Digital Commons Network^™

Tax Compliance, Social Norms, And Influencers, James Alm, Jay A. Soled, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Faculty Publications

While attaining perfect tax compliance is unachievable, more can and must be done. In the past, the country has relied primarily on a traditional system of sticks (e.g., audits and penalties) and carrots (e.g., refunds and whistleblower awards) to help narrow the “tax gap,” or the difference between what taxpayers owe in taxes and what they actually pay. Now, in the social media era, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should look beyond these traditional enforcement mechanisms. To achieve an even higher voluntary compliance rate, this Article advocates for policymakers to invest greater resources to enhance the social norm …

Notice, Consent, And Choice-Of-Jurisdiction Clauses In The United States, John F. Coyle

Faculty Publications

Although choice-of-jurisdiction clauses are routinely enforced by courts in the United States, there are circumstances where they are subject to special scrutiny. One of these circumstances is when the party resisting the clause was not provided with proper notice as to the existence of the clause or the identity of the chosen jurisdiction. This Article first reviews the existing case law in this area and shows that while some U.S. courts have refused to enforce clauses for lack of notice, others do so as a matter of course. It then discusses several decisions where U.S. courts have held that notice …

Temporal Network Analysis Of Comorbidities Among People With Hiv In South Carolina, Yunqing Ma, Matthew Lohman Ph.D., Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph, Yichen Li, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction: People with HIV experience a high rate of comorbidities that can complicate their health outcomes. Understanding the prevalence, interrelationships and temporal development of these comorbidities is crucial for improving health management and quality of life for people with HIV. Methods: We used a population-based cohort extracted from statewide electronic health record (EHR) data in South Carolina (SC), including 18 649 people with HIV who survived at least 1 year after HIV diagnosis between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2020. Comorbidities and organ systems were classified using ICD-10 codes. Network analysis was performed to assess the closeness centrality among …

Five Prairie Reflections On Reviving Rural America, Hannah Haksgaard, Sean Kammer, Travis L. Letellier

Faculty Publications

This Essay offers five reflections on Ann E. Eisenberg’s book Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies for Resilience. Each reflection approaches the book from the positionality of writing from rural America, specifically the prairies of South Dakota. Collectively, the reflections cover the politics of voting in a red rural state, policies of local municipal government, the central economic principles in the book, the presence of energy production in rural America, and environmentalism’s relevancy and impact.

Assessing The Past And Future Of Article Iii, Section 12 Of The South Dakota Constitution, Neil Fulton, Madison Gosch

Faculty Publications

The framers of South Dakota’s Constitution feared corruption among public officials. This inspired them to implement structural checks on corruption in that organic document. One result of that effort was Article III, Section 12. That provision prohibited legislators from entering contracts authorized during their term. It further prohibited legislators from occupying other public offices during the legislative service or being appointed to offices created or given increased compensation during their term. The expansion of state government’s reach over time and a recent reinterpretation of Article III, Section 12 raises the question of how well it aligns with current circumstances. This …

Workplace Retaliation And The Intersection Of Protected Conduct And Job Performance, Chris Schmidt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reevaluating South Dakota's Child Support Deduction: Balancing Retirement Contributions And Children's Needs, Marilyn Trefz

Faculty Publications

This article explores how South Dakota’s child support provisions, particularly the 10% allowable deduction for voluntary retirement contributions from parents’ gross income, affect the fair distribution of financial responsibilities between parents. By exploring the historical context and evolution of this statute, this article highlights the challenges and disparities the 10% deduction creates, particularly for custodial parents living in poverty. Through a comparative analysis with other states and a discussion on balancing retirement savings with child support needs, the article argues for reconsideration of the statutory allowance. The article’s aim is to ensure that the next revision of the child support …

Identifying All Matches Of A Rigid Object In An Input Image Using Visible Triangles, Abdullah N. Arslan

