Application of microcomputers in chemical education: An information

Bits and pieces, 40. The original compilation of papers concerned with the application of microcomputers in chemistry has now been extended and is ava...
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less. whenever soeed matters little. i t is a comoetitive choice that offers advantages in cost," res&ution, andlinearity. The speed may he increased with the use of a faster integrated circuit, which, however, is much more expensive.? Our circuit has found mans such as an autotitrator. Data . a~olications, .. from a pH meter are converted and read into an Apple that also controlls a step motor driving a syringe, the design for which part hears similarity to the system described in an earlier article (12).

Application of Microcomputersin Chemical Education: An Information Base James A. Wood The Polytechnic Queensgate,Huddersfield, HD1 3DH United Kingdom An earlier note (13) referred to a com~ilationof Daoers concerned with theapplication of microc~mputersin chemical education that had aooeared in two of the maior education journals in the unitkd Kingdom. That compiiation has now been extended to cover 29 international iournals and the information abstracted from >I500 papers forms the basis of a microcom~uter-managedinformation hase which can he searched for topic, computer, and type of application. This information hase has heen used to produce a printed version of these details. viz.. Microromouters in Chemical Education, Parts 1and'2. ' Part 1 contains the bibliographic and abstracted details (subject, computer, application, language, availability). Part 2 consists of the results of keyword searches and contains lists of papers referring t o subjects (921, computers (105), and t m e s of a~olication(45). ~ 0 t parts h are spiral hound and consist of 470 pages (size A4) in total. They cover the literature up to 1986, and i t is intended to update this resource a t yearly intervals. Interested parties are invited to contact the author for details of cost of this printed version and of copies on disc (compiled using an IBM-PC compatible microcomputer and Open Access IIsoftware). Acknowledgment This compilation was produced during a project sponsored by CNAA.

PC Abstracts: A Database of IBM PC Articles

simple program that allows for text searching of the database. For each article the datahase contains the reference and a brief abstract. Most of the articles are from the PC Tech Journal as we have found this to be one of the best of the journals. There are also some articles from the special IBM issues of Byte magazine. The oromam named PCahstrx. written hv Tavlor Binklev. perforisihe teat search by usinistrinR maichingon the tent file named ocahstrx.txt, which is the datahase of articles. Pcahstrx mkches strings regardless of case; for example, T H E = the = tHE, etc. No wildcards or Boolean operations (AND, OR) are supported. PCahstrx performs string matching, as opposed to word matching. Thus, a search for "graph" will find "graph", and "photograph", and "graphics". If you only want to find the word "graph", you might search for "graph "or " graph However, this will not find "graph," or "graph.". PCabstrx allows vou the ootion of orintine the search results, saving themeto a t e x t i l e , or just'displa$ng them on the screen. If i t finds a match i t will d i s ~ l a vthe comolete a b t r a c t and then prompt you for a continued search. ' The current version (2-1-88) of ~cahstrx.1~1 and ocabstrx.com requires a t least 320K in system memory, because the entire datahase is loaded into memory (as a linked list) to speed up the searching. Thus, this memory requirement will grow as references are added to the datahase. Pcabstrx.txt is a text file of abstracts from pertinent articles from P C Tech Journal and Byte magazine, compiled by Laurie Hawkins, summer 1987. You can add articles to the datahase as long as you follow these rules: 1. In pcabstrx.txt no words are hyphenated over Line boundaries, unless the word ibelf is hyphenated normally. In "pcabstrx.com" no search extends across line boundaries. 2. Everv abstract is oreceded bv a line startine with two blanks followed by four ashsks:' very abstract isalso followed by such a line. Pcabsrrx.com relies upon these markers ta locate the beginning and end of abstracts.

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Literature Clted 1. Burkcrt,U.;AUingex, N. L. MokcuhrMmhanics; AmericcChsmicalSodety: Washington. 1982. 2. Allinger, N. L. Adu.Phye. Org. Chem. 197413, 1-82. 3. Boyd, D. B.;LipkoGh, K. B. J. Cham. Edw. 1982,59.26%274. 4. Cm, P. J. J. Chsm. Edue. 198.59.27E-277. 5. Midland. Mark M. J. Am. Cham. Sac. 1986, I@, 3342. 6. Allinger, N.; W8m.D. H. Tefmhedron, 1973.35.3-12.

7. Engler,E.M.;Andae,J.D.:vonRSchleycr.P.J.Am.Chem.Soc.l91&95.8W~25. 8. Clark. J. M., Jr.; Svizer, a. L. Experimer~folBioehemielry; W. H. heeman; San Frandaeo, 1971: p 20. 9. Firher, L. A" INmduelion to Gel Chramfogmphy: Ekevier: New York. 1969. 10. Gregg,D.A.;Msam,D. J. Col6A.PP.L.E 1986.26 11. Digifol/Anolagond AnologIDigital Convenian Handbook, Mdomla, 1980;~122. 12. Vitz,E. W.J. Chem.Edur. 198463,803and804. 13. Wood, J. A. J. Chem.Educ. 1981,64,501.

G. Scott Owen

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Georgia State University Atlanta, GA 30303 There are many articles of interest to programmers in the general literature. The difficulty is in finding and then rememhering these articles. In this project we have developed a datahase of approximately 300 articles together with a

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Journal of Chemical Education

According to information supplied by the manufacturer,the unit price of the MC 14447 is USS1.70, if over a thousand are bought. Obtained from a local distributor, the chip will probably cost some 30% more, but still under 52.50. ' A S examples, the 10-bit AD573JN and ZN502E, made by Analog Devices and Ferranti Semiconductors, respectively, both cost about 530 apiece.