THE CURRENT STATUS OF DANCE EDUCATION IN WISCONSIN AND DEVELOPMENTAL INFLUENCES

COWAN, KAREN LAUTENBACH 1990 국내박사

PROCESSES AFFECTING FATE AND TRANSPORT OF PESTICIDES IN WINYAH BAY, SOUTH CAROLINA (SOUTH CAROLINA, OCTANOL WATER PARTITIONING)

COWAN, MICHAEL TODD UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 1998 국내박사

PABLO PICASSO'S MONUMENT TO GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE : SURREALISM AND MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE IN FRANCE, 1918-1959

FITZGERALD, MICHAEL COWAN Columbia University 1987 국내박사

Lightweight Social Communication using Visual Media and Mobile Phones

Cowan, Lisa G University of California, San Diego 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

When traditional social media are brought off the desktop into the mobile milieu, the resulting interactions may become cumbersome. Yet, the mobile milieu demands even lighter-weight interactions than those on the desktop. We posit that mobile tools can support expressive, lightweight communication by leveraging users' existing tools and practices, streamlining essential interactions, and exploiting the affordances of visual media. To evaluate our ideas, we explore the design space of tools for supporting lightweight social communication using visual media and mobile phones. We present four projects representing points in this space, covering it in the dimensions of proximity (proximate or remote) and interaction focus (input or output). In our analysis, we consider why and how people communicate using these tools, the social consequences of using them, and the implications for design. In the remote-output part of the design space, the Emotipix project aims to reduce demands on attention by embedding an ambient display of friends' photos in the background of the mobile workflow. In the remote-input part of the space, the UbiSketch project aims to enrich communication by supporting ubiquitous sketching, enabling users to easily publish paper-based information to social media channels in real time. In the proximate-output part of the space, the projector phone project explores the use of personal, mobile projection to transcend the limitations of phones' small screens, enabling the use of arbitrary elements of the physical world as (potentially large) display surfaces. In the proximate-input part of the space, the ShadowPuppets project looks at employing hand shadows as input to support collocated interaction with projector phones. We implemented functional prototype systems and conducted user studies, with quantitative and qualitative measures, which validated our techniques. Our design devices were largely successful in supporting expressive, lightweight mobile communication, and some surprising results point to areas for future work.

Nell-1 - microenvironment induced osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration

Cowan, Catherine Miredith University of California, Los Angeles 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

Researchers in the developing field of regenerative medicine have identified bone tissue engineering as an attractive translational target. Clinical problems requiring bone regeneration are diverse and no single regeneration approach will likely resolve all injuries. Recent advances in the field of tissue engineering have included the use of sophisticated biocompatible scaffolds, new post-natal multipotent cell populations, and appropriate cellular stimulation for creation of an appropriate osteogenic microenvironment. Nell-1 [Nel-like molecule-1; Nel (a protein strongly expressed in neural tissue encoding epidermal growth factor like domain)], has been investigated for its ability to stimulate osteogenic differentiation and its potential to regenerate bone in vivo . Nell-1 is thought to specifically targets cells of the osteogenic lineage, thus reducing the possibility of adverse side effects in other tissues targeted by BMPs. Our long-term goal is to understand Nell-1 induced osteogenesis and provide a bone regeneration strategy that either replaces or enhances BMP induced bone regeneration. Nell-1's release from polymeric PLGA scaffolds with or without various coatings revealed that ionic interactions played a role in Nell-1's release, while hydroxyapatite provided an appropriate microenvironment to aid in Nell-1 induced bone regeneration. In vivo, Nell-1 was most retained on collagen coated scaffolds. Finally, Nell-1's ability to regulate ion transport was investigated in vitro. The data revealed that Nell-1 regulated inorganic phosphate (Pi) transport into cells resulting in accelerated mineralization. Neil-1's actions were mediated by the NaPi transporter, namely Pit-1 and Pit-2, activity directly and also increased Pit-2 production as early as 1 hour after stimulation. In conclusion, Nell-1 aids in bone regeneration by accelerating mineralization via increased Pi transport and increased extracellular matrix protein production. Future bone regeneration therapies will benefit from Nell-1's cellular specificity and osteogenic differentiation activities.

Displacement in Medellin: A global/transnational perspective

Cowan, Jean Carlos State University of New York at Albany 2006 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation redefines the current discourse on the internal displacement in Colombia as one shaped by capitalist global change over the past three decades. This work explores a key question in order to understand this phenomenon: What are the global transnational and domestic logics that triggered displacement in Colombia? I further developed this key question by applying multiple approaches, namely world-systems analysis, conceptualization of function of the state, and role of other armed actors. This work examines displacement as a product of a synergy that includes local, as well as national and transnational forces embedded in global processes and practices. Massive displacement in Colombia is not a new phenomenon. Nonetheless, in the past three decades this phenomenon has intensified. This work establishes a correlation between the dramatic increase in the numbers of the displaced in Colombia since the 1970s, to global events, such as the emergence of transnationalism as new stage in the global capitalist system, emergence and dominance of the global cocaine commodity chain, the internationalization of the U.S. war on drugs, and the implementation of neoliberal models throughout Latin America. This work conducted a case study analysis of Vallejuelos, an outlying neighborhood of Medellin, the second-largest receiving city in Colombia, which is a nexus for global/transnational and local dynamics that generate displacement. Based on the redefinition this dissertation would contribute to a shift in the perception of displacement in Colombia. It challenges the current paradigm that displacement is caused by an inherent predisposition to violence on the part of the Colombian people.

