Okay, so I'll just summarize what we have done during this session. So for the event reports, we've seen the two table styles in which event reports could be generated. One is pivot, which allows us to create aggregated tables, then line list, which allows us to create line listed data based on the tracker or the event data. Then we have seen two output types that can be generated, either the event type or enrollment type. The event type would show data from all the events within a single program stage. So you were able to select only one program stage per event, and we can see multiple events for that program stage. While for enrollment, we can show data from different program stages. We can combine the data across all program stages, but enrollment output type will always show the data from the most recent event for a program stage. And we can only show data from multiple stages using the combination of a line list table and an enrollment output type, which we had seen during the last table generator. If you have not completed your exercises, you could do them and you could post your queries later as well. In your Moodle access, you will also see event report session summary. So this summarizes all the things that we have seen in this session. It can be a quick reference for you to see and summarize how these event reports have been generated and the different options available for the event reports, like saving, downloading, changing the table types and all. So you can refer to the session summary document. After the today's session, the graded assignment will be made available, which you could continue in your free time later. So I think we have about 10, 15 minutes before we start for next session. So you could continue your exercise and if you've done, you could take a small break. So we'll meet at two India time and we'll start with the next session. Thank you.


Hi, I am Avijit. I work for a multinational company in Bangalore and I stay with my family here. My parents are in West Bengal. They stay alone. So 10 days back, my dad got a silent heart attack. But no one could actually recognize it. So we wasted some day going to some doctor and we got some medicine. But it was not treated well. So I directly came here and I thought of putting him to emergency department. But since he was apparently doing well, he could walk in just like a normal patient. So we started with Dr. Anita Maria Diaz. We showed her all the reports, all the test reports that we did in our native. And by looking at it, madam suggested since it is a cardiac problem, better I should go and see Dr. Ranjan Shetty. Suddenly my dad fell on the floor senseless with hiccups and he was shivering kind of thing. Since I know a little bit of things, I could understand his cardiac arrest. But I was not in a position to do anything. My name is Shivanna Sihar. I am working in Cardiothoracic department as a physician, assistant and patient finance counsellor. 66 years of gentlemen came to OPD. Then immediately I started the CPR. I initiated to call the code blue. The time being we put the patient to the trolley and take one of the consultant room and you start giving the CPR. Today we will be speaking about a 66 year old gentleman who had come with a heart attack somewhere in Calcutta. Later he had come to us for further treatment. So immediately the cardiopulmonary resuscitation started. One of the senior cardiologists starts giving CPR. We have a code blue facility in this hospital. The team of doctors rushing. We continue CPR. Give multiple shocks. The patient the CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation actually went on for 45 minutes to one hour. And he received at least 20 cardiac shocks where defibrillator was done. Then once there was return of circulation when the heartbeat came back. We were sure that the pulse has come back and now it's likely to sustain for some time. We shifted him to cath lab and there we did angiogram. Found out that his right coronary artery was blocked. We opened his right coronary artery and then put a temporary pacemaker to sustain his rhythm. We also put a balloon pump to assist his heart because by this time his heart had become very weak. The pumping was not too good. So we had to assist the heart in every way. They started giving CPRs and I was very much afraid what's going on inside the room. They didn't allow me to have a look. By the time Dr. Anjanshti came in and joined and he explained me what has happened and what is their plan to do. I had full faith on them so they immediately took him to OT. They explained me that he has to be done some procedure. So he did all that so we could meet my dad in another one hour or so. By that time all the procedures were done. Luckily because of this quick response of the entire cardiac department all the people around. Within two and half hour my dad got back his consciousness. He could move his hand, he could respond, he could recognize people. And the doctor told at least from the brain side nothing is there to worry about. Only heart is something that it will take some time to recover. Coming to Manipal right, I do not need to think anything. The treatment is very good. From such a bad condition I think in another one day I will be discharged. My importance is the best medical treatment and I give 100 out of 100 in terms of that.


After 50 years, Big Bird is finally retiring, a graceful dignified exit for a much beloved figure. One bird that may never retire, nor act dignified, is the albatross around the crypto market's neck, Tether. Well, this week, Tether became untethered, but the question is, will it rise from the ashes like a phoenix, or just get mad and call everyone a horse face? So this week, Binance in Uganda, Bitcoin goes off-grid, and Mike Novigratz says no to the rally this year. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week's Hodler's Digest. If coin market cap was a murder mystery, a crypto who'd done it, if you will, Tether would be the prime suspect. Nobody knows the location, the weapon, or the method, yet they are sure of the murderer. It was the stablecoin. But is this so-called stablecoin really guilty of everything it is accused of? Or is it the most control crypto, actually the most misunderstood? Market manipulation rumors aside, what makes Tether so controversial is the suspicion that its billions of token issuances are not actually backed by dollar reserves as they claim. Rumors supported by Tether's sudden break with their auditor earlier this year. Although an unofficial audit conducted later attempted to assuage the public of Tether's honesty, it did little to assuage its critics. One of whom is so fiery that he's actually been sued by Bitfinex in exchange connected with Tether for his brutal Tether burns on Twitter. Now, this week, in yet another of a series of bad news for the stablecoin, Tether appeared to become untethered in what we call the Great Unpegging. On Monday, it dropped to as low as 95 cents, prompting speculations of a bank run. Elsewhere on Twitter, people had their fun at Tether's expense, perhaps most notably Binance CEO CZ. There were even a few contrarians out there that saw the Great Unpegging as a good thing. And finally, the Winkle vibe with a thought-provoking take on the whole debacle. We spoke to Tony Bayes to give us his take on Tether Untethered. It's a good reminder to people not to get complacent and not to assume that everything is fine. You're always supposed to understand that holding Tether comes with gigantic risks. I honestly think that Tether should never trade more than 95 cents on the dollar, maybe even 90 cents on the dollar. I think holding Tether is very risky and a reminder like this every three to six months is very healthy for the market because it reminds people how unstable these stable coins are. A lot of people misunderstood the Tether panic into Bitcoin for genuine demand for Bitcoin and reversal of the bear market. I disagree with that view. I think this is just a temporary migration of capital because people were not interested in holding Bitcoin because of the bear market. But the asset they were sitting in became more risky than Bitcoin. I think that once this settles down, people will go back to the position that they had before. I