Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Utilizing Brain Computer Interfaces That Interact With A Virtual Keyboard, Skye Lilienthal

Honors Theses

A brain-computer interface (BCI) can allow someone to utilize electrical signals in their brain to complete tasks using a computer. BCIs can help people take advantage of technology to type without the need for a traditional keyboard setup. This paper used the OpenBCI Mark IV to test the effectiveness of non-invasive BCIs with dry electrodes within the OpenViBE P300 Speller. This paper shows how to use the P300 speller through a setup pipeline. Results indicate that electrode placement affects P300 accuracy and that areas related to visual processing improve accuracy, suggesting that P300 signals can be detected within OpenBCI Mark …

Choosing Death: The Moral Legitimacy Of Voluntary Active Euthanasia, Emma Rougeou

Honors Theses

During the last three decades, the issue of physician assisted suicide has captivated the interest of private citizens and state legislatures. Thinking about the matter of end-of-life concerns, particularly surrounding euthanasian (practices that hasten the deaths of suffering terminally ill people) have shifted. Views of private citizens and state-level legislation reflects a “slow shift to more permissive attitudes” (Cohen et al., 2012). Meanwhile, as recently as March 2026, state legislators in conjunction with the NY State Governor, passed a bill legalizing medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients. This thesis is intended to thoughtfully contribute to meaningful discourse on …

An Investigation Of The Roles Aging, Gender And Age-Related Hearing Loss Play In Emotional Prosody Recognition, Giavanna Yowell

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Emotional prosody recognition is crucial for social interactions but is influenced by aging, gender, and age-related hearing loss (Lambrecht et al., 2012; Oerlemans et al., 2014; Palermo et al., 2013). No past studies have looked at all of these factors collectively. To address this shortcoming, the current study explored the relationships between aging, hearing loss and gender differences in emotional prosody recognition. The ability to recognize emotions through facial expressions was also included as a comparative measure. One hundred fifteen individuals (42 men and 73 women), ages 50 and older (M = 60.39, SD = 8.12), completed a hearing handicap …

Neuroprotective Effects Of Prophylactic Brivaracetam On Memory And Anxiety Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Sofia Dumic

Theses and Dissertations

Prophylactic brivaracetam (BRV) was evaluated in a rat TBI model for effects on behavior and serum tau. BRV reduced anxiety-like behavior with optimal dose-dependent effects at 2.1mg/kg, but did not affect working memory. Serum tau was detectable early post-injury, supporting its use as a biomarker.

Navigating Recovery: A Qualtitive Study Of Harm Reduction And Sobriety Among African American In Redlined Chicago Neighborhoods, Erica N. Tate

Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of African American individuals residing in historically redlined communities in Chicago who are maintaining sobriety using harm reduction strategies. Grounded in the context of structural inequities, the study explores how social determinants of health, including limited healthcare access, transportation barriers, and community disinvestment, shape recovery pathways. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals in sustained recovery and providers, and the data were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic approaches. Findings indicate that recovery is an ongoing process influenced by environmental exposure, trauma, and access to support systems.

Participants identified harm reduction strategies, such as …

Prefrontal Engagement In Cognitive Flexibility Across Paradigms, Katarina Kalajzic

Honors Scholar Theses

Cognitive flexibility is an executive function that involves dynamically adapting behavior in the face of changing environmental circumstances to achieve a particular goal. Disrupted in numerous psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, OCD, and depression, the neural correlates of cognitive flexibility are not well understood. However, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is strongly implicated in executive function and attentional control processes. Thus, we sought to examine the neural circuitry involved in distinct cognitive flexibility tasks – the attentional set-shifting task and the probabilistic 2-armed bandit task. Through optogenetic suppression, we targeted pyramidal neurons of the rodent medial prefrontal cortex, an …

Factors Affecting Pedestrian-Vehicle Conflicts: An Empirical Analysis, Christo D. Jamo

Honors Scholar Theses

The number of pedestrian deaths increased by 78% between 2009 and 2023, while other motor vehicle crash deaths increased by 13% in the same period [1]. To identify potential pedestrian safety measures, this study analyzed the effects of location-based demographics, pedestrian phasing type, and other physical infrastructure and behavior variables on the probability of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts at signalized intersections, which is a surrogate measure of crash risk. Data were collected from 55 intersections in Connecticut, and the pedestrian-vehicle interactions were classified by severity based on the Swedish Traffic Conflict Technique: undisturbed passage, potential conflict, minor conflict, or serious conflict. Because …

