Social Media in Science at #SERMACS2011 featuring Facebook for the business

"SERMACS 2011 features a wide variety of symposia. In addition to analytical, biological, computational, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry symposia... specialized topics are also scheduled" including Social Media in Science. 

The following is my invited abstract which has been accepted for presentation on Wednesday afternoon October 26, 2011 in the Social Media in Science Symposium at SERMACS 2011.

Title:

49 - The value of a Facebook business page
		Authors:  Jennifer L. Maclachlan,
		Presentation Time: 4:15 PM
		Location: Omni Richmond Hotel
		Room: Roanoke

Abstract Body: Is there value in a Facebook business page? Yes. Are metrics available? Yes. I will present a case study of my small chemical business and how we have grown our Facebook business page from having only employees "liking" us to having customers, friends and other industry professionals interact with us on our Facebook business page. Studying our Facebook analytics assists us in providing followers and others (searchable on Google) to read and share our content. I will discuss how we leverage social media via our Facebook page to create and share content from our blogs related to our business, enhancing our monthly E-Newsletter campaign via Constant Contact, our cooperation with local universities and our chemistry outreach by using the original Facebook posts to share to other social media vehicles such as Twitter and Linked-In.

Social Media in Science at #SERMACS2011 featuring Twitter for business

"SERMACS 2011 features a wide variety of symposia. In addition to analytical, biological, computational, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry symposia... specialized topics are also scheduled" including Social Media in Science. 

The following is my invited abstract which has been accepted for presentation on Wednesday afternoon October 26, 2011 in the Social Media in Science Symposium at SERMACS 2011.

Title:  

44 - My Twitter tool-box: How I utilize Twitter for my small chemical business
		Authors:  Jennifer L. Maclachlan,
		Presentation Time: 2:25 PM
		Location: Omni Richmond Hotel
		Room: Roanoke

Abstract Body: As a small chemical business owner, social media has had an incredible impact on how we engage with customers, prospective clients, vendors, other industy professionals and the media. I will describe how I use Twitter for my business, my favorite Twitter application: Hoot Suite, participation in Tweet-ups and how I utilize Twitter to enhance our overall social media marketing presence both within the Twittersphere and out on Google.

This is my Twitter profile:
Jennifer Maclachlan
@pidgirl Cape Cod, MA USA
PID Analyzers is masterminded by a
father/daughter team, specializing in analytical instrumentation.
Hobbies: yoga, chemistry outreach & community involvement
http://analyzersource.blogspot.com

@pidgirl's #pittcon '12 Technical Program at-a-glance

03/11/2012: Sunday Afternoon before the Plenary Lecture: 1:30pm-3:30pm A Conferee Networking Session addressing the question How can the modern analytical chemist overcome the barriers of new method introduction? Click here for session info.

Then head on down the hall for the Plenary Lecture to listen to  

R. Graham Cooks Henry B. Hass Distinguished Professor–Analytical Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Purdue University
Title: Ambient Ionization and Mini Mass Spectrometers: In situ MS for Everyone Time: 4:30 p.m. Location: Chapin Theater, Orange County Convention Center

Don't leave the Convention Center after the lecture-there's more fun to be had at the best kept secret for those interested in kicked back socializing and major technology discussions. The hors d'oeuvres, beer/wine and mellow music  create the casual ambiance and the Sunday evening poster presenters take it from there. 

Our 3 Sunday evening posters are:

 

Analysis of volatile and semivolatile VOC's in waste oils  

Click here for abstract.

Inexpensive Wireless Sensor Package for PPB Monitoring of Photochemical Smog Components VOC'S, O3, NO2 and Sunlight 

Click here for abstract.

 

Indoor Air Pollutant Monitoring in Classrooms & Laboratories (VOC’s, CO, CO2, & ventilation Rates) 

Click here for abstract. 

Monday afternoon: American Chemical Society Analytical Division Poster Session:

Advantages of a Hyphenated PID/MS Combination for GC Applications

Click here for abstract

 

Utilizing social media to continue the International Year of Chemistry mission beyond 2012 

Click here for abstract

The mission of the International Year of Chemistry is "to celebrate the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind". Social media played an integral role in promoting the IYC; via IYC website,ACS Network, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and blogging enabling worldwide participation and sharing.

Chemistry Outreach on Cape Cod during #IYC2011

 Tuesday morning 8:30am-10:30am another networking opportunity for all you Chemistry Ambassadors out there: 

 

How can we sustain our chemistry outreach beyond the International Year of Chemistry? Click here for abstract.

