These volumes, 9 and 10, of Fracture Mechanics of Ceramics constitute the proceedings of an international symposium on the fracture mechanics of ceramic materials held at the Japan Fine Ceramics Center, Nagoya, Japan on July 15, 16, 17, 1991. These proceedings constitute the fifth pair of volumes of a continuing series of conferences. Volumes 1 and 2 were from the 1973 symposium, volumes 3 and 4 from a 1977 symposium, and volumes 5 and 6 from a 1981 symposium all of which were held at The Pennsylvania State University. Volumes 7 and 8 are from the 1985 symposium which was held at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The theme ofthis conference, as for the previous four, focused on the mechanical behavior ofceramic materials in terms of the characteristics of cracks, particularly the roles which they assume in the fracture processes and mechanisms. The 82 contributed papers by over 150 authors and co-authors represent the current state of that field. They address many of the theoretical and practical problems ofinterest to those scientists and engineers concerned with brittle fracture.

The volumes 11 and 12 of Fracture Mechanics of Ceramics constitute the proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Fracture Mechanics of Ceramics held at the Research Center Karlsruhe, Germany, July 18,19,20,1995. As in previous conferences the state of the art of the failure behaviour of monolithic engineering ceramics and of reinforced ceramics was discussed. The 90 papers by over 200 authors and co-authors address the recent devel- opments in the understanding and the modelling of the fracture processes in brittle materi- als. The main topics are R-curve behaviour, toughness determination, surface effects, com- posite materials, high temperature behaviour, ceramic-metal joints, fatigue. The program chairmen gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Science Foundation) which made possible the participa- tion of scientists from East Europe. We also thank Mrs. Eva Schroder from the Research Cen- ter Karlsruhe, the local organization committee (Dirk Hertel, Claus Petersen, Dr. Franz Porz, Rainer Weif3) and the conference secretary Mrs. Lucia Borchardt for their conscientious and efficient organization of all details of the conference, Mrs. Isabella Daubenthaler and Mrs. Natascha Rothweiler for preparing the booklet of abstracts and Dr. Theo Fett for his help in editing the proceedings.

This Volume 13 of the Fracture Mechanics of Ceramics series constitutes the th Proceedings of the 7 International Symposium on the fracture mechanics of ceramics held at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia on July 20 to 22, 1999. The series started from the Proceedings of the 1 st Symposium at the Pennsylvania State University that has been held on 1973 (Vols. 1 and 2), followed by 1977 and 1981 Years meetings (Vols. 3 to 6) which were held at the Pennsylvania State University, too. Volumes 7 and 8 are from the 1985 Symposium which was held at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Volumes 9 and 10 are from the 1991 Symposium at Japan Fine Ceramic Centre, Nagoya, and Volumes 11 and 12 are from the 1995 Symposium at Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe. The theme of the Symposium was focused on the mechanical behaviour of advanced ceramics in terms of the cracks, particularly the crack-microstructure interaction, delayed failure, environmental effects in fracture. Special attention was paid on the novel methods in fracture mechanics testing, pre-standardisation and standartisation. The authors from 19 countries represented the current state of that field. The International Scientific Committee gratefully acknowledge the sponsoring provided by The Russian Academy of Sciences and, personally, Academician Yu.S.Osipov, President of RAS; The Ministry of Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation, Prof. G.Terestchenko; Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Academician I.Moiseev; Scientific Technical Center "Bacor," Dr. B.Krasnij; Gzhel Ltd., Prof.

This Volume 13 of the Fracture Mechanics of Ceramics series constitutes the th Proceedings of the 7 International Symposium on the fracture mechanics of ceramics held at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia on July 20 to 22, 1999. The series started from the Proceedings of the 1 st Symposium at the Pennsylvania State University that has been held on 1973 (Vols. 1 and 2), followed by 1977 and 1981 Years meetings (Vols. 3 to 6) which were held at the Pennsylvania State University, too. Volumes 7 and 8 are from the 1985 Symposium which was held at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Volumes 9 and 10 are from the 1991 Symposium at Japan Fine Ceramic Centre, Nagoya, and Volumes 11 and 12 are from the 1995 Symposium at Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe. The theme of the Symposium was focused on the mechanical behaviour of advanced ceramics in terms of the cracks, particularly the crack-microstructure interaction, delayed failure, environmental effects in fracture. Special attention was paid on the novel methods in fracture mechanics testing, pre-standardisation and standartisation. The authors from 19 countries represented the current state of that field. The International Scientific Committee gratefully acknowledge the sponsoring provided by The Russian Academy of Sciences and, personally, Academician Yu.S.Osipov, President of RAS; The Ministry of Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation, Prof. G.Terestchenko; Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Academician I.Moiseev; Scientific Technical Center "Bacor," Dr. B.Krasnij; Gzhel Ltd., Prof.

Volumes 11 and 12 of the series contain the 90 papers of an international symposium in Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 1995, which continued the investigation of failure behavior in monolithic engineering ceramics and reinforced ceramics. Addresses recent developments in the understanding and modelling

The 8th International Symposium on fracture mechanics of ceramics was held in on the campus of the University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA, on February 25-28, 2003. With the natural maturing of the fields of structural ceramics, this symposium focused on nano-scale materials, composites, thin films and coatings as well as glass. The symposium also addressed new issues on fundamentals of fracture mechanics and contact mechanics, and a session on reliability and standardization.

In 2006 my oldest daughter Indira Mandisa returned to our home in Cutler Bay, South Florida for a six months stay and brought her pet feline, Patience, along. Although I was not keen on the idea, I agreed (albeit) under considerable pressure. I was never a 'Cat Person' as such and, quite frankly, never imagined having one of those furry little buggers around ... much less living with one. Although I was initially insistent that the Cat's stay was going to be a short term situation, Patience eventually grew on both my wife and I so much so that we became very fond of the little Feline. This is therefore not only a photo storyline about how Patience conned her way into our home, and eventually into our hearts, but also how having her around really changed my point-of-view about Cats.