Chitin, Chitosan and Derivatives for Wound Healing and Tissue Engineering, by Antonio Francesko and Tzanko Tzanov Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and their Applications, by Guo-Qiang Chen.- Enzymatic Polymer Functionalisation: Advances in Laccase and Peroxidase Derived Lignocellulose Functional Polymers, by Gibson S. Nyanhongo, Tukayi Kudanga, Endry Nugroho Prasetyo and Georg M. Guebitz.- Lipases in Polymer Chemistry, by Bahar Yeniad, Hemantkumar Naik and Andreas Heise.- Enzymes for the Biofunctionalization of Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate), by Wolfgang Zimmermann and Susan Billig.- Biology of Human Hair: Know Your Hair to Control It, by Rita Araujo, Margarida Fernandes, Artur Cavaco-Paulo and Andreia Gomes.- Recombinamers: Combining Molecular Complexity with Diverse Bioactivities for Advanced Biomedical and Biotechnological Applications, by Jose Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello, Maria Pierna, Alicia Fernandez-Colino, Carmen Garcia-Arevalo and Francisco Javier Arias.- Biomimetic Materials for Medical Application Through Enzymatic Modification, by Piergiorgio Gentile, Valeria Chiono, Chiara Tonda-Turo, Susanna Sartori and Gianluca Ciardelli.- Supramolecular Polymers Based on Cyclodextrins for Drug and Gene Carrier Delivery, by Jia Jing Li, Feng Zhao and Jun Li.- Engineering Liposomes and Nanoparticles for Biological Targeting, by Rasmus I. Jolck, Lise N. Feldborg, Simon Andersen, S. Moein Moghimi and Thomas L. Andresen.-"

There are nearly 100 000 different protein sequences encoded in the human genome, each with its own specific fold. Understanding how a newly formed polypeptide sequence finds its way to the correct fold is one of the greatest challenges in the modern structural biology. The aim of this thesis is to provide novel insights into protein folding by considering the problem from the point of view of statistical mechanics. The thesis starts by investigating the fundamental degrees of freedom in polypeptides that are responsible for the conformational transitions. This knowledge is then applied in the statistical mechanics description of helix coil transitions in polypeptides. Finally, the theoretical formalism is generalized to the case of proteins in an aqueous environment. The major novelty of this work lies in combining (a) a formalism based on fundamental physical properties of the system and (b) the resulting possibility of describing the folding unfolding transitions quantitatively. The clear physical nature of the formalism opens the way to further applications in a large variety of systems and processes.

Block Copolymer Surfactant Mixtures in Aqueous Solution: Can we Achieve Size and Shape Control by Co-Micellization?, by Thomas Hellweg; Non-ionic Thermoresponsive Polymers in Water, by Vladimir Aseyev, Heikki Tenhu and Francoise Winnik; From Coordination Polymers to Hierarchical Self-Assembled Structures, by Yun Yan, Arie de Keizer, Martien A. Cohen Stuart and Nicolaas A. M. Besseling; Processes of Ordered Structure Formation in Polypeptide Thin Film Solutions, by Ioan Botiz, Helmut Schlaad and Gunter Reiter; Amphiphilic Polymers at Interfaces, by Katarzyna Kita-Tokarczyk, Mathias Junginger, Serena Belegrinou and Andreas Taubert;"

Kalia and Fu's novel monograph covers cryogenic treatment, properties and applications of cryo-treated polymer materials. Written by numerous international experts, the twelve chapters in this book offer the reader a comprehensive picture of the latest findings and developments, as well as an outlook on the field. Cryogenic technology has seen remarkable progress in the past few years and especially cryogenic properties of polymers are attracting attention through new breakthroughs in space, superconducting, magnetic and electronic techniques. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, educators, engineers and graduate students in the field and at technical institutions.

The 11th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS) was held in September 1997 in Lunteren, The Netherlands. The scientific program covered theoretical, experimental, and technical aspects of modern colloid and interface science. This volume contains a selection of contributions in the following fields: New topics in colloid science Polymer colloids Rheology Surfactant colloids Polymers and surfactants at interfaces

The 38th General Meeting of the German Colloid Society was held at the University of Essen, Germany, from September 29th to October 2nd, 1997. The selection of papers presented in this volume covers a broad range of fundamental aspects as well as recent developments. - It focuses the following sections: - Technical applications; - Advanced experimental techniques; - Thin films and interfaces; - Suspensions and microcapsules; - Emulsions, microemulsions and foams; - Macromolecules; - Association colloids; - Colloidal systems in environmental science.

This volume contains studies on the molecular organisation on interfaces and nanoparticles. The contributions were presented during the 40. General Meeting (Hauptversammlung) of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft in Potsdam in September 2001 and are related to the subject "Colloids and Life Science." Therefore, a diversity of papers were collected covering a large field: synthesis of polymer colloids, biominerals and nanoparticles, investigations on monolayers, lyotropic mesophases, polymeric surfactants, micellar transitions, supramolecular compounds for modifying polymers, solid particles for emulsion stabilisers, and adsorbents for odour control.

This volume includes 20 contributions of the 12th meeting on Analytical Ultracentrifugation from March 1-2, 2001 in Duisburg, Germany. Various fields of ultracentrifugation are covered concerning research problems in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry and macromolecular chemistry as well as interacting systems. New investigations concerning the sedimentation theory are presented. The phase transition of gels is dealt with, as is the sedimentation-diffusion equilibrium of gels. One section contains the hydrodynamics of biopolymers.

This volume includes 19 contributions to the 13th International Symposium on Analytical Ultracentrifugation which took place at the university of Osnabruck on March 6th and 7th, 2003. The contributions from leading scientists cover a broad spectrum of topics concerning: Technical Methods, Data Analysis, Innovations; Polymers, Colloids, Supramolecular Systems; Biological and Interaction Systems; Hydrodynamics and Modelling.