don't see this news reversing the bear market. I still think that the road, the rest of the shear is going to be a little bit harder, but eventually we will bottom out and prices will reverse. If you are not a fan of the stablecoin or Bitfinex, you might want to check out this medium page. It's a blog dedicated entirely to uncovering alleged fraud committed by Tether and Bitfinex. Check it out purely for the simple reason that Bitfinex tried to sue it out of existence. Next up in this news roundup, investment firm Fidelity. Fidelity launched Fidelity Digital Assets this week, a pretty important development in the crypto world even if it's not the jazziest news item of the week. Burying through the jargon, the press release notes that Fidelity Digital Assets will offer enterprise quality custody and trade execution services for digital assets. The CEO of this new venture believes part of their mission is making Bitcoin more accessible to investors. However, Fidelity Digital Assets is only available to institutional investors for now, aiming to provide them with, heads up, more jargon, a secure, compliant and institutional grade omnibus storage solution for Bitcoin, ETH, and other digital assets. Fidelity is hoping that their pretty substantial Wall Street credentials and over $7.2 trillion in client assets will encourage big institutions to finally hop on over to the crypto space. And Fidelity Digital Assets head Tom Jessup has promised to leverage all of the resources of a big organization in order to do so. According to research cited by Fidelity, about 70% of institutional finance executives believe crypto will eventually play a role in the financial sector. But many remain sitting on the sidelines. Jessup and Fidelity hope to change that. Back in June, finance founder CZ told CoinTelegraph in an exclusive interview about plans to set up shop in Uganda. And this week, CZ's wish came true. And the largest international exchange launched a fiat-toed crypto exchange in Africa. If you are a Ugandan interested in crypto, you can now deposit and withdraw Ugandan shillings with Binance Uganda. Currently, it is only possible to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum for fiat, but expect more cryptos to be added in the future. Earlier this year, the bank had gone to issue a warning to its clients about risk surrounding crypto. However, the government is looking into blockchain, in spite of its pretty close relationship to the evils of crypto, as a way to tackle inefficiencies in the public sector. In a Medium post, Binance talked about how this foray into Uganda was an educational venture as much as a business one. Their CFO believes the exchange in Uganda will bring more innovations to the region. Uganda itself is actually a very, I would say, typical or quite representative of sort of the trend that we're seeing in Africa. About 60 to 70 million people, predominantly demographics quite young, very technology-savvy information is actually quite transparent. Actually, we're firm believers in that through blockchain technology and through cryptocurrency, we can actually help to drive sustainable development in Africa. The value added to the average Uganda is basically, you know, we are delivering the freedom of money and the freedom of investment to them. So we are hiring in Africa. We're hiring, we're looking for investment partners to join our labs team. We're looking for, we're hiring in Uganda for operational people there. So I think we'll want to get that message up. While Bitcoin won't, Nouriel is doing a hard fork by increasing his block size. After a sign of hearing in which he called crypto both the mother and father of all scams, it's safe to say that economist Nouriel Rubini is off most Hodler's Christmas card list. Crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles. And yet, for a man so open to debate, he seems to have blocked an awful lot of people on Twitter. So much so that the hashtag blocked by Nouriel has become a badge of honor amongst the great and the good of the crypto Twitterverse. To be fair, being open to debate is one thing, but having to fend off mean tweets by the truckload is something else. Some of those featured on the hashtag blocked by Nouriel list are quite high profile. Roger Ver, for example. And Eric Voorhees was positively ecstatic about it. Rubini has inducted all of his critics. He has fired back at some. Although, fortunately for us, sometimes misfiring, like this exchange with Ari Paul, in which the economist mischaracterized an old interview that Ari Paul had given about a 50k price prediction. Paul accused Rubini of not even watching the video he linked to in his tweet. Professor Rubini, please do your homework next time. Tim Draper, Tom Lee, and Mike Novikratz are so famous for their prediction, they could star as the three witches in an off-Broadway production of Macbeth. But unlike those three witches, they tend to differ wildly in their respective prophecies. Michael Novikratz, one of the three seers, was more cautious in his predictions this week. I don't see us, meaning Bitcoin, breaking $10,000 by the end of the year. But don't worry, this bull isn't becoming a barrel of a sudden. He still thinks the 2019 has the possibility to see big institutions getting into crypto.  Galaxy investment partners will become one of the first clients of Fidelity's new digital asset service, which aims to bring crypto accessibility to institutional investors. Tom Lee, on the other hand, remains bullish as ever, sticking to his prediction of Bitcoin to hit $25k by the end of the year. Everyone entering into the crypto space is essentially entering into the wild west. But not everyone actually goes off-grid and into the wild. Earlier this year, we reported on the developer Daniel Jones, who claimed to have successfully completed a solar-powered off-grid crypto transaction using just shortwave radio and blockchain. Last weekend, another developer achieved an equally, if not more badass task by sending Bitcoin 12.6km away without a cell phone network or an internet connection. Impossible, you say? Well, we spoke to the guy behind this Barogrill's level of crypto trading. I'm trying to demonstrate that it can work and just how powerful it is. But where I see the real value at the moment is either in situations where censorship resistance is an important feature. So whether it's in a war zone, maybe in a prison or something like that, where you're not able to get access to a cellular network for whatever reason, something like Gotenar is an easy-deploy solution to be able to get from where you are to some internet. Another one is a disaster zone where, or perhaps a remote location where the infrastructure has been destroyed or doesn't exist. Here is some further reading and watching to see you out the rest of your Sunday. Not satisfied with trying to take down crypto, Rubini puts blockchain in his crosshairs. And in case you didn't already know, Roger Ver really, really, really doesn't like government. And I mean really. And as always, like, subscribe, and hodl. Cointelegraph, like, subscribe, and hodl.


A sitting of the House of Assembly is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2021, with Parliament to consider approving the declaration of a state of emergency that was published in the Gazette on the 3rd of February 2021 as statutory instrument No. 27 of 2021 for a further period of 90 days, commencing the 11th of February 2021 and ending on the 16th of May 2021. The second motion for consideration is a draft value-added tax amendment of Schedule 3 order, which amends the app to exempt imports of personal items, food, clothing, toys and other household consumables contained in barrels for the period of 1st of February 2021 to 31st of March 2021. The COVID-19 prevention and control amendment is also down for debate. Tuesday's sitting is scheduled to commence at 10 a.m. The City of Senate is scheduled for Wednesday, February 10, 2021, at 10 a.m. In keeping with the protocols established for management of the COVID-19, members of the public will not be allowed in the chamber gallery during the sittings. The proceedings will be live on the National Television Network, NTN Channel 122, the Government of St. Lucia Facebook and YouTube channel.