A Mixed-Methods Investigation Of Physician Compassion In Consultations For Chronic Primary Pain, Sarah Daehler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Chronic primary pain refers to physical pain that has no apparent organic cause, cannot be explained by another condition, and has associated psychological distress or functional impairment. Chronic primary pain is common and can significantly interfere with functioning, including occupational or social functioning. Research has shown that physicians struggle to treat this population, with many physicians reporting feeling unequipped and many patients feeling that their physicians are unhelpful and dismissive. Compassion may play a key role in improving these difficult interactions. The present study analyzed a sample of 99 participants with chronic pain and 100 healthy controls to learn more …

Supporting An Inclusive Summer Camp For Children With Developmental Disabilities Who Use Aac And Their Neurotypical Peers: A Practice-Based Report, Jessica Hicks

Communication Disorders and Occupational Therapy Undergraduate Honors Theses

For my honors research, I completed an internship in an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) lab at the University of Arkansas. For most of my internship work, I helped support an inclusive AAC summer camp for children with and without developmental disabilities, such as autism, for whom speech does not fully meet their communication needs. AAC includes high-tech tools such as communication apps on tablets that serve as speech-generating devices (SGDs). SGDs were used by many of the AAC summer camp participants with developmental disabilities. In this report, I will provide background information on AAC and developmental disabilities. I will …

Volume 17, Christian O’Neill, Kyara Greene, Savva Sidorov, Laura Bisaillon, Luke Clemmer, Hannah Gordon, Kitt Benson, Taylor Blount, Rachel Danzitz, Nicholas Duellman, Chase Gionis, Hima Fernando, Seth Franzyshen, Onyx Gonzalez, Bryan Lin, Samantha Start, Ysabel Wells, Maggie Duncan

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Amorette Barber, Director, Office of Student Research

From the Editor Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell

Cover Artist’s Statement Maggie Duncan

On Mentoring Dr. Yulia Uryadova

Ukrainian Resistance in the Face of Russification: Nestor Makhno and Anarchism

by Christian O’Neill

Life Vest by Kyara Greene

Isolation and 16S rRNA Identification of Bacteria from Fire Department Connection Pipe by Savva Sidorov

The Effectiveness of Planned Exercise in Reducing ADHD Symptoms in Children by Laura Bisaillon & Luke Clemmer

Linguistic Analysis on Confidence and Communication Strategies with Disparities Between Sign Fluency and Hearing Impairment by Hannah Gordon

Freedmen in Indian Territory by Kitt …

Big Feelings, Fast Decisions: Emotion Regulation As A Moderator Of Impulsivity In Binge And Emotional Eating, Emma G. Folk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Emotion-driven impulsivity and difficulties with emotion regulation are both associated with maladaptive eating behaviors, including binge eating and emotional eating. However, it remains unclear whether broader emotion regulation difficulties intensify the influence of impulsive responses to emotional states on these behaviors. This study examined whether emotion dysregulation moderates the relationship between emotion-driven impulsivity and maladaptive eating behaviors. Participants were 266 adults (ages 18–65) who completed measures of impulsivity, emotion regulation difficulties, binge eating, and emotional eating. Moderation analyses were conducted using PROCESS in SPSS, controlling for body mass index (BMI) and gender. Negative and positive urgency were significantly associated with …

Cultural Adaptation Of A Single Session Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Guide For College Students In Uganda, Miriam Mukasa Kasozi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress are common among Ugandan university students and can make it difficult for them to succeed in school or maintain well-being. However, many students do not have access to professional mental health care. Digital self-help programs can make support more available, especially when they are designed to fit the local culture and context. This project examined how an online program called ACT Guide Lite, which teaches skills from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), could be adapted for use with Ugandan college students. Students and other university community members first completed the program …

Probing The Roles Of Connexin 43 Hemichannels In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Madison Treasure-Areno

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disorder involving neuronal death and cognitive decline, such as memory loss and changes in personality. One feature of the disease is buildup of abnormal protein called amyloid-beta in the brain. Amyloid-beta may activate support cells called astrocytes, triggering them to release large amounts of chemicals, possibly harming nearby cells. This study set out to examine the roles of the channels on astrocytes involved in releasing these chemicals, called connexin 43 hemichannels. Using a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, this study blocked the hemichannels using the drug Tonabersat, and measured spatial learning and memory in a …

Dyadic Agreement In And Task Correlates To A Measurement Of Conversational Success, Samantha Budge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Successful conversation matters for social connection, wellbeing, and quality of life, but people do not always agree on whether a conversation was successful, even when they participated in the same interaction. Conversation is also commonly measured through task success, even though it’s unclear how task success correlates to how successful a conversation feels. This study examined how conversational success is experienced by different conversation partners and whether feeling successful in a conversation is related to how well a task is completed.

