C. Dascalu . G. A. Maugin The volume presents recent developments in the This special issue aims at bringing together recent theory of defects and the mechanics of material forces. developmentsinMaterialMechanicsandthemoreclas- Most of the contributions were presented at the Inter- sical Defect Mechanics approaches. The contributions national Symposium on Defect and Material Forces are highlighting recent research on topics like: fracture (ISDMM2007), held in Aussois, France, March 25 and damage, electromagnetoelasticity, plasticity, dis- 29, 2007. tributed dislocations, thermodynamics,...

The topic of surface waves lies at the interface between a number of disci plines - physics, theoretical and applied mechanics, electroacoustics, ap plied mathematics, surface science and seismology. This volume, based on papers delivered at European Mechanics Colloquium 226, reflects this diversity in approach and background, while showing strong links between phenomena arising from different fields. The emphasis is on recent de velopments such as nonlinear and other nonclassical effects, which have great importance for both pure science and for applications such as signal processing,...