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The authors consider the ways of mutual work and alternative integration of sites within the framework of the Shanghai Initiative and the “business club” of the BRICS, which are trying to make the world not only multipolar and polycentric, but also describe possible ways to solve emerging problems, in particular through PMCs and a unified policy of geopolitical zoning.

In the article, the authors analyze the influence of PMCs on the establishment of a new global order, on the correction of geopolitical ambitions and on all sorts of solutions for targeted force impacts and the protection of the corresponding zones through outsourcing and insourcing of various military and special profile specialists performing the tasks of "smart" and "hard" power in disputed territories and frozen conflicts. The authors predict an increase in the trend of involving non-governmental actors in the confrontation between the forces of corporatocracy and sovereign state structures, as well as attacks by special services and the armed forces.

This article considers the main directions of the activities of Western private military companies (PMCs) in the post-Soviet space. The end of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact led to the creation of an extensive arms market. The collapse of the Soviet army and the prolonged economic crisis frustrated a large number of former military personnel and made them ready to offer their professional skills to almost any solvent customer. The decay of the bipolar system of international relations has created vast zones of instability, mostly localized in Africa, the Balkans, and in the Middle East. The military security function no longer prevails in the largest Western PMCs. These corporations have significantly diversified their activities, thoughtfully excluded the word “military” from their names, and today provide customers with a wide range of services from cargo transportation and consulting to construction and geological exploration. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, the post-Soviet space does not provide Western PMCs with any broad field for participation in peacekeeping and counter-terrorism operations. Their contribution to the combat training of the armed forces of Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan was limited to only a few episodes. However, the gradual penetration of Chinese military companies into the Central Asian region has become a fundamentally new phenomenon.

Longitudinal tensile failure of unidirectional fibre-reinforced composites remains difficult to predict accurately. The key underlying mechanism is the tensile failure of individual fibres. This paper objectively measured the relevant input data and performed a detailed experimental validation of blind predictions of six state-of-the-art models using high-resolution in-situ synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SRCT) measurements on two carbon fibre/epoxy composites. Models without major conservative assumptions regarding stress redistributions around fibre breaks significantly overpredicted failure strains and strengths, but predictions of models with at least one such assumption were in better agreement for those properties. Moreover, all models failed to predict fibre break (and cluster) development accurately, suggesting that it is vital to improve experimental methods to characterise accurately the in-situ strength distribution of fibres within the composites. As a result of detailed measurements of all required input parameters and advanced SRCT experiments, this paper establishes a benchmark for future research on longitudinal tensile failure The research leading to these results has been conducted in the framework of the FiBreMoD project and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 722626. Compressive tests on the neat epoxy resin were performed at the mechanical lab of the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC), Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) with the kind support of J. Chevalier and T. Pardoen. M.J. Emerson from QIM, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is thankfully acknowledged for the handson training sessions and support of the Insegt Fibre segmentation toolbox. Support of C. Schlepütz from TOMCAT beamline at Swiss Light Source for optimising the acquisition settings during the beamtimes under proposal IDs 20161157 and 20171494 is thankfully acknowledged. J.M. Guerrero would like to acknowledge the grant BES-2016-078270 from the ‘Subprograma Estatal de Formación del MICINN’ cofinanced by the European Social Fund, and all authors from the University of Girona acknowledge the funding from the Spanish project RTI2018-097880-B-I00. The work of M. Hajikazemi forms part of the research programme of DPI, project 812T17. S. Pimenta acknowledges the funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering in the scope of her Research Fellowship on “Multiscale discontinuous composites for high-volume and sustainable applications” (2015-2019). R.P. Tavares and P.P. Camanho would like to thank the financial support provided by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through National Funds in the scope of project MITP-TB/PFM/0005/2013

