Digital Commons Network^™

Vaccine And Treatment Evaluation Units: A Historical Perspective, Robert B Belshe, David I Bernstein, Kathryn M Edwards, Sharon E Frey, Wendy A Keitel, Myron M Levine, John J Treanor, Peter F Wright

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

On 27 February 1962, Surgeon General Luther Terry announced a new vaccine development program within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Initially, the plan had three components: (1) special laboratories and facilities for development of prototype vaccines; (2) pilot lot production facilities and preliminary vaccine trial sites; and (3) larger lot production capacity and expanded human testing. Respiratory viruses were targeted as the top priority for vaccine development. Over 5 decades, this program has evolved and expanded to include multiple academic vaccine evaluation sites within the network, now labeled as the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs). …

Dna Methylation And Machine Learning: Challenges And Perspective Toward Enhanced Clinical Diagnostics, Erfan Aref-Eshghi, Arash B Abadi, Mohammad-Erfan Farhadieh, Amirreza Hooshmand, Fatemeh Ghasemi, Leila Youssefian, Hassan Vahidnezhad, Taylor Martin Kerrins, Xiaonan Zhao, Mahdi Akbarzadeh, Hakon Hakonarson, Amir Hossein Saeidian

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that regulates gene expression by adding methyl groups to DNA, affecting cellular function and disease development. Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, analyzes large datasets to identify patterns and make predictions. Over the past two decades, advances in bioinformatics technologies for arrays and sequencing have generated vast amounts of data, leading to the widespread adoption of machine learning methods for analyzing complex biological information for medical problems. This review explores recent advancements in DNA methylation studies that leverage emerging machine learning techniques for more precise, comprehensive, and rapid patient diagnostics based on DNA …

Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonists And The Clinical Outcomes Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Ahmed B. Bayoumy, Lindsay M. Clarke, Parakkal Deepak, Aakash Desai, Priya Sehgal, Uri Gorelik, Haggai Bar-Yoseph, Marie Villumsen, Chris J. J. Mulder, Dirk J. Stenvers, Maarten E. Tushuizen, Nanne K. H. De Boer

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Prior studies showed worse outcomes in obese inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, especially those related to hospitalizations, surgery, and steroid-free remission. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs) have demonstrated significant metabolic benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. Hence, GLP1-RAs may improve clinical outcomes in patients with IBD, especially those with obesity. The objective was to systematically evaluate the impact of GLP1-RAs on clinical outcomes in patients with IBD.

METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was performed using the databases PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library from inception to March 15, 2025. Studies reporting outcomes …

Discriminative Accuracy Of Cha2ds2-Vasc Score, And Development Of Predictive Accuracy Model Using Machine Learning For Ischemic Stroke Risk In Cardiac Amyloidosis And Atrial Fibrillation, Waqas Ullah, Abhinav Nair, Eric Warner, Salman Zahid, Mansoor Rahman, Palwasha Khan, Indranee Rajapreyar, Sridhara S. Yaddanapudi, M. Chadi Alraies, Said Ashraf, Jeffery Van Hook, Yegeny Brailovsky

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: CHA2DS2-VASc score in cardiac amyloidosis (CA) with atrial fibrillation (AF) is believed to underestimate ischemic stroke risk, necessitating a better predictive model.

METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Readmission Database (NRD). Outcomes between CA-AF and no-CA-AF were compared using multivariate regression analysis to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aORs). AutoScore, an interpretable machine learning framework, was used to develop a stroke risk prediction model, and its predictive accuracy was evaluated with an area under the curve (AUC) using the receiver operating characteristic analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 11,860,804 (CA-AF 22,687 (0.19%) and no-CA-AF 11,838,117) patients were identified from 2015 …

Targeting The Bcl2 Family: Advances And Challenges In Bh3 Mimetic-Based Therapies, Nabanita Mukherjee, James Sheetz, Yiqun Shellman

