Digital Commons Network^™

How Persecution Influenced Coptic Culture, Finn H. Wilkinson

Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review

No abstract provided.

Nowhere, Usa, J. R. Sloan

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Malleus, John Mccoy

Calliope

No abstract provided.

The Fallacies Behind The Excise Tax On "Excessive" Charity Compensation, Elaine Waterhouse Wilson

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the fundamental flaws in Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code, which imposes an excise tax on nonprofit executive compensation exceeding $1 million. The provision, enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, rests on three problematic fallacies. First, Congress incorrectly assumed that an excise tax on nonprofits would function equivalently to the elimination of a tax deduction for excessive compensation in the for-profit sector under Section 162(m). Second, lawmakers failed to recognize that nonprofits respond differently to tax incentives than for-profit entities due to their distinct governance structures and sensitivity to public opinion …

Explainable Fairness In Regulatory Algorithmic Auditing, Cathy O'Neil, Holli Sargeant, Jacob Appel

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Revitalizing Biotechnological Advancement In The United States: Patent Eligibility Reform To Promote Innovation While Preserving Morality, Sydney Virtue

West Virginia Law Review

Patent protection has long been recognized as a key part of promoting innovation; however, current patent eligibility law in the United States often produces the exact opposite result. While the basic framework for patent eligibility is provided by the Patent Act, the United States Supreme Court has crafted several significant exceptions to patent eligibility—laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. These judicial exceptions have created a crisis in patent law and impeded biotechnological innovation, as they are too vague to be properly confined and carry tests that are too ambiguous for predictable application. To promote and retain world leadership …

Maximizing Productivity Through Digital Panopticism: Combatting Invasive Employee Surveillance Systems In The Workplace, Amber Wooten

West Virginia Law Review

The United States has experienced rapid advancements in surveillance technology and data collection in the past three decades. Conversely, since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work opportunities have increased, with many remote workers being subjected to surveillance within their homes. Given the lack of significant statutory measures to safeguard remote employees against incessant surveillance, employers can monitor employees, collect data, and enforce unattainable productivity quotas with little repercussions. Despite these harms, the influx of remote jobs presents significant benefits, especially for states like West Virginia, which faces immense population decline and lacks consistent physical job opportunities. Remote work promotes flexibility and …

The Impact Of Health Shocks On Worker Performance: Evidence From Professional Sports, Yulia Chikish, Brad R. Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Workplace injuries generate substantial costs to workers and employers. We analyze consequences of a workplace injury, ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) damage in elbows of baseball pitchers. Once career ending, a method to repair torn UCLs, Tommy John surgery, was developed in the 1970s. We analyze performance of pitchers before and after undergoing this surgery and also compare them to a matched sample of uninjured pitchers. Surgical repair of UCL injuries extends post-injury careers by roughly one season relative to matched uninjured pitchers, generating economic benefits for players and teams. Post-injury performance, in terms of batting success of hitters faced by …

Nfl Franchise Departures And Nearby Home Prices, Brad R. Humphreys, Geoffrey Propheter

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Research shows that US professional sports facilities positively impact nearby house prices. New facilities typically have existing teams, complicating a separate assessment of the impact of teams and facilities. Existing research analyzed departures of pro basketball teams, but arenas host many non-sporting events. These results may not generalize. We exploit the relocation of two professional football teams to investigate the impact of team departures on home sales. Difference-in-differences and repeat sales model results indicate proximity to one team represented an amenity while proximity to the other did not. Differences in urban form likely explains this heterogeneity.

Determining The Feasibility Of An Independent Living Skills Assessment For College-Aged Students, Noah Epperson, Meghan Wright, Kaitlyn Dodson, Ava Anderson, Dr. Jacob Greenfield

Graduate Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Data Privacy Issues In West Virginia And Beyond: An Overview, Jena Martin

Law Faculty Scholarship

Work on the first edition of this white paper originally began in February 2019. The final results were published in February 2021 and was originally entitled Data Privacy Issues in West Virginia and Beyond: A Comprehensive Overview. In the almost three and a half years since that work was commissioned, the landscape of data privacy and its attendant technologies has grown so significantly that I no longer feel comfortable in calling any paper that discusses these issues comprehensive. Indeed, when engaging with experts, insiders, and consumers, the one common theme that seems to now permeate this work is its vastness …

