Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale (Fracture and Structural Integrity) is the official Journal of the Italian Group of Fracture (ISSN 1971-8993). It is an open-access Journal published on-line every three months (July, October, January, April). Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale encompasses the broad topic of structural integrity, which is based on the mechanics of fatigue and fracture, and is concerned with the reliability and effectiveness of structural components. The aim of the Journal is to promote works and researches on fracture phenomena, as well as the development of new materials and new standards for structural integrity assessment. The Journal is interdisciplinary and accepts contributions from engineers, metallurgists, materials scientists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians.

Covering the whole of Asia and the Pacific region, this text provides both an analytic overview and specific data for each of the 60 countries. Introductory chapters cover regional issues, including: a regional review with the year's trends, developments and key events' analysis of the threat of terrorism in the region; the effects of deflation on the economy; the water crisis and its impact on the poor; and the successes and failures of micro-credit in the region.

The request to organize under its patronage at Poitiers in 1998 a Symposium entitled “Advanced Optical Methods and Applications in Solid Mechanics” by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (I.U.T.A.M.) was well received for the following two reasons. First, for nearly 20 years no Symposium devoted to optical methods in solids had been organized. Second, recent advances in digital image processing provided many new applications which are described in the following. We have the honour to present here the proceedings of this Symposium. st th The Symposium took place from august 31 to September 4 at the Institut International de la Prospective in Futuroscope near Poitiers. A significant number of internationally renowned specialists had expressed their wish to participate in this meeting. The Scientific Committee proposed 16 general conferences and selected 33 regular lectures and 17 poster presentations. Papers corresponding to posters are not differentiated in the proceedings from those that were presented orally. It is worth noting that a total of 80 participants, representing 16 countries, registered for this symposium.. The Scientific Committee deserves praise for attracting a significant number of young scientists, both as authors and as participants. Let us add our warm acknowledgements to Professor J.W. Dally and to Professor A.S. Kobayashi who, throughout the symposium preparation time, brought us valuable help.

Annotation Contains 24 papers from the November, 1998 symposium of the same name, sponsored by the ASTM Committee E8 on Fatigue and Fracture, and presented by Newman and Piascik (both of the NASA Langley Research Center). The papers focus on such areas as fatigue-crack growth threshold mechanisms, loading and specimen-type effects, analyses of fatigue-crack-growth-threshold behavior, and applications of threshold concepts and endurance limits to aerospace and structural materials. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.