So, let's begin. The last time we looked at the inner product and the Cauchy Schwarz inequality, this was just a recap. And then we discussed about orthonormal basis and some of their properties. And we went through the Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization process, which can be used to produce an orthonormal basis for the vector space spanned by a given set of vectors. And then we looked at some properties of orthonormal matrices. So today we will talk about two other topics. The first is determinants and the other is norms. So are there any questions about the previous class before we begin? Okay. So we'll start talking about determinants. So throughout we'll consider square matrices, A is in R to the m by m. Okay. So I think all of you certainly know what the determinant is. Is there anybody in the class who hasn't heard of or seen what a determinant is? Okay. So I assume all of you know what it is, but we'll just formally define it so that we're all on the same page on this. So if I consider the matrix Aij to be the matrix obtained, it's an m minus 1 cross m minus 1 matrix obtained by deleting the ith row and jth column. Okay. Then we define determinant of Aij, which is the determinant of a slightly smaller matrix to be the minor associated with the element small Aij. Okay. And we define Cij to be the cofactor of Aij, which is equal to minus 1 power i plus j times determinant of Aij. Then this is the definition of the determinant of A, this is called the cofactor expansion. So the way we define the determinant here, it's a recursive definition. The determinant of a matrix of size m by m is defined in terms of the determinant of a smaller size matrix of size m minus 1 by m minus 1. So determinant of A is equal to the summation i, j equal to 1 to m, Aij times Cij. And notice that there is a floating index i, i belonging to 1, 2 up to, and I can also define it to be the summation over i going from 1 to m, Aij, Cij. And now there is a floating coefficient j here and I can compute this for any j. Okay. So they are basically m squared ways of compute, sorry, 2 m ways of computing the determinant and they all give the same answer. Okay. So there are 2 m ways of computing the determinant and all these give the same value. So this is another surprising fact about matrices is that you take a square matrix and there are 2 m different ways, seemingly different ways of computing the determinant. But whichever way you do it, you always get the same answer. How do we see this? In fact, it's not that difficult. All you have to do is to take the trouble to write out what the determinant expansion would be. And when you write it out, you see that actually whichever way you write this expression out, it's all the same terms that will finally show up in the determinant formula. And that's why they all actually should have the same value.  So determinant of a single element or a scalar is that value itself. So this is a recursive definition. And yeah, so I think, so this is the basic definition of a determinant. Now we will discuss many properties of the determinant, but maybe just to keep the order here, one, so I'll just make one or two small remarks. One is that if a is a triangular matrix, then the determinant is equal to the product of the diagonal entries. And then the other thing is that if mod of the determinant of a is the, is called the principal volume of a matrix. So this is the volume of a parallel piped, who's defined by the columns of, yeah. So this is the volume of a parallel piped, defined by the columns of a. So for example, if I, I can define a matrix A, which belongs to R power m cross n, which is a non-square matrix, right, m by m, maybe my handwriting is not clear, but this is m cross m. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So this is the volume of a parallel piped defined by the columns of a. If I, I can only show you things on a two dimensional case. So if I define vectors associated with the two columns of a. So let's say it is two, three, and five, four, something like this. Then I take two along the x-axis, and then three along the y-axis. This is a vector that looks something like this. And then I take five along the x-axis, and I take four along the y-axis. This is another vector like this. So I use these two and complete a parallel piped. And then I look at what is this area. So that's what I mean by the volume of a parallel piped defined by the columns of a. This is called the principal volume of a matrix. And this also happens to be equal to the magnitude of the determinant of a. The other small point I want to say is that this is a multi-linear function of a. That is, it's actually linear in each element by itself. But it's a combination of various terms. So the same element could potentially, so it's a combination of various terms involving different elements of a. So just to make this point clear, I'll actually take the trouble to write out the determinant of a 3 cross 3 matrix. And we also write it in this way by to put two bars around it that can also denote the determinant. But for the moment, I won't do that because you can see here I'm using the two bars to denote the magnitude. So this determinant of this is equal to a11, a23, sorry, a22, a33, minus a11, a32, a23, minus a21, a12, a33, plus a21, a32, a13, plus a31, a12, a23, minus a31, a22, a13. So I should take any one element, like for example, a11. It appears in two terms and it's a linear term that appears here. So for example, if I unilaterally increase a11, then the value of the determinant will also unilaterally, will also linearly change. It's a linear function of a11 by itself. And if I take a22, a22 appears here and here. It also appears in exactly two terms. If I take a33, it appears here and here. Also appears in exactly two terms and so on. And each term contains three terms from this, which is the size of the matrix. This is 3 cross 3. So each term that appears here contains exactly three terms. And then there are a total of six terms. And each term appears linearly in it. So it's a multilinear function of the entries of a. Sir? Yeah. Sir, could you explain what is the meaning of multilinear? It's linear, but there are multiple terms, each of them being linear. So when you have a single variable, you know that the variable could, the function could be linear or nonlinear. But when you have multiple variables, then it could be linear in each component, but then it could be the sum of many such terms. So for example, if I had a function like a11, a12, a13, a21, a22, a23, a31, a32, a33. This is also a multilinear function of a. It's linear in every one of the components. So here you have a sum of multiple such terms. Yeah, go ahead. But here it's not sufficient to scale just one element, right? We'll have to scale either one whole row or one whole column to scale the determinant. No, no, no, I'm just looking at what happens to the determinant if you were to scale one particular entry of the matrix. It'll become different. The determinant won't be scaled then. Because the element a11 appears only on the lower case. Think of it this way. Suppose I consider a matrix T, 5, 3, and 4. And I say, so suppose this is a matrix B.  So this is actually a function of T. So if I define f of T to be determinant of B of T, then f of T is linear. Yes, yes. This is what I'm trying to say. Okay. This is for this. Now, there is an alternative definition, which is sometimes useful by itself. Okay, so it is through three properties. So the first is that the determinant of the identity matrix is always equal to one, no matter what the size of the identity matrix is. To the determinant changes sign when two rows are exchanged. The determinant depends linearly on the first row. So any function set which satisfies these three properties is a valid definition of a determinant. So basically what we are doing here is we are mapping a matrix to a number. And any mapping of a matrix to a number which satisfies these three properties is in fact a valid definition for the determinant. And it's the same definition as what we discussed earlier. Okay, so this is another definition, so just for you. And we'll come back to this later when it's useful. Okay, so now several properties. Well, but before I discuss these properties, maybe I'll just explain what I mean by this. So if I take a matrix, say determinant of A, B, C, D. This is equal to A, D minus B, C, which is equal to the negative determinant of the matrix C, D, A, B. And also, if I take a permutation matrix. So for the moment, just keep in mind or I'll just say that a permutation matrix is a matrix obtained by exchanging. So this is my short hand notation for exchanging rows of the identity matrix. Okay, this is some