Legalized Sports Betting And Mental Health, Brad R. Humphreys, Jane Ruseski

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Since the Supreme Court declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 unconstitutional in 2018, 38 states and the District of Columbia legalized face to face and/or on-line betting on sports. A potential unintended consequence of legalized sports betting is an increased risk for mental health disorders and problem gambling. Using a staggered difference-in differences framework, we exploit variation in timing of adoption of legal sports betting across states to evaluate the impact of these laws on mental health outcomes. We combine data on when states passed laws to legalize gambling with data from the Behavioral Risk Factor …

Project Foresight Annual Report, 2022-2023, Paul J. Speaker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. Laboratories participating in Project FORESIGHT have developed standardized definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks, and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission of Project FORESIGHT is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not.

The benchmark data for the 2022-2023 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Project Foresight Annual Report, 2022-2023, Paul Speaker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. Laboratories participating in Project FORESIGHT have developed standardized definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks, and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission of Project FORESIGHT is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not.

The benchmark data for the 2022-2023 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Occupational Therapy’S Role In Developmental Programming At Early Childhood Education And Childcare Centers: A Qualitative Study, Alexis N. Foehrkolb, Jenna Lenhart, Hayley Woods, Madison Wetzel, Breanna Adkins, Sueann R. Woods

Graduate Student Scholarship

This research study aimed to discover what strategies of developmental programming are integrated into early childhood curriculum, whether occupational therapy had a role in the formation of the guidelines, and the importance of early intervention on child development. A case study with ethnographic methods was used, including observations and interviews, to gain an understanding of how sociocultural phenomena affect rural childcare centers in Morgantown, West Virginia. Data was collected and coded into 14 themes, and then analyzed by student researchers. Results from interview data found that daycare teachers are given the choice to follow provided lesson plans or individualize their …

Death, Dying, And Overcoming: A Nietzschean Reading Of Yukio Mishima’S Confessions Of A Mask, Chase Mikles

Munn Scholars Awards

Yukio Mishima’s first novel, Confessions of a Mask, was an instant success when it first published in 1949 and served as the beginning of Mishima’s rise to becoming one of, if not the most prominent postwar Japanese writers. However, because of the novel’s heavy nationalistic undertone tied with its very nontraditional and often lamenting perspective towards homosexuality, it has been largely overlooked by Western academia until recently. It presents a complex notion of queer identity, one that John Pistelli describes in his review as “[an] inapplicability of the word ‘queer,’ with all its contemporary political connotations, to a reactionary mid-century …

Preventative Conservation And Pest Management At The Wvu Natural History Museum, Amelia Blevins

Munn Scholars Awards

This paper identifies and proposes feasible solutions to potential threats jeopardizing the longevity of the WVU Natural History Museum and Research Collection with a primary emphasis on pest management. Additionally, this research serves as a starting point for future projects related to the improvement of the WVU Natural History Museum by students or staff. By addressing problems posed by agents of deterioration and providing potential solutions future contributors will be able to mitigate these concerns more efficiently.

The Cartoon Physics Of The Court-Martial, John M. Bickers

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Purdue And Mass Tort Claims: Will Non-Debtor Release Survive?, Christopher M. Alston, Alena Ivanov

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immunity Through Bankruptcy For The Sackler Family, Daniel G. Aaron, Michael S. Sinha

West Virginia Law Review

In August 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States temporarily blocked one of the largest public health settlements in history: that of Purdue Pharma, L.P., reached in bankruptcy court. The negotiated bankruptcy settlement approved by the court would give a golden parachute, in the form of immunity from liability, to the very people thought to have ignited the opioid crisis: the Sackler family. As the Supreme Court considers the propriety of immunity through bankruptcy, the case has raised fundamental questions about whether bankruptcy is a proper refuge from tort liability and whether law checks power or law serves power. …

Symposium Remarks: Public Litigation Values Versus The Endless Quest For Global Peace, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nonviolent Drug Offenders Need Treatment--Not Prison: The Solution To Prison Overcrowding In West Virginia, Kendra Amick