Faculty Publications

It has been suggested that for objects identifiable by their corners, every triangle formed by these corner points can serve as a reference for detecting other corner points. This approach enables effective rigid object detection, including partial matches. However, when there are many corner points, the implementation becomes impractical due to excessive memory requirements. To overcome this, we propose a new algorithm that leverages Delaunay triangulation, considering only the triangles generated by the Delaunay triangulation to reduce the complexity of the original approach. Our algorithm is significantly faster and requires significantly less memory, offering a viable solution for large problem …

Fiddler Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae) From Coastal Ecuador And The Galápagos Islands: Species Descriptions And Dna Barcodes, Carl L. Thurman, John C. Mcnamara, Hsi-Te Shih, Mariana V. Capparelli

Faculty Publications

Neotropical regions near the equator are recognized as speciation “hot spots” reflecting their abundant biodiversity. In western South America, the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, the Galápagos Archipelago, and northern Peru form the Tropical Eastern Pacific biome. This area has the greatest heterogeneity of sympatric fiddler crab species of any portion of the planet. Since the coastal fauna has not been assessed for almost 50 years, we studied fiddler crab species diversity in Ecuador and on the Galápagos Archipelago. Preserved collecting records for various species were examined at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, the American Museum …

Indirect Earnings Management, Scott B. Jackson, Jason T. Rasso, Aaron F. Zimbleman

Faculty Publications

We hypothesize that managers use their hierarchical role as reviewers of accounting judgments and estimates to manage earnings, which we call indirect earnings management (IEM). Across a series of experiments using highly experienced financial executives as participants, we provide evidence that IEM (1) is likely used by managers to achieve current and future earnings targets, (2) reduces both cognitive dissonance associated with managing earnings and the extent to which managers think that their behaviors constitute earnings management, and (3) is more likely to be used when corporate governance is strong than when corporate governance is weak. The results of this …

Mapping Glams: Creating A National Dataset Of Glams To Develop A Categorical Climate-Change Risk Assessment Scale, Edward Benoitiii, Jill Trepanier, Jennifer Vanos, Emily Fisher, Kaitlyn Bailey, Annie Waddell, Haley Moore, Mandy Hatman, Mary Sidwell, Symonne Russell, Virginia Seger, Paige Boutte, Amanda Latta, Zoe Mohammad, Kyriel Felton, Erin Deliman, Breanna Benson-Pearce, Wendy Johnson, Allyson Russell, Baillie Pretzer, Christopher Reeder, Melissa Mcconnell, Lisa Dahlke, Kaitlynn Melear, Lillian Bodi, Savannah T. Lyle, Zach Lannes, Gwen L. Wells, Benjamin A. Teincuff, Jason M. Straight, Tiffany Rockwell, Shane T. Manthei, Jennifer L. Benner

Faculty Publications

Introduction. The PROTECCT-GLAM project aims to assess and address climate risks for U.S. galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). The project team began with creating a national dataset of GLAMs. Method. The project team used existing datasets that required different auditing and manipulation techniques to align its data. Following the data normalization, the master file included 77,960 entries. Analysis and Results. The project team used ArcGIS Pro to analyze a dataset of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) for risk from sea level rise, finding 16,877 GLAMs within 30 kilometres of the U.S. coast, with California, New York, Maryland, Florida, …

Advances In Tropical Climatology–A Review, Flávia D.S. Moraes, Craig Ramseyer, Paul W. Miller, Jill C. Trepanier

Faculty Publications

Understanding tropical climatology is essential to comprehending the atmospheric connections between the tropics and extratropical latitudes weather and climate events. In this review paper, we emphasize the advances in key areas of tropical climatology knowledge since the end of the 20th century and offer a summary, assessment, and discussion of previously published literature. Among the key areas analyzed here, we explore the advances in tropical oceanic and atmospheric variability, such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and how those teleconnection events have helped us to better understand variabilities in tropical monsoons, tropical cyclones, and drought events. We also …

An Early Web History Of Vaccine Skeptical Digital Rhetorics, Miles C. Coleman, Will Mari

