Gun Control Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gun Control - Research Paper Example In America, it is estimated that guns claim eighty-four (84) lives and wound about two hundred (200) people every day (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). In a year, more than thirty thousand individuals (30,000) die, (three thousand of which are children and teens) and over seventy thousand (70,000) are injured due to gun violence (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). Based on this finding, guns are mostly used to execute homicide. Others used the gun to perform robbery and other petty crimes. This fact is very alarming considering that America is a high-income and industrialized country (Fontana and Keene 6). It is even considered by other states as a hegemonic and strong state. This description connotes that US has a strong mechanism with regard to its security. It is usually expected that a financially stable country could responsibly address social problems such as gun violence and crimes. Nevertheless, this is not happening in the United States today. It has been found out that Americaâ⠂¬â„¢s firearms death rate is nearly eight times higher compared to the gun-related death rate of other high-income countries in the world (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). This fact implies that the American government has not been effective in deterring the proliferation of guns within its society.

Analytical essay - Homage a rameau Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Analytical - Homage a rameau - Essay Example r Jean-Philippe Rameau does not copy Rameau, but creates a textural analysis of his work, paying homage to his history, his life, his theories, and his compositional style. Jean-Philippe Rameau was a composer during the Baroque period whose music was marked by a technicality that expressed his desire to reflect music theory in his work. His work, â€Å"Hippolyte et Aricieâ€Å", was considered one of the best operas in the form of the tragedie en musique since the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Rameau desired to create new styles within new forms. â€Å"His harmonies were said to be more novel, his rhythms more skillful, his orchestrations more brilliant than Lully’s† (Arvey 101). Rameau In creating his work, Rameau also sought to develop the artistic side of the compositions. He said that â€Å"I try to conceal art by that same art†(Arvey 101). In creating his theory that harmony was derived from a natural sense of sound, he was reaching into the philosophical realm and extracting a way of thinking about music that was elevated above the pragmatism of the mathematical equations of harmony. He wrote with an â€Å"impressionistic palate† (Girdlestone 571) that was dramatic and emotional, however because of his time period, he was unable to break through the binding forms that Client’s diminished the brilliance of his construction. The way in which Rameau devised is theory allowed for the concept of the chord to be defined by the nature of the harmonic development. â€Å"Rameau brought theory into line with practice: realizing that the days of melody were over and much of the expressive power even of counterpoint was due to significant clashes of sound, he began his investigations with the chord given by the vibrating stringâ€Å" and in searching for the place to find that sound, he searched â€Å"in the sound of which can be detected the upper octave, the twelfth, the second octave, the major seventeenth, and higher harmonics† (Girdlestone 519-520). The way in

