BASi EC News - February 2007

Pittsburgh Conference, New Orleans , LA, March 2-7, 2008

BASi will not have a booth at Pittcon this year; however, Jon Howell will be at the conference to present a poster and will be attending a number of sessions that involve electrochemistry. If you would like to schedule a meeting with Jon during Pittcon, call him at 800-845-4246, ext. 875 or e-mail Email Jon.

BASi Poster to be Presented at Pittcon
Jon Howell will present poster 900-3 P on Monday afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 in Exhibition Floor Hall C.

Glucose Test Strips and Electroanalytical Chemistry in the Undergraduate Laboratory
Jonathon O. Howell, Bioanalytical Systems Inc., West Lafayette, IN 47906
Peter T. Kissinger, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
Arlen D. Kaufman, Department of Chemistry, University of Evansville, Evansville, IN 47722

The market of home glucose test devices which currently exceeds $4 billion is dominated by electrochemical-based instruments. The study of these common, “simple” and inexpensive meters can provide an interesting opportunity to teach undergraduate students the basics of analytical chemistry, biosensor development, and electrochemical techniques and show how fundamental studies relate to practical devices.

These instruments are sufficiently inexpensive to provide an opportunity for high school science at the interface between biology and chemistry, providing a “show-and-tell” example proven to interest students in the age of MP3 players and cell phones. The glucose meter is the first of many Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) devices now used in clinical chemistry, and it enables an introduction to this entire class of products for many analytes.

Topics covered include: sample collection, microliter volume cells, mass transport, enzyme kinetics, materials science, accuracy, precision, temperature effects, and redox properties.

SEAC C.N. Reilley and Young Investigators Awards
This year’s Charles N. Reilley Award in Electroanalytical Chemistry will be presented at Pittcon 2008 to Hector (Tito) Abruña (Cornell University). The Young Investigator Award will be presented to Shelley Minteer (Saint Louis University). The Reilley Symposium in their honor has been arranged by Professor Christian Amatore (Ecole Normale Superieure) and will be held Wednesday, March 5, from 1:30 to 5 PM in Room 276 of the Morial Convention Center. BASi is a sponsor of the C.N. Reilley Award.

SEAC Reception
The reception for Reilley awardee Hector Abruna and Young Investigator Shelley Minteer will be held on Tuesday, March 4, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Skylight Room at Bacco Restaurant, 310 Rue Chartres, New Orleans. The reception is open to all and no reservations are necessary. Hors d'oeuvres will be provided with a cash bar.

For more information on The Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC), please go to www.electroanalytical.org.

American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6 - 10 , 2008

BASi will be exhibiting in booth no. 522 at the 2008 ACS Spring Meeting in New Orleans. The Exposition will be held in Halls C and D of the Morial Convention Center. We will again be displaying our line of epsilon instruments. Be sure to stop by the booth to see the latest features of the epsilon, or to discuss any of our products.

New EC epsilon™ Software

The latest version of the EC epsilon software (v. 2.00) is now available for download. The software may also be downloaded by non-users as demo software. If the software is opened without the epsilon being connected, all the selections in the technique list box are labeled as "demo" techniques. If a "demo" technique is selected, a Windows file dialog box will open to allow the operator to select a data file for that particular technique. The user can then examine the input parameters and typical output for that technique. This also applies for techniques included in optional software packages if these options have not been purchased.

In addition to various "bug" fixes (discussed in the readme.txt file included with the update), new features in this version include:

1. Save to pdf added to the Print options. When selected, Acrobat Reader is opened and a pdf file of the current data display is created. This gives much more consistent printouts among printers. Note that Acrobat Reader must be installed to use this feature.


2. The number of runs in Multirun and the number of cycles in Sequential Techniques has been increased from 999 to 9999.


3. A feature that will allow one to display and print selected segments of cyclic voltammograms has been added.


4. In Cyclic Voltammetry mode, when Data – Change Peak Parameters dialog box is open, only the peak lines for the selected segment are shown. This aids in inspecting and manually redrawing the baselines for the peak finding.


5. The maximum delay between runs has been increased from 25 to 3600 s with Multirun and from 1200 to 3600 s for Sequential Techniques.


6. The selection of display option of grid/zero lines/no grid of the active data displayed is now saved upon exit of program and this will be used next time the program is opened. Any new techniques started or old data opened will be displayed with the option used in the active data window.


7. Select Colors and Fonts dialog box now has an All Black radio button to easily set all colors to black to improve printout to black and white printers.