The Fifth Chinese Peptide Symposium, hosted by Lanzhou University, was held at Lanzhou, China July 14-17, 1998, with 156 participants, including 30 scientists from abroad, representing nine countries. The four-day conference was both intense and spiritually rewarding. Our goal for CPS-98 was to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, cooperation and friendship between the international and Chinese scientific communities, and we believe this goal was met. The symposium consisted of 8 sessions with 42 oral and 90 poster presentations, including synthetic methods, molecular diversity and peptide libraries, structure and conformation of peptides and proteins, bioactive peptides, peptide immunology, De Novo design and synthesis of proteins and peptides, ligand-receptor interactions, the chemistry-biology-interface and challenging problems in peptides. The enthusiastic cooperation and excellent contributions were gratifying and the active response of the invited speakers contributed to the success of the symposium. The presentations were of excellent caliber and represented the most current and significant aspects of peptide science. Dr. Kit Lam of the University of Arizona and Dr. Yun-Hua Ye of Peking University were the recipients of "The Cathay Award" sponsored by the H. H. Liu Education Foundation, offered for their seminal contribution in peptide science and the Chinese Peptide Symposium. Four outstanding young scientists were selected by the organizing committee to receive awards sponsored by Haikou Nanhai Pharmaceutical Industry Co. Ltd. (Zhong He Group).

Holographic Interferometry provides a valuable and up-to-date source of information in the rapidly expanding field. The eight specialists` contributions cover the principles and methods currently in use. The scope of the book has been limited to the study of opaque object and ample space has been devoted to a comprehensive treatment of the phenomena of fringe formation, with a particular emphasis on the quantitative evaluation of the holographic interference fringe patterns. The emergence of computer-aided fringe analysis and phase-shifting techniques have simplified considerably the quantative real-time measurements of object shapes and deformations. The last two chapters provide a reasonably detailedoverview of full-field holographic methods for the measurement of shapes, displacements, dervatives, difference displacements and vibrations.

Pt. A: NMR and other Spectroscopic Methods. Pt. B: Mechanical Methods

This book is derived from a Symposium held at the 190th National American Chemical Society Meeting, which was held in the Fall of 1985, in Chicago, and was sponsored by the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering. This Symposium was, in turn, a follow-up on an earlier one held in Houston, TX, in the Spring of 1980, which was pub lished as the book *Biomedical and Dental Applications of Polymers* [Plenum Press, New York, 1981]. In that earlier book, our opening Preface passage quoted King David, *1 will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and made . ** * (Psalm 139:14). As we noted five years ago, sickness wonderfully of many types does occur in our wonderfully made bodies, but much human suffering can be aided by biomedical polymers. That earlier book con sidered much of the fantastic progress that had been made in biomedical polymers during the previous quarter century and brought many of these topics up to date. That Symposium, and book, noted that much help was available for the varied afflictions and problems that sometimes beset, and upset, our God-given bodies, and the promise of new and important advances was held out as a shining ray of hope amidst the gloom of sickness and affliction. The present volume is an update on the advances that have occurred since the 1981 book and sets the stage for even greater advances in the future.

Natural products like wool, leather or cotton are permeable to water vapor. Their complex fibrous structure makes it difficult to imitate this natural phenomenon by synthesis. This book discusses ways to obtain water vapor permeability by microporosity or through a hydrophilic structure. Various areas of application include the medical sector for implants and dialysis, the industrial sector for filtration or for processes requiring the slow release of substances, and the consumer sector for leather substitutes or performance textiles.

Erik Wischerhoff, Nezha Badi, Andre Laschewsky and Jean-Francois Lutz Smart Polymer Surfaces: Concepts and Applications in Biosciences; S. Petersen, M. Gattermayer and M. Biesalski Hold on at the Right Spot: Bioactive Surfaces for the Design of Live-Cell Micropatterns; Julien Polleux Interfacing Cell Surface Receptors to Hybrid Nanopatterned Surfaces: A Molecular Approach for Dissecting the Adhesion Machinery; Abigail Pulsipher and Muhammad N. Yousaf Self-Assembled Monolayers as Dynamic Model Substrates for Cell Biology; D. Volodkin, A. Skirtach and H. Moehwald LbL Films as Reservoirs for Bioactive Molecules; R. Gentsch and H. G. Boerner Designing Three-Dimensional Materials at the Interface to Biology; Joerg C. Tiller Antimicrobial Surfaces;

The International Symposium on Colloid and Polymer Science was held at Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in October 1996. The program covered both the fundamental aspects as well as technological applications of micelles, microemulsions, monolayers, and biocolloids. Special emphasis was placed on formation and dynamics of self-organized structures, including technical developments, applications, general theory, and results of investigations.

