Alcohol consumption is a pervasive element of today’s culture with serious individual and social consequences. Consequently, understanding the effects of alcohol on behavior and the brain is vital to unpack the motivation for drinking and potentially help treat individuals with alcohol use disorder. This experiment utilized a rat model of voluntary alcohol consumption using a high (66%) concentration of ethanol. Traditionally, it has been thought that rats reject such high concentrations of alcohol. However, it has been repeatedly demonstrated in our lab that rats will drink such high concentrations of alcohol at a rate equal to water and will even work to have access to alcohol as a reward. In this study, rats were given access to either 66% ethanol or water in their home cages for 1-hour sessions. After some of these sessions, rats were placed in the open field chamber to assess locomotor activity and blood was drawn to measure blood alcohol content. After a final consumption session, brains were extracted to investigate differences in brain activity in specific regions of the brain. The results showed that after 66% alcohol consumption rats had increased activity in the periphery of the open field chamber, increased blood alcohol concentration, and increased brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and nucleus accumbens. All together, these results suggest that rats will consume high concentrations of alcohol and find such concentrations rewarding.

Background: Adolescent depression and anxiety has adverse effects if not treated, such as substance abuse, educational underachievement, teen pregnancy, social isolation, and suicidal ideation (Kamin et al. 2014). The possible reoccurrence of these disorders further emphasizes the need for early identification and diagnosis for teens. Although the prevalence of adolescent depression is high, many adolescents do not receive mental health services, such as talk therapy or medication. One possibility is that parents are not correctly identifying their child’s depressive and anxiety symptoms and may dismiss symptoms as being normative adolescent behavior. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether parents of adolescents were able to accurately identify symptoms of depression and anxiety in hypothetical adolescents and the extent to which their accuracy predicted their ability to identify symptoms in their adolescent. Ethnic differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents were also examined.

Methods: Eighty-one mother-adolescent dyads participated in the current study (23% Hispanic). Dyads completed a series of surveys and clinical interviews in a laboratory setting. Adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Child Depression Inventory (CDI) and Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), which were completed by the mothers and adolescents. Mothers were presented with a series of vignettes which described the behaviors of hypothetical adolescents. Five of the vignettes described symptoms of anxiety and depression in male and female adolescents. After reading each vignette mothers were asked to identify the symptoms and whether they thought the adolescent had a problem and needed help. Responses were coded by trained research assistants (currently in progress) and a score reflecting the proportion of symptoms correctly identified will be calculated.

Analysis Plan: Separate discrepancy scores (mother v. child report) for child depressive and anxiety symptoms will be calculated. Higher discrepancy scores suggest that mothers and adolescents do not agree on the level of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Next, separate simple regressions will be performed to determine the extent to which mothers’ symptom identification accuracy on the vignettes predicts the discrepancy score. Any necessary covariates (e.g., child gender, age, etc.) will be included. Finally, parent ethnicity (Hispanic v. non-Hispanic) will be added as a moderator to determine whether the aforementioned relationship differs by ethnicity.

Implications:
These findings have essential implications for early identification in children who are at risk or may become depressed. Parents who are not able to see depressive symptoms early in their own children may never be able to give their child the help they desperately need. Equipping parents with the right information on depressive and anxiety symptoms is vital for early intervention to occur. Identifying possible ethnic differences will help as cultural differences can be a factor in early intervention. Parents can then be guided in better understanding their children’s individual signs and symptoms and be able to intervene before it is too serious. Overall this information will help more adolescents receive treatment as parents will be understanding of their own potential bias with their children.