ObjectivesThe article explores combat related Private Military Companies (PMCs) that are authorised to engage in the forefront of the battlefield as dedicated force multipliers.MethodsTo supplement empirical data with qualitative observation, the methodology applies the case study and observation method. Considering assistance in conflict termination as a dependent variable, the methodology evaluates the case study of Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone and, to impose a framework for observation, deconstructs that case with seven independent variables: competence, effectiveness, flexibility, field cooperation with conventional forces, cost efficiency, impact on military and the state-to-PMC balance.ResultsThe methodology indicates what factors were prevalent in effective conflict management and what indicators entailed chal- lenges. The results advocate for the competence, flexibility, effectiveness and cooperation with armed forces to be deemed conclusive in positive PMC engagement, whereas the cost efficiency, impact on conventional military and the state-to-PMC balance require improvement.ConclusionsSince governments have continued to be hesitant (justified either by financial, geopolitical or social incen- tives) towards overseas military operations where asymmetric warfare is taking place, PMCs stepped in to fill the se- curity void. Therefore, this paper argues that PMCs are here to stay; however, the literature hasn’t rigorously ex- plored the subject matter to determine whether indicators of success and failure exist to evaluate the PMC outcome. This paper also precipitates natural outgrowth in the scholarship by composing the benchmark that synthesises relevant data.

Metal oxide thin films show promising resistive switching properties, making them materials of reference for the development of memristive devices. TiO2 is probably one of the most studied materials and is being synthesized using various techniques, each of them having specific optimizable characteristics. In this paper, we report on an innovative approach by combining the sol–gel and the pulsed microplasma cluster source (PMCS) methods, exploiting the low temperature and low cost of the former process and precise control over nanocristallinity of the latter. We show that this approach overcomes the reported limitations that each technique shows in fabricating memristive devices when independently used. A side-by-side comparison of the TiO2 thin films produced by the PMCS, sol–gel, and PMCS/sol–gel hybrid methods (HM) demonstrates an improvement of the memristive properties and a reduction of the electrical shorts in the TiO2 based devices.

Since early XXI century the number of private military companies in the world has grown to five hundred. The global market turnover in this industry has reached hundreds of billions of dollars. The popularity of mercenaries again became comparable to the times when they decided the outcome of entire military campaigns, as it was during the Middle Ages. Private military companies are non-governmental commercial organizations authorized by the state (or other customer) to solve military problems. Their field of activity is the protection, escort of people and cargo in the conditions of hostilities, and often participation in hostilities. PMCs can also provide consulting services and training. Sometimes, by mistake, any paramilitary entity is called a private military company. The main difference between PMCs and, for example, volunteer battalions (which operated en masse in Ukraine during the acute phase of the conflict in Donbass in 2014-2015) is that the purpose of the former is to extract commercial benefits. While volunteering, in theory, does not provide for the receipt of material benefits. At the same time, individual beneficiaries or their members receive illegal income, but they are associated, rather, with looting, racketeering or raiding, and not with classical mercenary activities. Within the framework of this study, the author reveals the key differences between PMCs and volunteer battalions, identifies fundamental differences in the methodology of their application and analyzes the effectiveness of their work during the acute phase of the conflict. The work uses the methodology of historical and political sciences - the historical-analytical method, the method of political analysis and the structural method.

Simulation-based medical education (SBME) is an educational technique that enables participants to experience an immersive representation of a clinical event for the purpose of practice, learning, and evaluation. This experience is intended to improve trainees’ competency and confidence in both procedural tasks, as well as team-based and interpersonal skills when responding to real-world clinical encounters. Moreover, SBME improves procedural exposure and competency in low-frequency, high-stakes clinical procedures without the risk of adverse consequences, error, or patient harm - a priority for physician training at all levels. This technical report describes a novel bi-phasic maternal cardiac arrest simulation that can be used to teach and train post-graduate year one (PGY1) emergency medicine and obstetrics and gynecology trainees in the use of perimortem cesarean sections (PMCS) prior to in-situ exposure. Using a high-fidelity simulation protocol employing training manikins and 3-D printed models of gravid uteri, this bi-phasic simulation, completed over two sessions, six months apart, will equip trainees with the knowledge, skills, and professionalism behaviors necessary for difficult clinical decisions and time-critical procedures.