Faculty Publications

Vaccine hesitancy is a public health threat stoked by vaccine skeptical rhetorics that circulate via the Web. While there is a body of work that studies the digital rhetorical tactics of vaccine skeptics, most of this work focuses on the Web rhetorics of the “Web 2.0” era, leaving the “Web 1.0” era relatively understudied and, in turn, foreclosing opportunities to look back before moving forward in the current moment. In efforts to yield glimpses into the antecedents of digital culture that have shaped contemporary vaccine skeptical discourses, in this article, we draw on systematically sourced website “snapshots” of vaccine skeptical …

Resilience And Resourcefulness: How Crisis Centers In Louisiana Adapted Services During Covid-19, Fanny Ramirez, Ashlyn Barclay, Rockia Harris

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This article examines how crisis centers in Louisiana, USA, adapted their direct care services during COVID-19 to continue helping survivors affected by violence. Organizational resilience theory serves as the project’s main theoretical framework. As such, we report on how community- and university-based crisis centers drew on principles of resilience and resourcefulness to adapt their direct care services (e.g., crafting normalcy, putting alternative logics to work) during this difficult time. Method: We draw on 21 in-depth interviews with upper-level administrators from organizations working in violence against women conducted during the summer of 2020. The interview transcripts yielded 184 single-spaced pages …

De María De Portugal A Isabel Clara Eugenia: Luisa Sigea Y El Diálogo De Dos Doncellas Como Speculum Reginae, Carmela V. Mattza

Faculty Publications

Este ensayo analiza las representaciones de poder y autoridad femeninas en el Renacimiento europeo, centrándose en la figura de Isabel Clara Eugenia. Propone que el Diálogo de dos doncellas (1552), escrito por Luisa Sigea en la corte de María de Portugal, anticipa un modelo de gobierno femenino que resuena en la imagen proyectada por la infanta como soberana. Se argumenta que esta obra puede interpretarse como un speculum reginae o «espejo de la reina», concebido para formar y orientar a las mujeres de la corte de los Austrias. Aunque el texto estaba dirigido originalmente a una infanta portuguesa, ofrece ideales …

Permutations Minimizing The Number Of Collinear Triples, Joshua Cooper, Jack Hyatt

Faculty Publications

We characterize the permutations of Fq whose graph minimizes the number of collinear triples and describe the lexicographically-least one, confirming a conjecture of Cooper-Solymosi. This question is connected to Dudeney’s No-3-in-a-Line problem, the Heilbronn triangle problem, and the structure of finite plane Kakeya sets. We discuss a connection with complete sets of mutually orthogonal latin squares and state a few open problems primarily about general finite affine planes.

Using Games And Activities To Increase Inhibitory Control Skills In Kindergarten-Aged Children, Kailyn Lambert, Cynthia F. Dicarlo, Denise Rueter

Faculty Publications

Executive function skills are critical in early development, as they “form the foundation for children’s ability to self-regulate” (McLelland, et al., 2016, p. 242). Inhibitory control, one component of executive function, is the ability to suppress or inhibit responses to distractions when completing a task. The purpose of this study was to improve children’s inhibitory control in the classroom through ageappropriate games, which promote controlling emotions and remaining on task. Three target children were observed in the classroom they attended with their regular teacher. Baseline data revealed that the target children needed improvement on inhibitory control skills, which included controlling …

Popular Sovereignty And A Right To Know About The Government, David S. Ardia

Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the U.S. Constitution implicitly contains a structural “right to know” about the government, rooted in the doctrine of popular sovereignty rather than the First Amendment. Democratic self‑government requires public access to governmental information; without it, the people cannot exercise informed consent or their sovereign authority. The Article critiques reliance on purely statutory transparency regimes such as FOIA, noting their fragility and susceptibility to political rollback. Through historical and structural analysis, it shows that the Framers viewed an informed citizenry as essential to maintaining checks and balances. The Article proposes three principles for operationalizing a constitutional right …

Scrutinizing Transgender Healthcare Bans Through Intersex Exceptions, Holning Lau, Barbara A. Fedders

Faculty Publications

Major professional medical organizations—for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and Endocrine Society—consider gender-affirming care to be safe and, at times, essential for vulnerable transgender youth. Despite these benefits, 26 states have banned gender-affirming care for minors. Proponents of these bans raise concerns about potential medical harms, the irreversibility of treatments, and the adequacy of informed consent.

