Collaboration importance

Figure 1.3 shows an outline of the analytical approach along with some important considerations at each step. Three general features of this approach deserve attention. First, steps 1 and 5 provide opportunities for analytical chemists to collaborate with individuals outside the realm of analytical chemistry. In fact, many problems on which analytical chemists work originate in other fields. Second, the analytical approach is not linear, but incorporates a feedback loop consisting of steps 2, 3, and 4, in which the outcome of one step may cause a reevaluation of the other two steps. Finally, the solution to one problem often suggests a new problem. 

An analysis of variance can be extended to systems involving more than a single variable. For example, a two-way ANOVA can be used in a collaborative study to determine the importance to an analytical method of both the analyst and the instrumentation used. The treatment of multivariable ANOVA is beyond the scope of this text, but is covered in several of the texts listed as suggested readings at the end of the chapter. 

The last step in establishing a standard method is to validate its transferability to other laboratories. An important step in the process of validating a method is collaborative testing, in which a common set of samples is analyzed by different laboratories. In a well-designed collaborative test, it is possible to establish limits for the method s precision and accuracy. 

It is interesting to note that during this period L. P. Merriam and Spill collaborated in their work and this led to the formation in 1877 of the British Xylonite Company. Although absorbed by the Distillers organisation in 1961, and subsequently subjected to further industrial take-overs, this company remains an important force in the British plastics industry. 

Mott played a major part, with his collaborator Frank Nabarro (b. 1917) and in consultation with Orowan, in working out the dynamics of dislocations in stressed crystals. A particularly important early paper was by Mott and Nabarro (1941), on the flow stress of a crystal hardened by solid solution or a coherent precipitate, followed by other key papers by Koehler (1941) and by Seitz and Read (1941). Nabarro has published a lively sequential account of their collaboration in the early days (Nabarro 1980). Nabarro originated many of the important concepts in dislocation theory, such as the idea that the contribution of grain boundaries to the flow stress is inversely proportional to the square root of the grain diameter, which was later experimentally confirmed by Norman Fetch and Eric Hall. 

Such feedback, from anyone who interacts with the system by providing input, using information, or receiving reports, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the new PSM system. System users may have important suggestions about how to improve or streamline a system, or may not clearly understand its importance or the part they play in its implementation. At the same time, soliciting—and acting on—user feedback helps underscore the collaborative nature of PSM cmd the fact that its success depends on the user. 

Indole itself forms a dimer or a trimer, depending on experimental conditions the dimer hydrochloride is formed in aprotic solvents with dry HCl, whereas aqueous media lead to dimer or trimer, or both. It was Schmitz-DuMont and his collaborators who beautifully cleared up the experimental confusion and discovered the simple fact that in aqueous acid the composition of the product is dictated by the relative solubilities of the dimer and trimer hydrochlorides/ -This, of course, established the very important point that there is an equilibrium in solution among indole, the dimer, the trimer, and their salts. It was furthermore demonstrated that the polymerization mechanism involves acid catalysis and that in dilute solution the rate of reaction is dependent on the concentration of acid. 

In this book we have decided to concentrate on purely synthetic applications of ionic liquids, just to keep the amount of material to a manageable level. FFowever, we think that synthetic and non-synthetic applications (and the people doing research in these areas) should not be treated separately for a number of reasons. Each area can profit from developments made in the other field, especially concerning the availability of physicochemical data and practical experience of development of technical processes using ionic liquids. In fact, in all production-scale chemical reactions some typically non-synthetic aspects (such as the heat capacity of the ionic liquid or product extraction from the ionic catalyst layer) have to be considered anyway. The most important reason for close collaboration by synthetic and non-synthetic scientists in the field of ionic liquid research is, however, the fact that in both areas an increase in the understanding of the ionic liquid material is the key factor for successful future development. 

The disclosure, in 1982, that cationic, enantiopure BINAP-Rh(i) complexes can induce highly enantioselective isomerizations of allylic amines in THF or acetone, at or below room temperature, to afford optically active enamines in >95 % yield and >95 % ee, thus constituted a major breakthrough.67-68 This important discovery emerged from an impressive collaborative effort between chemists representing Osaka University, the Takasago Corporation, the Institute for Molecular Science at Okazaki, Japan, and Nagoya University. BINAP, 2,2 -bis(diphenylphosphino)-l,l -binaphthyl (Scheme 7), is a fully arylated, chiral diphosphine which was introduced in... 

