Antimicrobial action of micro- and nanoscale ZnO particles has been documented, but the fundamental physical mechanisms driving these actions are still not identified. We hypothesize that one of the key mechanisms behind the antibacterial action of ZnO is rooted in interactions between ZnO surfaces and extracellular material. An investigation was done of the biological components of that interaction using diffusion theory and more specifically Brownian motion computational models to look at the interaction of Zn+2 and O-2 ions with staphylococcus aureus bacteria. The analysis allowed us to find a correlation between the thickness of the staphylococcus aureus bacteria and the amount of the zinc and oxygen ions present in the solution.

Nano- and microscale zinc oxide (ZnO) have demonstrated potential for applications in electronic, pharmacological and chemical industries among others. At these scales, surface properties dominate, rendering surface defects highly influential. Consequently, understanding of defect- related phenomena are crucial to achieving impactful figures of merit. Many optoelectronic properties of ZnO relevant for applications have been linked to defect-related visible luminescence. Its fundamental origins are still being debated, with attributions to oxygen vacancies, zinc vacancies, oxygen antisites, donor-acceptor pairs, etc. In our studies, we contribute to this discussion by probing the relationship between crystal morphology and this luminescence. We conducted optoelectronic studies to characterize the effects of remote oxygen plasma treatment on hydrothermally-grown microscale ZnO samples with controlled morphology as a means to help elucidate the nature of the visible emission. We report on the observed changes in the photoluminescence spectra indicative of the relationship between surface defects, morphology, and electronic structure of ZnO.

Fifty percent of stars in the night sky are actually binary star systems, but finding and characterizing them requires significant data, time, and analysis. Studying the brighter star of the pair is fairly straightforward, but the secondary is commonly hidden. Using the infrared spectroscopy data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey combined with the WIYN Open Cluster Survey, we create a longer baseline with which we can better characterize these stars. The Joker, a new Monte Carlo analysis technique, will help us reveal the hidden binary stars by producing solutions for the orbits of the systems. By finding new binary stars, we can better understand the demographics and composition of our chosen star cluster, NGC 6819, and also learn more about each individual companion of the systems.

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, increases prosocial behavior. Research has demonstrated that when a former competitive athlete reflects on their time participating in their sport, they experience feelings of nostalgia. Applying the prosocial nature of nostalgia to an athletic domain, it was hypothesized in the current study that sport-specific nostalgia would predict greater sportsmanship attitudes among athletes. To test this, we primed former competitive athletes with sport nostalgia by instructing them to write about a memory from playing their sport. Then they completed items about their sportsmanship attitudes, such as respecting opponents and officials. Results showed that nostalgia-primed participants reported greater sportsmanship attitudes compared to a control group. This is consistent with research showing that nostalgic reflection increases prosocial attitudes and behavior. In future work we plan to examine these findings in current competitive athletes to give further insight into the role that nostalgia plays in sport settings.

Background: Reward loss is accompanied by a stress response affecting emotion and health. Problem: A comprehensive map of brain activity, or connectome, during an episode involving reward loss remains to be worked out. A connectome is being developed using the protein c-Fos expressed in recently activated neurons. Method: Experimental animals were exposed to reward loss (high-to-low sucrose and pellet downshift), whereas control animals had access only to the small or only to the large reward. c-Fos expression was measured in brain slices obtained after the reward loss event using immunohistochemistry. Brain activity levels in experimental and control animals were determined based on c-Fos expression in several key brain areas. Results: c-Fos expression was found to be higher in areas involved in negative emotion and lower in areas involved in reward processing in downshifted vs. unshifted groups. Contribution: This novel approach will continue to help identify the brain connectome underlying reward loss, that is the set of excited and inhibited areas when the organism is experiencing a loss.

