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Drexel University: Assignments

Assignment #1, January 10, 1996

The part to be handed in is due Wednesday, Jan. 17 in class.

  1. Read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Chemical Information Sources, by Gary Wiggins, McGraw-Hill, 1991. Be prepared for an in-class quiz on this chapter.
  2. Create your own “research articles” file using the database software Filemaker on the Macintosh or the equivalent. You may use the Macintosh computers in Disque 404, or any others at your disposal which have the Filemaker software. For those not having access to a Macintosh, find the most accessible PC at your work place, find out what “flatfile” database software, if any, is resident on the machine, and learn to use it. Hand in a print-out of a typical record in your articles database file. Indicate what record structure you have settled on for your file.
  3. Send me an email message (my Internet address is asmith@coasmail.drexel.edu). From here on, all communication regarding assignments, changes in schedule, or consulting on specific problems, will be handled through this electronic mail system.

Assignment #2, January 31, 1996

  1. Names, Registry Numbers, Formulas, and Ring Data from CHEMSEARCH

    Last week you were given the names of two chemical substances which appear in the CHEMNAME file, Dialog database 398. In this assignment, you will use both CHEMNAME and print handbooks, catalogs, or dictionaries, to find out what you can about these substances. Your final report should include the answers to the following questions for each of the two names you were given:

    How many records in CHEMNAME correspond to the chemical name? If there is more than one record for a given name, examine some of the multiple records to see why there are so many, and try to find what you consider to be the most fundamental record (i.e., that for a single chemical substance with that name). Once you have found this record, save it and print it out in FORMAT 4 (full record with tagged fields). Indicate on the print-out the molecular formula, the CAS registry number, and the ring data. From the data provided, see if you can draw the 2-d structure of the compound (it may not be possible). Find and photocopy entries from handbooks, catalogs, or dictionaries that also describe this compound.

  2. Using the CHEMNAME file on DIALOG

    Answer the following questions:

    1. How many chemical substances are derived from palm oil?
    2. What is the chemical substance name for Prussian Blue?
    3. How many known isomers are there of C10H8?
  3. Formulate a search question of interest to you regarding some chemical substance. Use the CHEMNAME file on DIALOG to refine or expand the search question so that you retrieve at most three records corresponding to the substance. Save them and print them out in FORMAT 4.
  4. Using NETSCAPE

    Use the Netscape Web Browser to download from DIALOG’s home page the blue sheets for the following three databases: CA Search, CHEMNAME, and Beilstein. Print them out and bring them to all subsequent classes.

In-class Assignment, August 23, 1995

On Tuesday at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Chicago I hear an excellent talk by J. Gasteiger. Using the SciSearch database on DIALOG, answer the following questions:

  1. What is Gasteiger’s present affiliation?
  2. For how many records in SciSearch is Gasteiger one of the authors?
  3. What is the earliest publication referenced in SciSearch by Gasteiger?
    • authors:
    • title:
    • journal name:
    • volume:
    • pages:
    • year:
  4. Find a paper by Gasteiger that is cited by more than 300 subsequent papers.
    • authors:
    • title:
    • journal name:
    • volume:
    • pages:
    • year:

    From the fields in the SciSearch record, describe the research area in which Gasteiger publishes.

  5. In his talk, Gasteiger mentioned a review article he published in 1993 in Chemical Reviews. Find this article.
    • authors:
    • title:
    • journal name:
    • volume:
    • pages:
    • year:

    From the fields in this SciSearch record, describe the research area in which Gasteiger wrote this review.

  6. There is a subsequent paper by Gasteiger in 1994 in the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences on a closely related topic. From the abstract of this article, describe the work.
  7. Make an alphabetical list of the ten most common journals in which Gasteiger has published in the past fifteen years.
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