 

Wednesday Afternoon oral session:

 Rapid Separations on a Portable GC with Resistively Heated Columns   

Click here for abstract  

Rapid Separations on a Portable GC with Resistively Heated Columns

Methodology:	Gas Chromatography
Application:	Environmental
Primary Focus:	Application
Title:	Rapid Separations on a Portable GC with Resistively Heated Columns
Keywords:	Detection Environmental Environmental Analysis Gas Chromatography

Assignment Status:	Assigned ORAL		Session Title:	Environmental Analysis: Pharmaceutical and Biologically Active Materials
Session Date	03/14/2012	Starting Time:	( Slot # 7 ) CO-1671

A previous paper (Pittcon 2011 # 180 - 20P  ) on fast GC focused on long (30M) capillary columns with a thick film (5u) programmed quickly over a short range from 50-75C. The analysis was much faster (>2x) as a result of the low thermal mass of the resistively heated column and resultant short cool down time. The detectors used were the photoionization detector (PID), the pulsed discharge detector (PDD) and the Far UV absorbance detector (FUV). The GC was a Model 312 portable GC.

Much of the work on “fast GC” utilizes short (5M) thin films capillary columns to elute solutes  quickly and the result is rapid but inferior separations because of the short column. New technology developed at Valco’s capillary column development center where VICI  takes  polyimide-coated fused silica (FST) and removes  the polyimide layer. Then the (FST) is electroplated with nickel.  As a result of the superior heat transfer of the electroplated nickel, we are able to  rapidly and efficiently heat and achieve excellent resolution for a 30M capillary column. 

The PLOT columns with Hayesep present some interesting opportunities for improvement with Fast GC capability. With a 30M PLOT-S, C1-C5 HC & a ramp @ 8C/min. separates the HC into 4 groups (C1-C2, C3, C4, C5) with several minute gaps between each group for this nearly 18 minute separation. A multilevel rapid ramp could easily reduce the run time to 8 minutes and the total time to 10 minutes instead of 22 minutes.

We evaluated the fast GC with a short (7.5M) column for the analysis of chemical weapons surrogates. Here we were able to reduce the analysis time from 15 minutes to 5 minutes by changing the programming from 70-130C in one minute while still resolving all the peaks.

We will also be evaluating this technology for environmental applications such as  PAH’s and PCB’s which currently can take up to an hour per sample.

Authors: Jack Driscoll, PID Analyzers, LLC and Stanley D. Stearns, VICI Valco

Indoor Air Pollutant Monitoring in Classrooms & Laboratories (VOC’s, CO, CO2, & ventilation Rates)

Methodology:	Integrated Sensor Systems
Application:	Environmental
Primary Focus:	Application
Title:	Indoor Air Pollutant Monitoring in Classrooms & Laboratories (VOC’s, CO, CO2, and ventilation Rates)
Keywords:	Analysis Detector Electrochemistry Environmental/Air

Assignment Status:	Assigned CO-662	Session Title:	New Developments in Analytical Instrumentation and Software
Session Date	03/11/2012	Starting Time:	( Slot # 25 )

15 students present in the room and 4 adults

Poor air quality in school classrooms is a serious problem now since school classrooms can have occupancy levels as high as 40 sq. ft per persons compared to average office occupancy of 140 sq. ft. per person. Other considerations include the number of portable classrooms being used on a semi-permanent basis.  Many of the urban schools are old, situated near industrial sites and have poor HVAC equipment. With class rooms that have individually controlled HVAC, improving the air quality could be accomplished by simply monitoring CO2 and using that to control the HVAC system. Of course, most schools do not have that capability.

PID Analyzers, LLC Model 114

We have developed an IAQ sensor package that has the capability to monitor CO2 in the crowded class rooms (high levels of CO2 cause drowsiness),  air  velocity in ducts to detect problematic HVAC problems, VOC’s from a variety of sources, and a fourth sensor  that can be selected. The CO2 sensor is an IR sensor with a range of 0-1,500 ppm and the VOC sensor is a photoionization detector with ppb capability. The third sensor is a air velocity sensor. The fourth sensor can be chosen from a variety (30) of electrochemical sensors.