one way to think of a permutation matrix. A permutation matrix, if I denote it by P, then determinant of P is always equal to plus or minus one. So for any permutation matrix, it's obtained by exchanging rows of the identity matrix. And in the exchange rows, the sign of the determinant changes. The determinant of P is plus or minus the determinant of the identity matrix, which is equal to one. And by linear on in the first row, what I mean is that if I take the matrix. So determinant of A plus A dash, P plus B dash, C, D. This is equal to determinant of A, B, C, D. Plus the determinant of A dash, B dash, C, D. So I can take linear combinations of the first row or any row and the determinant can be split as the determinant of not linear combinations. I can consider the first row to be linear combination of vectors A, B and A dash, B dash. And the determinant splits as the sum of the determinants. The first being the determinant where the first vector is the first row. The second being the determinant of the matrix where the second vector is the first row. And similarly, if I take determinant of the matrix T, A, T, B, C, D. This is equal to T times the determinant of A, B, C, and T. So it's linear in the first row. But very important is that determinant of B plus C is not equal to determinant of B plus determinant of C in general. So here it is true. When B and C differ only in one row, then determinant of B plus C is equal to determinant of B plus determinant of C. But in general, it's not true. And further, determinant of, say, T times A is not equal to T times determinant of A. So only when you scale a single row that the determinant scales by the same factor T. Okay, so now we'll discuss several properties of the determinant. If two rows of A are equal, then what happens to the determinant? Zero. Zero. Exactly. The second property. So why is this true? It's because if I exchange a pair of rows, if two rows are equal, let me exchange those two rows. The matrix remains the same, but the determinant is supposed to have changed the sign. But the only number which, when you change its sign, remains the same number is zero. So that's why the determinant is zero. Subtracting a multiple, so if you do an elementary row operation, subtracting a multiple row from another row, it leaves the determinant unchanged. So subtracting or adding is the same thing. So multiple one row from another row leaves the determinant unchanged. Hello. Yes, please. Sir, in the previous section, you specifically mentioned about the fast row. It is linear with respect to fast row. What about other rows? They'll be same. So what do you think? Sir, I think same. And why do you think so? So all you do is, if you take a linear side, if some other row is a sum of two vectors, what you do is you exchange that with the first row. The determinant changes the sign. Now you apply this rule. Now you get two different matrices. Now you exchange the rows back. It changes sign again and goes back to the original determinant. Yeah, so minus minus will be plus again. So it will determine. Exactly. So that's because if I take like this, what I've done is I've subtracted L times the second row from the first row. Now I can use my rules, namely that if I look at a matrix where the first row is the sum of two terms, then I can split it as the sum of two determinants. So I've written the first determinant here, A, B, C, D. And the second determinant is like a determinant of minus L, C, minus L, D, C, D. But the first row is being scaled by a factor P, which is equal to minus L here. So I can pull that minus L out and write this as determinant of C, D, and C, D. And this determinant is zero because two rows are identical. And so then the determinant of the matrix remains unchanged if you subtract a multiple of the second row from the first row. See, I'm showing you this proof for the 2 cross 2 case. But please keep in mind that showing a proof for a 2 cross 2 case is not really a proof. I'm showing it for the 2 cross 2 case in this example because the same exact thing can be done for a 3 cross 3 or a 4 cross 4 or 8 cross 8, or any size, m cross m case. Okay, the same idea exactly holds. And so there is no harm in this particular case to consider a 2 cross 2 case and say what is happening. Hello, sir. Yeah. Sir, sign now determinant also get changed when we exchange the columns. Yes, and that will be obvious in a second because it turns out determinant of A is equal to the determinant of A transpose. And exchanging columns is the same as exchanging rows of A transpose. Okay, sir. And so this is obvious again because if A has a row of zeroes, all you have to do is to add one other row to this row of zeroes. And because adding a row or a multiple of a row to another row leaves the determinant unchanged, the determinant does not change. But now you have a matrix with two identical rows. Then by property one, the determinant of A is zero. The other way to do is to think of it is to think of the cofactor expansion formula where you're expanding along that row, which is the row of zeroes. And if you're expanding along the row of zeroes, then the coefficient of every term in the cofactor expansion is zero. So it can only add up to zero. This is a property I already said, which is if A is triangular, then determinant of A, A11, A22 up to AMM. Okay, so basically for triangular matrices, the determinant can be obtained by just taking the product of the diagonal entries. So in particular, remember that you get the row reduced echelon form by doing elementary row operations. And these elementary row operations involve either subtracting a multiple of a given row from another row or exchanging rows. So if you exchange rows, the sign of the determinant will change. If you subtract a multiple of a row from another row, then the determinant will remain unchanged. And so when you do these elementary row operations, you will get a matrix which is ultimately upper triangular. And for upper triangular matrices, the determinant is the product of the diagonal elements. And therefore, one way to compute the determinant of a matrix is to first find the row reduced echelon form. And then take the product of the diagonal elements. And then you also keep track of how many row exchanges you had to do, why in the process of finding the row reduced echelon form. If you had to do an even number of row exchanges, then the determinant is simply the product of the pivot elements. If you had to do an odd number of row exchanges, then the determinant is the negative of the product of the pivot elements. So basically, this implies determinant is of the pivot elements in the row reduced echelon form. And plus, if even number of row exchanges might change, minus odd. So basically, maybe to just write this determinant of, in the case of a 2 cross 2, you can see it immediately, A, B, 0, D. Can you please explain the point number 3 using properties 1 and 2? So if A has a row of zeros, then what you have to do is to add one of the other rows to the zero row. That doesn't change the determinant. Then now you have a matrix where two rows are identical. And by property 1, determinant of A is 0. Okay, now for this property to see that if A is triangular, then determinant of A is 0, then the one way to see that is suppose the diagonal entries are non-zero. Okay, then you have a matrix. So I'll just show this in a picture to give you the idea. But actually, I'll just write this in the case as a sort of example to give you the idea. But the arguments hold in the general case. So I have A11, A12, say upper triangular, A13, 0, A22, A23, and 00, A33. Then what I can do is I can subtract a multiple of the third row from the second row, such that this entry A23 becomes 0. So I'll just write that here. So I'll replace R2 with R2 minus A23 over A33 times R3. Then this gives me a matrix A11, A12, A13, 0. Now A22 will remain unchanged. And this becomes 0, 00, A33. Then I can do something similar like replace R1 with R1 minus A13 over A33 times R3. And then I can again replace R1 with R1 minus A12 over A22 times R2. Then what happens is both these terms get eliminated and you will be left with A11, 00, 0, A22, 00, A33. So basically, if it's an upper triangular matrix or even a lower triangular matrix with the diagonal entries being non-zero, then you can do one more round of elimination and reduce it down to a diagonal matrix. And in this process, I only subtracted multiples of a row from another row. So that doesn't change the determinant. I've not changed the determinant throughout this process. So the determinant of this matrix here is the same as this determinant of a diagonal matrix. But for a diagonal matrix, the determinant is very easy to find. What I do is I first