Digital Commons Network^™

Lincoln And The Copperheads: The War For The North, Anthony Kellar

West Virginia University Historical Review

This work focuses on the role that Peace Democrats, also known as “Copperheads,” played in Northern dissent during the Civil War. This is done by analyzing public newspapers and journals from the time period that reveal the strategies used by the Copperheads to undermine the war effort in the North. It also compares the works of other notable historians, in particular Jennifer Weber and Mark Neely, to help determine how effective the Copperheads were in threatening Lincoln’s efforts to hold the Union together.

“Sweep All These Pests From Our Midst”: The Anti-Chinese Prostitution Movement, The Criminalization Of Chinese Women, And The First Federal Immigration Law, Laura Curry

West Virginia University Historical Review

Often forgotten in light of later pieces of anti-Chinese legislation, the Page Act of 1875 and the anti-Chinese prostitution movement were critical in creating a legal precedent for racially exclusionary immigration laws. Religious leaders in California aggressively campaigned against Chinese prostitution by creating rehabilitation centers for former Chinese prostitutes, investigating Chinese women arriving at the port, and focusing media attention on the issue. Concentrated specifically on Chinese prostitution, religious leaders created an implicit association between Chinese women and prostitution while ignoring the larger white prostitution trade. The potential for Chinese women to give birth to Chinese American citizens also made …

Complete Issue

West Virginia University Historical Review

No abstract provided.

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

West Virginia Law Review Online

This essay is about data privacy in West Virginia. However, many of the issues that affect West Virginians also affect people around the country and the world. As such, it’s also an essay about the state of data privacy today and the current challenges that affect people nationally and globally. Part one provides a general overview of the current issues involving data privacy. Part two discusses the current legislative framework and the larger gaps in data privacy law. Part three summarizes the key takeaways based on responses to a survey and focus groups sessions conducted in West Virginia in 2019. …

An Osm For Iot: Establishing An Office Of Special Masters To Resolve Certain Cases Involving The Internet Of Things, Abigail Perdue, Bethany Corbin

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping Nutrient Pollution At Bay: An Analysis Of Efforts To Mitigate Non-Point Source Pollution In The Chesapeake Bay, Madison Hinkle

West Virginia Law Review

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most important estuaries in the United States, adding to the region’s ecological, economic, recreational, historic, and cultural value. In 1982, a study was conducted that determined that a rapid loss of aquatic life in the Bay was due to nutrient pollution, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, the majority of which is associated with the agricultural industry. A number of the jurisdictions2 within the Bay Watershed established the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1983, aimed at abating the issues. Over the next four decades, the Agreement was then modified and resigned, additional jurisdictions have signed …

Suits Against Gas-Emitting Landfills In West Virginia: Identifying And Overcoming The Barriers, Shawn H. Hogbin

West Virginia Law Review

The U.S. in the past two decades has experienced an increase in class actions stemming from landfill odors, with many of these lawsuits utilizing the common law doctrines of nuisance, trespass, and negligence. Landfill odors impact nearby residents, making it unenjoyable for them to be outside on their lawns, and even in their homes. West Virginia’s sole appellate court, despite the state having 17 operational landfills and disposing of nearly 1.5 million tons of trash, has seen no such suit. This Note identifies whether West Virginia decisional law is prohibitive of this type of suit; it finds no clear legal …

Securing Secrets: The Need For A Treaty Addressing State-Sponsored Economic Espionage, Jaylin Johnson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standard Oil, Consolidated Coal, And The Roots Of The Resource Curse In West Virginia, Alison Peck

West Virginia Law Review

Despite its natural resource wealth, West Virginia today ranks last among all states in its residents’ overall sense of well-being, a puzzle that economists call “the resource curse.” Much of West Virginia’s wealth, in the form of coal, oil, and gas, left the state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before the state could tax it. This discouraging story was not inevitable. In 1905, a Morgantown lawyer named George C. Baker led an effort to tax coal, oil, and gas leases as personal property that nearly succeeded. Baker and his allies, Governor William M.O. Dawson and Tax Commissioner …

On The Use Of Minimum Penalties In Statistical Learning, Ben Sherwood, Bradley S. Price

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Modern multivariate machine learning and statistical methodologies estimate parameters of interest while leveraging prior knowledge of the association between outcome variables. The methods that do allow for estimation of relationships do so typically through an error covariance matrix in multivariate regression which does not scale to other types of models. In this article we proposed the MinPEN framework to simultaneously estimate regression coefficients associated with the multivariate regression model and the relationships between outcome variables using mild assumptions. The MinPen framework utilizes a novel penalty based on the minimum function to exploit detected relationships between responses. An iterative algorithm that …

Characteristics Of Patent Examiners Who Issue Litigated / Invalidated Patents, S. Sean Tu

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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

Consumer Law Scholarship

This white paper was commissioned by the Center for Consumer Law and Education, a joint initiative launched by West Virginia University and Marshall University to “coordinate the development of consumer law, policy, and education research to support and serve consumers.”

