Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Factor Structure Of The Cpt-Ii, Mary Vertinski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study investigates the factor structure of the Conners' Continuous Performance Test-II (CPT-II) in four pediatric samples of participants: (a) patients with traumatic brain injury, (b) healthy controls, (c) patients with various clinical diagnoses, and (d) all of the previously mentioned subjects combined. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to investigate a one-, three- and four-factor model fit of the data. None of the models examined were an adequate fit for the data; however, it appears that the four-factor model seemed to be the best fitting of the models examined. Failure to find reasonably adequate fit precluded further analyses.

Hemispheric Asymmetry In The Perception Of Musical Pitch Structure, Matthew Adam Rosenthal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Both the left and right hemispheres contribute to the perception of pitch structure

in music. Music researchers have attempted to explain the observed asymmetries in the perception of musical pitch structure by characterizing the dominant processing style of each hemisphere. However, no existing characterizations have been able to account for all of the empirical findings. To better explain existing empirical findings, this dissertation characterizes the left hemisphere as dominant in temporal pitch processing (i.e. with respect to the sequential ordering of pitches) and the right hemisphere as dominant in non-temporal pitch processing (i.e. without respect to the sequential ordering of …

Documenting Nursing And Medical Students’ Stereotypes About Hispanic And American Indian Patients, Meghan G. Bean, Elizabeth S. Focella, Rebecca Covarrubias, Jeff Stone, Gordon B. Moskowitz, Terry A. Badger

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objective: Hispanic Americans and American Indians face significant health disparities compared with White Americans. Research suggests that stereotyping of minority patients by members of the medical community is an important antecedent of race and ethnicity-based health disparities. This work has primarily focused on physicians’ perceptions, however, and little research has examined the stereotypes healthcare personnel associate with Hispanic and American Indian patients. The present study assesses: 1) the health-related stereotypes both nursing and medical students hold about Hispanic and American Indian patients, and 2) nursing and medical students’ motivation to treat Hispanic and American Indian patients in an unbiased …

Modeling Hedonic Processing And Anhedonia In Depression, Kevin Mercado

Honors College Theses

Depression is characterized by low positive emotion and a lack of pleasurable experiences, or anhedonia. Past studies have emphasized controlling negative affect, but there is an emerging trend in the depression literature to focus on positive emotion. The current study employed several psychophysiological tools, postauricular reflex, startle blink reflex, and event-related potential (ERP) components such as P3 and the late positive potential (LPP), to assess the dissociable components in positive emotion (consummatory and anticipatory processes). In addition, several different hypotheses of emotional dysfunction were evaluated to accurately model deficits in positive emotionality. A majority of the psychophysiological tools used supported …

An Efficient Standardized Method Of Maintaining Quality Assurance In Therapeutic Treatment Record Keeping, Kelsey Michael Bradshaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Quality assurance (QA) within the field of mental health is the practice of monitoring and reviewing services to ensure adherence to specified standards of care. Agents within State governments and various organizations influence record keeping procedures through ethical guidelines and law. For instance, client records must be maintained for all clients receiving mental health services, including informed consent, releases of information, treatment plans, and progress notes. Accurate and timely record keeping procedures assure quality mental health services. However, professionals sometimes err in the maintenance of client records, which can have a negative impact on services, clients, and practitioners. To assist …

Impaired Theory Of Mind In Psychotic And Affective Disorders, Erik Nelson Ringdahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Psychotic symptoms in bipolar I disorder during mood episodes has been associated with several negative outcomes raising the question as to whether psychosis is a risk factor for a more severe form of this chronic and debilitating condition. However, relatively little research has been directed at understanding the relationships among social cognitive functioning in bipolar I disorder with and without a history of psychosis. Impaired social cognition has been identified as a putative endophenotypic markers in schizophrenia and the evidence is mounting as to whether similar impairments also exist in bipolar I disorder. Given the plethora of research supporting the …

The Effect Of Acute Lps-Induced Immune Activation And Brain Insulin Signaling Disruption In A Diabetic Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Andrew Scott Murtishaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by progressive cognitive impairments and pathological hallmarks that include amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal loss. Several well-known mutations exist that lead to early-onset familial AD (fAD). However, these cases only account for a small percentage of total AD cases. The vast majority of AD cases are sporadic in origin (sAD) and are less clearly influenced by a single mutation but rather some combination of genetic and environmental risk.

The etiology of sAD remains unclear but numerous risk factors have been identified that increase the chance of developing AD. Among these risk …

To Test Or Not To Test: Barriers And Solutions To Testing African American College Students For Hiv At A Historically Black College/University, Naomi M. Hall-Byers, Jennifer Peterson, Malynnda Johnson

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Young African Americans are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The purpose was to identify reasons that African American college students at a historically Black college/university (HBCU) identified as barriers to HIV testing, and how these barriers can be removed. Fifty-seven heterosexual-identified undergraduate students (ages 18-25) attending an HBCU in the southeastern US participated in the study. Latent content analytic techniques were used to code the transcripts for themes and categories, and representative quotations were used in the findings. Qualitative data indicates three main themes used to avoid testing and three themes to encourage testing. Students were forthcoming …

A Computational Perspective Of Schizophrenia, Ernesto H. Bedoy, Geoff Powell, Jefferson Kinney

McNair Poster Presentations

The etiology of schizophrenia remains largely elusive, thus dampening the effectiveness of current treatment strategies. Abnormal neural migration and neurogenesis in the hippocampus have been suggested to be involved in schizophrenia (Jakob & Beckmann, 1994). A few approaches, including computational modeling, have investigated schizophrenia as a network disorder. Computational modeling uses mathematics to predict the behavior of biological systems based on the input of a set of parameters collected from laboratory experiments. In this study, we constructed a computational model to explore the ramifications of additional PV neurons migrating to an aberrant location in the hippocampus and interfering with a …

Pre-Traumatic Factors Of Career-Related Ptsd: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Michael G. Curtis, Russell T. Hurlburt

McNair Poster Presentations

This paper examined and synthesized the (limited) available literature on the pre-traumatic predictors of PTSD, specifically targeting populations in which traumatic events are experienced frequently because of the requirements of their positions, i.e., firefighters, police, and military personnel. A total of 21 articles were included in the final literature review and were used to assess the current available knowledge of the pre-traumatic traits of career-related PTSD, and address potential gaps in the literature. The culmination of this research was used to create specific risk profiles for each of the high risk careers included in this review, firefighters, police, and military …