The widening of the complexity-productivity gap in application development witnessed in the last years is becoming an important issue for the developers. New design methods try to automate most designers tasks to bridge this gap. In addition, new Model of Computations (MoCs), as those dataflow-based, ease the expression of parallelism within applications, leading to higher designer productivity. Rapid prototyping design tools offer fast estimations of the soundness of design choices. A key step when prototyping an application is to have representative performance indicators to estimate the validity of those design choices. Such indicators can be obtained using hardware information, while new libraries, e.g.,Performance Application Programming Interface (PAPI), ease the access to such hardware information. In this work, Papify toolbox is presented as a tool to perform automatic PAPI-based instrumentation of dynamic dataflow applications. It combines Papify with a dataflow Y-chart based design framework, which is called Preesm, and its companion run-time reconfiguration manager, which is called Synchronous Parameterized and Interfaced Dataflow Embedded Runtime (SPiDER). Papify toolbox accounts for an automatic code generator for static and dynamic applications, a dedicated library to manage the monitoring at run-time and two User Interfaces (UIs) to ease both the configuration and the analysis of the captured run-time information. Additionally, its main advantages are 1) its capability of adapting the monitoring according to the system status and 2) adaptation of the monitoring accordingly to application workload redistribution in run-time. A thorough overhead characterization using Sobel-morpho and Stereo-matching dataflow applications shows that Papify run-time monitoring overhead is up to 10%.

Cytomictic behaviour of chromosomes among pollen mother cells was observed in mutagenic studies in cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.). The study of pollen mother cells (PMC) revealed various chromosomal aberrations among which cytomixis was notified due to its obtrusive peculiarity and is therefore given description in this article. Cytoplasmic and chromatin transmigration were discernible among contiguous or slightly distant PMCs through recreation of passage via direct cell-to-cell fusion or channel formation. This cytomictic phenomenon was invariably more pronounced at meiosis I as compared to meiosis II. Plasmodesmatal connections play a paramount role in aiding this behaviour by establishing intercellular crosstalks. The cellular intermingling resulted in syncyte cells which were identified due to their doubled size. Syncyte or unreduced PMC formation leading to unreduced fertile gametes is speculated to act as a possible way out for infraspecific polyploidization of species. Pollen fertility was computed, alongwith this heterosized pollens of varying diameter were segregated. Large sized pollens were 2n pollens; where size difference is a consequence of cytomixis. Cytoplasmic connections among pollens were also observed sporadically. It is opined that syncyte formation and 2n pollen production have evolutionary significance., Caryologia. International Journal of Cytology, Cytosystematics and Cytogenetics, Vol. 73 No. 2 (2020)

The mechanical behavior of polymer-metal structure (PMCS) made by Friction Assisted Joining is investigated. Al-Mg Alloy and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) were adopted. Laser texturing was performed on the aluminum substrate to enhance the strength of the joints. A campaign of experimental tests was conducted by varying the energy supplied during the joining process. During the heating and the cooling phases, the thermal history and temperature gradients were monitored by means of an IR camera. Single lap shear tests were conducted to determine the mechanical behavior of the joints. Morphological analysis and fracture surface analysis were performed by means of Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy to evaluate the material flow produced under different processing conditions as well as the mean features of the joints. The highest strength joints were achieved after a heating time of 25 s to which corresponded an supplied energy of 3.5 kJ, which led to a maximum and average temperature (reached by the upper aluminum surface during the joining process) of 390 °C and 350 °C, respectively. Under such conditions, the maximum shear force of 6.9 kN and an average shear strength of 47 MPa were achieved corresponding to a joint efficiency of 83%.

An innovative testing methodology to evaluate the effect of long-term exposure to a marine environment on Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRPs) has been investigated and is presented in this paper. Up to one-year ageing was performed in seawater, to simulate the environment for offshore oil and gas applications. The performance of an epoxy and epoxy-based GFRP exposed at different temperatures from 25 to 80 &deg, C was quantified. The materials were also aged in dry air, to de-couple the thermal effect from the seawater chemical action. Gravimetric testing and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) were conducted in parallel on progressively aged specimens. The effect of specimen geometry and the anisotropic nature of diffusion are comprehensively discussed in this paper. For the quasi-infinite specimens, the results show an exponential increase in the seawater absorption rate with temperature. The methodology allowed for the prediction of the diffusivity at a temperature of 4 &deg, C as 0.23 and 0.05 &times, 10&minus, 13 m2/s for the epoxy and the epoxy-based composite, respectively. The glass transition temperature reduces as sea water is absorbed, yet the sea water effects appear to be reversible upon drying.