Performance Enhancement for Robot Localization

Performance Enhancement for Robot Localization Performance Enhancement for Robot Localization and Fault Minimization Using Alternative Least Square Machine Learning Technique ABSTRACT Machine learning tools are used for specific applications. The purpose is to investigate proper machine learning tools for the SFU Mountain data-set. Impact: Revealing the appropriate machine learning tools will guide us to build a better data model. We are conducting semi-structured woodlands for fault diagnosis of how environmental variables affect the availability of important robotic services. Using a modeling framework, we are creating future scenarios of robotic service availability based upon local knowledge and climate projections. In addition, we are developing models derived from inputs to compare and potentially combine with local knowledge inputs. This allows us to assess, from several perspectives, how a critical component of community flexibility cans revolution in the future. Perfect productivities will be used to simplify deliberations in the groups on variation options that could minimize the negative consequences while seizing upon positive opportunities. Keywords: Sfu-mountain, ALS, fault diagnosis etc. I.INTRODUCTION This paper considers the problem of recognizing locations based on their appearance. This problem has recently received attention in the context of large-scale global localization [Schindler et al., 2007] and loop-closure detection in mobile robotics [Ho and Newman, 2007]. We progresses the state of the art by developing a principled probabilistic framework for robotics algorithms for long-term deployment. Unlike many existing systems, our approach is not limited to localization we are able to decide if new observations originate from places already in the map, or rather from new, previously unseen places. This is possible even in environments where many places have similar sensory presence (a problem known as perceptual aliasing). Our system effectively learns a model of the common objects, which allows us to improve inference by reasoning about which sets of features are likely to appear or disappear. We present results which demonstrate that the system is capable of recognizing pl aces while rejecting false matches due to perceptual aliasing even when such observations share many features. The approach also has reasonable computational cost fast enough for online loop closure detection in realistic mobile robotics difficulties where the plot covers numerous thousand places. We establish our scheme through identifying loop conclusions over a 4km path length in an initially-unknown outdoor environment, where the system detects a large fraction of the loop closures without false positives. A calibrated sensor If you have a sensor or instrument that is known to be accurate. It can be used to mark position interpretations for evaluation. Best laboratories will have devices that have been standardized beside and documentation including the specific reference alongside that they were regulated, as well as several improvement issues that need to be functional to the output. B. Trail environment Relatively few researchers have focused on the needs, trail location predilections, and involvements of the mountain biker. This research gives recreation supply managers with data that can prompt modification in the method they observe how trail environments should be managed. In one of the few comprehensive studies of mountain biker preferences for recreational settings and experiences, Cessford (1995) in a study for the Department of Conservation, New Zealand, measured altered users and their near of involvement about desired setting issues, trail types, trail conditions, downhill and uphill preferences, and social encounters. Major results presented that there was a relationship between biker preference and level of experience. For example, novice bikers preferred smooth, open, or clear trails and had low preference for obstacles and carrying bikes on sections not feasible for biking. II. Literature survey Jake Bruce, Jens Wawerla and Richard Vaughan [1] they have taken a dataset which are based on measured, coordinated and ground truth- aligned of woodland trail navigation in semi organized shifting outdoor surroundings. The dataset is projected to support the growth of ground in robotics procedures for long-term arrangement in challenging outside situations. It takes total time more than 8 hours for trail navigation, with more accessible in the upcoming as the location variations. The data contain of interpretations from adjusted and coordinated sensors functioning at 5 Hz to 50 Hz in the form of color stereo and gray scale monocular camera images, perpendicular and push-broom laser scans, GPS sites, wheel odometry, inertial sizes, and atmospheric density standards. Dudek Jugessur [2] proposed an appearance-based navigation which is long history inside robotics; there has been substantial expansion in this field in last 5 years. Appearance-based navigation and loop closing recognition schemes working on routes on the instruction of a few kilometers in length are now common. Certainly, place detection schemes comparable in character to the one labeled here is now used equal in single-camera SLAM organizations intended for small scale uses in (Eade Drummond, 2008) [3]. In real time application of these schemes on the scale of tens of kilometers or new has too initiated to be possible. For example, in (Milford Wyeth, 2008) a scheme employing a set of naturally stimulated approaches accomplished effective loop closing recognition and plotting in an assembly of more than 12,000 images from a 66 km route, with processing time of less than 100 ms per image. The appearance-recognition element of the scheme was built on direct pattern matching, so sca led linearly with the size of the location. Working at a comparable scale, Bosse and Zlot define a place identic classification built on distinctive key points removed from 2-D lidar data (Bosse Zlot, 2008) [5] and prove good precision-recall performance over an 18 km suburban data set. Cummins Newman, 2009 [6], they established loop closure recognition on a 1,000 km path, using a type of FAB-MAP which used to an inverted index structural design. One latest research is the improvement of combined schemes which syndicate appearance and metric data. Olson [7] defined a method to increasing the robustness of overall loop closure detection schemes by using both appearance and comparative metric information to choose a single dependable set of loop closures from a bigger no. of applicants (Olson, 2008). The technique was assessed over numerous kilometers of urban data and shown to improve high precision loop closures even with the use of artificially poor image features. More loosely joined systems have also newly labeled in (Konolige et al., 2009; Newman et al., 2009). Significant applicable work also occurs on the more limited problem of overall localization. II.PROBLEM STATEMENT The data are highly challenging by virtue of the self-similarity of the natural terrain; the strong variations in lighting conditions, vegetation, weather, and traffic; and the three highly different trails. In contrast, we traverse challenging semi structured woodland trails, resulting in data useful for evaluating place recognition and mapping algorithms across changing conditions in natural terrain. III. PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION Interestingly, optimizing the posterior probability therefore amounts to optimizing the likelihood function *plus* another term that depends only on the parameters. The posterior probability objective function turns out to be one of a class of so-called penalized likelihood functions where the likelihood is combined with mathematical functions of the parameters to create a new objective function. Dataset The SFU Mountain Dataset involves of numerous 100 GB of sensor data verified from Burnaby Mountain, British Columbia, Canada. Each traversal covers 4km of woodland trails with a 300m altitude change. Recordings contain complete video since 6 cameras, collection data from two LIDAR sensors, GPS, IMU and wheel encoders, plus calibration parameters for each sensor, and we provide the data in the form of ROS bag files, JPEG image files, and CSV text files. Jake Bruce, Jens Wawerla, and Richard Vaughan. The SFU Mountain Dataset: Semi-Structured Woodland Trails Under Changing Environmental Conditions, in IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Robotics, Factory on Visual Place Acknowledgment in Varying Surroundings. Seattle, USA, 2015. Proposed Approach Flow Alternating Least Square (ALS) Machine Learning Alternating Least Squares starts by rotating between fixing one two coordinate for matrix dimension ui or vj that can be computed by solving the least-squares problem. This approach is handful as it improves the previous non-convex problem into a quadratic that can be solved easily [9]. A general description of the algorithm for ALS algorithm for collaborative filtering taken from Zhou et. al [11] is as follows: Step 1: Initializing matrix V by allocating the average rating for that motion as the first row, and then for the small random numbers of the remaining entries. The least squares simply adding up the squared differences between the model and the data.   