Life history theory provides an evolutionary framework to explain why individuals from different ecologies (i.e., living environments) employ different strategies and behaviors to solve their adaptive problems. Research using life history theory consistently finds that individuals from harsh ecologies that are scarce, unpredictable, and high in morbidity risk are more likely to engage in fast life strategies (e.g., accelerated reproduction, impulsive behavior). In contrast, individuals from benign ecologies that are abundant, predictable, and low in morbidity are more likely to engage in slow life strategies (e.g., delayed reproduction, delayed gratification). Without the nuanced understanding of how living environments and socioeconomic status (SES) influences adaptive behaviors, one might perceive fast life strategies and behaviors as poor decision-making. Our first study, therefore, seeks to examine whether individuals from low SES backgrounds are more understanding of fast behaviors compared to those of high SES. The results supported our hypothesis, revealing that people from low SES neighborhoods were more likely to rate fast behaviors as wise and moral compared to people from high SES neighborhoods. Additionally, in our second study, we investigated whether having knowledge or cues of ecological contexts alters people’s perceptions of behaviors originating from those ecologies. The results revealed that people are more perceptive of behaviors that they consider congruent and adaptive to the subject's environment. Specifically, fast behaviors were rated as more wise and moral in harsh ecologies than in benign ecologies, while slow behaviors were rated as more wise and moral in benign ecologies compared to harsh. Overall, our findings indicate that having insight into one’s ecology significantly influences how people view that individual’s behaviors and life strategies.

Identity fusion is defined as a "visceral sense of oneness" between an individual and their in-group. It is distinct from in-group identification, in that fusion motivates the individual to personally sacrifice for the group and develop familial-like ties with members they don’t know. Strong identity fusion has often been linked to negative/anti-social behavior, such as violent extremism and persecution of others. However, further work has indicated identity fusion can motivate pro-social group behavior. The current study focuses on identity fusion through the lens of the hometown. It was hypothesized that high hometown-fusion would be associated with feelings of kinship, greater intention to act in benefit to the hometown, and increased intention to live in one’s hometown. Identity fusion was predicted to associate positively with well-being (measured via optimism, existential isolation, and positive affect). Results indicated hometown-fusion was positively associated with kinship, intention to act in favor of the hometown, and well-being. Fused participants were significantly more willing to act locally than not-fused. Fused participants also intended on living in their hometown for longer periods of time. These results support the hypothesis that identity fusion may engender positive group behavior without eliciting harm to out-groups.

Complex developmental trauma can lead to a host of psychological and behavioral issues in children. Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is a therapeutic model that trains those who care for at-risk children to provide effective support and intervention. The one thing that almost all children experiencing trauma in any form have in common is that they are required to attend school. Teachers are the caregivers spending the most time with children second to their families, and in some cases, primary to their families. The effects of trauma are known to impact school behavior and performance. Children who have experienced trauma are more frequently referred for special education and disciplinary action, test lower than their peers, and fail out of school at a higher rates. Despite these unfortunate facts, research has shown that schools can help promote resilience to mitigate the effect trauma has on students by creating trauma-informed classrooms. The TBRI & Trauma-Informed Classroom training is an online training that is available to the general public. Participants who completed this training were surveyed in order to assess the quality and the outcomes of the training, as well as ways to improve comprehension and implementation. Understanding how this training is translating to practice is essential for future trainings. Creating trauma-informed classrooms that serve as places of healing for children who have experienced trauma is vital to the well-being of students who are in them.

Past research has shown that individuals can become self-radicalized (i.e., adopt more extreme attitudes in the absence of new information) by merely thinking about a group. The current experiment examined whether a specific type of thought, extrapolating from known to unknown group attributes, can also cause self-radicalization. To test this idea, half of the participants were instructed to extrapolate about attributes people who agreed and disagreed with them about a social topic might have, while a control group rated attributes unrelated to people who agreed and disagreed with them. Compared to control participants, extrapolators reported more negative attitudes toward people who disagreed with them and more positive attitudes toward people who agreed with them about whether abortion should be legal. Extremity of the extrapolated attributes also predicted more negative attitudes toward people who disagreed and more positive attitudes toward people who agreed with the extrapolator. The current findings add to past research and theory about the processes by which individuals can become self-radicalized.

