering specific aspects of lamina testing are followed by discussions extending those principles to laminate responses. The treatment concludes by exploring composite durability issues with a detailed examination of defects and fracture mechanics. The Fourth Edition is revised to include: New figures, updated ASTM standards, and an expanded index Major additions in processing of thermoset resins, neat resin tests, sandwich structures, cure analyses, damage tolerance tests, single fiber tests, fiber matrix interface tests, interlaminar tension tests, through-thickness tension and compression tests, open-hole compression tests, falling weight impact tests, compression-after-impact tests, sandwich beam and core tests, and more With its concise format, detailed procedures, and expert assessments, this book is an outstanding resource for composites manufacturing and test engineers, lab technicians, and other industry professionals, as well as students, academia, and government research and engineering organizations. It brings together all of the most appropriate and widely accepted test methods developed to date.

Das meiste aus dem Inhalt dieses Buches wurde in den letzten zehn Jahren den fortgeschrittenen Studenten an der UniversiUit in Delaware gelehrt. Wahrend dieser Zeit ist den Autoren aufgefallen, daJ3 kein Buch die experimentelle Charakterisierung von Hochleistungsverbundwerkstoffen auf das wesentliche komprimiert abhandelt. Die meisten heutigen Bucher behandeln nur die Analyse von Verbundwerkstoffen. Das Ziel dieses Buches ist es, die Herstellungstechniken, Probenvorbereitung, Analyse von Testmethoden, Tests und Auswertemethoden zu beschreiben, urn die mechanischen Eigenschaften, thermische Ausdehnungskoeffizienten sowie Bruch- und Festigkeitswerte von Hochleistungsverbunden zu ermitteln. Dabei wurde besonderer Wert auf die praktische Durchfuhrung, wie Vorbereiten und Testen der Probenkorper und die Auswertemethodik gelegt. Viele Testmethoden sind ASTM-Standards oder fUr die ASTM- Standardisierung vorgeschlagen. 1m besonderen werden einige der in Kapitel 13 beschriebenen interlaminaren Bruchtestmethoden gerade in ASTM-Komitees untersucht, urn geeignete Testgeometrien. Testverfahren und Auswerteverfahren festzulegen. Es wurde nicht der Versuch unternommen, einen detaillierten Uberblick uber die Mechanik oder Bruchmechanik der Verbundwerkstoffe zu geben. Abhandlungen dieser Art findet man in vielen vorangegangenen Lehrbuchern auf die im Text verwiesen wird. Nur eine Zusammenfassung des elementaren theoretischen Hintergrunds wird in Kapitel 2 gegeben. Uberdies wurde nicht der Versuch gemacht einen Uberblick uber die verschiedenen Testmethoden zu geben. da dies anderswo behandelt wird. Die etwas detaillierter geschilderten Methoden werden fUr die am meist Geeignetsten und weit Verbreitetsten gehalten. Weitere neue Entwicklungen konnen jedoch auf diesem wachsenden Gebiet erwartet werden. Dieses Buch beschrankt sich auf Hochleistungsverbundwerkstoffe.