The Trends conference attracts the world's leading welding researchers. Topics covered in this volume include friction stir welding, sensing, control and automation, microstructure and properties, welding processes, procedures and consumables, weldability, modeling, phase transformations, residual stress and distortion, physical processes in welding, and properties and structural integrity of weldments.

In this volume of journal "International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa" are collected articles which describe the results of engineering solutions of actual problems in mechanical engineering, materials processing technologies and chemical technologies, researching and designing of machines, in the designing of control systems for technological processes and engineering management of modern production. Published articles will be useful for professionals from field of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, engineering management and for students and academic teachers of the related specialties.

This two volume proceedings contains 11 invited keynote papers, 33 invited papers, and 225 contributed papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS '05) held on 13-15 June 2005 in Shanghai, China. ICASS provides a forum for discussion and dissemination by researchers and designers of recent advances in the analysis, behaviour, design and construction of steel structures. Contributions to the papers came from 22 countries around the world and cover a wide spectrum of topics including: Constructional Steel, Hybrid Structures, Nonferrous Metals, Analysis of Beams and Columns, Computations, Frames, Design, Space Structures, Fabrication, along with a variety of other key subjects presented at the conference.