Term
| What are the three main classes of computers and what are they |
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Definition
Mainframes: largest most powerful, multiuser, found in dedicated computer centers.
Servers: same as mainframes, but less powerful.
Microcomputers: personal computers, embedded controllers |
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Term
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Definition
| A fancy, high end desktop computer, sometimes running an OS other than Windows / Mac, often Unix or Linux. Has special graphics capabilities. |
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Term
| What type of computer is often found in labs? |
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Definition
| A rack mounted computer. Designed to fit a standard 19" electronic rack. |
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Term
| What is an embedded computer? |
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Definition
| A microcomputer built into a larger device. |
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Term
| What are the main hardware components of a computer? |
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Definition
| A CPU, display, sound card, input devices. |
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Term
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Definition
| The central processing unit, a computer box, a chip that actually does the computing. |
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Term
| What are some common displays for a computer? |
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Definition
| CRT (cathode ray tube), flat panels such as LCD, LED, etc. |
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Term
| What are the I/O ports on a computer? |
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Definition
| Serial ports, parallel ports, network ports, USB. |
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Term
| What are serial ports often used for? |
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Definition
| Modems, occasionally mouse, instruments. |
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Term
| What are parallel ports used for? |
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Definition
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Term
| What types of memory are there? |
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Definition
| RAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory), Flash, and slots. |
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Term
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Definition
| Random access memory is available in 128, 256, 512 megabytes, 1 gigabyte and more. In the form of chips, SIMMs, SIPs. It is volatile and is lost when power is lost. |
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Term
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Definition
| Read only memory, in chip form, semi-permanent. |
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Term
| What is the primary characteristic of a disk drive? |
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Definition
| Is it non-volatile memory, retained forever even when power is off, chip based. |
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Term
| What is a non-removable disk drive? |
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Definition
| A hard drive, which functions using magnetic technology. |
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Term
| What are some types of removable disk drives? |
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Definition
| Floppy disks (magnetic), removable cartridges such as Zip (magnetic), CD/DVD (optical), tape drives such as QIC and DAT (magnetic), and flash thumb drives (solid state technology). |
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Term
| What is an operating system? |
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Definition
| Operates the hardware, allows humans to use the computer, provides services to operator and applications. |
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Term
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Definition
| Software for specific tasks, e.g. word processor, spreadsheet, browser -why people buy computers. |
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Term
| What types of networks are there? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| A local area network, private, geographically small, a single "campus". |
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Term
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Definition
| A wide area network, private, links multiple LANS in different geographical locations. |
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Term
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Definition
| A public network that links LANS world-wide. |
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Term
| What hardware is necessary for a network? |
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Definition
| A network interface card, hubs, routers, access points, servers such as file servers, application servers, database servers. |
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Term
| What type of software is necessary for a network? |
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Definition
| Network operating software, protocols such as TC/IP, FTP, HTTP, etc. |
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Term
| What is the importance of having backups? |
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Definition
| Computers will break down, hard disks and floppy disks go bad. You WILL lose data if you have not planned ahead. |
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Term
| When and how should you back up files? |
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Definition
| Back up early and often! This will minimize loss and inconvenience due to system failures. Back up data by copying to more than one physical location, the more important the data the more places it should be stored! |
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Term
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Definition
| Data of one type incorporated into a document of another type. E.g. a chemical structure in a word processing document. An object will retain its identity and editability. |
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Term
| What are some tips for having good powerpoint slides? |
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Definition
- Use a simple uncluttered design, too many objects are distracting.
- Use a "template", place "constants" in the same place on each slide.
- Keep contrast high
- Use large lettering
- Keep the formatting simple, use only 1 or 2 fonts, sparingly with italics, bold for emphasis
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Term
| What type of font should be used in powerpoint presentations, and what does the name for it mean? |
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Definition
| Sans serif fonts should be used, this means they do not have the serif - the short decorative lines at the ends of characters. |
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Term
| How can you force excel to use an absolute cell reference instead of the relative reference it defaults to? |
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Definition
| The insertion of $ leads to an absolute, unchanging cell reference. |
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Term
| What are some examples of descriptive statistics? |
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Definition
| Range, mean, median, standard deviation, variance, standard error of the mean. |
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Term
| What is the input for getting standard deviation in excel? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is relative error and how do you calculate it with excel? |
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Definition
Relative error is the standard deviation as a percentage of the mean.
