Exploring Early Signaling Associated With Complex Stressors, Julia A. Penatzer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Humans are constantly exposed to a vast number of stressors in our everyday lives from social interactions to physical activity to chemical exposures, to name a few. These stressors have significant impacts on an individual, from the cellular to whole organismal level. The body contains an intricate communication system that elicits a number of both biological and physiological responses as it attempts to maintain homeostasis. Observing these responses to stressors, can offer insight into a number of outcomes, which can be beneficial (increasing life longevity) or detrimental (leading to a disease state). By measuring specific biological adaptations at particular time …

Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout: Examining Covid-19 Vaccination Perceptions And Intention Among Nurses, Emilee T. Austin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nurses’ COVID-19 vaccination rates have been reportedly low for being among the first prioritized for vaccination. To understand and potentially explain uptake barriers, this thesis utilized the 5c Model, the Integrative Model, the Extended Parallel Process Model, Uncertainty Management Theory, and the Theory of Motivated Information Management. This project used an online survey with a convenience sample recruited through the WV Nurses Association. Specifically, there were 328 nurses recruited, then screened for fully vaccinated participants leaving an analytic sample of 174 West Virginia nurses who had not yet been vaccinated. Participants were asked about their nursing role, threat perceptions, susceptibility …

Independent, Semi-Automated Classification Of Petrographic Features In Volcanic Rocks Using Fiji And Weka, Holly Danielle Pettus

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Traditional methods of collecting quantitative petrographic data from thin sections (modal mineralogy, size distribution, shapes, etc.) are time- and labor-intensive, and rarely have sample sizes adequate to statistically describe complex rocks (i.e. volcanic rocks). Although manual counting and measurements are now routinely supplemented by digital image analysis, the majority of quantitative petrographic studies still go through a manual digitization stage where object classes are traced before further analyses. This is a major rate-limiting step that reproduces the same problems of small n-values resulting from significant effort. We have valuated the potential and limitations of using the Trainable Weka Segmentation (TWS) …

Taxing Buybacks, Daniel J. Hemel, Gregg D. Polsky

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

A recent rise in the volume of corporate share repurchases has prompted calls for changes to the rules governing stock buybacks. These calls for reform are animated by concerns that buybacks enrich corporate executives at the expense of productive investment. This emerging antibuyback movement includes prominent politicians as well as academics and Republicans as well as Democrats. The primary focus of buyback critics has been on securities-law changes to deter repurchases, with only passing mention of potential tax-law solutions.

This Article critically examines the policy arguments against buybacks and arrives at a mixed verdict. On the one hand, claims that …

Regulation And Redistribution With Lives In The Balance, Daniel J. Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

A central question in law and economics is whether non-tax legal rules should be designed solely to maximize efficiency or whether they also should account for concerns about the distribution of income. This question takes on particular importance in the context of cost-benefit analysis. Federal agencies apply cost-benefit analysis when writing regulations that generate multibillion dollar impacts on the US economy and profound effects on millions of Americans’ lives. In the past, agency cost-benefit analyses typically have ignored the income-distributive consequences of those regulations. That may soon change: On his first day in office, President Biden instructed his Office of …

Equalizing The Tax Treatment Of Stock Buybacks And Dividends, Daniel J. Hemel, Gregg D. Polsky

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

his policy brief highlights flaws in the current federal tax treatment of stock buybacks and proposes to address those flaws by equalizing the tax treatment of buybacks and dividends. (We explore the proposal in greater detail in Hemel & Polsky, Taxing Buybacks, 38 Yale J. on Reg. 246 (2021), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3764112.) Stock buybacks allow foreign shareholders to avoid U.S. withholding tax on corporate cash distributions. Stock buybacks also allow U.S. taxable investors to reduce or eliminate shareholder-level tax on corporate cash distributions through a combination of deferral, loss harvesting, and stepped-up basis at death. Our proposal—based on an idea first suggested …

Stigler's Theory Of Economic Regulation After Fifty Years, Sam Peltzman

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

George Stigler’s “The Theory of Economic Regulation” (1971) is a landmark in the economics of regulation. It used simple public choice reasoning to set out the “capture theory” of regulation whereby “… as a rule, regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit.” This article, written for a commemoration of the 1971 article in Public Choice, summarizes the context within which the article appeared and evaluate its long run impact. A central argument is the need to distinguish “acquired” from “designed and operated.” The rule that regulation is produced in response to industry …

Antitrust And Labor Markets: A Reply To Richard Epstein, Eric A. Posner

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In his article, The Application of Antitrust Law to Labor Markets—Then and Now, Richard Epstein argues that rather than urge courts and regulators to apply antitrust law to labor markets, reformers who care about labor market competition should try to constrain unions. In this reply, I argue that Epstein’s assumptions about labor market structure are contradicted by mountains of empirical evidence. The anticompetitive behavior of employers causes significant harm to social welfare—both in terms of economic output and equity. Antitrust law is a valuable tool for addressing America’s ailing labor markets.