Due to the increasing significance of Analytical Ultracentrifugation for both scientific and technical applications, this book will be an essential source of information with respect to recent developments and results related to this important analytical method."

The 13th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS 99) was held in September 1999 in Dublin, Ireland. It brought together scientists from academic research and industry within the field of physics and chemistry of colloids and interfaces. The Conference focused on the following topics: - Surfactant colloids;
- Polymer colloids and solid particles;
- Food colloids;
- Soft matter interfaces;
- Biosystems;
- Rheology;
- Experimental methods in colloid and interface science.

This volume contains a peer reviewed selection of the papers presented at the highly successful fifteenth meeting of the European Colloid and Interface Society which was held in Coimbra, Portugal in September 2001 and highlights some of the important advances in this area. The topics covered include Self Assembly in Mixed Systems, Surface Modification, Biological and Biomimetic Systems, Theory and Modelling, New Techniques and Developments, Food and Pharmaceuticals, Dynamics at Interfaces and Mesoscopic and Mesoporous Systems. The volume is of interest to both academic and industrial scientists working with colloidal and interfacial systems in chemistry, physics and biology.

The Xth European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS) Conference was conducted jointly with its Finnish counterpart (PKS-YKS) in Abo (Turku), Finland, in September 1996.
The focus was placed on the following topics:
- Properties of microemulsion systems; - Structure and interactions in thin films; - Biocolloids and vesicles; - Structure and interactions in dispersions; - Polymers at solid interfaces; - Polymers in solutions.
This volume presents a balanced and representative selection of the papers presented at the conference.

Dedicated to Professor Manfred Gordon on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday

From the reviews:

..".This text provides an excellent introduction to each of the discussed topics as well as providing an up-to-date review of the current bodies of work while highlighting areas that still require research for those who are working within the field." (Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz, POLYMER NEWS, Vol.30, No.4)

Molecular manipulation of nano- and microstructures paves the way to produce organic polymer materials by design. Such architectures comprise both the synthesis and the kinetics and thermodynamics of macromolecular organization and is the theme of this volume. The book consists of four articles reviewing living polymerization to produce precisely defined linear polyesters, comparing them to other living polymerization techniques. The articles also deal with the synthesis of polymeric dendrimers, either by the convergent or divergent approach; block copolymers synthesis, to define micromorphology in high performance polymers; and thereby tailoring their thermal, chemical, mechanical and dielectrical properties, and finally kinetics and thermodynamics for microstructural organization in macroporous thermosets.

Organometallic chemistry is a well established research area at the interface of organic and inorganic chemistry. In recent years this field has undergone a ren aissance as our understanding of organometallic structure, properties and mechanism has opened the way for the design of organometallic compounds and reactions tailored to the needs of such diverse areas as medicine, biology, materials and polymer sciences and organic synthesis. For example, in the de velopment of new catalytic processes, organometallic chemistry is helping meet the challenge to society that the economic and environmental necessities of the future pose. As this field becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, we recognize the need for critical overviews of new developments that are of broad significance. This is our goal in starting this new series Topics in Organometallic Chemistry. The scope of coverage includes a broad range of topics of pure and applied or ganometallic chemistry, where new breakthroughs are being achieved that are of significance to a larger scientific audience. Topics in Organometallic Chemistry differs from existing review series in that each volume is thematic, giving an overview of an area that has reached a stage of maturity such that coverage in a single review article is no longer possible. Furthermore, the treatment addresses a broad audience of researchers, who are not specialists in the field, starting at the graduate student level. Discussion of possible future research directions in the areas covered by the individual volumes is welcome."

The word Polyethylene was probably first pronounced in a lecture which M. P. E. Berthelot delivered on April ,27, 1863 to the Chemical Society in Paris, reporting on the "polymerization" of various simple organic compounds (1). Much later this work appeared twice in the literature before the classical ICI breakthrough in the 1930's which is so colorfully described in Ballard's lecture. Once it came up at the end of the last century when H. von Pechmann obtained "a white flocculant material" from the decomposition of diazomethane which, one year later, was termed to be "polymethylene" - (CH ) - from E. Bamberger 2 and F. Tschiemer (1). At that time the investigators were disappointed about this product because it was not what they had expected to find in their experiments. As a result any further work was discontinued. The second time that the word polyethylene appeared in the literature to describe a "white solid powder" was in 1930 when C. S. Marvel and M. E. P. Friedericks (2) attempted to prepare alkylated As compounds in which all five valencies were covalently bonded to five monovalent-aTkyl groups. They reacted Tetra-ethyl-arsenium bromide with butyllithium and expected to get tetra ethyl butyl arsenium. Instead they obtained LiBr + AsEt3 + gaseous products. Delicate and somewhat time-consuming analysis gave a surprising result: ethane and C 's were there in the 4 expected quantities but ethylene was missing - or almost missing - in the gas mixture.

Epoxy resins are regarded as thermosetting resins and have found various c- mercial applications after crosslinking with adequate curing agents [1-3]. H- ever, some epoxy resins have been used as thermoplastic resins without curing agents. Figure 1 shows the applications of epoxy resins that are classi?ed to three categories: thermosets in combination with curing agents, thermoplastics wi- out curing agents, and raw materials for modi?cation. The use in thermoplastics is not popular compared with the two other applications. Typical thermoplastic applications are found in stabilizers for vinyl resins, toners for copying - chines, ?re retardants for engineering plastics, and sizing material for glass or carbon ?bers. The epoxy resin most frequently used is the oligomer of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) whose chemical structure is shown below [1-3]. The DGEBA is composed of linear molecules with different molecular weights according to the variation of the repeated number (n) in the structural formula.

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