As such, this paper has a dual purpose. First, it provides a comprehensive overview of the many different legal issues that affect data privacy concerns (both nationally and in West Virginia). Second, it documents and discusses the result of a survey and specific focus groups that were undertaken throughout the fall of 2019 into January 2020 where individuals within the …

Association Between Stroke Health Literacy And Insurance With Stroke Severity And Post-Stroke Depression, Callista Clairmont, Amelia Adcock, Lea Colantonio

Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review

Health literacy and insurance are important aspects of healthcare, yet few studies assess the roles that each play in relation to strokes. The purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship that stroke health literacy and insurance coverage have on the development of post-stroke outcomes such as post-stroke depression and stroke severity. In this study, 47 patients receiving inpatient care for acute ischemic stroke were given a modified version of the Stroke Knowledge Test in order to assess their understanding of strokes. Stroke severity and depression levels were also measured using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale …

Development Of A Python Library To Facilitate Wqx Dataset Exchanges, Jonathan Musselwhite, Fernando Rojano

Presentations

The assistance of programming tools to speed up the exchange of water quality datasets are necessary. These tools reduce and simplify the steps currently needed to transfer datasets from water quality monitoring stations to public databases. Here it is presented a library developed in Python that programmatically covers the steps related to the upload of datasets following the framework of the Water Quality Exchange (WQX) of the US EPA. This library is mainly characterized by its ability to efficiently connect and transfer data formatted as CSV or XLSX files via the WQX to the National STORET Data Warehouse by mostly …

Project Foresight Annual Report, 2019-2020, 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 2019-2020 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Copyright Protection For Patents: Some Surprising Implications For Artificial Intelligence, Dean Alderucci

West Virginia Law Review

Over the course of two centuries the US. patent system has generated an expansive compilation of millions of patents, each explaining how to make and use patented technology. Collectively these documents describe the details of inventions in virtually every field of science and engineering, representing a technical database crowdsourced from a global community of inventors. Although this corpus of technical knowledge was originally designed for its role in the U.S. patent system, contemporary Artificial Intelligence ("Al") and Natural Language Processing ("NLP') technologies allow patent text to be used in many productive new ways. In this Article I describe how Al …

Algorithms In Business, Merchant-Consumer Interactions, & Regulation, Tabrez Y. Ebrahim

West Virginia Law Review

The shift towards the use of algorithms in business has transformed merchant-consumer interactions. Products and services are increasingly tailored for consumers through algorithms that collect and analyze vast amounts of data from interconnected devices, digital platforms, and social networks. While traditionally merchants and marketeers have utilized market segmentation, customer demographic profiles, and statistical approaches, the exponential increase in consumer data and computing power enables them to develop and implement algorithmic techniques that change consumer markets and society as a whole. Algorithms enable targeting of consumers more effectively, in real-time, and with high predictive accuracy in pricing and profiling strategies. In …

Use Of Artificial Intelligence To Determine Copyright Liability For Musical Works, Shine Sean Tu

West Virginia Law Review

This article explores the use of Artificial Intelligence to help define the existing test for copyright infringement for musical works. Currently, the test for copyright infringement requires the jury or a judge to determine whether the parties' works are "substantially similar" to each other from the vantage point of the "ordinary observer." This "substantial similarity" test has been criticized at almost every level due to its inconsistent nature. Artificial Intelligence has evolved to the point where it can be used as a tool to resolve many of the current issues associated with the "substantial similarity" test when it comes to …

Decadal Disparities In The Election Of Women To State Legislatures, Jude C. Platz

Munn Scholars Awards

Over a century has passed since the first women were elected to state legislature positions in 1894. Research shows that women are more successful in these positions as they have greater chances of bridging party lines and are more likely to enact policies representative of diverse needs. Despite this, women today account for the majority of the population but less than one-third of state legislature positions nationwide. Research seeking to understand this gap is limited; hence, there is a need for increased studies regarding what factors contribute to more women being elected to these positions. This study uses a dynamic …

Algebra, Wvu Mathematics Department

M.S. Advanced and Ph.D. Entrance Exams

No abstract provided.