Framing Vaccine Mandates: Messenger And Message Effects, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In September 2021, President Biden announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workers are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or show a negative test for the virus at least once a week. The policy has been widely characterized in the media as “President Biden’s vaccine mandate,” though it could be described with equal accuracy as “OSHA’s testing mandate” (since OSHA, rather than Biden, officially promulgated the policy, and once-a-week testing and vaccination are both valid compliance options). Some commentators have speculated that reframing the policy as …

The Tax Gap's Many Shades Of Gray, Daniel J. Hemel, Janet Holtzblatt, Steve Rosenthal

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

The “tax gap”—the difference between the amount of “true tax” and the amount of tax actually paid—has garnered widespread attention in recent months. Much of the commentary on the subject equates the tax gap with “tax evasion,” a term broadly understood to connote intentional (and potentially criminal) under reporting. This paper cautions against conflating the tax gap with tax evasion. The tax gap includes substantial gray areas where the law is ambiguous and the IRS’s determination of “true tax” is debatable. On top of that, the IRS’s methodology for measuring the tax gap includes upward adjustments that are recommended by …

Probabilistic Disclosures For Corporate And Other Law, Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

This Article explores the costs and benefits of one subset of continuous and discontinuous rules. These expressions are shown to be distinct from the familiar dichotomy expressed as standards versus rules, but they share the difficulty of dividing the world of law in two. Still, regulatory approaches that focus on discontinuities can often be made more continuous, and vice versa. A speed limit is discontinuous in the sense that one drives above or below (or within) the announced limit. But it is often made more continuous – even with more discontinuities – as when the stated limit is different for …

Investigating Nox Vs Co2 Tradeoff In Heavy Duty Emissions Through The Years Under The Scope Of Carb’S 3-Bin Moving Average Window Method, Ghadi Sadek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the rise in urban pollution level over the last few years, regulatory agencies around the world have taken multiple steps to ensure engine exhaust pollutant are well monitored and properly regulated. Yet there exists a significant difference in emissions rates in various operating conditions between US and European products which currently uses a Moving average window (MAW) approach for their in-use compliance testing and certification program. Using WVU’s vehicle data collected using PEMS devices, this study aims at investigating the NOx versus CO2 tradeoff found in heavy duty diesel engines equipped with different aftertreatment technologies, under the scope of …

Nitrite Supplementation Restores Aortic Health In Chronically Stressed Mice, Tyler Coblentz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chronic stress increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease potentially via increases in elastic artery stiffness and endothelial dysfunction. Decreased bioavailability of the potent vasodilator nitric oxide (NO) describes a hallmark of endothelial dysfunction. Nitrite reduces into active NO, providing an alternative pathway of NO restoration. The effect of nitrite supplementation on aortic endothelial function has yet to be determined in chronically stressed mice. We hypothesized that nitrite supplementation would rescue chronic stress-attributed impairments in aortic endothelial function.

Mice at 18 weeks of age underwent an unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS; 5 days/week for 7 hrs/day) paradigm to elicit a …

Three Essays In Applied Urban Economics, Alexander Cardazzi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first chapter examines the effect of policing strategies on housing prices. Crime has been shown to negatively affect housing values. However, there is not much empirical evidence documenting the amenity value of how people are policed. Stop & Frisk was a particularly salient policing tactic employed in New York City until a judge ruled it to be unconstitutional. This chapter uses exogenous variation in Stop & Frisk behavior resulting from landmark events in a federal class action lawsuit as well as exposure to Operation Impact, a high intensity policing strategy, to explain variation in property sales. Results indicate a …

Getting Connected: Exploring The Role Of Sustainability Labels In Tourism Marketing Communications, Elvira Kizilova

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While sustainability has become an important brand differentiator in many industries, current research suggests that tourism businesses rarely use sustainability labels in their communications, e.g., on their websites or other types of advertisements.