18 students present in the room and 2 adults

A battery operated system with the capability to run for 80-90 hours could provide two weeks of data which would be sufficient to evaluate class room and make decisions  about   the corrective actions to be taken.  A variety of classrooms will be evaluated with the sensor package including labs, portable class rooms, lecture halls.  A positive benefit to improving IAQ in classrooms is that  a number of studies have shown that this can lead to higher test scores.
Authors: Jack Driscoll and Jennifer Maclachlan, PID Analyzers, LLC

Inexpensive Wireless Sensor Package for PPB Monitoring of Photochemical Smog Components VOC'S, O3, NO2 and Sunlight

	Authors: Jack Driscoll and Jennifer Maclachlan, PID Analyzers, LLC
	Methodology: Integrated Sensor Systems Application: Environmental Title: Inexpensive Wireless Sensor Package for PPB Monitoring of Photochemical Smog Components VOC'S, O3, NO2 and Sunlight    Keywords: Detection Electrochemistry Environmental/Air Portable Instruments
	Assignment Status: Assigned CO-660 Session Title: New Developments in Analytical Instrumentation and Software Session Date 03/11/2012 Starting Time: Sunday Posters  Slot # 19
	Fixed air pollution monitoring stations in the US have been established for several decades. These are large, very expensive  and difficult to move to new or temporary locations.  A portable analyzer was described last year (Paper#  180-18P) that was compact and quite sensitive for VOC’s. As a result of comments, at the Conference, a new inexpensive  sensor package was designed and this will be discussed in this paper. We have developed a sensor package  for monitoring some of the agents and products that contribute to photochemical smog formation, namely: VOC’s, O3, NO2 and solar radiation. The analyzer incorporates a photoionization detector (PID) that measures VOC’s down to 10 ppb, a solar radiation sensor  and improved electrochemical sensors for ozone (10 ppb) and nitrogen dioxide (20 ppb). The package is housed in a NEMA 4 enclosure for protection from the elements and has a NiMH battery that will last between 60 to 90 days PID Analyzers, LLC Model 112 A number of modifications have been made to improve battery life since the portable analyzer described at Pittcon 2011 lasted only 12 hours. Design considerations included  going to  diffusion  sensors rather than continuously purged. Now there are no moving parts, The sample time was changed from continuous to a sample every 5 minutes. This will still give us enough data to obtain a graphic image of the PC Smog problem in the area being sampled  and allow the analyzer to be put in a sleep mode to conserve power. If we sample every 5 minutes, we collect six thousand samples per month. With the datalogger, there are a number of options for collecting the data. These include storage in the unit and collection on a PC when the battery needs to be changed, wireless transmission to a local PC, sent to a network using a gsm modem if the data is needed quickly.  We will locate sites near a continuous monitoring trailer and compare data with a continuous monitoring network for the same pollutants.

Cape Cod Beer is hosting the #IYC2011 Q3 Cape Cod Science Cafe

Cape Cod Beer, Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society and PID Analyzers, LLC  

present:

Sustainability, Chemistry and the Art of Craft Beer

A Cape Cod Science Cafe

in celebration of Quarter 3 of the 

International Year of Chemistry

during National Chemistry Week 

The IYC Q3 theme is: Recycling

Cape Cod Beer utilizes sustainable practices in their manufacturing business as well as their wholesale business. Brewmaster/President, Todd Marcus will discuss the Cape Cod Beer sustainability practices, the chemistry of their craft beer and how he turned from an electrical engineer to an entrepreneurial Brewmaster.

When: Friday evening October 21, 2011 

Time: 6pm-8pm

Location: Cape Cod Beer, 1336 Phinney's Lane, Hyannis, MA

Reservations are required. Please join us at this social and educational event.
Click here for invitation.

This is an official International Year of Chemistry Event.

How to Calibrate your HNU Model 102+

Model 102 4 Pg Brochure 5-11

National Chemistry Week #NCW at Museum of Science Boston 2011 #MOS and Boston Children's Museum

Photo courtesy of M.Z. Hoffman

Presented by: The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society

Sunday October 23, 2011 – Museum of Science Boston

·    Phyllis A. Brauner Memorial Lecture by Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri, President Elect of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea.  Professor Shakhashiri has captivated audiences with his scientific demonstrations at a variety of locations including Boston’s Museum of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. 

            Taking place in Cahners Theatre (2nd floor, Blue Wing) at 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.   Museum of Science Boston.

Shakhashiri 2010ACS Pres Part of NESACS Celebrates the International Year of Chemistry 
What is National Chemistry Week? Click here to learn more. 



2011 National Chemistry Week Theme: “Chemistry – Our Health, Our Future!”

 MOS:

 Kicking off National Chemistry Week 2011 festivities
Join us in a variety of hands-on activities related to the yearly theme.
Taking place from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm on Sunday October 23, 2011 throughout
the Museum.

BOSTON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM:
SAVE THE DATE and bring your kids on  Saturday October 29, 2011 – Boston Children’s museum
From 11 am – 4 pm, NCW volunteers will be on-hand throughout the museum to perform super fun demonstrations