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

The BCL2 family of proteins plays a pivotal role in regulating apoptosis and cellular homeostasis, making them critical therapeutic targets in cancer and other diseases characterized by pathological cell survival. BH3 mimetics, small molecules that selectively inhibit anti-apoptotic BCL2 family members, have achieved significant clinical success, particularly in hematologic malignancies. However, several challenges remain, including resistance mechanisms, toxicity (such as MCL1 inhibitor-associated cardiotoxicity), and the intricate balance between apoptotic and non-apoptotic functions. This review provides a comprehensive overview of BCL2 family biology, the development and clinical application and outcomes of BH3 mimetics, and the emerging resistance mechanism known as double-bolt …

Problem-Based Learning Assisted By Augmented Reality On The Respiratory System Topic: A Study Of Students’ Critical Thinking Skills And Learning Motivation, Nyimas Dilviana, Ade Yeti Nuryantini, Sumiyati Sa'adah

Jurnal Pendidikan Sains

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) model assisted by Augmented Reality (AR) technology regarding the respiratory system in improving students’ critical thinking skills and learning motivation. The research method used was a quasi-experimental design with a one-group pretest-posttest model. The subjects were 30 eleventh-grade students from a public high school in Garut City. Research instruments included a critical thinking test and a learning motivation questionnaire. The results showed a significant improvement in students’ critical thinking scores after the implementation of PBL with AR support. Additionally, learning motivation data analyzed from 16 statement items revealed …

Lessons Learned: Anthony Dowd, Mercedes Cardona

Journal of Financial Crises

Anthony Dowd was an investment banker when former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker recruited him during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to be his chief of staff for the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB). As chairman of the PERAB, Volcker proposed what would become known as the Volcker Rule, a series of guardrails meant to curb banks’ involvement in proprietary trading and investing in private equity or hedge funds; they were adopted in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. When Chairman Volcker founded the Volcker Alliance in 2013, Dowd became a director and its first treasurer. The alliance is a …

Lessons Learned: Grahame Johnson, Mercedes Cardona

Journal of Financial Crises

Grahame Johnson was named managing director of financial stability at the Bank of Canada in November 2019, just months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and became adviser to the governor in 2021. The Bank of Canada responded to the economic effect of the pandemic by launching 10 liquidity facilities—nine of them never attempted before—to repurchase securities such as government and corporate bonds, bank acceptances, and commercial paper. The measures were largely successful, and nine of the 10 facilities were unwound by 2022. The tenth, the Government of Canada Bond Purchase Program (GBPP), transitioned into a quantitative easing program …

What Policy Combinations Worked?: The Effect Of Policy Packages On Bank Lending During Covid-19, Divya Kirti, Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Prachi Mishra, Jan Strasky

Journal of Financial Crises

In response to COVID-19, countries frequently adopted multiple types of policies to address the economic and financial effects of the pandemic. This paper analyzes the impact on bank lending of combinations or packages of policies (fiscal, monetary, and prudential) adopted across a broad sample of countries. Using a comprehensive policy announcement–level dataset together with bank-level information, we find that lending grew faster at banks in countries that announced large packages combining fiscal, monetary, and prudential measures (“all-out” packages), especially when uncertainty was high. Both the scope and size of policy packages were important: packages combining all three types of policies, …

Stressing The Stress Tests, Natasha Sarin, Til Schuermann

Journal of Financial Crises

In the spring of 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank failed, owing to predictable rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. It’s clear from these recent events that the current US stress-testing system is ill-suited to mitigate risk associated with the banking system, especially when looking at smaller regional banks that aren’t subjugated to annual stress testing. Stress testing as a regulatory tool is also exposed to significant legal risks following recent Supreme Court jurisprudence that draws into question the viability of the status quo. Today, regulators and other interested parties must change tacks to craft a …

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2025, Andrew Christensen, Michelle Cosby, Brandon Hasbrouck, Jennifer Mitchell, Melanie D. Wilson

Library Events

On October 9, 2025, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted the fifth W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event was co-sponsored by the Frances Lewis Law Center and took place in the Law Library's main reading room from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and court briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body between October 2022 and October 2025. Additional works were accessible online via QR codes to W&L Law Scholarly Commons institutional repository. A selection of vintage scholarship by former W&L Law professors was also on display, courtesy …

2017 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2016 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2015 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2014 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2013 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2012 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2011 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2010 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2009 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2008 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2007 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2006 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

2005 - Appalachian Student Research Forum Program Booklet, Appalachian Student Research Forum, East Tennessee State University

Appalachian Student Research Forum

No abstract provided.