Structure determination of luciferin. Once a luciferin is obtained in a sufficient purity, the determination of luciferin structure should be attempted most of the important properties of luciferin are usually already obtained during the course of purification as a necessity. The structural study is considerably more straightforward than the extraction and purification, due to the availability of advanced methods, such as high-resolution mass spectrometry and various NMR techniques. If help or collaboration is needed in structure determination, the attractiveness of a luciferin will make it easy to find a good collaborator. However, the purified luciferin is usually an extremely precious material considering the effort spent in preparing it. To avoid accidental loss of the purified material, the chosen collaborator must have solid knowledge and experience in structure determination a criterion to be considered is that the person has successfully done the structure determination of at least one new natural product. 

Despite the recent efforts of Beroza (3), the insecticidal alkaloids of the thunder-god vine (Tripterygium ivilfordii) remain only partially characterized. A structure has been proposed for anhydrory-anodine (VIII), a major degradation product of the active principle (ryanodine) of the commercial insecticide ryania (34), and a structure for the parent compound will be proposed soon by Rapoport and his coworkers (27). This again illustrates the importance of collaboration between physical and biological scientists and the intriguing research which each can reveal to the other. 

An important step toward the understanding and theoretical description of microwave conductivity was made between 1989 and 1993, during the doctoral work of G. Schlichthorl, who used silicon wafers in contact with solutions containing different concentrations of ammonium fluoride.9 The analytical formula obtained for potential-dependent, photoin-duced microwave conductivity (PMC) could explain the experimental results. The still puzzling and controversial observation of dammed-up charge carriers in semiconductor surfaces motivated the collaboration with a researcher (L. Elstner) on silicon devices. A sophisticated computation program was used to calculate microwave conductivity from basic transport equations for a Schottky barrier. The experimental curves could be matched and it was confirmed for silicon interfaces that the analytically derived formulas for potential-dependent microwave conductivity were identical with the numerically derived nonsimplified functions within 10%.10... 

The authors are happy to acknowledge the help and support of those people and institutions who assisted in fulfilling the task of writing this book. The present English edition includes numerous original results obtained by the authors in cooperation with their graduate students and coworkers after publication of the Russian version of the book in 1982. We appreciate very much their collaboration and the important role of the seminar of the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory in the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion of the Russian Academy, where most of them work. 

My coworkers and I feel deeply lucky and indebted to have met then Dr. Fritz Kalhammer from EPRI. Not only was EPRI s financial support significant for strengthening our NEMCA work in Patras, but most importantly, Dr. F. Kalhammer, a former student of G.M. Schwab, understood and described NEMCA as deeply, eloquently and concisely as nobody, in my opinion, had ever done before. Fritz s continuing support and friendship is gratefully acknowledged, as is that of Dr. H. Putter of BASF, another prominent electrochemist whose continuing collaboration is most valuable, as is BASF s, Dupont s and EU s continuing financial support. 

He always maintained close contacts with industry, and actively promoted collaboration between universities and both industrial companies and government institutions. Consultancies with many companies were undertaken in connection with research grants to his department. These contacts formed an important part of his life, and he claimed they were a great stimulation to him. He was a protagonist of the utilization of carbohydrates as chemical raw materials, although at the time they did not find many industrial outlets because of the development of the petrochemical industiy. Now, however, many of his concepts have re-emerged under the fashionable umbrella of biotechnology. 

We would also like to thank very warmly all the chapter authors who have felt the importance of producing a book with these characteristics. They clearly understood the philosophy of the project from the beginning, and they have contributed with exceptionally well-vwitten pieces of work in all senses. We really would like to thank them for their highly enthusiastic dedication. We must say that it has been a real pleasure to collaborate with such an excellent group of scientist from all over the world. 

Such collaborations as represented in the project team have been described by Watts (1985) as important for the snccess of action research. He pointed ont that it is important for teachers to help each other by working collaboratively and that working with external colleagues supports them in their professional development. Our collaborative action research experience snpport these statements, namely it seems that the success of the investigation is to a great proportion due to the effective collaboration between the involved partners (the specific roles of partners are described earlier). 

The investigation was conducted in the form of collaborative action research in order to bring together the strengths of chemistiy teachers, the advisor for chemistry from The National Board of Education for Slovenia, and chemical education researchers from University of Ljubljana, and at the same time to enable a direct transfer of estabhshed research findings into teaching practice. According to teachers opinion, in comparison with their experiences in previous years, the most important achievements of the LON approach were ... 

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