Every state ban includes an exception for so-called gender-normalizing surgeries, which are performed on intersex infants to conform their bodies to socially constructed expectations about the male/female binary. The procedures are rarely medically necessary, but proponents of the surgeries contend …

Reflections On The Ferguson Report, Eisha Jain

Faculty Publications

This Essay reflects on the significance of the Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (“Ferguson Report”). The Ferguson Report is a valuable teaching tool for criminal procedure because it documents detailed cases of police misconduct. But it also reveals how many deeply intrusive and over-reaching policing practices are not, in fact, unconstitutional. Reading the Report offers a window into how the law can enable misconduct, and it reveals how little opportunity the community affected had to create change.

Tax And The Myth Of The Family Farm, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Faculty Publications

With income and wealth inequality at historically high levels, policymakers have looked to the tax system as a potential road to reform. Specifically, new taxes on wealth or inheritances could raise much-needed revenue and reduce intergenerational wealth disparities. Yet looming behind recent proposals to strengthen the progressivity of the tax system is the specter of taxing family farms out of existence.

In the minds of voters, the family farmer is a sympathetic taxpayer who is cash poor but holds valuable property. Federal taxes that are based upon property values (like a wealth tax or an estate tax), rather than on …

Equality And Justice: An Essay In Memory Of Dan Markel, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Faculty Publications

One of the traits that I admired most about Dan Markel was that he held legal scholarship to a very high standard. Whether it was his own work or the work of others, he believed that our work could only improve if we insisted on giving each other critical feedback.

It has been a decade since Dan’s tragic death. And while a Festschrift is ordinarily seen as an opportunity to praise the work of one’s colleagues, I want to celebrate Dan Markel in the way that I imagine he would respect most—by providing critical feedback about his work. In particular, …

Improved Performance Of Catalysts Containing Pt, Pt-Sn, And V In The Dehydrogenation Of N-Butane By Radio-Frequency Induction Heating, Cameron L. Roman, Jonathan Lucas, James A. Dorman, Kerry M. Dooley

Faculty Publications

Due to an abundance of shale gas, manufacturers are interested in meeting increased demands for alkenes, especially n-alkenes, by the dehydrogenation of light alkanes. While the catalysts for these reactions have been studied for many years, alkene selectivity and deactivation remain challenging problems. This work addresses these problems by the substitution of a localized indirect heating method (radio-frequency induction heating, RF-IH) for more traditional process heating employing steam or burners (e.g., natural gas combustion). RF-IH has been applied to the dehydrogenation of n-butane to C4 alkenes by utilizing magnetically susceptible catalysts based on Fe/Fe3O4 susceptors. Magnetic core-shell catalysts with either …

Rheological Characterization And Printability Of Sodium Alginate–Gelatin Hydrogel For 3d Cultures And Bioprinting, Mohan Kumar Dey, Ram V. Devireddy

Faculty Publications

The development of biocompatible hydrogels for 3D bioprinting is essential for creating functional tissue models and advancing preclinical drug testing. This study investigates the formulation, printability, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility of a novel Alg-Gel hydrogel blend (alginate and gelatin) for use in extrusion-based 3D bioprinting. A range of hydrogel compositions were evaluated for their rheological behavior, including shear-thinning properties, storage modulus, and compressive modulus, which are crucial for maintaining structural integrity during printing and supporting cell viability. The printability assessment of the 7% alginate–8% gelatin hydrogel demonstrated that the 27T tapered needle achieved the highest normalized Printability Index (POInormalized = …

Poromechanical Solution For One-Dimensional Large Strain Consolidation Of Modified Cam-Clay Soil, Sheng Li Chen, Hai Sui Yu, Younane N. Abousleiman, Christopher E. Kees

Faculty Publications

A theoretical model describing the one-dimensional large strain consolidation of the modified Cam-Clay soil is presented in this paper. The model is based on the Lagrangian formulation and is capable of featuring the variability of soil compressibility (inherently due to the direct incorporation of the specific Cam-Clay plasticity model) and permeability, as well as the impact of the overconsolidation ratio (OCR). The derivation starts from the establishment of the incremental stress–strain relations for both purely elastic and elastoplastic deformations under one-dimensional compression conditions, and thereafter the coefficients of compressibility/volume change that are essential to the consolidation analysis. The governing partial …