Learning and correctly remembering health information is important at all ages, and it can be particularly important in later adulthood (65+ years old). Thus, interventions focused on identifying methods to improve young and older adults’ health knowledge and memory for medication information are valuable. We developed a cognitive intervention relying on methods that have been identified to be effective for enhancing learning. Specifically, prior research has established that retrieval practice (recalling information from memory) can be a powerful tool for learning other kinds of information. Our goal was to evaluate the degree to which a retrieval practice intervention would improve younger and older adults’ self-regulated learning of medication side effects. Younger adults from TCU and older adults from the community were recruited to participate. Participants who received the intervention were given information about repeated retrieval practice that emphasized the effectiveness of this strategy for improving memory. Specifically, the intervention indicated that they should recall each medication’s side effects correctly 3 times during learning, and they should continue to space their retrieval practice until they met this goal. All participants learned medication names paired with a side-effect. They made decisions about when to study, engage in retrieval practice, and stop learning the list of medication-side effect pairs. Younger and older adults’ who received the intervention made better study decisions relative to those who did not. Further, the intervention enhanced both younger and older adults’ memory for medication side effects relative to control conditions. These outcomes suggest that our evidence-based intervention can help young and older adults learn and remember critical health information, which may assist them in monitoring for adverse outcomes during medication usage.

Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a heritable disorder that effects approximately 5-12% of children (Shaywitz et al., 1990) and persists in 4-6% of adults (Schulte-Korne & Remschmidt, 2003). In those with dyslexia, reading dysfunction is caused by phonological impairments that may result from neurological low-level sensory-processing mechanisms. Previous research suggests that rapid autonomized naming (RAN) deficits are the most reported deficit in adults with dyslexia (Araújo, et al., 2019), however it is unknown whether the RAN deficit is caused by general rapid processing deficits or a specific letter-sound binding problem. This experiment was designed to address this unknown question by measuring rapid visual processing deficits and their relation to reading skills in children with dyslexia. Children (N=103) were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a larger study of rapid stimulus processing in dyslexia. Out of the 103 children screened, 77 qualified for use in the study (33 neurotypical, 33 dyslexia, and 11 compensated dyslexia). Children completed two visual processing tasks online. The first was a rapid serial visual perception task (RSVP; Amador-Campos et al., 2015) which evaluates rapid stimulus processing of one or more symbol and letter. The second was a visuo-spatial working memory task (VSWM; Sander, Werkle-Bergner, & Lindenberger, 2011) that evaluates working memory and visual acuity at different speeds. Accuracy and reaction times were measured for each task. While we found no group differences on any task or condition, there were main effects of target number for RSVP accuracy and of set size and speed for VSWM. These results demonstrate that the tasks were adequately difficult but that those with dyslexia did not exhibit specific deficits on either task, even when the stimuli were printed letters. This suggests that RAN deficits in children with dyslexia may not originate from rapid visual perception deficits, but some other neural mechanism.

Relationship between Self-Care Inquiry and Stress Levels In Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders

Adolescents living with substance use disorders are presented with a multitude of challenges when confronted with the reality of recovery from their addiction. Despite numerous interventions used to assist adolescents as they seek rehabilitation, few interventions focus on everyday stressors or triggers that contribute to substance use. Research has shown that stress significantly impacts substance use. This study aims to evaluate whether inquiring about self-care strategies used by adolescents seeking recovery from a substance use disorder will reduce stress levels, thus improving chances of adolescents maintaining recovery. Adolescents participating in outpatient treatment at a recovery facility were recruited for this study and were asked to fill out surveys once a week for four weeks about their level of stress and activities that they were doing for self-care.

Romantic relationships are a popular subject in the psychological research realm, but their social counterparts, singles, are overlooked. Further, whereas loneliness is well-studied, existential isolation (EI), the subjective sense that one is alone in one’s experience and that others cannot understand their perspective, is a construct that could provide insight to singles. Our research will examine single adults and how they might experience EI if they do not have single friends who can reasonably share their same experience (i.e., if most of them are in relationships). Single participants will estimate the proportion of their social circle (friends and family) who are single vs. in relationships. We predict that singles whose friends are mostly in romantic relationships will experience higher EI. On the other hand, we predict that single people with mostly single friends will not experience the same high level of EI. We will also measure EI in comparison to different well-being measures (e.g., self-esteem, happiness). It is hypothesized that singles will experience higher EI and lower well-being if most of their friends are not single.

