Last Meeting

Overall: I met with Dr. Splawn and Dr. Pittman to begin wrapping up this project. My presentation is done so now I just need to practice and pray for God take control of my communication skills like he did with Moses.

It'll Do

Overall: Overall I've accomplished somewhat proving that acid is produced in the oral cavity when in contact with corn oil. This was (finally but not totally) demonstrated with three subjects using acid-base titration, using the whole mixed sample and making sure to have ethanol be 28% of composition. By not totally, I mean that we still have to get the pH graphs to look like they're suppose to and more subjects and more time variations and more other stuff before you can put a stamp on it. Other than today being my last experimenting day of Interim, I still have to stress/dread presentation and get that paper behind me. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have stopped the experiment once the first procedure failed and have waited until Dr. Splawn returned so I could have had at least some knowledge of the topic rather than just the experiment.

So Close =/

Overall: I titrated three corn oil samples, one water sample, and three saliva and corn oil swirled in my mouth for 10 minute samples. Dr. Splawn and I used a different pH meter to titrate four 10 minute samples which included: the procedure from yesterday, just the yellow color mixture, just the white color mixture, then one of just the entire sample that I spat out of my mouth. None of them showed a titration inflection curve line thingy.

Officially We're Getting Somewhere

Overall: Dr. Splawn and I titrated my spit alone and corn oil alone and one 5 minute swirl mix and three 10 minute swirl mixes. The mixed concentrations were higher in acid than the spit and corn oil alone added together, so that does prove there was acid production in my mouth while I swirled.
     Dr. Pittman helped me get started on my powerpoint presentation.

...grr

Overall: I found out that every titration I've done from January 10 to this morning is not usable because either the samples were not soluble enough or unnecessary. Dr. Splawn came back from his interim class in Hawaii today and broke the news to me. We performed new procedures that were similar to the ones he left me and the results did not show a production of acid either. Dr. Splawn and Dr. Arrington talked things over and they've come up with different procedures for me to do in the morning. I feel alot of pressure with this paper and presentation over my head, feeling like I should have spent the last two weeks reading and studying, and having less than a week to work something up. I need encouragement.

I Hope This Works

9:00 AM: I met with Dr. Pittman and Dr. Arrington to discuss what parts of last week's procedures were good and what we could add to them to improve the data. We added a heated water bath, heated up to our body temperature, and let the saliva samples and corn oil sit in it. We titrated two subjects' samples.

Overall: I hope this works.

Ah Ha

10:00 AM: I standardized the NaOH and discussed my graphing issues with Dr. Arrington. He was curious to see the effects of adding oleic acid to a mix so we titrated one drop by drop recording the volume and the pH after 10 seconds. The graph still didn't represent the expected pH graph, so we titrated saliva and corn oil and let the pH meter do the graphing (ran twice). These graphs appeared more logarithmic too. However, we did take note when each sample started to change its tint and they all did so around the pH level of 10.3, so now in theory, I'll know I've reached the endpoint or expect it to be around the pH level of 10.3.

Overall: I don't know (experimentally) where I need to go from here, so me Dr. Arrington and Dr. Pittman are going to meet Monday to discuss what's happening.

Where Did The Time Go

10:30 AM: I can spend 24 hours inside a lab and think only 30 minutes past by. These titrations are taking me forever and a day to do....each! Patience is a great quality to have if you have it. I worked all day titrating, but I don't feel like I got much done or made any progress. I was only able to do all the titrations for two subjects today and I was hoping to do four. I really hate how unsteady the numbers are on the pH meter. If they weren't so jumpy and if it would make its mind up on the range its on, then I could go alot faster. Its like for a solid 5 minutes it would be between 7.05 and 7.12 but then if you wait just one more minute, it moves up to 7.26. Dr. Arrington suggests its so jumpy because the oil is bouncing off the electrode or something like that. I'm not so sure if titrating is all that effective since the oil is causing the samples not to be aqueous.

Overall: Hopefully tomorrow is a more productive day. I'm feeling much better from my cold, but still drowsy.

This Is Gonna Take Awhile

10:00 AM: I met with Dr. Pittman to learn, with the help of Dr. Arrington, how to use and measure a pH meter. I would have thought that this would be a more exact way into identifying the endpoint of the titrations, but not all my graphs are looking like the ones they said they would. Like instead of flat, shoot up, and flatten back out, most of them are looking just rounded like a logarithmic graph. So point being, I can't tell where the endpoint is, and the samples are not turning light blue to way after the point on the graphs where they're flattening out, not in the middle of the steep slope. But I don't know. I've had a bad day.

Overall: I don't understand why I'm having such a hard time with something working out the way it's suppose to. But then again, this is a research project and I'm just learning, so there will be many failures before a success.

Promising

10:15 AM: I met with Dr. Pittman to discuss last week's results, follow up on the procedures, and we got a game plan started for more experiments and a guideline for my paper. We also talked to Dr. Bass and Dr. Arrington about measuring the PH of the solutions I will be titrating.