Fairness In The Eyes Of The Beholder: Ai; Fairness; And Alternative Credit Scoring, Janine S. Hiller

West Virginia Law Review

Artificial intelligence is based, in part, on learning algorithms that can continually monitor and embed new data from large numbers of sources to create ever "improved" decisions, whether the decisions are applied to the physical world like the operation of smart cars, or whether the decision is about the extension of credit to a loan applicant. Yet, it is well known that algorithms and resulting decision making AI models are plagued by unintended bias and discriminatory results. Data science scholars have attempted to address bias and discrimination through the imposition of multiple mathematically represented options to measure fairness. However, these …

Just-Aied: An Essay In Just Applications Of Artificial Intelligence In Education, Chris Chambers Goodman Esq.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bias Preservation In Machine Learning: The Legality Of Fairness Metrics Under Eu Non-Discrimination Law, Sandra Wachter, Brent Mittelstadt, Chris Russell

West Virginia Law Review

Western societies are marked by diverse and extensive biases and inequality that are unavoidably embedded in the data used to train machine learning. Algorithms trained on biased data will, without intervention, produce biased outcomes and increase the inequality experienced by historically disadvantaged groups. Recognizing this problem, much work has emerged in recent years to test for bias in machine learning and AI systems using various fairness and bias metrics. Often these fairness metrics address technical bias, but not the underlying cause of inequality: social bias. In this Article we make three contributions. First, we assess the compatibility of fairness metrics …

The Implementation Of Oral Assessment In An Introduction To Proof Course Using Multiple Assessment, Nurul Wahyuni Schraeder, Nicole Engelke Infante, Ben Davies

Graduate Student Scholarship

This study investigated how four assessors implemented an oral assessment when a little direction was provided to the assessors. We focused on the interrater reliability of oral grading and the types of follow-up questions asked. We observed three interaction types during oral assessment: no follow-up, follow-up related to the problem, and follow-up not directly related to the problem. As expected, assessors differed on several aspects of the assessment, including grading standards and follow-up experiences for students. Our findings revealed interrater reliability of oral grading with three-point scale was excellent, but not so much when six-point scale was implemented. Moreover, we …

Boulders As A Lithologic Control On River And Landscape Response To Tectonic Forcing At The Mendocino Triple Junction, Charles Shobe, Georgina Bennett, Gregory Tucker, Kevin Roback, Scott Miller, Joshua Roering

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Constraining Earth’s sediment mass balance over geologic time requires a quantitative understanding of how landscapes respond to transient tectonic perturbations. However, the mechanisms by which bedrock lithology governs landscape response remain poorly understood. Rock type influences the size of sediment delivered to river channels, which controls how efficiently rivers respond to tectonic forcing. The Mendocino triple junction region of northern California, USA, is one landscape in which large boulders, delivered by hillslope failures to channels, may alter the pace of landscape response to a pulse of rock uplift. Boulders frequently delivered by earthflows in one lithology, the Franciscan mélange, have …

Principles Of Water Resources (Graduate Student Course), Jason A. Hubbart

Water Courses at WVU

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Supply Chain Disruptions On Stock Market Returns During Covid-19, Hélène Flore Nguemgaing, Ana Claudia Sant’Anna

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Purpose: How has Covid-19 impacted meat processors’ stock returns? We evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions (e.g., lockdowns and Covid-19 incidences among workers) on stock market prices of meat processors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach This study uses an event study approach to examine the disruptions from COVID-19 through events such as plant shutdowns, the pandemic announcement, lockdown dates, and the first case of Covid-19 outbreaks in meat processing plants. Our dataset includes S&P 500, Google Trends, financial beta, and data collected for 14 U.S. Publicly traded meat processing companies.

Findings Results show that nationwide events (e.g., announcement of …

Meta-Analyses Support A Taxonomic Model For Representations Of Different Categories Of Audio-Visual Interaction Events In The Human Brain, Matt Csonka, Nadia Mardmomen, Paula J. Webster, Julie A. Brefczynski-Lewis, Chris Frum, James W. Lewis

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Our ability to perceive meaningful action events involving objects, people and other animate agents is characterized in part by an interplay of visual and auditory sensory processing and their cross-modal interactions. However, this multisensory ability can be altered or dysfunctional in some hearing and sighted individuals, and in some clinical populations. The present meta-analysis sought to test current hypotheses regarding neurobiological architectures that may mediate audio-visual multisensory processing. Reported coordinates from 82 neuroimaging studies (137 experiments) that revealed some form of audio-visual interaction in discrete brain regions were compiled, converted to a common coordinate space, and then organized along specific …

Postdischarge Opioid Use After Total Hip And Total Knee Arthroplasty, Keenan Atwood, Taylor Shackleford, Wesley Lemons, Jennifer L. Eicher, Brock A. Lindsey, Adam E. Klein

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Methods

A Scalable Framework For Map Matching Based Cooperative Localization, Chizhao Yang, Jared Strader, Yu Gu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Localization based on scalar field map matching (e.g., using gravity anomaly, magnetic anomaly, topographics, or olfaction maps) is a potential solution for navigating in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied environments. In this paper, a scalable framework is presented for cooperatively localizing a group of agents based on map matching given a prior map modeling the scalar field. In order to satisfy the communication constraints, each agent in the group is assigned to different subgroups. A locally centralized cooperative localization method is performed in each subgroup to estimate the poses and covariances of all agents inside the subgroup. Each agent in …