Previous research in our lab has found that extrapolating from known to unknown attributes about a group can cause individuals to adopt more extreme attitudes (i.e., become self-radicalized) toward the group. The current study investigated whether individual differences in belief personification, or judging people based on their opinions, moderated the effects of extrapolation on self-radicalization toward people who agreed and disagreed with the extrapolator about a social topic. Compared to a control group, extrapolators reported more extreme attitudes toward people who agreed and disagreed with them about kneeling during the national anthem, and extremity of the extrapolated attributes predicted more extreme attitudes toward both groups. Self-radicalization was also strongest among extrapolators who expressed greater belief personification, whereas belief personification did not have an effect on the control condition. These results extend the understanding by which attitudes can become more extreme in the absence of new information.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease marked by memory loss and cognitive dysfunction due to protein aberrations in the brain. An estimated 5.8 million people in the U.S are currently living with this devastating disease, and no effective treatment exists. Furthermore, the etiology of AD remains largely unknown, though many risk factors have been identified. One such risk factor is experiencing chronic psychological stress. Over 77% of US adults report experiencing significant chronic stress. The current research aimed to explore the effects of chronic unpredictable stress on AD-like pathology in adult male C57BL/6 mice. Mice in the chronic unpredictable stress group were housed in isolation and were exposed to six different stressors presented at random for 21 consecutive days. These six stressors included being placed into a restraint tube, forced swimming in lukewarm water, being placed into an empty cage, cage being placed on a tilt, wet bedding, and removal of white bedding nestlet overnight. Mice in the control group remained in their group-housed cages and were not subjected to the stressors. During the final week of the paradigm, all mice received seven days of either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or saline injections to explore whether an inflammatory insult would exacerbate the hypothesized detrimental effects of chronic unpredictable stress on AD-like pathology. Following the final day of stress and injections, all mice were trained in contextual fear conditioning, a Pavlovian learning paradigm to examine learning and memory. Following contextual fear conditioning, hippocampal tissue was collected to quantify amyloid-beta (Aβ), a protein which aggregates to form plaques that disrupt neuronal communication in AD. Although there were no effects of seven days of LPS injections on cognitive function or Aβ, chronic unpredictable stress was associated with impaired cognition and slightly increased hippocampal Aβ compared to the control condition. Further research is necessary to explore the mechanisms driving these observed differences. As the prevalence of AD is expected to continue to climb rapidly in the coming years, and, given the large percentage of the population reporting experiencing chronic stress, understanding how chronic stress may contribute to or exacerbate AD is crucial.

The current study aimed to investigate the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying devaluation of expected rewards. In rats, frustration effects of reward loss are produced using the reward downshift (RD) situation. RD postshift phase involves two stages. After an initial suppression of sucrose consumption (Stage 1), behavior recovers to baseline levels (Stage 2). During Stage 1, nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons release lower levels of dopamine, but it is not known whether they participate in the recovery process (Stage 2). We hypothesized that NAc activity would be important for the recovery process following a 32-2% sucrose downshift. The study explored the role of the NAc by selectively targeting both RD postshift stages using chemogenetics. Inhibitory or excitatory Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) were delivered into the NAc of rats via intracranial infusion and activated prior to downshift sessions via intraperitoneal injection of Clozapine N-Oxide (CNO), the activator drug for DREADDs. Rats were assigned to one of three neural manipulation condition, inhibition (INH), excitation (EXC), or control (CON), and received either CNO or Vehicle (veh) on postshift sessions. Thus, there were two groups in each neural manipulation condition: INH/CNO, INH/Veh, EXC/CNO, EXC/Veh, Control/CNO, and Control/Veh. Preliminary results revealed that NAc inhibition does not disrupt sucrose consumption during RD postshift. However, NAc excitation increases consummatory suppression and slows the recovery process. This pattern of results suggests that the chemogenetic manipulation may be affecting GABAergic projection neurons within the NAc, increasing the suppression of dopamine release, and resulting in suppressed behavioral response.