International audience; Plant surface or phyllosphere is the habitat of hyperdiverse microbial communities and it is always exposed to the fluctuating environmental factors, which is thought to be one of the potential drivers of microbial community structuring. Impact of grapevine genotypes in variable environmental factors (i.e., at different geographic locations) on the phyllosphere has never been studied and is the main objective of this report. Using high throughput short amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and internal transcribed spacer (ITS), we analyzed the impacts of genotypes of Vitis Vinifera (coming from three genetic pool), on the microbial (bacterial and fungal) assemblage in the phyllosphere. First, we performed the analysis of the phyllosphere microbiome while using fifteen genotypes that were chosen to maximize intra-specific diversity and grown in two Mediterranean vineyards. Then, the same analysis was performed on five commercially important varieties of Vitis vinifera that were sampled from three different French agro-climatic zones (or terroir: a combination of climate, soils, and human practices). Our study revealed that, at a particular geographic location, genotypes have an impact on microbial assemblage in the phyllosphere and carposphere of leaf and fruit (or berries), respectively, which is more prominent on the carposphere but the effect of terroir was much stronger than the genotype when the leaf phyllosphere of five grapevine varieties grown in different agro-climatic zones was compared. Impacts of the season and exterior plant organs (leaf and berries) on microbial taxa structuring in the phyllosphere was also assessed and presented in this report.

The main aims of this thesis are to evaluate suitability of TiO2 thin films, synthesized by Pulsed Microplasma Cluster Source (PMCS), for realization of devices showing memristive response and that could be used in a neuron-memristor hybrid system, where biological system and electronics could interact each other. All research activities have been carried out at the IMEM-CNR laboratories of Trento, in the mainframe of a four-year project named Madelena where different partners are involved, with skills from materials science to electronics and biology. The PMCS deposition technique uses supersonic molecular pulsed beams seeded by clusters of the metal oxide synthesized in a plasma discharge. In order to achieve the film properties necessary for electronic applications, by a tough optimization of the deposition process it has been possible to synthesize TiO2 thin films having suitable, controlled and reproducible properties. In general, all PMCS thin films showed an anatase TiO2 structure, grain dimension size lower than 20nm, an average roughness of about 3nm and with the possibility to control oxygen stoichiometry, with a O/Ti ratio from 2 to 2.2 by changing the composition of the used gas carrier. The inedited employing of the PMCS in memristive application showed promising results. Indeed, using as top electrode a Pt wire, all the PMCS TiO2 have exhibited a significant memristive response, modulated by the intrinsic chemistry of the material. In particular by increasing of the percentage of oxygen in the matrix, both resistances (ON state and OFF state) and the voltage switch increases. Moreover, a MIM device has been realized showing same main electrical properties, with device life as long as 1000 cycles. To achieve the proposed challenging final aims, an important study has been carried on the biocompatibility and neurocompatibility of TiO2 grown by PMCS. All the films guaranteed consistent biocompatibility and a spontaneous absorption of poly-D-lysine (PDL) that has increased their neurocompatibility. Moreover, the electrical activities of the neural culture grown on the TiO2 film can be modulated by changing of the surface chemistry. Finally, starting with these significant and promising results, a prototype of PMCS TIO2 based on memristor-neuron hybrid system was designed and realized, opening new perspectives for the realization of more complex bio-inspired devices.

Fiber reinforced composite materials are frequently used in the rehabilitation or upgrading of existing structures. From a design point of view, current international guidelines on FRP strengthening applications do not give rules based on rigorous approaches to evaluate the reliability and durability of strengthening interventions with respect to long-term behavior. In order to give a contribution on this topic, the authors have carried out a creep experimental program on retrofitting systems, either of carbon or glass fibers and subject to different stress values in regime of constant temperature. The tests have been carried out by means of a dedicated test device that provided a pure bending stress state in the strengthened beam, being the external loads held constant over time. In this paper the results of their investigation and critical analysis are presented.