The Tax Trench Deepens, Tracey M. Roberts

Florida Tax Review

Congress, long divided, has been in gridlock for decades. The result has been regulatory ossification. Existing statutes lack the flexibility to manage the country’s many technological, social, environmental, sectoral and market challenges. However, without a Senate supermajority vote to override the filibuster, new legislation fails. While the budget reconciliation process has provided one of the few pathways around the filibuster, that process is limited to budgetary outlays and revenue measures. Consequently, a “tax trench” has been worn from Congress repeatedly pushing major regulatory and public benefits legislation through the process as tax provisions. Now, the tax trench is set to …

Have Your Cake And Eat It Too, Using Apportionment To Preserve Congress's Tax Power, Donald B. Tobin

Florida Tax Review

The Constitution provides Congress with extremely broad taxing power, and the Supreme Court has recognized that this power is “virtually without limitation.” As budget deficits and income inequality in the United States increase, policymakers are examining options to tax wealth, either through a wealth tax or through taxes on untaxed capital gains. Opponents of these measures have turned to the apportionment requirement in the Constitution and argued that these taxes are not “income taxes” and instead are “direct taxes” that must be apportioned among the states. They further argue that since these taxes cannot be apportioned fairly, any wealth tax …

Moore Questions, Some Answers: Fixing The Personal Tax System Despite Constitutional Constraints, David Gamage, John R. Brooks, Edward J. Mccaffery

Florida Tax Review

Moore v. United States was expected to rule on the constitutional necessity of the tax-law realization requirement originating from Eisner v. Macomber, a potential impediment to progressive tax reform efforts aimed at shutting down the planning techniques of Buy Borrow Die. The various opinions in Moore, however, provided no definitive answer to this core question, instead leaving many more questions. Amid the lingering uncertainty, we argue that various responses to the problem of wealthy Americans’ not needing to pay any taxes remain possible after Moore. An incremental, “mix-and-match” approach to progressive tax reform may best suit …

Containing The Blast Radius: Can Congress Save The Code From Realization?, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Elise Hocking, Muskan Sharma

Florida Tax Review

The Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. United States avoided enshrining realization as a constitutional requirement for taxing income. But four Justices were in favor of doing so, and the majority opinion explicitly avoided deciding the issue. Thus, it is quite plausible to imagine that a future case would garner five votes in favor of constitutionalizing realization. This Article addresses the question whether Congress can do anything preemptively to contain the “blast radius” of such an explosive decision and limit the ensuing “fiscal calamity.”

Charles And Kathleen Moore And The Coming Tax Armageddon, Calvin H. Johnson

Florida Tax Review

The Supreme Court decided last term, against predictions, that U.S. shareholders could be taxed on the undistributed earnings of their foreign corporation. The Court expressly did not decide the “Armageddon question,” whether a wealth tax or mark-to-market tax would be constitutional.

In the coming Armageddon, the Court needs to reverse the error in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., which said that the Constitution “prevent[s] an attack upon accumulated property by mere force of numbers.” That is exactly wrong. Apportionment of direct tax in fact was written to reach the wealth of the states using the labor of …

Identifying And Examining Access And Barriers To Healthcare For The Transgender And Nonbinary Individual, Allison Gould

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals related to their access to basic healthcare. Currently, the TNB population is experiencing disparities in accessing general and preventative healthcare in comparison to their cisgendered counterparts. I developed the research questions to explore how TNB individuals describe their access to general and preventative healthcare, identify what were perceived as barriers in seeking basic healthcare, and describe what was subjectively identified as a positive healthcare experiences. My personal and professional interest as a physical therapist combined with a thorough literature review, and …