recognize that I can take out A11 from this because it's linearly dependent on the first row. It's linearly dependent on A11. So if I take this matrix and let me call it D, then determinant of D is equal to A11 times the determinant of this matrix 100, 0, A22, 0, 00, A33. Then what I can do in this matrix is I can exchange the second row and the first row. And then I know that the determinant has changed sign, but I'll keep that in mind. Now in the first row, it's linear in A22. So I can pull out an A22. And then I can once again exchange rows 1 and 2. So the determinant will once again change sign. It'll be back to the same old sign as here. So I can write this as A11, A22, determinant of 100, 010, 00, A33. And then I can pull out A33 and write this as equal to A11, A22, A33 times the determinant of the identity matrix, which is equal to A11, A22, A33. So it's the product of these diagonal entries. So suppose the diagonal entries are non-zero, then I can use elimination. So that means that the determinant remains unchanged. Also, the diagonal entries remain unchanged. And thirdly, the off-diagonal entries are eliminated. So now we are left with a diagonal matrix. So by properties 2 and 3, determinant of, okay, let me write it a little more systematically. If D is D110, D22, DMM, then determinant of D is equal to D11, D22, DMM. Therefore, is the product I equal to 1 to M, AII, for triangular. Of course, if the diagonal entry is 0, what happens? If you do this elimination step, you will get an all-zero row, which means that determinant is 0. So let's continue. So the next property is that determinant actually tells you, if you can evaluate the determinant, it tells you whether the matrix is singular or non-singular. So if A is singular, so basically what is a singular matrix? A singular matrix is a matrix which is not invertible. So if A is singular, then determinant of A is 0. A is invertible, determinant of A is non-zero. Okay, so basically the idea is that if A is singular, then it has a rank which is less than M, which means that it has dependent rows. And so we will study this later, but basically you can compute what is known as an LUD composition of a matrix where L is a lower triangular matrix. And it is the row reduction matrix, which has once along its diagonal and U is an upper triangular matrix. So basically I just make some small note on this. If A equals LU where L is lower triangular with once on the diagonal and U is upper triangular, then L basically represents the row reduction matrices. L is the product of the row reduction matrices, which does not change the determinant. Sir, should U also have all the diagonal elements as one? No. So U has the pivot elements along the diagonal, but there is another decomposition which we will study. I'm not going into the detail here because we're going to study these decompositions of matrices separately later on. The other way to think about it is you can also do something like, and also I've not considered the case where you are using, you may have to do row exchanges in order to find this LU decomposition. The more general thing is there is actually PA equals LDU decomposition where L and U are lower triangular and upper triangular with once on the diagonal and D is a diagonal matrix and P is a permutation matrix. Okay, this is the more general form, but for now I'm just giving you a little feel for why it is true that determinant of A equal to 0 for a singular matrix. So if you consider the process of doing the row reduction, the sequence of steps involved in the row reduction can be consolidated. Each row reduction step is actually a linear transform. So what you're doing is a sequence of linear transforms and the effect of all those linear transforms is the product of all those linear transformation matrices. And that is a matrix L which has once on the diagonal and it's a lower triangular matrix. So basically since each step involved is a lower, is a row reduction step, it does not change the determinant. And as a consequence, determinant of A is actually equal to the determinant of U which will be 0 if A is singular since has dependent rows. Okay, so if A has dependent rows, then U has an all-zero row. So if this is true, let me put it this way, U has an all-zero row. Okay, so then determinant is 0, but if A is non-singular, then you will have the pivots say I can call them D1 to Dm on the diagonal of U. So determinant of U will be equal to D1, D2 up to Dm which is equal to determinant of U. So I want to be a little careful here and so I'm going to write it in this way plus or minus this is equal to the determinant of A. In the sense that when I started out here, I assumed that there is no row exchange operation that was performed.  Sir. Yeah. Sir, when you call this pivot element, so just another name for diagonal elements. Yes. Okay. So in the context of matrix factorization, the factors that come out when you do the row reduction operation, the diagonal entries of the reduced matrix are called pivot elements. So maybe one way to think about it is that I can ask what are the diagonal elements of any matrix, but these diagonal elements may not be equal to the pivot elements. Okay, but the diagonal elements will be equal to the pivot elements for triangular matrices. For non-triangle matrices, the diagonal elements will not be equal to the pivot elements. The pivot elements are obtained by taking the diagonal entries of the row reduced matrix. Does that answer your question? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It makes sense. Thank you, sir. Property 6 is very important and also a property that is again to me really not obvious, but the determinant of the product of two matrices is equal to what? Product of determinants. Yeah. How does one show that determinant of AB equals determinant of A times determinant of B? Before I discuss that, one immediate consequence is that if AB is the identity matrix, then B is the inverse of A, then the determinant of the identity matrix is 1. Therefore, we can say that determinant of the inverse of A when A is invertible is equal to 1 over the determinant of A. So determinant of AB is 1, which is because AB is the identity matrix. And on the right-hand side, I have determinant of A times determinant of A inverse. So the determinant of A inverse is 1 over the determinant of A. I will give you one proof here. There is another proof in the textbook, which you can potentially look up on your own. So one simple proof is like this. If I consider a function D of A, which I define to be equal to determinant of AB divided by determinant of B. Now, I am assuming here that B is non-singular, so that its determinant is non-zero. But that is okay because if B were singular, then we know that the rank of a matrix cannot increase when you multiply it by another matrix. So if B is singular, then AB or if B is rank deficient, then AB is also rank deficient. And therefore, determinant of AB will be 0. And the right side is all equal to 0 because it's determinant of A times determinant of B, which is equal to 0. And so if determinant of B is 0, then the result determinant of AB equals determinant of A times determinant of B is obvious. So we'll consider the case where determinant of B is not equal to 0 and consider this function D of A defined to be determinant of AB divided by determinant of B. Now, if I look at the alternative definition of the determinant, so this is now a function of A, it's mapping A to a number, it's mapping it to this particular number, determinant of AB divided by determinant of B. Now it has the following properties, 1, D of the identity matrix. If I replace A with the identity matrix, I have determinant of B divided by determinant of B equal to 1, D of A changes sign to rows of A are exchanged. That's because if I exchange two rows of A, then I also end up exchanging the same two rows of AB because exchanging rows can be thought of as left multiplication by a permutation matrix. And so exchanging rows of A is the same as in the effect of exchanging a pair of rows of A on the product AB is the same as exchanging those two rows of AB. And so D of A changes sign when two rows of A are exchanged and 3D of A depends linearly on the first row. So it satisfies the alternative definition. So this you just think through a little bit, you'll see it's true. It's because this determinant AB here depends linearly on the first row of A. So basically this means that it satisfies the three properties, say the alternative definition of determinant and so which implies D of A is nothing but determinant of A. And so determinant of A equals determinant of AB divided by determinant of B meaning that determinant of AB equals determinant of A times determinant of B.