The use of biodegradable mulch for tomato and broccoli production: Crop yield and quality, mulch deterioration, and growers' perceptions

Cowan, Jeremy Scott Washington State University 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

Biodegradable mulch may offer the benefits of polyethylene mulch for crop production with the added benefit of biodegradability. Four studies were carried out in Mount Vernon, WA to evaluate biodegradable mulch for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) production. The first study compared four biodegradable mulch treatments: BioAgri, BioTelo, WeedGuardPlus (cellulose product), and SB-PLA-10/11/12 (experimental, non-woven fabric), to polyethylene mulch and bare ground in high tunnels and in the open field for tomato yield and fruit quality over three growing seasons. Biodegradable plastic films produced yields and fruit quality comparable to polyethylene. Moreover, high tunnels increased total and marketable fruit weight five and eight times, respectively, compared to the open field. The second study quantified relationships among visual assessment parameters and mulch mechanical properties. Visual assessments and mechanical property tests of polyethylene, BioAgri, BioTelo, WeedGuardPlus, and SB-PLA-10/11/12, were made over three growing seasons. Regression analyses found the strongest relationship overall (r2 = 0.41) to be between the percent of initial breaking force in the machine direction and log 10 of percent visual deterioration. However, evaluating mulch products individually and increasing sample frequency are recommended for future research. The third study evaluated three biodegradable mulch products, BioAgri, Crown 1, and SB-PLA-11, after soil-incorporation. The average area of recovered mulch fragments decreased for all mulch products over time. The number of mulch fragments initially increased for all mulch products, with the greatest number of Crown 1 and BioAgri fragments recovered 132 and 299 days after incorporation, respectively. At 397 days after soil-incorporation, the total area of recovered fragments of Crown 1 and BioAgri was 0% and 34% of the theoretical maximum area, respectively. The fourth study used the diffusion of innovations framework to study perceptions about biodegradable mulch and employed the concept of "tactile space" to create sensuously rich learning environments wherein participants could interact with each other and the environment to evaluate biodegradable plastic mulch. Participants' perceptions about biodegradable mulch and attitudes toward adoption improved. Employing tactile space as a diffusion strategy may encourage non-representational learning to supplement and reinforce the knowledge claims being made at outreach/education events.

Secrets and Social Influence

Cowan, Sarah Kiva University of California, Berkeley 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

The central question of this dissertation is: how do we understand social influence when people keep secrets and share them selectively?. Existing formal theories of social influence within social networks examine the structure of the network and the relationships between people. These networks are merely the potential for interpersonal communication and influence. Some work, in particular the work on diffusion, examines not just networks but communication networks. But as this inquiry will reveal, even the communication network is a potential network for the transmission of information with regard to a given topic. This inquiry focuses not on potential communication but on realized communication and how that might differ across discussion partners and topics; it does so because communication is necessary for the influence process to occur. I explore secrets and social influence using the test case of abortion secrets in the United States. Abortion is a highly volatile, contested secret. Tens of millions of American women have had abortions and the legality of abortion sits at the center of American politics. Theories of social influence suggest that the tens of millions of women who have had abortions in the United States are themselves social and political actors who can influence others, particularly their peers. Hence, scholarship on abortion as a social and political phenomenon should include incidence rates, particularly cohort incidence rates. I find that the number of lifetime abortions a birth cohort of women has differs by when they were born, even when all the cohorts have spent their entire childbearing years with federally legal abortion. Further, when cohort abortion rates decline, all racial and ethnic groups' cohort rates decline at approximately the same rate. This work is based on vital statistic rates. I move on to how secrets spread and the implications of hearing—or not—others' secrets. I compare abortion and miscarriage secrets; this is analytically helpful for two reasons. First, they are concealable, since both are pregnancy-ending events that occur primarily in the first trimester. Abortion, however, is much more highly stigmatized than miscarriage. Second, having had at least one miscarriage is a near-random occurrence; I can thus exploit it to control for a number of otherwise unobservable characteristics that may affect whether someone hears an abortion secret, such as the prevalence of pregnancy in a respondents' social network and the frequency of discussing those pregnancies. Though abortion is more common and affects more women than miscarriage, many more Americans report knowing someone who has had a miscarriage than an abortion. Furthermore, Americans who are anti-abortion are much less likely than their pro-choice peers to hear abortion secrets and as such think they do not know any woman who has had one. This is likely not the case. Rather, women who have had abortions and the people who know about the abortion elect to keep the abortion secret from people who may disapprove. I show that individuals' attitudes determine what kind of community they experience; usually they experience one that aligns with their attitudes. When individuals keep secrets from those who will disapprove of them, processes of social influence—on public opinion, on tolerance and on behavior—are thwarted. Using the survey data, I then consider how hearing—or not—women's abortion secrets affects Americans' understanding of who gets abortions and why. We heavily weight our own experiences and those of the people we know. If our information about the experiences of those we know is distorted then that will affect our perceptions of the world, or in this case, of abortion patients. This dissertation documents how abortions are often kept secret, particularly from Americans who are opposed to legalized abortion. As such, Americans misperceive the number of women they know who have had abortions. They then infer from their social network to the nation as a whole and similarly misperceive the abortion patient population nationally. The implications of these misperceptions are wide-ranging; this work focuses on the implications for public opinion. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I outline where I will next take the study of secrets. I will examine a wide variety of secrets, from political attitudes to cancer diagnoses and I will employ both quantitative and qualitative methods. Americans keep abortions secret to avert stigma but there are other reasons why one might keep a secret. By extending into other arenas, I will explore these other reasons. I will also be able to capture how secret-keeping and selective disclosure affect other components of American life including the funding of scientific research and the perceptions of polarization. I hope this dissertation will stand as the first steps toward a comprehensive sociology of secrets. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Flammability, physiology and coexistence in fire prone environments

