High Temperature Mechanical Behavior of Ceramic Composites provides an up-to-date comprehensive coverage of the mechanical behavior of ceramic matrix composites at elevated temperatures. Topics include both short-term behavior (strength, fracture toughness and R-curve behavior) and long-term behavior (creep, creep-fatigue, delayed failure and lifetime). Emphasis is on a review of fundamentals and on the mechanics and mechanisms underlying properties.
This is the first time that complete information of elevated temperature behavior of ceramic composites has ever been compacted together in a single volume. Of particular importance is that each chapter, written by internationally recognized experts, includes a substantial review component enabling the new material to be put in proper perspective.
Shanti Nair is Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Karl Jakus is Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Shanti Nair studies the Mahathir administraton's search for "authenticity" in the kind of Islam that is to be propagated in Malaysia, which has accompanied its attempt to delineate an exemplary role for Muslim countries in the new democratic order. The author draws specific connections between the direction and intent of the country's foreign policy towards other Muslim Countries, and the politics of Islam within the domestic scene. She examines the relationship between Islam, development and economic growth, the "problem" of extermism and relations with other countries such as Libya and Iran, the significance of the modern-day pilgrimage to Mecca, the issue of Muslim minorities, and the Malaysian attitude towards such global problems as the issues of Palestine, Afghanistan, the Gulf War and Bosnia. Whilst being a case study of a multi-ethnic Muslim state, the book also seeks to contribute to the wider study of the domestic functions of foreign policy. It also addresses the real and imagined significance of Islam as a force in contemporary global politics.