Participants took part in a structured conversational task and then rated their own conversational experience using a self-report questionnaire …

The Rodent Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (Rends): Effects Of Age On Self-Administration Of Inhaled Nicotine In Female Rats, Daniel Santos Da Silva

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Smoking tobacco is the leading avoidable cause of death and drives many health problems. Nicotine, the main chemical in tobacco products, keeps people using it. This study used the Rat Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (RENDS), an inexpensive and freely shared, to examine e-cigarette use in adolescent and adult female rats by exploring four phases of nicotine delivered and not delivered to understand use patterns among ages. Our study found that both adolescent and adult female rats chose to inhale nicotine when given the opportunity, showing drug-seeking behavior. Overall, nicotine use was similar between ages. These results could help inform therapies, …

The Mysteries Of Postpartum Ocd: A Systematic Review, Taryn Shaffer

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Background: The research on postpartum mental health is growing, with most focusing on physical and sexual wellness, or well-known mental health symptoms such as psychosis, depression, and stress. However, as the research grows, so does the interest in lesser-known or under-considered postpartum mental health symptoms, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The focus of this research can be the exacerbation of already-present OCD symptoms, or the onset of them during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The purpose of this systematic review was to analyze research on OCD in pregnant and postpartum women. Specifically, the review included an analysis of measures used to …

A Scalable Model For Resident And Faculty Well-Being: Applying Self-Determination Theory And The Job Demands-Resources Framework In Graduate Medical Education, Gregory Guldner, Adam Neufeld

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Despite growing attention to burnout in graduate medical education (GME), many institutional efforts remain fragmented and lack theoretical coherence. In response, HCA Healthcare developed a system-wide initiative grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework to guide leadership development, learning climate improvement, and resident and faculty well-being. What began as a single-program effort evolved into a multi-year, system-wide initiative involving more than 5800 residents across 366 programs at 85 hospitals. In collaboration with workplace psychologists from Claremont Graduate University and Immersyve Health, the initiative integrated theory-informed leadership workshops, validated assessment platforms, and continuous quality-improvement processes to help …

Facilitating Freirean Pedagogy And Asset-Based Learning In An Asynchronous Environment In A Doctoral Public Health Course, Manoj Sharma, Liliana Davlos, Sharmistha Roy

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The Department of Social and Behavioral Health offers an asynchronous course, Advanced Applications of Social and Behavioral Theories (HED 762), to doctoral students in public health. In this course, commonly used behavior and social change theories are taught. One such theory is the Freirean theory of adult education, which emphasizes dialogue, critical conscientization, praxis, transformation, and critical consciousness. The instructor of this course uses a variety of methods to imbibe this pedagogy that comprise (a) the use of the fourth-generation multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to motivate students, (b) Freirean dialogue in the Canvas discussion forum with students …

Mindful Tea Drinking As A Low-Cost Sensory Intervention For Reducing Stress In College Students, David Gabel

Honors Projects

The proposed study would investigate the effects of a tea-based sensory mindfulness exercise on stress in college aged participants. Participants would listen to a mindful tea exercise and a non-mindful tea exercise after a mild stress-inducing Stroop test. For both conditions, the participants would report their current state of distress on the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) before and after each tea exercise and their heart rate variability (HRV) would be measured during each segment of the experiment.

Descriptive statistics and a paired samples t-test would be used to compare the mindful tea condition with the non-mindful condition following …

Heart Rate Variability In The Context Of Mental Health And Substance Use, Sage M. Lopez

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been linked to various areas of cardiovascular disease and mortality in previous research. Within this area, certain mental illnesses and use of psychoactive substances have been associated with low HRV and its health implications. Little research exists that examines the combined effects of mental illness and psychoactive substance use. The current research aims to understand if there is a compounding negative effect of these two factors when studied in tandem. Using a three-phase study design, HRV was analysed at baseline and at physiological relaxation, with participants being included under certain mental health, substance use, or …