Our research lab has found that individuals tend to adopt more extreme attitudes toward an outgroup (i.e., become self-radicalized) when they extrapolate from known to unknown traits about the outgroup. Recent lab findings have also suggested that trait imageability, or the ability to form a mental image of a trait, can influence the effects of extrapolation on self-radicalization, such that people were more likely to become self-radicalized when they extrapolated to traits that were relatively difficult, compared to relatively easy, to form a mental image of. The current experiment examined whether the effects of trait imageability on extrapolation also influence metacognitive outcomes. We found that participants who extrapolated to traits that were difficult to form a mental image of subsequently reported that they knew more about the outgroup, had greater confidence that they knew how the outgroup members would behave, and were more likely to believe the initial information about the outgroup was accurate, compared to participants who extrapolated to traits that were easy to form a mental image of and compared to control participants. The current findings established an important link between and the effects of trait imageability on extrapolation and subsequent metacognitive measures.

The growing population of Spanish speakers in the U.S. has created challenges related to translating and adapting interventions to serve this diverse population. This qualitative study examined how Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) practitioners currently handle challenges due to language and cultural issues among their primarily Spanish-speaking clients. Eight TBRI® practitioners in 4 different Latin American countries were recruited to complete an online background survey and a 30 to 45-minute virtual interview. Preliminary results indicate that TBRI® practitioners face challenges in regards to their clients’ education level, literacy rates, access to curriculum-related materials, and cultural views on the TBRI® correction principle. Practitioners handle these challenges by simplifying the language used in the materials, explaining content with culturally-relevant examples, creating items that can be used in lieu of ones used in the materials of curriculum, and having patience with clients as they learn a new way of parenting. The goal of this project is not only to bring awareness of translation language barriers and cultural issues with TBRI® materials but to help the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development adapt materials, so there is a more appropriate and easily received response to the material among primarily Spanish-speaking children and families.

A foreign language is a non-native language acquired outside of a natural linguistic community. The benefits of learning a foreign language include that it heightens employability, positively affects cognitive functioning, and increases cross-cultural awareness. The goal of this study was to compare the effects of a pair-test (PT) procedure and a high-density response construction (HDRC) procedure on foreign-language vocabulary acquisition. We used a within-subjects pretest-posttest design combined with a single-subject multielement design. Nine participants received instructions with 10 Arabic words; 5 words were taught via HDRC instruction, and 5 via pair-test. We hypothesized that participants would learn faster in the HDRC condition and perform better on transfer and retention tests. However, preliminary results suggest that there was no difference between conditions.

Previous research evaluated the extent to which equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is more efficient or produces stimulus classes with different properties than complete instruction (CI) in which all relations between stimuli in a class are taught directly. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the flexibility of the formed stimulus classes in EBI and CI procedures with a contingency reorganization. Forty-eight undergraduate students received training to establish 3 stimulus classes with 4 members in each class. The students were randomly assigned to two groups: EBI – in which they received training for some of the relations – and CI – that targeted all possible relations between the members of each class. After undergoing training and equivalence test (Phase 1), participants received contingency reorganization training (Phase 2). In the reorganization phase, the relations A1B2, A2B3, A3B1 were stablished as correct. Class flexibility was evaluated in an immediate contingency-reversal post-test. The EBI group required fewer training trials to complete ABCD training, and performed similarly to the CI group in the equivalence test. Additionally, EBI group required less training trials in the reorganization training, and performed better in the reorganization test when compared to CI group.

I examined the effects of disrupting verbal mediation in a task that models the effects of verbally presented information on conceptual behavior. The experiment was done asynchronously by sending participants a SuperLab 6.0 software experiment, requesting a screen recording using Zoom, and acquiring demographic, consent, and exit interview information using Qualtrics. Sixty-four participants were randomly assigned to four conditions. The tact-intraverbal (TI) groups first learned to match visual stimuli with verbal labels, and then to associate pairs of verbal labels. The intraverbal-tact (IT) groups received the opposite sequence. After training, all groups were tested for new relationships between the visual stimuli. One TI group and one IT group were given an additional verbal task during the test, which was predicted to disrupt the performance more in the IT than the TI condition, due to IT participants being more reliant on solving the task verbally. No significant differences in accuracy or reaction time were noted between groups. However, only 47% of those in the IT-V group and 13% of those in the TI-V group actually performed the additional verbal task. The experiment should be repeated through real-time video calls or in person, so that participant instruction-following can be monitored and intervened on.