In a liquid crystal watch, the molecules contained within a thin film of the screen are reorientated each second by extremely weak electrical signals. Here is a fine example of soft matter: molecular systems giving a strong response to a very weak command signal. They can be found almost everywhere. Soft magnetic materials used in transformers exhibit a strong magnetic moment under the action of a weak magnetic field. Take a completely different domain: gelatin, formed from col lagen fibres dissolved in hot water. When we cool below 37 DegreesC, gelation occurs, the chains joining up at various points to form a loose and highly deformable network. This is a natural example of soft matter. Going further, rather than consider a whole network, we could take a single chain of flexible polymer, such as polyoxyethylene [POE = (CH CH O)N, 2 2 5 where N rv 10 ], for example, in water. Such a chain is fragile and may break under flow. Even though hydrodynamic forces are very weak on the molecular scale, their cumulated effect may be significant. Think of a rope pulled from both ends by two groups of children. Even if each girl and boy cannot pull very hard, the rope can be broken when there are enough children pulling.

Printed Organic And Molecular Electronics was compiled to create a reference that included existing knowledge from the most renowned industry, academic, and government experts in the fields of organic semiconductor technology, graphic arts printing, micro-contact printing, and molecular electronics. It is divided into sections that consist of the most critical topics required for one to develop a strong understanding of the states of these technologies and the paths for taking them from R&D to the hands of consumers on a massive scale. As such, the book provides both theory as well as technology development results and trends.

The 27th Europhysics Conference on Macromolecular Physics focused on applications of scattering methods to the dynamics of polymer dense systems and covered Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering and photon correlation spectroscopy, quasi-elastic neutron scattering, holographic methods, real time X-ray and neutron scattering techniques as well as the treatment of theoretical models and computer simulations of polymer dynamics.

This sourcebook is the detailed review of the chemistry, manufacturing processes, and uses of resorcinol and its derivatives. Citing over 1,900 references, the author clearly explains the chemical s complex development, discussing the many tests, techniques, and instruments used.

Striking a balance between the scientific and technological aspects of radiation curing, this work includes both a summary of current knowledge as well as many chapters which present the first comprehensive accounts of their subjects.

The investigative assault upon the enigmatic asphaltenes has recently resulted in sig nificant advances in many varied disciplines. Taken individually, each discipline exposes certain facets of asphaltenes, but each, alone, can never reveal asphaltenes from all van tages. Even seemingly narrowly focused issues such as the molecular structures of asphal tenes, or the colloidal structures of asphaltenes require a confluence of many lines of investigation to yield an understanding which differs from truth by diminishing uncer tainty. An holistic treatment of the asphaltenes is a powerful approach to evolve further their understanding. For example, examination of asphaltenes at the highest resolution yields molecular structure. A slight increase in scale probes asphaltene colloidal structure. Weaving together asphaltene studies performed at different length scales results in a fabric which envelops an encompassing vision of asphaltenes. At the same time, the interfaces of these hierarchical studies provide additional constraints on imagination, more than investi gations at individual length scales alone. These considerations shaped the timing, format, and the content of our book. The editors are very appreciative of the diligence and hard work manifest in each of the contributed chapters herein. We thank the contributing authors for making this project a success. Oliver C. Mullins Eric Y. Sheu vii CONTENTS I. Asphaltenes: Types and Sources ...................................... ."

The role of high pressure experiments in the discovery of supercon ducting materials with a T. above liquid nitrogen temperature has demon strated the importance of such experiments. The same role holds true in the tailoring of materials for optoelectronic devices. In addition, much progress has been made recently in the search for metallic hydro gen, and the application of high pressure in polymer research has brought forth interesting results. These facts together with the suc cess of previous small size meetings (such as the "First International Conference on the Physics of Solids at High Pressure", held in 1965 in Tucson, Arizona, U. S. A. ; "High Pressure and Low Temperature Physics", held in 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. ; and "Physics of Solids Under High Pressure", held in 1981 in bad Honnef, Germany), motivated us to organize a workshop with emphasis on the newest results and trends in these fields of high pressure research. Furthermore, it was intended to mix experienced and young scien tists to realize an idea best expressed in a letter by Prof. Weinstein: "I think it is an excellent idea. I have often felt that the number of excellent young researchers in the high pressure field need an opportu nity to put forward their work with due recognition. " Thanks to the support of the key speakers, we were able to achieve this goal and had more than 50\ young participants.