Minimizing the sum of squared differences leads to the maximum likelihood estimates in many cases, but not always.   One good thing about least squares estimation is that it can be applied even when your model doesnt actually conform to a probability distribution (or its very hard to write out or compute the probability distribution).One of the most important objective functions is the so-called posterior probability and the corresponding Maximum-Apostiori-Probability or MAP estimates/estimators. In contrast to ML estimation, MAP estimation says: choose the parameters so the model is most probable given the data we observed. Now the objective function is P(theta|X) and the equation to solve is As you probably already guessed, the MAP and ML estimation problems are related via Bayes theorem, so that this can be written as Once again, it is convenient to think about the optimization problem in log space, where the objective function breaks into three parts, only two of which actually depend on the parameters. Step 2: Fix V, solve U by minimizing the RMSE function. Step 3: Fix U, solve V by minimizing the MSE function similarly. Step 4: Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until convergence. Development tool The raw data development kit provided on the Autonomy Lab / SFU Mountain Dataset contains MATLAB demonstration code with file which gives further details. Here, we will briefly discuss the most important features. Before running the scripts, steps are: Step 1: Read curves points from the Excel file Step 2: Extract Row Co-ordinate and column too Step 3: Define fault rate Step 4: fault Detected Parameter Machine// Compute current from voltage vector Step 5: Do coerce to limit extrap values to positive values Step 6: fault Detection rate minimization as per coverage distance Step 7: Define sigmoid function regularization for numerical stability Step 8: Define bernoulli probability weight matrix response update Step 9:check convergence Step 10: compute MSE V.RESULT In this section we present results showing sample trajectory matches, fault detection rate and MSE on results plots. The current implementation has ALS optimization built in, so compute scales linearly with the length of the dataset. For all experiments, computation was performed at real-time speed or faster on a standard Intel Core i7 PC. We have evaluated our system with the public datasets from the [1] Project. The data were collected by a robotic platform in static and dynamic indoor, outdoor and mixed environments. Figure 5.1: initial robot position in equilibrium state. Above figure 5.1, the static position for robot 21.15 mm with 1.99-time slot fixing the pointer location having dynamic stages assign to each tracking region. Figure 5.2: Robot define fix counter to each direction and tracking target position with dynamic localization in green lines. Figure 5.3: robot coverage distance divide region in track and make define position of laser range at 360o  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Above figure 5.3 specification the counter stage as per rotated angle and capture each laser to minimization and tolerate skipping factor from 6.5 -9 micro meter in 0.96 millisecond timing. Figure 5.4: Fault detection rate minimization as per coverage distance over Energy level Above figure 5.4, the model of 200 mm distance with weather circumstances at 25oC having least fault detection rate i.e. 1.19, if we raise coverage or laser range of robot with same angle as previous weather circumstances meanwhile fault detection rate get highly maximized with same energy level or battery power of our robot configuration. Figure 5.5: MSE vs iteration for least square machine learning for faults Abovefigure 5.5, specification our proposed approach if raised no of dimension with same angular rotation of expert system means square error improving, hence minimum mean square error rate with 4- dimension of same iteration for our approach. iteration Fault minimization Rate 1 1.483500 2 1.034048 3 0.791479 4 0.340193 5 0.044917 6 0.000661 7 0.000000 The ALS method for computing correspondences, since they proved effective under several kinds of environments in the training datasets. In Fig. 5.5 we show the MSE curves obtained for our proposed simulation part which implemented in MATLAB tool with these parameters, we achieved a low MSE rate in the datasets with no false positives at dimension 4. In order to check the reliability of our algorithm with datasets, we used MATLAB as evaluation datasets. For these, we used our algorithm as a ALS, with the default configuration given above and the same vocabulary. This test shows that our method can work fine out of the box in many environments and situations, and that it is able to cope with sequences of images taken at low or high frequency, as long as they overlap. VI.CONCLUSION In this work, our proposed simulation of robot self-localization and utilizing all dimension and transferring position towards fix position by using a Alternate least square method. Our strategy is to create a visual experience for the library of raw visual images collected in different domains, to discover the appropiate visual patterns that clearly depicts the input scene, and use them for scene retrieval. In particular, we also showed that the appearance of the pose of the mined visual patterns, user laser range with tracking all coordinate with 360 degree which are matched with those of the database scenes by employing image-to-class distance and spatial pyramid matching. In future , the quadrate can be make for floor plan for learning object finder in internet of things and applying the deep learning into it. REFERENCES [1] Jake Bruce, Jens Wawerla and Richard Vaughan The SFU Mountain Dataset: Semi-Structured Woodland Trails Under Changing Environmental Conditions Autonomy Lab, Simon Fraser University. [2] Dudek, G. and Jugessur, D. Robust place recognition using local appearance based methods. In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, volume 2, 2000 [3] Eade, E. and Drummond, T. Unified loop closing and recovery for real time monocular slam. In Proc. 19th British Machine Vision Conference, 2008 [4] Milford, M.J. and Wyeth, G.F. Mapping a Suburb With a Single Camera Using a Biologically Inspired SLAM System. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 24 (5):1038-1053, 2008. [5] Bosse, M. and Zlot, R. Keypoint design and evaluation for place recognition in 2D lidar maps. In Robotics: Science and Systems Conference: Inside Data Association Workshop, 2008. [6] Cummins, M. and Newman, P. Highly scalable Appearance-only SLAM FAB-MAP 2.0. In Pro- ceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems, Seattle, USA, June 2009. [7] Olson, E. Robust and Efficient Robotic Mapping. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2008 [7] Konolige, K., Bowman, J., Chen, J.D., Mihelich, P., Calonder, M., Lepetit, V., and Fua, P. View-based maps. In Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2009. [8] Schindler, G., Brown, M., and Szeliski, R. City-Scale Location Recognition. In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 1-7, 2007 [9]Nist ´er, D. and Stewenius, H. Scalable recognition with a vocabulary tree. In Conf. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, volume 2, pp. 2161-2168, 2006 [10] J ´egou, H., Douze, M., and Schmid, C. Hamming embedding and weak geometric consistency for large scale image search. In David Forsyth, Philip Torr, Andrew Zisserman (ed.), European Conference on Computer Vision, volume I of LNCS, pp. 304-317. Springer, oct 2008. [11] Y. Zhou, D. Wilkinson, R. Schreiber, and R. Pan. Large-scale parallel collaborative filtering for the netflix prize. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Algorithmic Aspects in Information and Management, AAIM 08, pages 337-348, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008. Springer-Verlag.

