So I was able to finish all measurements on Monday when I worked on the atomic force microscope(AFM) from 10 am to 4 pm, and just said

okay! Done! Now the rest is just data analysis!

And then participated to the weekly meetings with Dr. Natelson where he asked us to test samples on SiO2 surface besides the gold.

So we prepared the samples and I went to test them on AFM. First sample went ahead well… And then AFM started giving errors by lowering down the sampling rate to 0.1 Hz which results waiting 20-30 min for one scanning and I need to take about 10 measurements of the clean side and 10 of the PDMS exposed side.

So I kept replaced the tip, and normally I realized it when tip gets close enough for measurements (needs to be 10 to 80 micro meter )

And I just saw the tip scattered through the microscope AGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Sample needs to be replaced since it is full of junk on it now.

I could not continue since other tips did not work either….

Will continue on Monday. Lets see…

I attached two pictures of the surface for how it looks,… I am taking measurements for the roughness which is the equivalent of left over residues

…

Hi,

This is the link that was requested to be posted,

https://www.rgisc.org/rio-research-roundup.html

Students take measurements on Rio Grande River at different cities/ locations and then write journals… to compete.

Similar program can be established for Houston area water bodies…

Hi there,

Put some thought into my poster for the symposium upon completion of the

RET 2018 via poster abstract. This process of thought included and provoked

content that I teach and programming that I’ve learned. With feedback from

the written abstract, I look forward to fine-tuning my abstract to be reader-

friendly and intriguing to a varied audience. The challenge of the week is

creating slope lines using data in Google Sheets. I do have organized data and

graph with a waveform.  For next week, I plan to execute slopes on the

waveform using formulas, and also complete a few portions my poster.

During this week:

• A data base of Photoplethysmography data containing 42 cases, 8 minutes long, (29 children and 13 adults) was downloaded and processed using MathLab and Microsoft Excel. The data files will be saved in a the final csv format. Some of this data, even filtered and processed, present some kind of DC noise, but are still very useful for this research

(Data source: http://www.capnobase.org/database/pulse-oximeter-ieee-tbme-benchmark/)

• The GUI interface was tested with some of this data. A good match to the data in the times was achieved even with only the first two harmonics of the Fourier series. This analytical expressions can be considered a filtered signal.

There is a limitation in this graphical approach: The precisions of the sliders. By now is only possible a two decimals precision in the values.

• Some research works have been explored to understand how to process this analytical function fitted to the PPG data in order to obtain information about the cardiovascular condition of the these persons. If was found that the first and second derivatives can give numbers that correlate with artery stiffness, a problem that comes with aging. Numbers obtained from these derivatives may help to diagnose other cardiovascular diseases like hypertension.
• The possibility to integrate in the GUI a routine to calculate the derivatives of the analytical expressions and obtain the necessary information from them was considered.
• First draft of Research summary was written.

Howdy!

To say that this week has been a resounding success in the lab would be a biiiiiit misleading. We experimented, and experimented, and experimented some more and just couldn’t see the data we wanted to see. We got some good data from out failures though, and I learned some new techniques in chemistry!

The first thing we did this week was some gel SDS-PAGE. It’s a method of separating charged molecules in mixtures by their molecular masses. It uses sodium dodecyl sulfate to help identify and isolate protein molecules.

The first part of the process is to make a matrix with the gel and some SDS. We did this the previous day so the buffers didn’t accidentally mix. Next we prepared the samples!

You actually have to heat up the protein samples so the proteins unfold. They tend to bunch up into little balls, so heating them up along with the SDS helps them to unfold.

After some heating, we squirt the samples into the gel matrix.

And then we wait and apply electricity. The samples move towards the negative pole based on their molecular weight. We had to wait several hours and…

This sample batch was a resounding failure. Oops! We tried several more times and eventually got it right. After you pull out the gel, you have to stain it with a blue dye called Coomassie. It makes the data much easier to read.

The round robin tours were a ton of fun, and I learned that all pretty much all scientists are horrendously messy people! It made me feel better about my lab.

See you next week!

This week I have continued to work with the experiments utilizing both methyl orange and methyl blue as indicators to determine the effectiveness of titanium dioxide as a water purifier. These experiments have been done both using a UV crosslinker and out in direct sunlight. Although I have done this experiment a number of times throughout the course of my internship, it never ceases to amazes me! When I see the results in action it is hard for me to reflect on the fact that it probably took months to research the background knowledge necessary to even develop the materials and techniques that we have been using. With that in mind, I can’t wait for the day when the applications of what I have been doing this summer will become a well-known piece of technology used by anyone who needs it.

