This volume summarizes the papers presented at the First Osaka University Macromolecular Symposium OUMS'93 on "Ordering in Macromolecular Systems", which was held at Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, on June 3 through June 6, 1993. The symposium covered the three topics, (1) Crystallization and Phase Transitions, (2) Polymer Liquid Crystals and (3) Block Copolymers, Polymer Blends and Surfaces, and invited leading scientists in these fields. At present any of these topics is a hot issue in itself and frequently taken up separately in many occasions. It is noted however that all these topics are correlated with each other with the keyword "Ordering" and their combination provides a unique feature of the present symposium in reflecting the interactions among investigators working in these important fields with the common ground expressed by the keyword "Ordering". Nineteen invited lectures and 40 posters of both experiment and theory were presented at the symposium, and the eighteen lectures and ten poster presentations contribute to this volume. In the first topic crystal structures and their transitions were discussed from kinetic as well as static points of view; attention was paid to give a molecular-level interpretation of the structure, phase transition and physical properties, using theories and simulations. The second topic was mainly concerned with static structures and thermodynamic properties of polymer liquid crystals including phase behaviours.

A Unifying Scheme for Polymer Crystallization Based on Recent Experiments with Wider Implications for Phase Transformations

Order-Disorder Transitions in Crystalline Polymers with Characteristic Mechanical and Electric Properties
Computer Simulation of Macromolecular Crystals and Their Defects
AFM Observation of Surface Morphology for Oriented PET Films
Characterization of Polymer Interface by Micro Raman Spectroscopy
Supramolecular Assemblies of Cyclodextrins with Polymers and Preparation of Polyrotaxanes
Case II Diffusion in Polystyrene Fiber: In-situ Measurement of a Moving Sharp Front
"Liquid Crystallization" Mechanism of Liquid Crystalline Polymers
Thermotropic Liquid Crystals in Polypeptides
Study on the Orientational Order of the Main Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymers
Statistical Theory of Liquid Crystalline Orderings in Hard Rod Fluids - Nematic, Cholesteric, Smectic and Columnar Phases
Phase Diagram and Molecular Ordering of Dimer Liquid Crystals Dissolved in a Simple Nematic Solvent
Phase Equilibria in Liquid Crystalline Polymer Solutions: Theory and Experiment
Light Scattering Studies of a Nematic to Smectic-A Phase Transition in Rigid Rod Polymer Solutions
Collective and Molecular Dynamics in Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals: From Low Molar to Polymeric and Elastomeric Compounds
The Rheology of PBLG Liquid Crystalline Polymers at High Concentrations
Microdomain Structures of Triblock Copolymers of the ABC Type
Evolution of Ordering in Thin Films of Symmetric Diblock Copolymers
Rheology of Polymeric Materials with Mesoscopic Domain Structure
Rheology, Dielectric Relaxation, and Adhesion of Thermodynamically Confined Diblock Copolymer Chains
Crystallization Kinetics and Microdomain Structures for Blends ofAmorphous-Crystalline Block Copolymers with Amorphous Homopolymers
Reversible Heteropolymer Gelation - Phase Diagrams of Mixed Networks
SANS Studies of Early Stage Spinodal Decomposition
Dynamic Interplay between Wetting and Phase Separation in Geometrically Confined Polymer Mixtures
Wetting of Grafted Polymer Surfaces by Compatible Chains
Surface Segregation and Wetting from Polymer Mixtures
Interfacial Properties of Mixed Polymer Films Spread at the Air / Water Interface
Polymer Monolayer Dynamics
Author Index.