Let $RG$ denote the group ring of the group $G$ over the ring $R$. Using an isomorphism between $RG$ and a certain ring of $n \times n$ matrices in conjunction with other techniques, the structure of the unit group of the group algebra of the dihedral group of order $8$ over any finite field of chracteristic $2$ is determined in terms of split extensions of cyclic groups.

For each finite group $G$ for which the integral group ring $\mathbb{Z}G$ has only trivial units, we give ring-theoretic conditions for a commutative ring $R$ under which the group ring $RG$ has nontrivial units. Several examples of rings satisfying the conditions and rings not satisfying the conditions are given. In addition, we extend a well-known result for fields by showing that if $R$ is a ring of finite characteristic and $RG$ has only trivial units, then $G$ has order at most 3.

We show that an $\RA$ loop has a torsion-free normal complement in the loop of normalized units of its integral loop ring. We also investigate whether an $\RA$ loop can be normal in its unit loop. Over fields, this can never happen.

Let $G$ be an arbitrary group and let $U$ be a subgroup of the normalized units in $\mathbb{Z}G$. We show that if $U$ contains $G$ as a subgroup of finite index, then $U = G$. This result can be used to give an alternative proof of a recent result of Marciniak and Sehgal on units in the integral group ring of a crystallographic group.

For every field $F$ of characteristic $p\geq 0$, we construct an example of a finite dimensional nilpotent $F$-algebra $R$ whose adjoint group $A(R)$ is not centre-by-metabelian, in spite of the fact that $R$ is Lie centre-by-metabelian and satisfies the identities $x^{2p}=0$ when $p>2$ and $x^8=0$ when $p=2$. The existence of such algebras answers a question raised by A.~E.~Zalesskii, and is in contrast to positive results obtained by Krasilnikov, Sharma and Srivastava for Lie metabelian rings and by Smirnov for the class Lie centre-by-metabelian nil-algebras of exponent 4 over a field of characteristic 2 of cardinality at least 4.