This week I also continued to work on the applications of titanium dioxide on the inhibition of algal growth. As an initial step my mentor and I worked on first drying out the current algal samples from Ascarte park. To do so, the sample, including the water it was placed in, was filtered out. The remaining algae was placed in a beaker with filter paper and covered with a chem wipe and placed in a drying chamber overnight. The idea was to see a way that we could dry samples of algae to determine an initial weight prior to inhibition studies. Before checking on the sample I assumed that it was going to look like dried oregano. Surprisingly enough when we went to go and check on the sample the next day, it looked as if we had just placed it in the drying chamber. Whaaaaat?!? Mind blown! Since neither one has worked with algae before, we decided to leave it in the drying chamber and check it again the next day.

As a backup plan, I also went to go and collect a lot more algae from Rio Bosque, a local nature preserve (see image below). This in itself was quite an exciting adventure as it including hiking along a variety of trials, spotting a variety of organisms. While out I saw and heard bullfrogs along the water’s edge, hoping to catch the dragonflies in the area I am sure. I also saw a variety of birds, trees…and algae. It was quite an adventurous trip to collect the super stinky specimens…now off to the lab!

Finally, perhaps the most helpful task completed this week included the round robin lab tours. Before completing these tours I assumed that I was falling completely behind during this summer experience. However, when I was presenting what I had been doing in the lab so far as well as future plans, I began to realize just how much I had learned in the short time that I have been in the lab. Also, when speaking to the other interns, I realized that some of the fears I had were shared among the group or were easily displaced once we had a chance to discuss. What a relief that exercise turned out to be.

…and with that, and with everything that has been done this week, I can see just how much we all have grown.

I enjoyed seeing the diverse labs. I only took one picture of Anna’s bottle of black carbon nanotubes but you can’t really tell how impressive the nanotubes looked in person.

Purification of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a looooong process and you lose a lot of material. The CNTs that we synthesized on June 13th are finally through the purification process. When we first retrieved the CNTs from the reactor, we collected 76.2 mg and called them sample DOE-01-180613.

After the first round of a hydrochloric acid wash, water wash, and freeze drying, the sample weighed 65.5 mg. And, each of these processes takes an entire day.

Then we put the sample in the furnace for air oxidation. The furnace heats up to 450 degrees Celsius, and the sample stays in for 12 hours. Another day… After air oxidation, the sample weighed 40.4 mg.

We then went through another round of acid wash, water wash, and freeze drying. Today, we can call these CNTs purified! And, they now weigh a grand total of 22.8 mg. From 76.2 to 22.8 mg means that there was a lot of iron and amorphous carbon in our CNTs.

All in all, it took us 8 days to purify sample DOE-01-180613. The next step will help us figure out the aspect ratio of these CNTs; we’ll use extensional rheology and a look through the transmission electron microscope to find out if we have have quality CNTs. Two new tools to learn!

If you’ve seen the original Willy Wonka, then you might remember this scene: Mike Teavee breaks apart into a million pieces, travels through the air, and reappears across the room put back together– just way smaller, but clear!

I feel like that’s what’s been happening to me these last few weeks. Things have been floating above my head in a million pieces, BUT they are starting to finally fall into place. My research story is beginning to come in clear.

As I was in my lab this morning, I was jotting down my thoughts on my phone as I realized this is how I’ll be framing my research story to accompany my poster presentation. Thank goodness for the notes app on my phone.

Back in my office, as I was researching the proper name for the machine used to measure isotopes, I found this video which is an introduction to the company and their goals. I post the link to the video because I thought it was so cool that the questions the narrator asks at the end are the points I made in my notes!

Click the pic below to watch the short video:

We are only halfway through week three and it’s already been a busy one! Diversity training Monday, a geology undergrad luncheon on Tuesday (we researched different types of fellowships to apply for- I already found something I want to apply for next summer: https://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/#/about/who_may_apply), and the first part of the Round Robin lab tours this morning. After my colleagues left the Torres lab I’m working in, I stayed behind with Dr. Torres and the lab assistant, Solana. Dr. Torres explained more to me about how we are testing the water samples from the bayous. After working with Solana to prepare samples to be tested for the different elements of nitrates, phosphates, and so on, we both got a lesson on using the Piccaro spectrometer for the first time. This machine tests for isotopes. By determining the water’s isotopic signature, we determine where the water actually came from. We would have started using the ICP Mass Spectrometer to test for ions, but we didn’t have any argon gas. That comes tomorrow.

The spectrometer that measures isotopes:

The machine that is measuring nitrates, phosphates, chloride, etc.

The ICP that measures the ions (that we didn’t use yet because we need more argon).

The group that round robined into my lab today:

—–Melanie