The Wii U is a financial failure. It has moved just 12.8 million units according to their most recent earnings report and only 800,000 units are scheduled to be in production for the current fiscal year. While a handful of games have moved more than 3 million units, they are all poultry sales in comparison to consoles and games in years gone past. The only true success story would probably be Splatoon, which is a brand new IP released exclusively on the Wii U. The story is written for the Wii U. Many are disappointed, and now it's not even getting an exclusive Zelda game for the first time in Nintendo's history. I've often been called a Nintendo apologist over the years. Despite being openly critical of bad marketing, terrible decisions, and broken promises, I still found myself finding good things to say about Nintendo, especially in regards to the Wii U. The reason I was able to do this is because the Wii U is my favorite Nintendo home console ever released. Believe me when I say this that I never thought anything could unseat the Super Nintendo, but Wii U found a way for me. I started talking about this by prefacing all of the negativity around the Wii U, or well, part of it, as there is much more that can be said, because it's very easy to focus on the negatives. There's a lot of them. Increasingly, I seem to be finding out that I am rather unique in terms of my breed among fellow gaming friends. I actually play video games for the games, rather than for brand loyalty. The Wii U could be for NES's duct tape together and still have a fair shot at being my favorite system if it contained enough content that I really enjoyed. Now, my favorite game of all time is still Secret of Mana. However you pronounce it, released on the Super Nintendo. However, no other console generation in my entire 29 years of life have I ever been so consistently entertained with nearly every major release. From new Super Mario Bros U and Zombie U to Pikmin 3 and Star Fox Zero, I have simply been floored with pure fun. I'm going to give you three huge raisins that I really feel the Wii U is at the top of the mountain. For me, remember, this is just me, my opinion. So one of those reasons is that I feel it is an indie game heaven. The Wii U is Nintendo's best console ever for indie games. Now, there is no such thing as being able to compete with mobile phones and PCs for having the most robust library of indie games, but I'm simply talking about my favorite home console. While all of the current generation of hardware from the three major platform holders all have some really nice exclusive indie titles, I consistently find myself coming back to the Wii U for my favorite indie experiences, be it Toki Tori 2 or affordable space adventures, maybe even Shovel Knight. The list of indie games I really enjoy playing on the Wii U is truly astounding. I consider indie games to be the new AA or B tier of video games in the industry and while consoles like the NES and SNES also bolster an impressive library of such titles, the overall high quality of the releases and the number of them that I actually enjoy is far larger on the Wii U than on any other home console platform I have ever played, whether it be Nintendo or any other system. The next reason is that I feel that the system has a concise but impressively fun group of timed and or exclusive AAA games. Whether you love or hate a game is entirely subjective, so instead of breaking down every single reason I love each game in the Wii U library, I'll also list off every game I absolutely adore that is exclusive or was exclusive at some point for the system. Let's get started. All right so we have new Super Mario Bros. U, Zombie U, Bayonetta 2, The Wind Waker HD, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Twilight Princess HD, Donkey Kong Country, Tropical Freeze, Lego City Undercover, Yoshi's Woolly World, Star Fox Zero, Maiden of Blackwater, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Hyrule Warriors, The Wonderful 101, Pockin Tournament, Sonic Lost World, Pikmin 3, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and The Wonderful 101. And yes I absolutely loved all of these titles. That's 23 semi-exclusive or entirely exclusive games I loved more than any other home console I have played in Nintendo's history. And the last reason I really love the Wii U and why it is my favorite generation of Nintendo home consoles is that I love the gamepad. I know the gamepad is arguably the system's biggest downfall. It's expensive, doesn't have an overly impressive screen, the battery life is bad, it's big, and for the most part 90% of the games can work just as fine, if not better for many, without the gamepad. Yet I find myself consistently preferring the gamepad in nearly any situation. I love having maps, items, and information readily available at a quick glance rather than going into a submenu. It's just faster. I love being able to hit a button and magically play most of my Wii U library off TV when it's time for my kids to catch their favorite shows. And yes I even make extensive use of the TV remote functionality, probably the only person in the world that does while gaming. Really I use it exclusively for volume and or input control when I'm playing my games and I need to switch back and forth from watching TV with my kids or me playing games on the big screen. Most importantly I have some rather big hands and I find I actually prefer the button layout and the comfort level of the pad over say the pro controller which has a really impressive battery life or my other favorite controller of all time the Xbox One controller. In all of this I am not blind to the well-deserved criticism of the Wii U. It just hasn't really impacted my own personal experience. I often turn to PC for my multi-platform desires leaving home consoles to me as a more exclusive oriented platform. While I have many fond memories of the Super Nintendo reality is that I like the gamepad more and I love far more games in the Wii U than I ever did for my second favorite home console from Nintendo. So call me crazy and I may stand alone but the Wii U is my favorite Nintendo home console ever released.


congenital vaginal anomalies and pelvic organ prolapse can cause serious physical and emotional distress in women. Surgery and other treatments are available but often come with long-term complications. Tissue-engineered scaffolds offer a promising alternative solution as they mimic the natural environment of the vagina and can be used to reconstruct or repair damaged areas. This article was authored by Saeed Farzam-Far, Alyssa Elia, Megan Richer and others.


Well, I now have the pleasure of introducing to you a man who has come to be a very dear friend of mine, one who I greatly admire and respect, Ludwig Tumann. In addition to his work as a writer, Ludwig is by profession a composer, pianist, music educator, and producer. As a composer, Ludwig has written for varied media including orchestra, chorus, chamber, and solo. He studied composition and liberal arts at Harvard University where he graduated with honors. He continued his musical studies at UC Berkeley and under the composer Roger Nixon at San Francisco State University. His study of the piano was under the internationally recognized artists, Otto Fahler, who turned worldwide with violinist Yehudi Mayugin, and under Esplan Madoch himself a prized piano pupil of Barton. Ludwig has been a faculty member of the Chicago Conservatory College where he designed and taught courses in composition, theory, and non-western music. His works range widely in style from Renaissance choral pieces to ragtime to songs inspired by elements of traditional music from various continents. His compositions have been presented in several television and radio broadcasts as well as in venues in the UK, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, and Venezuela. And in the latter country he spent many years as a pioneer and served on the auxiliary board. Today he will begin by performing for us an original work for piano and immediately afterward will share with us reflections on the numerous ways that the arts can contribute to the process of community building. Friends, please join me in welcoming Ludwig to. Now it's my privilege to share with you some thoughts, some observations on the theme of the arts, and how they can contribute to the process of community building. You might be wondering if there's a connection between that theme and the piano composition we just heard. Well, I would say yes to a certain extent. The music was suitable I think for a gathering such as this conference and it might be appropriate for certain kinds of outreach activities to which the general public would be invited. But the piece we heard was fairly long and complex so it would not lend itself to be used in most community activities. Certainly not in most children's classes so it was probably not typical of most of the contributions the arts can make to community building. What I have in mind when referring to contributions of the arts involves in the vast majority of cases artworks produced by people who do not practice an art form for a living. They are far more likely to be arts enthusiasts, amateurs or students developing their talents and offering their services to the community. At this stage in the Baha'i community's development professional artists are not abundant but there is an abundance of individuals with artistic gifts that are waiting to be discovered, tapped and developed. And personally I feel that making use of such talents is a key part of raising human resources in the arts. The variety of activities for which such individuals have already begun to offer their services include devotional gatherings, study circles, activities for children and youth, feasts and holy days. Moreover with the new five-year plan calling upon us to give more attention to outreach through social discourse and social action this is another area where the arts can make a contribution. To get a better feel for the potential of the arts to contribute to community life it might be helpful to consider the extent to which we are already influenced by them. The potential of the arts is far reaching. They have the ability to attract and edify, to broaden vision, to touch the heart, to strengthen divine morality, to spiritualize the sentiments and galvanize the will of humanity. They can interact with and support virtually every facet of social and economic development. The arts touch our lives in countless ways. When used appropriately they can uplift and inform, lighten our burdens and be a source of comfort and tranquility for troubled souls. Beyond this the arts throughout the world have always helped to shape and reinforce a people's identity to transmit an outlook on life and its associated beliefs and values from one generation to the next. Their influence is impossible to