Essay --

The null hypotheses of this study are: 1) There is no difference between control group and EPS group’s pre-test anxiety and poet-test anxiety. 2) There is no difference between control group and EPS group’s pre-test presentation and poet-test presentation performance. 3) There is no relation between students’ anxiety level and language performance. Based on the literature review which showed the positive effect of EPS tasks and ways in reducing students’ classroom anxiety, the alternative hypotheses are: 1) There is difference between control group and EPS group’s pre-test anxiety and poet-test anxiety. 2) There is difference between control group and EPS group’s pre-test presentation and poet-test presentation performance. 3) There is relation between students’ anxiety level and language performance. The independent variable of this study is EPS tasks, whose presence or absence will definitely affect the dependent variable – students’ classroom pre-test anxiety and post-test anxiety. A quasi-experimental design is used to identify the relationship between EPS group and control group’s language classroom anxiety. In addition, an interview can be conducted to find out the most important characteristic of EPS tasks that help reduce students’ classroom anxiety. In this article, I will mainly focus on the quantitative research part, which is to find out the characteristics of students’ classroom anxiety. Research Methods Population and sampling The population of this study is English majors in Chinese colleges. These students have at least 6 years’ English learning experience, they like English study and their English proficiency is acceptable because they passed college entrance exam and learn English as their major. The sampling m... ... the same time, paired-samples t-test should be conducted to get the p-value and t-value. From descriptive statistic figures, we can see the average score of the two groups and make basic comparison between them. If we want to know whether the difference reaches statistical significance, we need to look at the t-test figure. If the significance is smaller than 0.05, the difference will be considered as true. To answer the third question, we need to conduct correlation analysis. Pearson r coefficient will be used to test the relationship between students’ anxiety level and presentation performance. If the p-value is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis can be rejected. The correlation coefficient may range between -1 to +1. If the coefficient is 0, it means there is no relationship between the two variables. Otherwise, a high coefficient reveals a strong relationship.