This dissertation examines the role of sustainability labels in increasing consumer preferences for sustainable travel destinations. Drawing on social exchange theory and anthropomorphism framework, we propose that sustainability labels increase consumer visit intentions, willingness to recommend a destination to someone else, and willingness to pay price premium for the sustainable offer. These effects are mediated by perception of goal congruence and connectedness with a destination. We further …

Sexual And Place-Based Identity: A Life Course Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Undergraduate Understandings Of Climate Change In Appalachia, Brandon Anthony Rothrock

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

LGBTQ+ persons face heightened vulnerability to climate change-induced disasters due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Yet, there are limited studies that examine how LGBTQ+ students, particularly in a higher-education setting, understand climate change in relation to their sexuality. With a majority of studies on LGBTQ+ persons and climate change focusing on LGBTQ+ experience during and after disaster, there is a gap in understanding LGBTQ+ perceptions of climate change in the day-to-day. Particularly in Appalachia, a region characterized by a strong place-attachment to and a collective identity with the natural environment, studies of marginalized groups’ perceptions of …

Analyzing Safety Audits To Improve Logging Safety Performance, George Daniel Nolan Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines logging safety audits to determine how different variables, and differing amounts of time between audits, affect the outcome of safety score performance. To collect the data for this study a three-page paper audit was used that examined five areas of the logging site which include: Personal protective equipment (PPE), general, felling, mobile equipment and, landing and loading.

The study analyzed 3 aspects of the audit which were the total score and the sub-categories of PPE and felling since they were the two heaviest weighted sections. The analysis only included audits that had a 5 percent or greater …

Geology Oriented Loading Approach For Underground Coal Mines, Deniz Tuncay

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mining-induced stresses in underground coal mines play a significant role in pillar and support design, hence in the safety of mining operations. Adequate design of pillars and roof control plans rely on the accurate assessment of the mining-induced loads, as well as the load-bearing capacities of the supports. In pillar design tools frequently used by the underground coal mining industry and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), overburden loading is estimated by geometric concepts such as the tributary area and the abutment angle method. These methods do not explicitly consider important mechanical responses such as specific overall ground behavior. The …

Supreme Court Precedent And The Politics Of Repudiation, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

This is an invited essay that will appear in a book titled "Law's Infamy," edited by Austin Sarat as part of the Amherst Series on Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought. Every legal order that aspires to be called just is held together by not only principles of justice but also archetypes of morally reprehensible outcomes, and villains as well as heroes. Chief Justice Roger Taney, who believed himself to be a hero solving the great moral question of slavery in the Dred Scott case, is today detested for trying to impose a racist, slaveholding vision of the Constitution upon America. …

Antibacterial R & D At A Crossroads: We’Ve Pushed As Hard As We Can...Now We Need To Start Pulling!, John H. Rex, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Dheman et al [1] present an analysis by experts at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of trends in antibacterial clinical development over the past 4 decades. By turns instructive and disturbing, this 40-year perspective provides insight into the impact of efforts to restore the antibacterial pipeline.

As a preview, the key messages from Dheman et al are all bad news for public health: (1) the number of new antibacterials in clinical development is (again) falling, (2) the risk of failure is rising, (3) the speed of clinical development …

A Code Of Ethics For Gene Drive Research, George J. Annas, Chase L. Beisel, Kendell Clement, Andrea Crisanti, Stacy Francis, Marco Galardini, Roberto Galizi, Julian Grunewald, Greta Immobile, Ahmad S. Khalil, Ruth Muller, Vikram Pattanayak, Karl Petri, Ligi Paul, Luca Pinello, Alekos Simoni, Chrysanthi Taxiarchi, J. Keith Joung

Faculty Scholarship

Gene drives hold promise for use in controlling insect vectors of diseases, agricultural pests, and for conservation of ecosystems against invasive species. At the same time, this technology comes with potential risks that include unknown downstream effects on entire ecosystems as well as the accidental or nefarious spread of organisms that carry the gene drive machinery. A code of ethics can be a useful tool for all parties involved in the development and regulation of gene drives and can be used to help ensure that a balanced analysis of risks, benefits, and values is taken into consideration in the interest …

What Is Privacy? That’S The Wrong Question, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Privacy has never had a precise meaning. But in the early 1900s, the concept took on new life as a term of art in legal frameworks. The result has been a bit of a mess, as no singular definition has been adequate for all purposes. Daniel Solove, perhaps the most influential privacy scholar of our day, wrote at the turn of the millennium that privacy was “a concept in disarray.”