% error = stdev/mean x 100 |
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Term
| What is the Student T test? |
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Definition
| Used to decide if averages of two sets of data are the same or different. Returns a p (probability value). If p < 0.01 then the two values are considered statistically different. |
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Term
| What is the most common type of T test and what is its input for excel? |
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Definition
| Two tailed, unequal variance is the most common type. TTEST(data A, data B, 2, 3). |
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Term
| What is least squares analysis and how is it performed? |
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Definition
| The correlation coefficient (R^2) is a measure of goodness of fit, of how a straight line fits a set of data. |
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Term
| What is the use of the trend line function in excel? |
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Definition
| Good for putting a line on the graph, bad for getting values of m, b, R^2. |
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Term
| What are the formulas for calculating slope, intercept, and R^2? |
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Definition
Slope – slope(y data, x data)
y-intercept – intercept(y data, x data)
R2 – rsq(y data, x data)
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Term
| When would you want to get a calculated value for y from a set of a data? |
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Definition
| When you will be performing residual analysis. |
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Term
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Definition
| The difference between the fit (calculated value) and the data. A good fit shows random distribution of residuals around 0. |
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Term
| What is one of the most common data file formats in chemistry? |
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Definition
| An ASCII file - American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Often referred to as a text file, no formatting. If you can read a file with the application Notepad, it is an ASCII file. |
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Term
| What is the most common, simplest form of the ASCII file? |
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Definition
| The comma delimited file. |
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Term
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Definition
| A collection of atoms held together by bonds, atoms are arranged in three dimensional space, arrangement is specified by bond angle, length, etc. |
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Term
| What types of ASCII file formats are commonly used to store molecules? |
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Definition
| The three dimensional space model of a molecules given by a 3 coordinate system can by stored as mol files or pdb files. These contains lists of atoms and coordinates. |
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Term
| Where does the data for molecule files come from? |
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Definition
| Data from real experiments such as NMR and X-ray diffraction, can also be from calculation performed with molecular modeling that perform quantum chemical calculations. |
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Term
| What is a CIS and some examples thereof? |
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Definition
| A chemical information system, often web-based, examples include webelements, MSDS, chemfinder, etc. |
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Term
| What is primary scientific literature? |
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Definition
| Peer-reviewed reports of experimental results, very narrow scope, containing detailed methods, graphics, experimental results. |
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Term
| What is secondary scientific literature? |
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Definition
| A review article, a summary of a discrete area of knowledge, scope ranging from very to mildly narrow, peer-reviewed, rarely containing methods and materials, often contains depictions of experimental results. |
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Term
| What is tertiary literature? |
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Definition
| Popular press, not peer-reviewed, newsy, very little detail actually given. |
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Term
| What is the typical format for citation used in the journal Biochemistry? |
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Definition
Authors (Year) Article Title, Journal Title, Volume,
Inclusive Pages
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Term
| What are some things to consider when assessing the veracity of information for citation? |
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Definition
| Is it peer-reviewed, what is the publisher's reputation, is it a Web article only, are there any hidden agendas, etc. |
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Term
| What are the two types of general databases? |
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Definition
Flat files - simple,
Relational - more powerful |
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Term
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Definition
| Laboratory information management system |
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Term
| What types of information are stored in CIS or LIMS? |
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Definition
| Structure, physical properties, reactivity, safety, toxicological information, etc. Allows one to make correlations between these data. |
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Term
| What are the two types of computational chemistry (molecular modeling)? |
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Definition
| Molecular mechanics and quantum mechanics. |
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Term
| What are the two divisions of quantum mechanic computation? |
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Definition
| Semi-empirical and Ab initio. |
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Term
| Explain the molecular mechanic method of computational chemistry. |
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Definition
| Considers molecules as balls connected by springs, uses classical Newtonian physics. Does not explicitly consider electrons - two methods in Chem3D - MM2 (for small organic molecules, MMFF94 for proteins). |
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Term
| Explain the quantum mechanic method of computational chemistry. |
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Definition
| Explicitly models electrons in a molecule using the Schrodinger equations, describes the motion of electrons and nuclei in a molecule or atom. Utilizes wave functions, equations which describe electrons by treating them as waves. Solves these equations to find where the electrons and nuclei are likely to be within a given molecule. |
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Term
| Describe ab initio approach. |
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Definition
| A quantum mechanic method of molecular modeling, literally "from the beginning", makes no assumptions about the parameters needed to solve the equations that describe a molecules. Doable in Chem3D via GAMESS. |
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Term
| Describe the semi-empirical method. |
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Definition
| A method of quantum mechanic modeling that relies on some empirical (experimentally derived) parameters to simplify the equations that describe a molecule. Many methods available in Chem 3D, we primarily use Extended Huckel. |
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