Cowan, Peter David University of California, Berkeley 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

Approximately 40% of the earth's terrestrial surface is covered in fire-prone vegetation. Many of the plants in these habitats have evolved characteristics to avoid damage during wildfires, or to take advantage of the post-fire environment. As a consequence of being the fuel for wildfires, plants also possess characteristics that contribute to fire frequency and intensity. This dissertation considers both sides of the plant--fire interaction. The first chapter provides background information on our current understanding of plant trait and fire relationships and discusses the evolution of plant flammability. The second chapter presents a model exploring coexistence among plant post-fire persistence strategies in fire-prone environments. In this model coexistence of more than two post-fire strategies is not stable on long time scales. The model also suggests that species with the ability to postpone seed germination until post-fire are favored at shorter fire intervals as long as variation in fire intervals is moderate. The third chapter describes a non-destructive method for rapidly assessing fuel structure and load in shrubland systems like California chaparral. Results obtained by using this method correlate well with more time consuming destructive harvesting. In the fourth chapter this method is applied to four chaparral species that differ in their capacity for post-fire seed germination. The species differed in the amount of fine fuels, but not by post-fire strategy. Species with post-fire seeding did have significantly more dead branches than obligate post-fire resprouters. The final chapter explores the effect on photosynthesis to plants which are not themselves burned by a wildfire, but exposed to its smoke. After smoke exposures as short as 15 minutes, tobacco plants show significantly reduced photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and chlorophyll fluorescence. These reductions are short lived, after one day even plants exposed for 45 minutes no longer differ from controls. An appendix describes a method for assessing whole plant flammability characteristics, presents preliminary results, and discusses shortcomings of the method. This dissertation adds to a growing body of research demonstrating the interdependence of plant flammability traits and fire response characteristics.

Enhancing Braden pressure ulcer risk assessment in acutely ill adult veterans

Cowan, Linda Joyce University of Florida 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

Preventing pressure ulcers is a significant health care challenge. Pressure ulcers increase inpatient length of stay, mortality, and complication rates. They reduce quality of life and pose a worldwide economic quandary. Many pressure ulcer risk factors have been identified over the past 20 years, yet current pressure ulcer risk assessment tools such as the Braden Scale for Predicting Pressure Sore Risk do not account for several of the most significant risk factors. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the pressure ulcer predictability of the Braden score alone, the Braden score + significant medical factors, and significant medical factors alone. Medical factors investigated in this study include those reported in recent literature as significant pressure ulcer risk factors: diagnosis of gangrene, anemia, diabetes, malnutrition, osteomyelitis, pneumonia/pneumonitis, septicemia, candidiasis, bacterial skin infection, device/implant/graft complications, urinary tract infection, paralysis, senility, respiratory failure, acute renal failure, cerebrovascular accident, and congestive heart failure; as well as age, race, hospital and intensive care unit length of stay days, surgery, operating room time in hours, smoking status, and a history of previous pressure ulcers. This study also examined differences between Braden scores and other associated risk factors in 213 acutely ill veterans with (n=100) and without (n=113) pressure ulcers in north Florida during January-July 2008. A predictive model determined the Braden total score correctly classified 68% of total sample (65% veterans with PU, 70% veterans without PU). Adding four significant medical factors correctly classified 78% total sample (74% with PU, 82% without PU). A predictive model with these four factors alone (presence of pneumonia/pneumonitis, candidiasis, severe nutritional compromise, and surgery) correctly classified 83% veterans with PU, and 72% veterans without PU (77% total sample correctly classified). These findings suggest that identifying patients with severe nutritional compromise, the presence of pneumonia/pneumonitis, candidiasis, and surgery during hospitalization may be better able to identify veterans likely to develop pressure ulcers than current Braden risk assessment alone. More research is needed in this area to validate these findings in a larger sample, and provide direction for interventional studies, with an ultimate goal of reducing incidence of pressure ulcers.