Title: The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health and Marital Functioning in Mothers and Fathers of Autistic Children

Authors: Maddy Filippi, Deborah Rafferty, Naomi Ekas, Chrystyna Kouros

Introduction: Mothers and fathers of autistic children face many mental health and relationship challenges compared to parents of neurotypical children, including higher levels of stress (e.g., Benson, 2006; Weitlauf et al., 2014), more marital dysfunction (e.g., Shtayeermman et al., 2013; Sim et al., 2016), and increased likelihood of divorce (e.g., Hartley, 2010; Shtayermman, 2013). The sudden closure of schools and transitioning to online services at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the stress levels of parents with a disability, including negatively affecting various aspects of home life (Marchetti et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to compare differences in marital relationship quality and psychological distress in mothers and fathers of autistic children at multiple points throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the mental health and marital satisfaction in mothers and fathers of autistic children were compared to population norms at all timepoints.

Methods: Mothers and fathers of autistic children who were part of a larger longitudinal study participated in a supplemental study examining the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To qualify for the main study, parents had to be married or living together for a year, have an autistic child that lived with them 50% of the time, and be able to read and speak English. From the original sample of 119 couples, 94 mothers and 58 fathers answered surveys about their mental health (anxiety, stress, dysphoria), marital functioning (conflict and satisfaction), and the symptom severity of their autistic child at three time points (April, July, and October 2020) after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: A series of independent t-tests examined the differences between mothers’ and fathers’ reported levels of mental health, marital functioning, and child symptom severity. At all timepoints, mothers’ parenting responsibilities and anxiety levels were significantly higher than fathers’, ps ≤ .043. Mothers’ levels of stress and dysphoria were significantly higher in October 2020 than fathers’, ps ≤ .012. Compared to pre-pandemic population norms, mothers reported significantly higher stress at all timepoints (ps ≤ .006), while fathers only reported significantly higher levels of anxiety in April 2020 (p ≤ .001). Fathers also reported lower levels of dysphoria compared to population norms at all timepoints (ps ≤ .016).

Conclusion: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers of autistic children appeared to have more negative outcomes compared to fathers of autistic children. Mothers reported more parenting responsibilities compared to fathers, as well as higher rates of stress. In October 2020 when school districts re-opened, mothers reported higher levels of stress and dysphoria compared to fathers. Further, compared to pre-pandemic populations, parents of autistic children reported more stress and fathers reported reduced dysphoria. Overall, parents of autistic children appeared to face negative outcomes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and displayed higher rates of stress and dysphoria than parents at pre-pandemic populations. However, any conclusions generated from data reported by fathers are limited based on the reduced sample size.

References:

Benson, P. R. (2006). The impact of child symptom severity on depressed mood among parents of children with ASD: The mediating role of stress proliferation. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 36(5), 685-695.

Hartley, S. L., Barker, E. T., Seltzer, M. M., Floyd, F., Greenberg, J., Orsmond, G., & Bolt, D. (2010). The relative risk and timing of divorce in families of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(4), 449–457. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019847
Marchetti, D., Fontanesi, L., Mazza, C., Di Giandomenico, S., Roma, P., & Verrocchio, M. C. (2020). Parenting-related exhaustion during the Italian COVID-19 lockdown. Journal of pediatric psychology, 45(10), 1114-1123.
Shtayermman, O. (2013). Stress and marital satisfaction of parents to children diagnosed with autism. Journal of family social work, 16(3), 243-259.

Sim, A., Cordier, R., Vaz, S., & Falkmer, T. (2016). Relationship satisfaction in couples raising a child with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review of the literature. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 31, 30-52.

Weitlauf, A. S., Vehorn, A. C., Taylor, J. L., & Warren, Z. E. (2014). Relationship satisfaction, parenting stress, and depression in mothers of children with autism. Autism, 18(2), 194-198.