Overall: Today was encouraging; I feel I am moving forward in the right direction. I let today be just about planning. I've got eight subjects scheduled for titrations over the next two days.
     The broad research is to understand what goes on in our saliva after contact with triglycerides, and where does this lead and factor into overeating fatty foods. Hopefully by the end of interim, we can determine if saliva can detect fatty acids in corn oil.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

Overall: I checked out 3 books today from the library, in hopes of understanding fatty acids. I'd like to understand what happens once they're in the mouth, like where do they go and perhaps from there, I can understand what and how it signals to the brain and how that leads to overeating high-fat foods. I started noting from Fatty Acid and Lipid Chemistry by Frank Gunstone. Alot of information is still way over my head, but I hope it'll all be connecting and making sense soon. I do know that fatty acids are long-chain acids. And oleic acid is a cis-9-octadecenoic acid. And linoleic acid has 18 carbon atoms and 2 unsaturated centres. And I know that's random, but really, all my thoughts and knowledge of this project are in jumbled fragments, and plus I have a cold, so I'm a little spaced. I stopped noting and decided to just read for the rest of the day.

Another Day's Work

11:00 AM: I standardized NaOH. I titrated 3 series of oleic acid.

Overall: I'm stuck. I have no idea where to begin my literature review part. I've read quite a bit of articles and I've jotted alot of information down, but I just can't pull it all together.
     This week my goal was to determine if acid is produced in the oral cavity after contact with corn oil. With what I've done, a little acid is produced.

Plausible Results Hopefully

10:30 AM: I standardized NaOH. I was able to titrate 4 subjects saliva samples (pure saliva, pure corn oil, saliva + corn oil each). I'm finally getting results that prove acid production when I mix the saliva and corn oil together using the vortex and not in the mouth. But I must say its not at all alot of production, but it is something. I printed off some articles that sounded like the authors did a similar experiment, so hopefully I can learn from their successes and failures.

We Gettin' Somewhere

11:00 AM: I been having an issue with the pure saliva needing more base to titrate than the saliva + corn oil. Dr. Bass had an interesting theory that he's going to explain to me later if it proves more relevant, but it has something to do with the PH and pKa and organic chemistry stuff. Dr. Arrington and I come up with a new procedure that was quite successful, but it may not be completely plausible. By successful, I mean, the saliva + corn oil took more base than the pure saliva. By not completely plausible, I mean, there was a 4 ml initial volume difference between the two, but I'm sure that can be resolved by a filler, like H2O.

Overall: It's amazing how the time is flying by. I'm already feeling pressure about the final paper and presentation. I need guidance.

Even More Titrations

11:30 AM: I finished titrating all the samples we collected last Thursday. I noticed something really cool today. I usually just add the indicator and start swirling the flask, but I sat the flasks down on the black desk to add the indicator saw that once the drops landed in the pure saliva, little white lines rush to the drops, like they were attacking it or greeting it. I know that sounds corny, but it was my little amusement for today.

Overall: I still don't know why the numbers for the pure saliva are higher than the numbers for the saliva + corn oil; I would have thought it's suppose to be the other way around.

More Titrations

10:30 AM: I spent all day titrating. It took me forever to be satisfied with standardizing NaOH, for some reason my conscious just wasn't happy with it, but after the fifth time I averaged them together and the number was what is was suppose to be. I titrated 3 controls of Dr. Pittman's pure saliva and one with him and corn oil and two with me and corn oil. I'm not quite sure what the data is suppose to show me, I'm postponing calculations.

Overall: I also started some research on saliva. It wasn't too extensive so I'm not going to comment on that yet, hopefully I can tomorrow night.

Experimenting

1:00 PM: Today I  titrated my own saliva with a new NaOH solution and found little acid, which is good because we don't want to find any acid in our saliva until food is present in the mouth. The reason why there was a little was because I had eaten lunch 30 minutes prior the testing so I will definitely do more tests more accurately in the future with at least not eating or drinking anything but water for 2 hours prior testing. I also titrated my saliva and corn oil, which tasted quite nasty, but I did have acid concentration in it.

Got Alot of Work To Do

Glimpse: The degree of difficulty of my interim project really hit me today. Understanding and reiterating information will be my biggest struggle following behind my fear of public speaking (referring to presentation).

1:00 PM: I met with Dr. Splawn and Dr. Pittman to make 0.9% thymolphthalein indicator solution and to perform a standardize titration of NaOH (strong base) to determine its exact concentration, and then to titrate a sample of oleic acid with the NaOH. My results of the standardize titration of NaOH are very precise to the anticipated value, so I was very pleased, and my results for the titration of oleic acid and NaOH is within 7% error, which is acceptable but should be better.

4:00 PM: All of the independent research in the sciences and humanities participants met to listen to Dr. Powers advise a starting plan and preparation for our papers and presentations. As for myself, I do not have a select idea or theme for either, but for me right now, I just want to get a solid understanding on the role of human saliva and fatty acids (FAs), what has been proven and what needs to be known.

Overall: I think I can handle the titration factor of this project, but I've come to the conclusion that I am over my head. I realized that when I was to share my project basis and plans in front of the others tonight, only to freeze and apologize to myself for the lack of knowledge and confidence. I don't want to be too hard on myself though because I am only a freshman and I don't have any background knowledge on this research, so on a positive note, I can't go anywhere but up.