American culture Essay

The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popular music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics often relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artistic heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and popular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a hotographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. 4. Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts. . Arts and letters The arts, more than other features of culture, provide avenues for the expression of imagination and personal vision. They offer a range of emotional and intellectual pleasures to consumers of art and are an important way in which a culture represents itself. There has long been a Western tradition distinguishing those arts that appeal to the multitude, such as popul ar music, from those—such as classical orchestral music—normally available to the elite of learning and taste. Popular art forms are usually seen as more representative American products. In the United States in the recent past, there has been a blending of popular and elite art forms, as all the arts experienced a period of remarkable cross-fertilization. Because popular art forms are so widely distributed, arts of all kinds have prospered. The arts in the United States express the many faces and the enormous creative range of the American people. Especially since World War II, American innovations and the immense energy displayed in literature, dance, and music have made American cultural works world famous. Arts in the United States have become internationally prominent in ways that are unparalleled in history. American art forms during the second half of the 20th century often defined the styles and qualities that the rest of the world emulated. At the end of the 20th century, American art was considered equal in quality and vitality to art produced in the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th century, American arts have grown to incorporate new visions and voices. Much of this new artistic energy came in the wake of America’s emergence as a superpower after World War II. But it was also due to the growth of New York City as an important center for publishing and the arts, and the immigration of artists and intellectuals fleeing fascism in Europe before and during the war. An outpouring of talent also followed the civil rights and protest movements of the 1960s, as cultural discrimination against blacks, women, and other groups diminished. American arts flourish in many places and receive support from private foundations, large corporations, local governments, federal agencies, museums, galleries, and individuals. What is considered worthy of support often depends on definitions of quality and of what constitutes art. This is a tricky subject when the popular arts are increasingly incorporated into the domain of the fine arts and new forms such as performance art and conceptual art appear. As a result, defining what is art affects what students are taught about past traditions (for example, Native American tent paintings, oral traditions, and slave narratives) and what is produced in the future. While some practitioners, such as studio artists, are more vulnerable to these definitions because they depend on financial support to exercise their talents, others, such as poets and photographers, are less immediately constrained. Artists operate in a world where those who theorize and critique their work have taken on an increasingly important role. Audiences are influenced by a variety of intermediaries—critics, the schools, foundations that offer grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, gallery owners, publishers, and theater producers. In some areas, such as the performing arts, popular audiences may ultimately define success. In other arts, such as painting and sculpture, success is far more dependent on critics and a few, often wealthy, art collectors. Writers depend on publishers and on the public for their success. Unlike their predecessors, who relied on formal criteria and appealed to aesthetic judgments, critics at the end of the 20th century leaned more toward popular tastes, taking into account groups previously ignored and valuing the merger of popular and elite forms. These critics ften relied less on aesthetic judgments than on social measures and were eager to place artistic productions in the context of the time and social conditions in which they were created. Whereas earlier critics attempted to create an American tradition of high art, later critics used art as a means to give power and approval to nonelite groups who were previously not considered worthy of including in the nation’s artisti c heritage. Not so long ago, culture and the arts were assumed to be an unalterable inheritance—the accumulated wisdom and highest forms of achievement that were established in the past. In the 20th century generally, and certainly since World War II, artists have been boldly destroying older traditions in sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature. The arts have changed rapidly, with one movement replacing another in quick succession. a) Visual arts. The visual arts have traditionally included forms of expression that appeal to the eyes through painted surfaces, and to the sense of space through carved or molded materials. In the 19th century, photographs were added to the paintings, drawings, and sculpture that make up the visual arts. The visual arts were further augmented in the 20th century by the addition of other materials, such as found objects. These changes were accompanied by a profound alteration in tastes, as earlier emphasis on realistic representation of people, objects, and landscapes made way for a greater range of imaginative forms. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American art was considered inferior to European art. Despite noted American painters such as Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and John Marin, American visual arts barely had an international presence. American art began to flourish during the Great Depression of the 1930s as New Deal government programs provided support to artists along with other sectors of the population. Artists connected with each other and developed a sense of common purpose through programs of the Public Works Administration, such as the Federal Art Project, as well as programs sponsored by the Treasury Department. Most of the art of the period, including painting, photography, and mural work, focused on the plight of the American people during the depression, and most artists painted real people in difficult circumstances. Artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Ben Shahn expressed the suffering of ordinary people through their representations of struggling farmers and workers. While artists such as Benton and Grant Wood focused on rural life, many painters of the 1930s and 1940s depicted the multicultural life of the American city. Jacob Lawrence, for example, re-created the history and lives of African Americans. Other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, tried to use human figures to describe emotional states such as loneliness and despair. Abstract Expressionism. Shortly after World War II, American art began to garner worldwide attention and admiration. This change was due to the innovative fervor of abstract expressionism in the 1950s and to subsequent modern art movements and artists. The abstract expressionists of the mid-20th century broke from the realist and figurative tradition set in the 1930s. They emphasized their connection to international artistic visions rather than the particularities of people and place, and most abstract expressionists did not paint human figures (although artist Willem de Kooning did portrayals of women). Color, shape, and movement dominated the canvases of abstract expressionists. Some artists broke with the Western art tradition by adopting innovative painting styles—during the 1950s Jackson Pollock â€Å"painted† by dripping paint on canvases without the use of brushes, while the paintings of Mark Rothko often consisted of large patches of color that seem to vibrate. Abstract expressionists felt alienated from their surrounding culture and used art to challenge society’s conventions. The work of each artist was quite individual and distinctive, but all the artists identified with the radicalism of artistic creativity. The artists were eager to challenge conventions and limits on expression in order to redefine the nature of art. Their radicalism came from liberating themselves from the confining artistic traditions of the past. The most notable activity took place in New York City, which became one of the world’s most important art centers during the second half of the 20th century. The radical fervor and inventiveness of the abstract expressionists, their frequent association with each other in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and the support of a group of gallery owners and dealers turned them into an artistic movement. Also known as the New York School, the participants included Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Arshile Gorky, in addition to Rothko and Pollock. The members of the New York School came from diverse backgrounds such as the American Midwest and Northwest, Armenia, and Russia, bringing an international flavor to the group and its artistic visions. They hoped to appeal to art audiences everywhere, regardless of culture, and they felt connected to the radical innovations introduced earlier in the 20th century by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Some of the artists—Hans Hofmann, Gorky, Rothko, and de Kooning—were not born in the United States, but all the artists saw themselves as part of an international creative movement and an aesthetic rebellion. As artists felt released from the boundaries and conventions of the past and free to emphasize expressiveness and innovation, the abstract expressionists gave way to other innovative styles in American art. Beginning in the 1930s Joseph Cornell created hundreds of boxed assemblages, usually from found objects, with each based on a single theme to create a mood of contemplation and sometimes of reverence. Cornell’s boxes exemplify the modern fascination with individual vision, art that breaks down boundaries between forms such as painting and sculpture, and the use of everyday objects toward a new end. Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, combined disparate objects to create large, collage-like sculptures known as combines in the 1950s. Jasper Johns, a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, recreated countless familiar objects, most memorably the American flag. The most prominent American artistic style to follow abstract expressionism was the pop art movement that began in the 1950s. Pop art attempted to connect traditional art and popular culture by using images from mass culture. To shake viewers out of their preconceived notions about art, sculptor Claes Oldenburg used everyday objects such as pillows and beds to create witty, soft sculptures. Roy Lichtenstein took this a step further by elevating the techniques of commercial art, notably cartooning, into fine art worthy of galleries and museums. Lichtenstein’s large, blown-up cartoons fill the surface of his canvases with grainy black dots and question the existence of a distinct realm of high art. These artists tried to make their audiences see ordinary objects in a refreshing new way, thereby breaking down the conventions that formerly defined what was worthy of artistic representation. Probably the best-known pop artist, and a leader in the movement, was Andy Warhol, whose images of a Campbell’s soup can and of the actress Marilyn Monroe explicitly eroded the boundaries between the art world and mass culture. Warhol also cultivated his status as a celebrity. He worked in film as a director and producer to break down the boundaries between traditional and opular art. Unlike the abstract expressionists, whose conceptual works were often difficult to understand, Andy Warhol’s pictures, and his own face, were instantly recognizable. Conceptual art, as it came to be known in the 1960s, like its predecessors, sought to break free of traditional artistic associations. In conceptual art, as practiced by Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth, concept takes precedent over actual object, by stimulating thought rather than following an art tradition based on conventional standards of beauty and artisanship. Modern artists changed the meaning of traditional visual arts and brought a new imaginative dimension to ordinary experience. Art was no longer viewed as separate and distinct, housed in museums as part of a historical inheritance, but as a continuous creative process. This emphasis on constant change, as well as on the ordinary and mundane, reflected a distinctly American democratizing perspective. Viewing art in this way removed the emphasis from technique and polished performance, and many modern artworks and experiences became more about expressing ideas than about perfecting finished products. Photography. Photography is probably the most democratic modern art form because it can be, and is, practiced