calculate. Further still when we consider the wondrous vision of the arts that shimmers in the Baha'i writings when we consider their elevated role we find the most compelling reasons to make an effort to appreciate the spiritual nature of arts essence and to better grasp the magnitude of the service it can render. For from various sources quoted in the compilation on the arts we learned that arts and sciences generally should, quote, result in advantage to man ensure his progress and elevate his rank. That music is a ladder for our souls a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high. That the art of drama will become a great educational power that when a painter takes up her paintbrush it is as if she were at prayer in the temple. That the arts fulfill their highest purpose when showing forth the praise of God and that music, art and literature are to represent and inspire the noblest sentiments and highest aspirations. The arts have always played a major role in the life of individuals and communities. Our human environment is filled with a variety of art forms to such an extent that we may take them for granted and not even notice them. See the lamps above? The design on them? See the pattern on the rug? Below? Without touches like this we would be sitting in a bare box. You know? Every building we step into is a piece of furniture. Every device, painting, carpet piece of music and novel that we interact with had its beginning as an idea in the head and heart of an artist. The combined effect of all such art forms is to create an environment in which we are immersed practically all our lives. This environment is physical, intellectual and spiritual at the same time. And it affects us in many ways both obvious and subtle influencing our perceptions, our emotional state, our attitudes and indirectly our values. Whether we are aware of it or not we are surrounded by the arts every day from morning to night from birth to death. Now before we go on I'd like to offer a few slides that make the point of the influence of the arts in a rather graphic way. Here is a picture of Mount Carmel in the early 20th century about a hundred years ago. Let's just consider for a moment if there were no such thing as architecture landscape design and related art forms Mount Carmel would still look this way today and would continue looking the same indefinitely into the future. It would still be a holy mountain of course and it would remain in a state of natural beauty but it would not be able to reflect through the arts humanity's sense of beauty, awe and reverence in the presence of the beauty of God. But fortunately such art forms do exist and when they are masterfully applied by artists such as Hand of the Cause, William Sutherland Maxwell who designed the superstructure of the Shrine of the Bob and Hossein Amanat who designed the seat of the Universal House of Justice and other major structures on the Ark of Mount Carmel and Faribar Sahba who both designed the terraces and served as project manager to raise the remaining buildings of the World Center on the Ark. Then the result is this and here it seems a brief digression would be in order you know it's not every day that a talk about the arts and the differences to the terraces of the Mount Carmel has within its audience an artist who has given the world gifts of this magnitude. It's true that there were many hearts and hands involved in the great undertaking of bringing the terraces into being but the primary artistic inspiration had to flow through someone's mind and to become materialized through his tireless efforts. So Mr. Sahba as we remember the terraces and the House of Worship in India and the other gifts we have received from you please allow me to say on behalf of all of us and from the bottom of our hearts thank you. So now returning to our main theme the integration of the arts into the process of community building for the remainder of the talk I'm going to be focusing on a more limited group of arts of the kind that particularly lend themselves to involvement in community activities primarily but not exclusively but have in mind the performing arts such as music, theater and dance literature such as storytelling and poetry and visual arts such as painting, calligraphy photography and computer aided graphics and including weaving, embroidery quilt making banners and other crafts which like painting produce an image on a two dimensional surface the theme of integrating the arts into community life I believe is vitally important not only to those of us who already have an interest in the arts but to the community as a whole this is because artworks when informed and inspired by the divine teachings can reinforce and amplify their effect thereby helping to move the hearts and ennoble the conscience of humanity the arts are thus capable of significantly enhancing our advancement toward the community's developmental aims which are outlined in the new five year plan but to have this effect the arts would need to become more fully integrated into core community activities a fuller integration of the arts can come about I believe only if certain limiting habits of thought regarding the arts are overcome only if the spiritual nature and social dynamics of the arts are better understood in the light of Baha'i teachings and only if the community systematically channels the vitality of the arts into its activities throughout history the arts have contributed to the development of society not through the efforts of artists alone but through the collaboration between them and a receptive sensitized and informed community and that is why it is a matter that concerns us all friends in order to get some perspective on this subject I think it would be helpful to place my remarks in a broad context that of the worldwide development of the Baha'i community from messages of the universal house of justice addressed to the Baha'i world it's clear that the community is entering a very significant stage in its long-term development and the multiple ways that the arts can now contribute has everything to do with this juncture where we presently stand the house of justice has drawn our attention to some of the characteristics of this stage such as the culture of learning which has taken root in the community the systematization of the community's growth and consolidation the growing diversity and complexity of institutions that make up the administrative order and increasingly our outreach and interaction with the larger society to see this development from a long-term perspective it's helpful to use an analogy employed by Shoghi Effendi who wrote that the divine order Baha'u'llah is bringing into being is in an embryonic stage picking up on his analogy of the embryo perhaps we could compare the early evolution of the faith to an embryo's development within the womb we might compare the administrative order to the central nervous system which along with the child's defenses is the first system that an embryo needs to develop and the path leading toward a world order is perhaps analogous to the next stage in the embryo's growth where the nervous system continues to develop and the vital organs are beginning to take shape that is the stage it seems that the Baha'i world community is now entering through most of the 20th century the focus was necessarily on building the administrative order the embryo's nervous system and now that the basic structure of the administrative order is in place it's time for the embryo to develop its body and its vital organs this development of body and organs is partly reflected in new institutions and processes that have been emerging such as regional Baha'i councils regional training institutes clusters and the entire institute process but it is also reflected in the emphasis that the new five-year plan places on less tangible goods the quality of Baha'i community life the ennoblement of human relationships at the level of individuals institutions and community and the penetration of divine teachings into society to begin gradually transforming it into a new civilization in all these areas the arts have much to offer in fact the arts are sure to become deeply and directly involved with the building of the new civilization it has become clear that the institute process and other modes of learning that the Baha'i community is now engaged in worldwide are intended not only to spiritualize the community's size but also to establish the roots of the new divine civilization Baha'u'llah founded through his teachings the characteristics of that civilization will gradually emerge as the teachings are carried into action thereby transforming the lives of individual believers along with the life of the Baha'i community and beyond that eventually the life of society as a whole across history each of the manifestations of God including Moses the Buddha Jesus Christ and Muhammad released into the world energies that crystallize into a new civilization and it is important to note that in the building of each of these civilizations the arts played a vital role when we look at the examples provided by history we find that the period of transition to a new civilization the period when the embryos body and organs are beginning to develop is precisely when the arts begin to play a key role promoting that civilization's highest interests and giving visible expression to its ideals now to some extent what I'm saying is nothing new thanks to the encouragement that the Universal House of Justice has given over the years to involve the arts in Baha'i activities and with the resulting initial efforts made by the friends I think it's fair to say that overall the Baha'i community is coming to recognize that to include the arts in community life is beneficial there are indications however that in the community there is perhaps still a widespread sense that the use of the arts is a non-essential activity that the arts are somehow removed from the central priorities of the faith in a previous stage of our development when the central priority of the world community was to build a creative order perhaps the arts were non-essential and tangential at that time and perhaps the less than congenial attitude toward the arts that one can still find among some members of the community is a vestige perhaps of that earlier stage in our development it's an attitude that basically says music, skits, stories and the like are nice to have they're a pleasant addition that we can do without them in the new stage that the Baha'i community is entering though I would like to suggest that the arts will be capable of contributing greatly and in many ways every time the community's development arrives at a new stage there are some habits of thought that need to be examined some attitudes that need to be adjusted and regarding the arts if some adjustment were called for by our new stage of