Many chemical processes that are important to society take place at boundaries between phases. Understanding these processes is critical in order for them to be subject to human control. The building of theoretical or computational models of them puts them into a theoretical framework in terms of which the behavior of the system can be understood on a detailed level. Theoretical and computational models are often capable of giving descriptions of interfacial phenomena that are more detailed, on a molecular level, than can be obtained through experimental observation. Advances in computer hardware have also made possible the treatment of larger and chemically more interesting systems. The study of interfacial phenomena is a multi-disciplinary endeavor which requires collaboration and communication among researchers in different fields and across different types of institutions. Because there are many important problems in this field much effort is being expended to understand these processes by industrial laboratories as well as by groups at universities. Our conference titled "Theoretical and Computational Approaches to Interface Phenomena" held at South Dakota State University, August 2-4, 1993 brought together over thirty scientists from industry and academia and three countries in the western hemisphere to discuss the modeling of interfacial phenomena.

The art and science of macromolecular architecture is based on synthesis, analysis, processing, and evaluation of physical properties of polymers. The growing specificity of available synthetic methods and the increasing refinement of analytical and physical analysis are gradually providing a deeper insight into structure-property relationships of polymers, upon which many applications can be based. This book deals with recent methods for polymer synthesis. Those that lead to specific structures have been selected especially. Background, mechanism scope and limitations, and illustrative procedures are given for each method. With this layout the editor hopes that the book will provide a practical guideline, for the synthetic polymer chemist in industry or at a university graduate school, on how to apply the methods in the design of new polymer structures. The editor is grateful to the authors not only for their contributions containing interesting new developments in polymer synthesis, but also for the way they have fitted their text into the general framework of the book. The elegant chemistry described in the following chapters will, it is hoped, inspire more organic chemists to apply their skills to polymer synthesis, where the beauty of organic chemistry in terms of structural control and reactivity may be even more apparent than in the low molecular field.

Polymers in Solution was written for scientists and engineers who have serious research interests in newer methods for characterization of polymer solutions, but who are not seasoned experts in the theoretical and experimental aspects of polymer science. In particular, it is assumed that the reader is not familiar with the development of theoretical notions in conformational statistics and the dynamics of chainlike molecules; how these two seemingly diverse theoretical topics are related; and the role played by polymer-solvent interactions. Chapter 1 thus presents background material that introduces most of the essential concepts, including some of the mathematical apparatus most commonly used in these areas of theory. This introduction is followed by five chapters that are more closely related to particular experimental techniques. These chapters introduce further theoretical notions as needed. Three of the chapters present con siderable detail on the experimental methods, while two other chapters deal more with the interpretation of experimental results in terms of current theories. Although neutron scattering has become an almost standard technique for the study of conformational properties of macromolecules in the solid state, there has been less emphasis on its application for characterization of polymer molecules in solution. Chapter 4 covers this growing area of application."

The chapters in this collection are from papers which were presented at a symposium on solid-state NMR of polymers. A two-part program on available NMR techniques applicable to solid polymer analysis was presented at the 3rd Chemical Congress of North American held in Toronto, Ontario, June 5-10,1988. The program was sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry with support provided by the Division, its Industrial Sponsors, and the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund administered by the American Chemical Society. Co-organizers included Professor Colin Fyfe of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), Professor Hans Spiess of the Max Planck Institut fur Polymerforschung (Mainz, West Germany), and myself. The full-day tutorial, which was free to registered attendees, covered the range of topics. The purpose of the tutorial was to provide a basic introduction to the field so that newcomers to its present and future applications could develop sufficient understanding to learn effectively from the subsequent symposium. The first talk attempted to give listeners a feel for the way a novice spectroscopist can learn to use the various NMR techniques to explore his own areas of interest. Simple experiments can provide unique information about solid polymers that can be useful in interpreting synthetic results and in relating solid-state conformation, morphology and molecular motion to physical properties.

Reviewing over 100 chemical and physical methods for analysis of polymers, Manual of Plastics Analysis is so detailed and comprehensive that chemists can apply the methods - many previously unpublished - directly from the book. A genuine laboratory manual, the volume supplies prodigious amounts of up-to-date information on all types of polymers, polymer additives, volatiles, adventitious impurities, monomers, metals, and pigments. Extremely well-suited for classroom teaching, research, or industrial applications, the book contains numerous tables and figures, as well as many chemical equations illustrating its analytical techniques.