by most Americans. Since 1888, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera that allowed anyone to take pictures, photography has struggled to be recognized as a fine art form. In the early part of the 20th century, photographer, editor, and artistic impresario Alfred Stieglitz established 291, a gallery in New York City, with fellow photographer Edward Steichen, to showcase the works of photographers and painters. They also published a magazine called Camera Work to increase awareness about photographic art. In the United States, photographic art had to compete with the widely available commercial photography in news and fashion magazines. By the 1950s the tradition of photojournalism, which presented news stories primarily with photographs, had produced many outstanding works. In 1955 Steichen, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, called attention to this work in an exhibition called The Family of Man. Throughout the 20th century, most professional photographers earned their living as portraitists or photojournalists, not as artists. One of the most important exceptions was Ansel Adams, who took majestic photographs of the Western American landscape. Adams used his art to stimulate social awareness and to support the conservation cause of the Sierra Club. He helped found the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940, and six years later helped establish the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute). He also held annual photography workshops at Yosemite National Park from 1955 to 1981 and wrote a series of influential books on photographic technique. Adams’s elegant landscape photography was only one small stream in a growing current of interest in photography as an art form. Early in the 20th century, teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine established a documentary tradition in photography by capturing actual people, places, and events. Hine photographed urban conditions and workers, including child laborers. Along with their artistic value, the photographs often implicitly called for social reform. In the 1930s and 1940s, photographers joined with other depression-era artists supported by the federal government to create a photographic record of rural America. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein, among others, produced memorable and widely reproduced portraits of rural poverty and American distress during the Great Depression and during the dust storms of the period. In 1959, after touring the United States for two years, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, one of the landmarks of documentary photography. His photographs of everyday life in America introduced viewers to a depressing, and often depressed, America that existed in the midst of prosperity and world power. Photographers continued to search for new photographic viewpoints. This search was perhaps most disturbingly embodied in the work of Diane Arbus. Her photos of mental patients and her surreal depictions of Americans altered the viewer’s relationship to the photograph. Arbus emphasized artistic alienation and forced viewers to stare at images that often made them uncomfortable, thus changing the meaning of the ordinary reality that photographs are meant to capture. American photography continues to flourish. The many variants of art photography and socially conscious documentary photography are widely available in galleries, books, and magazines. A host of other visual arts thrive, although they are far less connected to traditional fine arts than photography. Decorative arts include, but are not limited to, art glass, furniture, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and quilts. Often exhibited in craft galleries and studios, these decorative arts rely on ideals of beauty in shape and color as well as an appreciation of well-executed crafts. Some of these forms are also developed commercially. The decorative arts provide a wide range of opportunity for creative expression and have become a means for Americans to actively participate in art and to purchase art for their homes that is more affordable than works produced by many contemporary fine artists. . Performing arts As in other cultural spheres, the performing arts in the United States in the 20th century increasingly blended traditional and popular art forms. The classical performing arts—music, opera, dance, and theater—were not a widespread feature of American culture in the first half of the 20th century. These arts were generally imported from or strongly influenced by Europe and were mainly appreciated by the wealthy and well educated. Traditional art usually referred to classical forms in ballet and opera, orchestral or chamber music, and serious drama. The distinctions between traditional music and popular music were firmly drawn in most areas. During the 20th century, the American performing arts began to incorporate wider groups of people. The African American community produced great musicians who became widely known around the country. Jazz and blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday spread their sounds to black and white audiences. In the 1930s and 1940s, the swing music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller adapted jazz to make a unique American music that was popular around the country. The American performing arts also blended Latin American influences beginning in the 20th century. Between 1900 and 1940, Latin American dances, such as the tango from Argentina and the rumba from Cuba, were introduced into the United States. In the 1940s a fusion of Latin and jazz elements was stimulated first by the Afro-Cuban mambo and later on by the Brazilian bossa nova. Throughout the 20th century, dynamic classical institutions in the United States attracted international talent. Noted Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine established the short-lived American Ballet Company in the 1930s; later he founded the company that in the 1940s would become the New York City Ballet. The American Ballet Theatre, also established during the 1940s, brought in non-American dancers as well. By the 1970s this company had attracted Soviet defector Mikhail Baryshnikov, an internationally acclaimed dancer who served as the company’s artistic director during the 1980s. In classical music, influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed symphonies using innovative musical styles, moved to the United States in 1939. German-born pianist, composer, and conductor Andre Previn, who started out as a jazz pianist in the 1940s, went on to conduct a number of distinguished American symphony orchestras. Another Soviet, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C. , in 1977. Some of the most innovative artists in the first half of the 20th century successfully incorporated new forms into classical traditions. Composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and dancer Isadora Duncan were notable examples. Gershwin combined jazz and spiritual music with classical in popular works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). Copland developed a unique style that was influenced by jazz and American folk music. Early in the century, Duncan redefined dance along more expressive and free-form lines. Some artists in music and dance, such as composer John Cage and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, were even more experimental. During the 1930s Cage worked with electronically produced sounds and sounds made with everyday objects such as pots and pans. He even invented a new kind of piano. During the late 1930s, avant-garde choreographer Cunningham began to collaborate with Cage on a number of projects. Perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most popular, American innovation was the Broadway musical, which also became a movie staple. Beginning in the 1920s, the Broadway musical combined music, dance, and dramatic performance in ways that surpassed the older vaudeville shows and musical revues but without being as complex as European grand opera. By the 1960s, this American musical tradition was well established and had produced extraordinary works by important musicians and lyricists such as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II. These productions required an immense effort to coordinate music, drama, and dance. Because of this, the musical became the incubator of an American modern dance tradition that produced some of America’s greatest choreographers, among them Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly, and Bob Fosse. In the 1940s and 1950s the American musical tradition was so dynamic that it attracted outstanding classically trained musicians such as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story, an updated version of Romeo and Juliet set in New York that became an instant classic in 1957. The following year, Bernstein became the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. He was an international sensation who traveled the world as an ambassador of the American style of conducting. He brought the art of classical music to the public, especially through his â€Å"Young People’s Concerts,† television shows that were seen around the world. Bernstein used the many facets of the musical tradition as a force for change in the music world and as a way of bringing attention to American innovation. In many ways, Bernstein embodied a transformation of American music that began in the 1960s. The changes that took place during the 1960s and 1970s resulted from a significant increase in funding for the arts and their increased availability to larger audiences. New York City, the American center for art performances, experienced an artistic explosion in the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental off-Broadway theaters opened, new ballet companies were established that often emphasized modern forms or blended modern with classical (Martha Graham was an especially important influence), and an experimental music scene developed that included composers such as Philip Glass and performance groups such as the Guarneri String Quartet. Dramatic innovation also continued to expand with the works of playwrights such as Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet. As the variety of performances expanded, so did the serious crossover between traditional and popular music forms. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an expanded repertoire of traditional arts was being conveyed to new audiences. Popular music and jazz could be heard in formal settings such as Carnegie Hall, which had once been restricted to classical music, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music became a venue for experimental music, exotic and ethnic dance presentations, and traditional productions of grand opera. Innovative producer Joseph Papp had been staging Shakespeare in Central Park since the 1950s. Boston conductor Arthur Fiedler was playing a mixed repertoire of classical and popular favorites to large audiences, often outdoors, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. By the mid-1970s the United States had several world-class symphony orchestras, including those in Chicago; New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even grand opera was affected. Once a specialized taste that often required extensive knowledge, opera in the United States increased in popularity as the roster of respected institutions grew to include companies in Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. American composers such as John Adams and Philip Glass began composing modern operas in a new minimalist style during the 1970s and 1980s. The crossover in tastes also influenced the Broadway musical, probably America’s most durable music form. Starting in the 1960s, rock music became an ingredient in musical productions such as Hair (1967). By the 1990s, it had become an even stronger presence in musicals such as Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996), which used African American music and dance traditions, and Rent (1996) a modern, rock version of the classic opera La Boheme. This updating of the musical opened the theater to new ethnic audiences who had not previously attended Broadway shows, as well as to young audiences who had been raised on rock music. Performances of all kinds have become more available across the country. This is due to both the sheer increase in the number of performance groups as well as to advances in transportation. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of major American symphonies doubled, the number of resident theaters increased fourfold, and the number of dance companies increased tenfold. At the same time, planes made it easier for artists to travel. Artists and companies regularly tour, and they expand the audiences for individual artists such as performance artist Laurie Anderson and opera singer Jessye Norman, for musical groups such as the Juilliard Quartet, and for dance troupes such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Full-scale theater productions and musicals first presented on Broadway now reach cities across the country. The United States, once a provincial outpost with a limited European tradition in performance, has become a flourishing center for the performing arts.