In this short essay reflecting upon Solove’s impact on the modern study of information privacy, I argue that the chaos and futility of competing conceptualizations of privacy is why Solove’s …

A Duty Of Loyalty For Privacy Law, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Data privacy law fails to stop companies from engaging in self-serving, opportunistic behavior at the expense of those who trust them with their data. This is a problem. Modern tech companies are so entrenched in our lives and have so much control over what we see and click that the self-dealing exploitation of people has become a major element of the internet’s business model.

Academics and policymakers have recently proposed a possible solution: require those entrusted with people’s data and online experiences to be loyal to those who trust them. But many have concerns about a duty of loyalty. What, …

The Criminalization Of Foreign Relations, Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

Overcriminalization has rightly generated national condemnation among policymakers, scholars, and practitioners alike. And yet, such scholarship often assumes that the encroachment of criminal justice stops at our borders. This Article argues that our foreign relations are also at risk of overcriminalization due to overzealous prosecution, overreaching legislation, and presidential politicization—and that this may be particularly problematic when U.S. criminal justice supplants certain nonpenal U.S. foreign policies abroad. This Article proposes three key reforms— presidential distancing, prosecutorial integration, and legislative de-escalation—to assure a principled place for criminal justice in foreign relations.

The Case Of The Nosy Neighbors, Johanna Gunawan, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Inspired by companies like Clearview AI, Nextdoor, and Amazon, this case study asks students to assume the role of a high-ranking ethics-focused employee at a (fictional) neighborhood-focused social media company. It involves challenging ethical questions around how social media services and surveillance tools are built and used, and the complicated relationship between companies, their users, and law enforcement authorities. Students should pay particular attention to the values implicated by certain design decisions, and the competing incentives for corporations that might complicate the picture for ethical decision making.

Antibiotic Development Incentives That Reflect Societal Value Of Antibiotics, Helen Boucher, Thomas M. File, Vance Fowler, Amanda Jezek, John Rex, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

TO THE EDITOR—Rome and Kesselheim [1] claimed that rewarding developers of novel antibiotics with transferable exclusivity vouchers is an expensive approach to promoting antibiotic development. This analysis is incomplete as it focuses only on the cost of bringing new antibiotics to market without acknowledging their societal value. The authors also did not suggest an alternative approach. With patients running out of treatment options for resistant infections, failing to strengthen the antibiotic pipeline is not a reasonable option.

Rethinking "Political" Considerations In Investment, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

Five years ago, Professor David H. Webber was invited to deliver an address both to our Delaware Law School community and to the Delaware Bench and Bar as Visiting Scholar in Residence of Corporate and Business Law. Webber's Speech, "Rethinking 'Political' Considerations in Investment," made several predictions about the rise of politicized investment which were quite prescient. As relevant today as when it was delivered, this piece explores the consideration of investment factors outside the traditional realm of shareholder profit maximization, both in its current state and in the future. Webber's analysis of how investors balance the role of capital …

Race, Risk, And Personal Responsibility In The Response To Covid-19, Aziza Ahmed, Jason Jackson

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 crisis has tragically revealed the depth of racial inequities in the United States. This Piece argues that the disproportion­ate impact of the pandemic on racial minorities is a symptom of a failing approach to public health, one that privileges individual behaviors over the structural conditions that generate vulnerability and inequitable health outcomes. Despite clear racial disparities in illness and deaths, the neoliberal ideology of personal responsibility shifts the onus for mitigation of risk away from the social and legal determinants of health and onto the individual. To understand how and why these disparate racial outcomes arise, this Piece …

Ten Truths About Tax Havens: Inclusion And The "Liberia" Problem, Steven A. Dean, Attiya Waris

Faculty Scholarship

There has been a decades-long effort to repair an increasingly fragile international tax system. One reason it has foundered has been what we identify as the "Liberia problem." In 2000, the powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified Liberia but not Switzerland as a tax haven and targeted it for sanctions. It did not go well. During the two decades since, everything has changed; yet seemingly from this lens of inclusion, nothing has changed at all. Awkwardly similar "blacklists" still target "Black" and "Brown" jurisdictions despite the fact that experts mean something quite different when they speak of the …

Assessment Advisory Council, Beginning College Student Survey Of Engagement: First-Year Student Experiences With Covid, 2021-2022, Illinois State University

Student Success

Beginning College Student Survey of Engagement (BCSSE) Entering Students and the COVID-19 Disruption Implications and Challenges, University Assessment Services, Illinois State University. 2021-2022.