An Ethics Of Listening: The Rupture Of Delusion And The Offer Of A New Freedom, Bret Fimiani

Middle Voices

This paper will focus on the topic of listening as an ‘analytic act’ by the analyst (but also by the analysand) and its relation to ethics and the position of the analyst in the field of psychosis. Is the analyst listening for something in particular? The prospect of listening for something supposes that the analyst holds a specific idea of what distinguishes the ‘structure of the address’ in psychosis (versus neurosis). Typically, we say that the analyst is listening for the unconscious, or for the ‘subject’ (of the unconscious). As we are trying to find our bearings in the field …

Creating An Unconscious: Toward A New Ethic Of Residential Treatment, Daniel Garcia

Middle Voices

What is currently nominated “residential treatment” for serious mental illness (SMI) has a long and varied history. From its earliest version as houses for the unproductive, to confinement of and with the unruly and criminally dangerous, to asylumdom, residential treatment has always sought to protect society from those it perceives as actively trying to revoke it. Consequently, the remedies prescribed in defense of civilization have also ranged from the gruesome to the utopian and the seat of responsibility for maintenance of the social order has vacillated between the family and the church, the local community and the state, the psychiatric …

What Are Elementary Phenomena? An Introduction To A Lacanian Conceptualization, Derek Hook Ph.D.

Middle Voices

What do Lacanians mean when they refer to the notion of elementary phenomena? This idea, crucial to Lacan’s (1993) theorizations of psychosis in Seminar III, refers back to the psychiatric conceptualizations of the late 19th and early 20th century. However, even while citing the influence of others when utilizing the concept, Lacan—characteristically enough— described the concept in his own distinctively psychoanalytic way. The term is particularly important to Lacan in terms of how he thinks about the development of delusions and related psychotic symptoms in relation to the initial onset of psychosis. In this short paper, I aim simply to …

Working With Schizophrenia: Adaptive Work & The Threat Of Despair, Pavan S. Brar

Middle Voices

Commentary

How Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt) And Antipsychotics Compare To Antipsychotics Alone Impact Inpatient Length Of Stay: A Scoping Review, Morgan E. Johnson, Hailey M. Wade, Y'Esha V. Williams-Click, Rocquell Duncan, Laura Reed Dnp, Aprn, Fnp-Bc, Cne, Fnap

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background

Psychosis in adults is a serious psychiatric condition that often necessitates inpatient hospitalization for stabilization and the initiation of medication. Untreated psychosis can lead to poor outcomes, including longer hospital stays, loss of occupational functioning, and a decreased quality of life. While antipsychotic medications are typically the first line of treatment, they can have severe side effects, which may lead to patients discontinuing their use. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for psychosis is an evidence-based intervention that targets maladaptive behaviors associated with the condition. CBT may improve treatment responses when used alongside antipsychotic medication. However, there is limited research on …

The Wager Of Speech, And The Maneuver Of The Dream In The Clinic Of Psychosis, Christopher Meyer

Middle Voices

Psychoanalysis, especially in the clinic of psychosis and extreme states, requires a wager on the part of the analyst. This wager welcomes the speech of the analysand regarding a censored unconscious. In the clinic of psychosis, the analyst’s reference to the dream in the establishment of the frame of the treatment is a maneuver that creates a working space that reveals the subjective history of the analysand. This history concerns key moments of trauma in which the speaking being found themselves without resort or resource to speech or language to represent their experience. The discourse of the delusion arises in …

Psycho-Pathology And Links Between Neurosis And Psychosis, B. Mason Judy, John Dall'aglio

Middle Voices

Commentary

The Secretary Of Alienation: Metaphor And Metapsychology, Anna Kreienberg

Middle Voices

Commentary

An Interview With Stijn Vanheule, Phd Following His Talk: “The Clinic Of Psychoanalysis In Times Of Capitalism”, Stijn Vanheule

Middle Voices

An interview with Stijn Vanheule

Thinking With The Feet In The Clinic Of Psychosis, Jed Wilson

Middle Voices

In his later work, Lacan makes occasional reference to the idea of “thinking with the feet.” An equivocal formulation, it first seems to suggest that thought and language can be regarded as physical processes—not occurring in some homunculan disembodied brain or mind, but in the real of the body. Equally, it can call to mind the idea of thinking “on” one’s feet, in the manner of adaptive improvisation. Going further, could we not also say that it points to the possibility of setting something in motion (as in walking, dancing, going somewhere—all the things we do with the feet) as …