West Virginia Law Review

A tenfold increase in prison populations has occurred due to the policies and laws enacted by the War on Drugs campaign in the United States. This increase is the direct result of a rise in the incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders. Rearrest rates for nonviolent drug-related offenders sentenced to prison are 50%. For those offenders permitted to participate in a drug court program, this rate decreases by over half. In West Virginia, the battle against the opioid epidemic has caused it to become one of the fastest-growing prison populations in the nation. With a fast-emerging crisis on the rise, West …

The Right To Sit In West Virginia, Leif Olson

West Virginia Law Review

In 1901, West Virginia guaranteed that women working outside the home would have a place to sit down at their workplace. In 2023, despite that law, no worker in West Virginia is functionally required to be given a chair. This Note explores the use of seating laws to prevent the modern and historic workplace issue of prolonged standing, or when an employee is required to stand in one place for too long at one time. Prolonged standing in the workplace is an ergonomics problem, a medical concern, and a labor issue. The pain, discomfort, and long-term chronic disease caused by …

Keeping All American Workers Paid And Employed? How Small Businesses With Independent Contractors Feel Slighted By The Paycheck Protection Program And What Can Be Done, Mary Claire Davis

West Virginia Law Review

Imagine it is late March 2020, and you own and manage a small transportation company that employs independent contractor drivers. In addition to managing the upheaval that has occurred to all small businesses across the country with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, you worry that your workers will not be able to keep food on the table. You hear about a new government program—the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) created by legislation known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”)—that is meant to “keep[] American workers paid and employed.” You understand that the United States Small …

Expanding Drug Courts And Alternative Justice Courts In West Virginia: Implementing Innovative And Restorative Justice Practices, Emily Ogden

West Virginia Law Review

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Alarmingly, West Virginia’s incarceration rate is even higher. West Virginia’s staggering incarceration rate can largely be attributed to the increased criminalization and prosecution of individuals experiencing addiction. This Note considers what actions can be taken to limit incarceration and recidivism in West Virginia. The solutions proposed by this Note also aim to limit the collateral consequences of incarceration in West Virginia because many of West Virginia’s current issues are only exacerbated by incarceration. This Note reviews alternative justice methods and notable alternative justice courts across the …

The Socioeconomic Gap Of Infertility: Medicaid Coverage Of Infertility Treatments In West Virginia, Samantha Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

Infertility treatments have become more accessible and widely used in the last 20 years. As more couples look to these treatments in their struggle to start a family, health insurers are lagging behind in coverage for these options. For the majority of women in the country, paying for infertility treatment out-ofpocket is unrealistic. Not all states have approached this issue but those who have vary in their approach. Some are utilizing either mandate-to-cover for private insurers or Medicaid coverage to attempt to make treatments and diagnosis more accessible. Without policy solutions, the inequality of access between socioeconomic statuses will remain. …

Medical Malpractice As Murder? Using Root Cause Analysis As A Guiding Framework For Criminal Medical Malpractice, Kinsey Novak Booth

West Virginia Law Review

Unprecedented criminal prosecutions for medical errors have increased throughout the nation: A Tennessee nurse was charged with reckless homicide for an isolated medication error; two South Carolina nurses were charged with criminal neglect for failing to change a wound dressing for just two days; and an Ohio pharmacist was charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to detect that a solution contained too much sodium. Introducing criminal charges for cases of typical medical malpractice, which are most often the result of system failures, will dismantle hospitals’ error-reporting systems and lead to long-term catastrophic results for patient safety. This Note applies system …

Just How Paternalistic Is The Va? An Examination Of The Non-Adversarial" Veterans' Benefits System, Nino C. Monea

West Virginia Law Review

The veterans’ benefits system often describes itself as non-adversarial, meaning that the government is supposed to work with the claimant to provide them all benefits they are entitled to, rather than fighting to minimize what they receive. True enough, there are many unique features of the system that help veterans. But many of these features do not work as intended, and rules have developed at all stages that make it harder for veterans to recover. Moreover, as with any human institution, staff fall short, offices get overwhelmed, and gross delays pile up. This Article surveys the numerous ways that the …

Covid, Contracts, And Colleges, John K. Setear

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Learning By Doing, Productivity, And Growth: New Evidence On The Link Between Micro And Macro Data, Brad Humphreys, Scott Schuh, Corey Williams

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

No abstract provided.