Machine Learning Approach To Predict The Early-Age Flexural Strength Of Sensor-Embedded 3d-Printed Structures, Kasra Banijamali, Mary Dempsey, Jianhua Chen, Ali Kazemian

Faculty Publications

The absence of formwork in 3D-printed concrete, unlike conventional mold-cast concrete, introduces greater variability in curing conditions, posing significant challenges in accurately estimating the early-age mechanical strength. Therefore, common non-destructive techniques such as the maturity method fail to deliver a generalized predictive model for the mechanical strength of 3D-printed structures. In this study, multiple machine learning (ML) algorithms, including linear regression (LR), support vector regression (SVR), and artificial neural network (ANN), were developed to estimate the early-age flexural strength of 3D-printed beams under varying curing conditions, utilizing data collected from embedded sensors. Six input variables were employed for the ML …

Assessing Government Transparency: An Analysis Of South Dakota's Open Records And Meeting Laws, Neil Fulton, Sarah Kammer, Patrick Garry

Faculty Publications

Government transparency is crucial for an effective and responsive democracy. The pursuit of such transparency underlies state open records and meetings laws. South Dakota’s open records law strives to open government records to the public. However, it also contains an array of exceptions that prevent the disclosure of certain records. When denied access to government records, the public possesses a statutory right of appeal. This article examines the workings of that appeal process. Open meetings laws also serve to give the public a role in government deliberations and to make those deliberations transparent. Those laws, including South Dakota’s law, provide …

International Society Of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Β-Hydroxy-Β-Methylbutyrate (Hmb), John A. Rathmacher, Lisa M. Pitchford, Jeffrey R. Stout, Jeremy R. Townsend, Ralf Jäger, Richard B. Kreider, Bill I. Campbell, Chad M. Kerksick, Patrick S. Harty, Darren G. Candow, Brandon M. Roberts, Shawn M. Arent Ph.D., Cscs*D, Fissn, Facsm, Fnak, Douglas S. Kalman, Jose Antonio

Faculty Publications

Position Statement: The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) bases the following position stand on an analysis of the literature regarding the effects of β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate (HMB). The following 12 points have been approved by the Research Committee of the Society: 1. HMB is a metabolite of the amino acid leucine that is naturally produced in both humans and other animals. Two forms of HMB have been studied: Calcium HMB (HMB-Ca) and a free acid form of HMB (HMB-FA). HMB-FA appears to lead to increased appearance of HMB in the bloodstream when compared to HMB-Ca, though recent results are mixed. 2. …

Variation In Early 20th Century Rural Utah English, Joseph A. Stanley, Hallie Davidson

Faculty Publications

Utah English Pronunciation

Early 20th Century Utah English:

• Early work (Cook 1969, Helquist 1970) compares rural Utah to Salt Lake City.
• Bowie (2003, 2008, etc.) analyzes archival recordings of religious sermons.
• Primary focus in those studies: the decline of the CORD-CARD merger.

Introducing the Kohler Tapes

Background:

• Norm Kohler, a middle school teacher in Heber in 1980s–2000s.
• He had students to interview a local older person, like a grandparent.
• He provided questions to ask, akin to sociolinguistic interviews.
• Collected 1200+ cassette tapes.
• Intended to write a history based on these oral narratives.

Processing:

• Digitized in 2021 at BYU’s Office of …

Wellness And The Tax Law, Leigh Z. Osofsky

Faculty Publications

The tax law has long provided extensive subsidies for “medical care.” These subsidies cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The definition of medical care, which is at the heart of these subsidies, originated many decades ago at a time when there was little to no conception of wellness.

Times have changed in the medical world. Medical science now emphasizes that wellness practices, like exercise, meditation, and social connection, have an important impact on physical as well as mental health, including by playing a significant role in preventing and treating disease. Under the tax statute, medical care …