Primjena vanjskog ugovaranja (outsourcinga) u resoru obrane aktualan je trend u vođenje državne obrambene politike i relativno nov fenomen u javnom upravljanju. U radu se analiziraju ekonomski i pravni aspekti vanjskog ugovaranja u resoru obrane i pokušava se odgovoriti na pitanja stvarne razine ekonomičnosti i efikasnosti takvog pristupa s jedne te pravne opravdanosti i mogućih implikacija za standarde demokracije s druge strane. Analiza počinje s općim pojmovnim određenjem vanjskog ugovaranja na skali javnoprivatnih partnerstava. Istražuje se praksa vanjskog ugovaranja primarno na primjeru SAD-a, počevši s tipologijom i kratkim povijesnim pregledom privatnog vojnog sektora. Nakon toga slijedi ispitivanje ekonomičnosti i efikasnosti vanjskog ugovaranja vojnih usluga s privatnim akterima. Pravna analiza podjednako je važna zbog neujednačenog i češće nepostojećeg pravnog okvira koji bi regulirao privatne vojne kompanije. Za primjer se uzima primarno SAD, ali dio pregleda posvećuje se i praksi primjene outsourcinga u britanskom i njemačkom modelu., The use of outsourcing in the defence sector represents a current trend of running the state defence policy and a relatively new phenomenon in the governance of most countries outside the Anglo-Saxon area of influence. The paper analyses the economic and legal aspects of a wide range of public–private partnerships in the defence sector in search of an answer to the question of the real level of cost-effectiveness and efficiency of such an approach on the one hand, and legal justification and possible implications for the standards of democracy on the other. To find the answers to these questions, the analysis begins with a general conceptual definition of outsourcing on the PPP scale, a review of the models of cooperation between the private and the public sector accompanied by practical examples, and the legal regulation of this type of cooperation at EU level. The general overview of the practice of outsourcing is primarily based on the example of the United States, with an emphasis on the typology and a brief historical overview of the private military sector. This is followed by a cost-benefit analysis of outsourcing military services to private actors. The legal analysis is equally important because of a mostly uneven and often non-existent legal framework that would regulate private military companies. The author uses a global approach and analyses the application of private contractors in peacekeeping and military missions by reviewing the models found in the USA, the UK and Germany. The final confirmation of the thesis that the outsourcing of military services to private actors is effective, but insufficiently regulated from a legal point of view, is based on a case study analysis and interviews with relevant experts.

WOS; International audience; Polymer matrix composites, and especially short glass fibre reinforced polyamides, are widely used in the automotive industry. Their application on structural components requires a confident mechanical design taking into account the sensitivity of the mechanical response to both temperature T and relative humidity H. In this paper, the constitutive model already developed by the authors (Launay et al., 2011) is applied to describe the non-linear time-dependent behaviour of a PA66-GF35 under various hygrothermal conditions. The extensive experimental database involves testing conditions under and above the glass transition temperature Tg. An equivalence principle between temperature and relative humidity is applied and validated, since the non-linear mechanical response is shown to depend only on the temperature gap T-Tg(H).

The commercialisation of military services has increased in importance since the end of the Cold War. Commercial Military Service Providers (CMSPs) have found increased respectability and worked in states on every continent. Writing on CMSPs has similarly increased. Several high profile incidents have come under intense scrutiny, and has led to some portions of the literature demonising their use. However, there are still conceptual and theoretical issues which have been under explored. This thesis contributes to the literature which has sought to address this theoretical lacuna. Historical Sociology and comparative analysis are employed to analyse the implications of CMSP use on the state. A modified version of the Ideological, Economic, Military and Political (IEMP) model developed by Michael Mann, is used to theorise the impact of commercial security providers on existing sources of power within the state, and the relationship between them. The thesis uses two case studies which are representative of the use of CMSPs during this time period. The Sierra Leone Civil War and the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq since 2003. It will be argued that CMSPs alter the balance between power structures within the state, positively and negatively affecting the power of the state. The short term use of CMSPs has proven to be useful and of increasing importance; especially when military weakness is an urgent problem. However, although there has been no example of CMSPs intentionally threatening state stability, they can also subvert the power of the state. CMSPs, particularly when used for an extended period, have undermined the relationship between the sources of power, undermining political stability. Most significantly they weakened the state by undermining the strength it gains from its embeddedness in society.