COVID-19, an unprecedented virus that shifted into a global pandemic almost a year ago, has greatly impacted the human way of life. Recent research, however, has shown that in the United States discrimination towards people of Asian descent has risen dramatically. From a terror management perspective, this heightened discrimination might be due to a defense mechanism to buffer death-anxiety through enhancing one’s cultural belief. The current study evaluates whether priming thoughts of COVID-19 leads to heightened death-related thoughts and increased racism towards Asians (i.e., worldview defense). Data was collected from 175 Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers. Our findings suggest that COVID did not influence attitudes toward Asians and international communication through increased mortality awareness. The current work will discuss possible limitations and directions for further study.

The United States is an increasingly diverse country with respect to the number of languages spoken (Shin & Ortman, 2011). With this increase, many adults experience benefits in their personal or professional lives from learning to read in a new language. However, learning to read fluently is increasingly difficult in adulthood (Abadzi, 1996; 2012) Previous research has shown a general bilingual advantage for novel word learning, such that individuals who are fluently bilingual more easily acquire additional languages (Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2009). Given that the reading and language networks largely overlap (Monzalvo and Dehaene-Lambertz, 2013; Stevens et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2020), we hypothesized that reading fluently in multiple print systems (multiscripturalism) may provide a similar advantage. Thus, we investigated the effect of multiscripturalism on novel letter-sound learning in young adults. Data were collected from young adults at TCU and the larger DFW community. Participants were screened for eligibility through a background questionnaire and a short assessment session conducted over Zoom. Eligible participants completed a 30-minute training session to learn eight Hebrew consonants and vowels. Immediately after training and seven days later, participants completed multiple reading measures to assess letter-sound learning performance (Thakkar et al., 2020). We will present our findings from the first wave of data collection, including the impact of baseline reading on learning and whether existing print systems impacted learning and retention of novel letters. We will also discuss implications for this work on literacy education policies and impacts on those with poor reading skills.

Bacillus anthracis is a bacterium that causes the deadly disease anthrax and has been used in bioterrorism. We are looking to investigate what genes within the chromosomal DNA contribute to the virulence of Bacillus anthracis. In this study, we screened a transposon library of B. anthracis ‘knock-out’ mutants for susceptibility to reactive oxygen species used by the immune system. A broad in vitro hydrogen peroxide screen was performed on 1,953 transposon mutants, and after several rounds of in vitro screening, 40 mutants were identified as consistently attenuated in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Four of these mutants were then tested in the invertebrate model, Galleria mellonella, to assess virulence in an animal model. Mutants with phenotypes that repeated in both assays were prioritized for characterization. The location of the transposon insertion in one of the mutants was successfully identified. Identifying these novel genes contributing to the bacterium’s virulence will provide a better understanding of B. anthracis pathogenesis and may provide potential targets for combatting anthrax.