“Nobody Knows” and “Maboroshi”: Films about Pain and Struggle

These two Japanese films were directed by the critically acclaimed director Hirokazu Koreida. Both films were well accepted by the general public. These two films also garnered numerous awards and are known for their compelling storylines. Film critics around the world praised these two films on almost every department. â€Å"Maboroshi† was released in 1995, while â€Å"Nobody Knows† was released in 2004. There is a noticeable gap between the times these two movies were released, but director Hirokazu Koreida never lost his style and vision in film making. â€Å"Maboroshi† is Koreida’s first film. It revolves around the life of a woman named Yomiko. After her husband committed suicide, she was left miserable and alone. She struggled to put the past behind as she was consumed by pain and depression. As she struggles to battle her own insecurities, regrets and doubts, she is forced to resolve the inexplicable cause for her grief through an eventual renewal of love and companionship. It seems that Yumiko cannot escape the ghost of the past. Yet, she has renewed hope and comfort in the arms of another man. She decided to marry this man who is a fisherman. This man was lost after a storm came while he was fishing at the sea. After his return, Yomiko was never the same. Her doubts and fears have consumed her. She was also troubled with anxiety. She was stuck in the past, lost in thoughts that could bring pain and depression. These are the reasons why she could not fully commit herself to her second husband. The film â€Å"Nobody knows† is a story about four children who were abandoned by their parents. The film was based on actual events which took place in 1988. It was said that the actual even was more depressing than the movie adaptation. The story begins when a woman named Keiko abandons her young children in a shabby apartment in an unknown Japanese city. She left her children with almost no money for survival. Her character shows us how irresponsible parents could be. Akira, her eldest son, took the role of their parents. He had to take care of his three siblings. He tried his best to be a good parent by borrowing money from people he knew and even gave gifts for his siblings during Christmas. The film gives a picture of how hard life can be in an urban setting, where life is fast and only the fittest would survive. The film is about the struggle of these four children in finding comfort, security, happiness and salvation. Film Analysis and Comparison The analysis and comparison will be divided into three parts. The first part will tackle the technical aspects of both films. Then the second part will tackle the theme and the story of both films. We will try to see if the two films are somewhat parallel. The last part of the analysis and comparison is about the message of the two films. Technical Aspects Since both films were directed by the same person, they do not differ that much in terms of the technical stuff. These two films boast greatness in cinematography. The shots were meticulously framed and scenes were carefully orchestrated. The lighting in both films helped a lot in accentuating the mood and emotion that a certain scene elicits. This was more evident in â€Å"Maboroshi†. The film has a distinct imagery which was achieved by the contrast of colors and proper lighting effects. There are scenes from the film that actually looks like a canvass. The primary colors came in very effectively to highlight certain objects. An example would be the moving vehicles which brings luminous contrast. Even just the small details like the pink ball thrown by a child, the illuminated rooms bathed in light, and the blue paint in fishing boats were are all captivating. The film is pleasing to the eye. The scenes from this film were shot from a distance, making it more like a piece of artwork. This actually makes the audience feel distant from the characters and the story. â€Å"Maboroshi† could be described as an art film that is crafted by a master artist. Just like â€Å"Maboroshi†, â€Å"Nobody Knows† can also be called an art film. It is quite different because it is like a documentary. The film feels more like a documentary on the story of the four abandoned children rather than a regular film. It is quite noticeable that there are only few dialogues in both films. Certain scenes are actually shot pretty long and camera movement was seldom. The sparse dialogue and minimalist production actually worked well with â€Å"Nobody Knows† because it made the film more authentic. The movie’s slow pace and quietness made the plot build up more emotional. The set's close quarters and bright lighting puts emphasis on the isolation and loneliness of the children's apartment. The documentary style of filming that was employed in this film allowed the audience to see things from the children’s point of view. Both films were well directed and the actors gave a wonderful performance. Since dialogue was sparse in both films, the body movement and facial expression of the actors had to play a big part in the story telling. We should applaud the actors in both films because they delivered well in this department. A number of them actually garnered acting awards. Yuya Yugira (Akira) from â€Å"Nobody Knows† won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. He was only a novice at that time. Koreida revealed the emotions and thoughts of his characters through the use of body movement and facial expressions. Emotions could be felt even by just looking at the eyes of the children. The best directors simply know how to use this style. The connection between the characters and the audience is the grand result of these stylistic choices. The Story and Theme If we look deeper into these two films, we will notice that their respective themes are quite parallel. â€Å"Maboroshi† and â€Å"Nobody Knows† both talk about pain and struggle. These two themes are the driving forces of the two films. If we look back and recall the plot of â€Å"Maboroshi†, we would notice that the story is about the pain and struggles that the main character (Yomiko) was going through. She was always in a situation wherein she has to confront her pain and struggles. This is the same for the movie â€Å"Nobody Knows†. The story was also about pain and struggle. The four abandoned kids had to go through a lot because they had irresponsible parents. The whole story was about their struggle for survival and their continuous search for salvation. The director employed the proper style and method to illustrate these two themes. The quietness and sparse dialogues helped a lot in relating these two themes to the audience. This is also the same reason why the two films are somewhat depressing. Although it’s necessary that films about these themes should be dark and gloomy, the use of contrast and a little bit of humor could still be effective. Director Hirokazu Koreida was successful in utilizing this style. In â€Å"Maboroshi†, he used contrast of colors to bring light into the overall mood of the story. He made the audience see beauty amidst the gloom that surrounds the film. In â€Å"Nobody Knows†, he used a bit of humor and optimism that is quite unexpected in the worst of situations. There was a part when one of the kids had these funny squeaking shoes which could represent the privilege of finding hope as they leave their shelter for the first time. The two films are about the universal concept of pain. They explore the emotion that makes us human. The question on how to deal with it is actually answered in the two films. Message Maboroshi is a Japanese word that loosely translates to â€Å"illusory light.† It is an incomprehensible mirage that occasionally unveils itself along the waves of the sea, leading many curious sailors to their impending doom. Its origin is still a mystery. Nobody knows why men are lured by its worldly promises. There are things in this world that cannot be explained. There are events that are incomprehensible. It only reminds us of our limitations and our humanity. The lesson that we can draw from the film is that there tragedies and misfortunes in life that we cannot immediately understand, but this does not mean that we should give up on our search for redemption and recovery. One must learn to accept these tragedies to be able to move on with life. The message that we can draw from â€Å"Nobody Knows† is similar to â€Å"Maboroshi†. The film shows us that there is hope amidst the worst of situations. Akira showed courage and devotion, even though it seemed that the weight of the world is upon him. The four siblings showed determination to survive, hoping that someday they will find a place in the harsh world they live in. â€Å"Maboroshi† and â€Å"Nobody Knows† were crafted artistically. They are unique, full of emotion, and captivating. They reach through the hearts of the audience, pleading for sympathy and compassion. These two films are undeniably deserving of the praise and recognition they have received.      

Glaobal Warming essays

Glaobal Warming essays Scientists have predicted that the earths climate will change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The global warming property of these gases is undisputed although uncertainty exists about exactly how earths climate responds to them. Like many fields of scientific study, there are uncertainties associated with the science of global warming. This does not imply that all things are equally uncertain. Some aspects of the science of global warming are based on well-known physical laws and documented trends, while other aspects range from near certainty to big unknowns. Global warming is not as serious of a threat as scientists are stating. There is no doubt that the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities. By increasing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, human activities are strengthening Earths natural greenhouse effect. Figuring out to what extent the human-induced accumulation of greenhouse gases since pre-industrial times is responsible for the global warming trend is not easy though. This is because other factors, both natural and human, affect our planets temperature. Scientific understanding of these other factorsmost notably natural climate variations, cooling effects of atmospheric particles such as sulfates, changes in the suns energy, and the cooling effects of pollutant aerosolsremains incomplete. To project future climate patterns, scientists use computer simulations of the interactions among land, air, water, ice, and sunlight. These general circulation models, or GCMs, consist of equations representing the known laws of atmospheric physics and ocean circulation (Monastersky 1). A perfect model, if given enough information about conditions on earth several hundred ye...