A stochastic cure simulation methodology is developed and implemented to investigate the influence of cure kinetics uncertainty due to different initial resin state on the process of cure. The simulation addresses heat transfer effects and allows quantification of uncertainty in temperature overshoot during the cure. Differential Scanning Calorimetry was used to characterise cure kinetics variability of a commercial epoxy resin used in aerospace applications. It was found that cure kinetics uncertainty is associated with variations in the initial degree of cure, activation energy and reaction order. A cure simulation model was coupled with conventional Monte Carlo and an implementation of the Probabilistic Collocation Method. Both simulation schemes are capable of capturing variability propagation, with the collocation method presenting benefits in terms of computational cost against the Monte Carlo scheme with comparable accuracy. Simulation of the cure of a carbon fibre–epoxy panel shows that cure kinetics uncertainty can cause considerable variability in the process outcome with a coefficient of variation in temperature overshoot of about 30%.

Chapter 4 contains sections titled : Introduction ; Pairwise Markov chains (PMCs) ; Copulas in PMCs ; Parameter estimation ; Triplet Markov chains (TMCs) ; TMCs and non-stationarity ; Hidden Semi-Markov chains (HSMCs) and TMCs ; Auxiliary multivariate chains ; Conclusions and outlook ; Bibliography.

ResumenEn el presente trabajo se realiza una medición de la casuística del área de neonatología del Hospital Puerta del Mar de Cádiz durante el año 1990, mediante dos técnicas: GRDs (Grupos Relacionados por el Diagnóstico), y PMCs (Gestión por categorías de pacientes). Posteriormente se compara con la casuística de otros hospitales. Así mismo se analiza la capacidad de discriminación de casuística de ambas técnicas (GRDs y PMCs) mediante una regresión lineal múltiple.Los resultados indican que la complejidad de casuística atendida en Cádiz fue inferior a la de los hospitales controles, y que éstos funcionaron más eficientemente. En cuanto a la comparación de ambas técnicas, los GRDs demostraron tener una capacidad superior a los PMCs para discriminar casuística.SummaryIn this study we make a measurement of the case-mix of the neonatology section in Hospital Puerta del mar in Cadiz during the year 1990, through two methods: Diagnosis Related Groups (GRDs), an Patient Management Cathegories (PMCs). We compare this case-mix with other hospitals. We compare this case mix with others hospitals. We also compare both methods between themselves through a multiple lineal regresión.The results point out that the complexity of casuistry attended in Cadiz was lower to those attended in other control hospitals, and that these ones worked more efficiently. As for comparison of both technics, the GRDs demonstrated to have a superior capacity than the PMCs to discriminate the casuistry.

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) are inherently multifunctional materials that, in addition to their primary function as a structural material, allow for the sensing and monitoring of in situ damage nucleation and evolution by the measurement of the material electrical resistance. Here an analytic model is developed for the transverse (perpendicular to the fibers) electrical resistance of pristine and damaged unidirectional composites, complementing earlier work on the longitudinal resistance. The ratio of transverse to longitudinal resistance for undamaged materials provides a direct measure of the internal density of fiber-fiber electrical contacts, a key material parameter in linking to the response of damaged materials. Under uniaxial loading with evolving fiber breakage, the normalized transverse resistance versus strain is predicted to have exactly the same form as that for the longitudinal resistance. Numerical studies show this agreement for uniform fiber-fiber contact distributions but, for random contact distributions, the longitudinal resistance is larger than predicted while the transverse resistance is smaller; these differences are shown to arise as a result of the statistically-preferential breaking of longer fiber segments. Analysis of multiple numerical simulations shows that variations in the electrical resistance are not directly correlated with variations in the stress-strain response. Thus, statistical methods are required to relate resistance to strain or damage. The Weibull modulus of the resistance change increases with increasing applied strain, with values exceeding 10 and 20 for the transverse and longitudinal resistance, respectively, demonstrating increasing reliability at higher damage levels and good correlation of average resistance change to applied strain. The present study shows that both longitudinal and transverse resistance changes are sensitive to damage in a predictable manner and can be used together to improve the reliability of damage assessment during loading of CFRPs. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.