The bacterium Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent for the disease anthrax, possesses two plasmids that contribute significantly to virulence. Besides plasmids, certain chromosomal genes also contribute. In previous studies, our lab discovered that the chromosomally encoded ClpX gene is essential for virulence in B. anthracis. ClpX is an ATPase that is part of the ClpXP proteasome found in many bacteria. Loss of ClpX in B. anthracis Sterne results in increased susceptibility to cell wall targeting antibiotics like penicillin and daptomycin. However, the mechanism behind ClpX’s role in antibiotic resistance is not understood as it is likely that multiple pathways are affected by the loss of this global protease. We recently conducted a microarray to find which genes are up or down regulated in ClpX compared to wild-type (WT) B. anthracis. 119 genes had disrupted regulation and several of these had been connected to cell-wall active antibiotics like penicillin. In this study, we focused on three of these genes: MsrA, GlpF, and SigM. We confirmed the microarray results and showed that MsrA, GlpF, and SigM gene expression in our ClpX strains significantly differs from the wild-type B. anthracis Sterne via QPCR. Insertional knockout mutants were made for GlpF and SigM to test whether these genes were necessary for antibiotic resistance. We are currently testing these mutants in penicillin and daptomycin to assess their phenotypes. We found that loss of SigM results in increased susceptibility to penicillin and are currently studying the effect of daptomycin on SigM and GlpF. We will test the virulence of both mutants in our invertebrate animal model G. mellonella. This will hopefully provide better understanding on the mechanism behind ClpX’s antibiotic resistance.

Studies have shown that males and females differ with regard to their ability to survive pathogen infections. The fathead minnow is a newly developed model for immunotoxicity; however, few studies have compared male and female immune responses following pathogen exposure. The purpose of this study was to examine sex-based differences in pathogen resistance and immune responses following exposure to a pathogen in adult fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). To accomplish this, fish were bacterially infected with Yersinia ruckeri and the immune system’s ability to respond was monitored. Additionally, genes that are known to be expressed during the immune response initiation were measured quantitatively, providing insight into the molecular effect in minnows. At the whole organism level, male fish were less able to survive pathogen infection relative to female fish. At the tissue level, both male and female pathogen-injected fish had decreased hematocrit percentages compared to the fish injected with a saline solution, but did not differ from each other. At the molecular level, increased gene expression of interleukin 1β was seen in pathogen-injected males compared to pathogen-injected females and both sham-injected sexes, indicating that pathogen-injected males mounted a larger inflammatory response at the molecular level. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the increased mortality observed among males earlier in the exposure to the pathogen may be due to the upregulated inflammatory response rather than the effects of the pathogen itself.

Bacillus anthracis is a gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium and the causative agent of the deadly disease anthrax. The B. anthracis genome consists of chromosomal genes and the pXO1 and pXO2 plasmids that strongly contribute to the bacteria’s deadly nature. While the virulence factors associated with the plasmids have been extensively studied, we believe there are still undiscovered chromosomal genes that may also have important virulence factors. To identify novel chromosomal genes associated with B. anthracis virulence, we screened a transposon mutant library of B. anthracis Sterne strain for increased sensitivity to reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species, such as hydrogen peroxide, have many functions in mammalian immune defenses and wild type B. anthracis is able to subvert this host defense. Sensitivity to reactive oxygen species was tested through in vitro hydrogen peroxide assays and after several rounds of screening, eight mutants were confirmed as susceptible. We next tested whether any of these mutants were attenuated in vivo using our invertebrate animal model, Galleria mellonella and found several mutants with decreased virulence. We are currently working on determining the location of the transposon insertion to find which chromosomal gene is disrupted. This could lead to the discovery of novel B. anthracis virulence genes and eventually possible treatment targets for future anthrax outbreaks and attacks.

The swim performance assay is a behavioral assessment used to measure cardiovascular function in fish. Previously, the laminar flow assay (LFA) has been the standard method of assessing swim performance in adult fish to measure their cardiac output. The spinning task assay (STA) is a novel, accessible method of assessing swim performance; however, previous studies have not compared the two methods. Additionally, there is little documentation of swim performance in larval fish, a more sensitive study subject for toxicological research. Therefore, the aim of this research is to compare the swim performance of fish in the LFA to those in the STA to determine which method is better for assessing swim performance in larval fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). In this study, the percent of fish that fail to swim in the LFA is inversely proportional to the age of the fish, but in the STA, there is no correlation between percent failure and fish age. Results show that as fish increase in size, swim performance in the LFA improves, making it a more representative, predictable assay. Results from the STA indicate that swim performance in fish does not improve with size and performance in the STA is not correlated with performance in the LFA. Ucrit values from the LFA have less variation than those from the STA. The results of this study show that the LFA is a more suitable modality for assessing swim performance in larval fathead minnows.