development I would suggest that it is the need to move beyond the limited view of the arts as merely a pleasant but non-essential activity for only when this view has been replaced by a more positive perspective will the arts have full scope to infuse their inherent vitality into the community's spiritual life and into its outreach to society described in the simplest terms the effect we could anticipate from giving more attention to the integration of the arts is this all activities in which the Baha'i community is involved we could expect to see become significantly more spiritual more attractive more dynamic and more effective let's take a look at some of the reasons why the arts can claim to possess such extraordinary potential and how they influence the human mind and heart there are two statements from Abdul Baha'i about music on one occasion he said music is an important means to the education and development of humanity but the only true way is through the teachings of God music, he said is like this glass and the teachings of God the utterances of God are like the water is absolutely pure and clear and the water is perfectly fresh and limpid then it will confer life on another occasion he wrote thank thou God that thou art instructed in music and melody singing with pleasant voice the glorification and praise of the eternal the living I pray to God that thou mayest employ this talent in prayer and supplication in order that the souls may become quickened the hearts may become attracted and all may become inflamed with the fire of the love of God note that music alone would not be able to produce the effects mentioned by Abdul Baha'i but when music is combined appropriately with the sacred word the combination can cause the hearts to become inflamed with the fire of the love of God in Abdul Baha'i's words we might almost say then that one of the powers of the word of God is that it's like a fuel that propels the divine cause and that the arts when added to that fuel can assist it to release more of its inherent energy the next point to which I'd like to invite your attention is that the arts are incredibly adaptable though the arts could never substitute for any of the current core activities they nonetheless can be molded to a company and invigorate such activities and can infuse them with additional spiritual potency and they can do this in ways that are appropriate for any culture and for any age group this allows the arts to serve universally as a kind of force multiplier if you will it's an ability unique among humanity's many vocations let's consider for a moment as essential as medicine is for humanity's well-being does it lend itself to being regularly practiced in the context of children's classes as indispensable as engineering is does it lend itself to become an integral part of devotional programs or trade and finance in study circles the arts may not be inherently concerned with children's classes or study circles than other professions are but one thing that all the arts we are talking about have in common is the ability to address themselves to humanity's spiritual life because of that they can be adapted to all such core activities and in the process can increase their effect for some examples of how the arts can contribute to community building let's look at some slides of artistic activities one area where the arts can be integrated is devotionals, feasts, and holy days when adequately employed the ability of the arts to touch the heart can make such events more inspiring for instance here we see a group in Colquith Lam, British Columbia who brought the arts into play for their observance of Rizvan by creating an interpretation of the garden of Rizvan in a home before guests entered some rose water was put on their hands and they were given a selection the arts also have the ability to simultaneously engage multiple regions of the human brain therefore their use can make the learning process in children's classes far more effective here we see a dramatic enactment by children in Apple Valley, Minnesota recalling the letters of the living and their search for the promised one and as you can see there are creative ways of conjuring up a 19th century robe and turban on the other hand the ability to strengthen bonds of friendship group identity and social cohesion makes activities for youth and junior youth far more appealing here we see a youth activity involving music and singing in Mendota Heights, Minnesota and here junior youth performing an Indian drum song at the Brighton Creek Conference Center in Washington what's more the arts expression of beauty through the senses design, light, color sound and motion can also make activities of outreach to friends and neighbors far more attractive in this connection it's helpful to keep in mind that the arts do more than simply affect our feelings rather they engage our minds as well as our hearts this is one reason the arts are so potent in its letter of December 27th 2005 to the continental conference of the continental boards of counselors the Universal House of Justice observed that the arts can enhance a surge of energy that mobilizes the believers this stems not only from the ability of the arts to stir the emotions but also from their capacity to be instrumental in the process of learning whenever Baha'i communities bring into play art that embodies or reflects the divine teachings in some way the artwork's educational and edifying influence will be felt not only in study circles but equally in other regular activities of community life not normally associated with learning such as devotionals, feasts and holy day observances now let's briefly consider how the arts can contribute to social discourse and programs of social action the natural ability of the arts particularly performance arts to reach out, touch the hearts of inquirers capture the imagination of the public and galvanize its will allows them to play a key role as a bridge between the Baha'i community and society at large for example imagine a proposed program to plant trees within a village or within a high density urban neighborhood to gain local support the program could be easily and effectively promoted to the residents of the area through storytelling and songs about nature skits about climate change or paintings portraying the residential area as it would look after the trees were planted building the Baha'i community not only entails growth in size resources and outreach but it also involves lifting the spiritual quality of life the significance of the arts like that of the core activities is not limited to their ability to directly promote growth in numbers they are also important for their ability to uplift and enrich the spiritual facets of individual and community life as a fundamental aspect of the new civilization further still the arts can also elevate the quality of a community's life on the social level to mention one of the many ways they do this the arts can powerfully reinforce the sense of belonging the sense of common identity and Baha'i identity shared by members of a given community this is especially the case when the arts involve participation in a group singing together dancing together or making a theatrical presentation together a special area in which the arts affect the quality of life concerns beauty it's true that the arts can be of great practical value to the cause of human unity at this time by proclaiming the divine message helping to accelerate the advance of clusters increasing the effectiveness of core activities attracting education educating and galvanizing the will of large numbers of believers and inquirers but transcending all such considerations the arts can also play a unique role in human life by satisfying our innate hunger for beauty this hunger is closely related to the appetite and search for spiritual truth in fact perhaps the two could be regarded as two sides of the same coin the God given capacity for attraction to beauty and attraction to divine truth is one of the most distinctive powers of the human soul and by developing this capacity arts that serve the spiritual aims of religion can increase our attraction to the beauty of God and thereby help fulfill the very purpose of our existence which the sacred writings tell us is to know, love and worship our creator today humanity's hunger for beauty is mounting as beauty in the human world becomes harder to find on all sides one is accosted by ugliness in its many forms moral degradation greed and callousness in the financial world environmental destruction the violence and abuse regularly portrayed in news and entertainment and a decline of civilization generally in such a world when our friends and neighbors find a setting where uplifting beauty is presented to them through the arts it is as though they have stepped into an oasis in the desert or set foot in the enchantment of a national park further still there is something about beauty that is central to religion for beauty touches the very roots of human motivation in the final analysis what is it that motivates a human being to make efforts to translate the teachings of God to reality is it fear of divine punishment is it hope for a reward Bahá'u'lláh calls us to a more elevated kind of motivation in the Kitab-i-Aqdás he writes observe my commandments for the love of my beauty so when the beauty expressed in an artwork is associated with divine qualities when it becomes a reflection of the beauty of the creative word of God then it stirs within our hearts a love for the beauty of God and the effect is light upon light there is no way to measure the value of such a spiritual and artistic experience friends we've been considering a wide range of potential benefits the arts can provide for those I'd like to observe that for this potential to be realized the Bahá'í community needs to have a systematic way to develop human resources in the arts to spiritualize the community's understanding of the nature of the arts and to gain skills in their application at the grassroots level a resource that could be of help in this regard is presently under development into the spiritual power of the arts and is intended for the general public rather than solely for artists it's designed to help lay a foundation for the integration of the arts into all aspects of Bahá'í community life the course is currently entering its fourth year of development and is sponsored by the Wings to the Spirit Foundation a Bahá'í inspired non-profit organization based in Gulf Breeze, Florida the course is being developed and refined at the grassroots through the evaluations of a growing body of volunteer participants in multiple countries for those who are interested in learning about it I'll be describing the project to develop this course this afternoon as one among the many attractive offerings in the breakout sessions thank you very much