This collection presents, and analyses, the new ideas in the emerging technologies involved in the production and use of particle beams and plasmas.

This book presents a wealth of valuable up-to-date information for active researchers and engineers, and will certainly form a solid basis for any future research, in the field of abrasive technology, which is aimed at creating new and practical machine tools, systems and processes, or at identifying new characteristics.

These volumes contain the contributions presented at DIMAT 2004: the Sixth International Conference on Diffusion in Materials, held in Cracow, under the Patronage of the AGH University of Science and Technology, the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Cracow University of Technology.

The field of Residual Stresses is surprisingly large, and also highly interdisciplinary in nature, both with regard to its applications and to its scientific and technological fundamentals.

This book is sub-divided into 10 different topical sections; each dealing with important issues in surface cleaning and preparation.

Magnesium, with its very rich reserves within the Earth, is an important engineering material, but has not yet been fully developed and utilized. Given its low density, magnesium has a higher specific strength and stiffness than many other engineering materials: including aluminum, steel and polymer-based composites. Magnesium also offers other attractive properties: such as a high damping capacity, electromagnetic shielding, dimensional stability, and good machinability and recyclability. As a relatively new structural material, magnesium and its alloys have demonstrated a significant potential for applications in many industries: including automobile, 3C (computer, communication and consumer) products, transportation, power-tools/equipment and new energy sources.

This volume contains a selection of carefully chosen papers from the Sixth Asian Symposium on Biomedical Materials, held in Emei, Chengdu, China, from the 19th to the 22nd July 2004. The conference welcomed some 300 delegates from 15 countries and areas: including the USA, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

Silicon Carbide (SiC), Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Diamond are examples of wide-bandgap semiconductors having chemical, electrical and optical properties which make them very attractive for the fabrication of high-power and high-frequency electronic devices, as well as of light-emitters and sensors which have to operate under harsh conditions.

This volume is aimed at diffusion non-specialists who may find at some time that they need a handy guide to the tracer diffusional behaviour of one element in another element. Those working on new coating, or other commercial processes, might for example need basic diffusion data in order to decide on the initial settings of the new-process parameters. Theoreticians who are seeking empirical trends in diffusivities may also find the contents to be of great interest.

Recrystallization and grain growth, together with phase transformations such as precipitation, are the fundamental processes of microstructural evolution which take place during the thermomechanical processing of engineering materials. They are of major scientific interest and are of great importance in a wide range of industrial applications.