Pastors Relationship With His People Essay Example

Pastors Relationship With His People Essay Example Pastors Relationship With His People Essay Pastors Relationship With His People Essay Connor McSwiggan Pastor Thiessen Pastoral Theology The Pastors Relationship With His People God has given and ordained men who are to oversee the Church. Ephesians 4:1 1 states, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; We will be specifically looking at the pastor and his relationship with the people of his church. The pastor is a word that means shepherd. Literally a pastor is a shepherd. His Job is too guard his sheep, love his sheep, protect his sheep, and cause his sheep to grow and maintain their health. He is to root out any sort of danger that may enter the flock. God has carefully chosen pastors whom he would deem worthy of protecting his people. The relationship between the pastor and his people is one of the greatest relationships in the whole world. This relationship will denote a sense of connection. This sense of connection will cause the people of a church to respect the leader God has given them. If the people and the pastor do not have a relationship the people will not heed what the pastor teaches them to do. God is not pleased when a pastor does not have a good elationship with his people. The same goes for when a person is dissatisfied with their pastor. Pastors have the tendency of drifting away from meeting their individual needs, and rather stepping back and focusing on the church as whole. This is dangerous as a pastor is to care for his peoples every day specific needs. Some pastors can be good administrators, some can be good speakers and take pride in their oratory skills, and others take pride in their effective promotion. These are all good assets which can assist a pastor greatly. However, the greatest office in which e should focus is in pastoring people. A church can tolerate average preaching and a lot of other things, but if they have a problem with the pastor it is a lost cause to try to persuade them. Pastors need to love their people. Paul is an excellent example in the Bible of how a minister is to love his people. When we think of Paul we can think of man, who while in Jail still took the time to pen a letter to his people. Pauls life was his people. Paul states his concern and love for his people in I Thessalonians 2:7-13 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being ffectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and Justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would alk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of , which ettectually worketn also in you that believe. Though Paul may be noted as being more a missionary, soul winner, and a church planter than a pastor, he is still seen doing many things that a pastor ought to be doing. When he started a new church he was the peoples pastor. The word nurse in this passage gives the idea of mother with bond and love for her child. Paul was perhaps the greatest soul winner who ever lived yet still gentle, loving, and kind to the people whom he pastored. He set a great exa mple for the modern pastor. Continuing, people wrote that he was affectiously desirous of his people. This would mean to lovingly long for. Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder. Though Pauls missionary pastorate was short, it was characterized by love. Love is a strong force that when demonstrated at its fullest effect can cause a person to lay down his life for that whom he loves. Paul was illing to lay down his life for his people. Notice later in verse eight of the same passage he says we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls. Lets define the word impart. This word means to give. So if we were to rephrase that a little it would say we were willing to give our own souls to you. (Recall how Jesus spoke of the good Shepherd giving his soul for the sheep). He poured out his soul to his people because they were dear to him. This denotes that Paul loved the people of Thessalonica which meant he was willing o pour out his soul to them. I Corinthians 13:13 states, And now abideth, faith, hope, charity, these three; but the g reatest of these is charity. A pastor without a heart of love for his people will eventually be found to be sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Without fail there will come a friction with love. A pastor needs to stand for faith, and having done all to stand, he needs to set forth hope for the people. But the virtue which is the lubricant between all friction and shortcomings is love. The apostle wrote of the virtues which holds a church together, but the greatest of them ll is love. Trouble will await a pastor who fails in this crucial area of ministry. Having established now the abundant need for love within the confine of the local church, let us consider a number of out-workings pertaining to the matter of love. Ezekiel 34:1-4 states, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe ou with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. We see how shepherds can become self-denoted. Though these shepherds may not have been pastors, and we really dont know who they were, the simple case show Gods chastening of the shepherds. These shepherds were chastened for not properly shepherding their flock. They were there but they were not helping the lost, hurt, and wounded. What can happen so easily is that a pastor will not go out of his way to help a person. If a pastor loves his people he will help them. Isaiah 40:1 says Comfort ye my people, saith your God. This old English word comfort means to encourage. If a pastor wants to really help his people he needs to be constantly encouraging them. A famous pastor once said, Be kind to duties. In conclusion, let us remember this great task nas given us. T ministry to which God has called us centrals on people. We are to preach the gospel o every creature, but we cannot win this world on our own. We need people to assist us. The people whom God has placed in our church are not to be taken advantage of. We need to remember the biblical virtue on which the church is built, and that is love. Love will melt the hearts of your people and cause them to desire to do as you teach them out of Gods Word. Let us follow the examples of Paul and Jesus Christ. If we want to lead, we need to serve. We have people looking up to us and depending on us to lead them. Let us respect them and seek to follow Gods Word in the plan in which he has laid out for us.

!0 Tips for Excelling at a Job Interview

1. Be prepared. Try to find out enough information about the employer, the company and the position you are applying for. Going into an interview not knowing anything will be an unpleasant surprise for you 2. Be on time for the interview. This shows the employer that you are serious, dedicated and you’re punctuality is on point. This will make the employer have more interest in you 3. Make sure that you’re resume is believable an up to date. Include previous experiences in any type of work field.Extreme lies on you’re resume will be obvious and will ruin you’re chances of even getting the job. 4. Show confidence and try not to show signs of nervousness. Proving that you can compose yourself I a well manner under pressure is a great characteristic which will give the employer positive thoughts about you. 5. Don’t act like a know-it-all because no one knows it all. If you act like you know everything, this will make the employer feel like you can cause many conflicts in the workplace.If you don’t know how to answer a question, don’t make things up to sound good; most likely you will sound dumb. Just ask for a clearer explanation on the question and try your best to answer it. 6. When the employer is trying to speak, don’t cut them off. Try using your listening skills more than speaking to make yourself seen attentive and focused. This may be your interview but whatever the interviewer has to say to you is way more important than you blabbering away. 7. Have respect and show manners.Don’t chew gum or any type of food like substance during the interview. That can be very distracting and rude to the interviewer. 8. Refrain from trying to suck up to your interviewer. You don’t know them that well yet, nor do they know you well. Being too extravagant in an interview is never flattering and rather more annoying, pushy and desperate. They will most definitely not think you are the best fit for the job. 9. Keep eye contact with your interviewer to show the connection and interest in what you want to accomplish in the interview.This will also show that you actually care and make the interviewer believe that you are an alert and observant employee. 10. Please be sure to be yourself! Acting like somebody you’re not will get you little to nowhere if you get the job. When you are working, you won’t want to constantly act like something you’re not. To prevent that from happening, from the jump-start, show your true colors and personality. You’ll be surprised, many people will like you more if you be true to yourself.

Case study analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Case study analysis - Essay Example Jessica, in her description, stated the behavioural problems John underwent. According to her recount of events, John was not talking as early as the age of two. John is obsessed with his train toys and spends most of the time playing with them. Every time his mother changes his routine, he became completely agitated. He would even get displeased when interrupted to go to bed. John’s behaviour in school also worried her mother. He would invade other childrens playing spaces while at school, where he would scratch or bite them when frustrated. He also often licked playground equipment and doorknobs. John would exhibit varied reactions to signal what he wants. For instance, he once threw a temper tantrum in frustration that he would not have what he wants. Jessica was so worried about the inability of his son to express himself. Thus, she decided to contact our social working centre, whereby I was assigned to work on the case. Jessica reported that John lags behind his age mates in self-help skills. Recently, however, Jessica observed that John was succeeding in toilet training. He has been staying dry more often and would ask when he wants to visit the bathroom. Nonetheless, John still experienced accidents during the nights. His attempts to learn how to dress had been futile as he still put on clothes inside out. John, on a positive note, followed instructions, especially when told to stay indoors. Jessica discovered that John’s condition would trigger taunts and provocations from truants in the neighbourhood. One of the boys in the neighbourhood had been purportedly doing drugs. Jessica, therefore, felt that he would be a bad influence to his estranged son. Jessica mother firmly believed that John’s was a consequence of poor parenting. Her neglect of John and the physical abuses of his ex-husband may have contributed to John’s condition. As a solution, she believed that