Porous silicon nanoparticles exhibit great potential as drug delivery vectors due to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio allowing for increased efficacy of surface functionalization and therapeutic loading capabilities. This data set demonstrates the fabrication of a class of plant-derived materials which are sub-micron in size and capable of functionalization with primary amine groups through the addition of APTES.
The production of porous silicon particles (pSi) is achieved through magnesiothermic reduction of silica containing Tabasheer powder isolated from the nodal joints of the Bambuseae plant. Efficacy of this reduction is evaluated using techniques including X-ray diffraction and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy which show successful reduction of silica starting material to porous silicon.
High energy ball milling followed by reduction is used to produce pSi particles of sub-micrometer size while also allowing for a significantly higher yield (~90%) of material than previous methods. Particle size is confirmed via electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS).
Following reduction, surface functionalization of silicon nanoparticles with primary amine groups was carried out using a 4% (v/v) solution of APTES in acetone. The evaluation of this functionalization was conducted using techniques including zeta potential and infrared spectroscopy (IR). Zeta potential values are found to be approximately -10 mV. This data demonstrates successful amino silanization.
The results achieved through these methods suggest successful fabrication of pSi nanoparticles and subsequent functionalization for future use as a drug delivery vector.

Drug delivery is the process by which medications are administered to the body. This is complex due to the difficulty of determining compounds that have the proper biocompatibility and permissibility to our human cells. Many medications are taken orally; however, there are advantages to administering medication subcutaneously or by inserting it in the inner corner of the eye. Porous films made out of biocompatible polymers provide a good platform for drug delivery as they have the ability to be loaded with plant derived porous Silicon. Functionalizing the porous silicon using (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and glutaraldehyde can be done in an attempt to covalently attach particles to the film which is important for embedding them into the pores of the film. Porous silicon has biocompatible properties and can be loaded with drugs then modified to alter the release of those drugs in the body. This method has the potential to be a useful drug delivery method due to the biocompatible and biodegradable properties of the material and the ability to manipulate the material in order to maximize drug release.

The objective of this project is to make a vaccine that will negate the effects of the powerful opioid fentanyl in the long term. Fentanyl is a strong synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. According to the CDC, there were over 70,000 deaths due to street drug overdoses, which has increased in the last ten years. 40 % of these deaths are related to fentanyl overdoses, therefore it is imperative that approaches are developed to combat this alarming increase in deaths. The vaccine against fentanyl will be synthesized out of molecules that will take advantage of fentanyl’s amide functional group to be hydrolyzed into safe byproducts. Any patient that is administered with the vaccine, will not feel the effects of the opioid because the immune system will hydrolyze the drug as soon as it enters. This project will exploit the properties of both catalytic antibodies (CAbs) and transition state analogs. The Cabs will trigger an immune response to attract phagocytic cells, such as macrophages to phagocytose pathogens and eliminate them from the system. However, if the molecule resembles the transition-state of fentanyl hydrolysis, then the antibodies can cleave the fentanyl in a fast and efficient manner due to their catalytic properties. Therefore, after immunization, a person who is addicted to fentanyl would no longer feel the effects of the opioid because it will be degraded as an immune response is triggered, creating a long-term possible solution to one factor of the “opioid crisis.”

Sir Stanley’s Well Rounded Adventure is a mobile game that is meant to help educate children ages 7-11 about living a healthy lifestyle. Childhood obesity is on the rise, and while we cannot control the lifestyle choices others make, we can help bring education to the younger masses through a medium that they can enjoy: video games. Sir Stanley’s Well Rounded Adventure will help children learn valuable lessons about nutrition and physical activity through a series of unique mini-games, in-game tutorials, and in-game achievements. Our goal is to make this information that has been provided to us by TCU’s nutrition department both accessible and easy to understand for the younger generation.