What Are The Overall Benefits of Dance Improvisation, and How Do They Affect Cognition and Creativity?

The purpose of this thesis is to define the terms improvisation, cognition, and creativity, and therefore find the direct correlation between all three, and how they can all be involved within dance. The main intention is to determine whether or not improvisational dance can positively influence one’s creative mindset, thus improving the cognitive learning process. Furthermore, it is to discover if the development of a creative mindset can be established through dance improvisation at an early age. In this exploration, the majority of my research will come from the examination of previously conducted experiments, as well as guiding and observing an improvisation class of young adults, gaining insight simply from a dance teacher’s perspective in order to explore the idea of cognition leading to creativity through movement. In addition to the bulk of my research, I will also take a look at a class of younger students when attempting to answer the sub questions proposed, regarding the similarities within the correlation of dance improvisation and cognition, based upon different age ranges. Constructed from gathered sources, as well as my own personal explorations, research has found that there is a direct positive correlation between improvisational dance and the development of creativity, primarily due to the cognitive comprehension, retention and exploration capabilities improvisation provides for the mind. The enhancement of creativity allows for the mind to discover new and unfamiliar information that furthers one’s knowledge. This idea of creativity and the thinking/learning process stems further than just simply within the dance and arts realm. It can be influential within any part of society and can heighten the level of thinking and learning, as we know it

Radial cancellation in spinning sound fields

The radiating part of a circular acoustic source is determined on the basis of an exact analysis of the radiation properties of a source with angular dependence \exp \J n\theta and arbitrary radial dependence. It is found that the number of degrees of freedom in the radiated field is no greater than $k-n$, where $k$ is the wavenumber. The radiating part of the source at low frequency is the wavenumber. The radiating part of the source at low frequency is explicitly stated and used to analyze noise cancellation. The results are applied to the identification of sources in jet noise and an explanation for the low order structure of jet noise fields is proposed.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Fluid Mechanic

Moving least squares via orthogonal polynomials

A method for moving least squares interpolation and differentiation is presented in the framework of orthogonal polynomials on discrete points. This yields a robust and efficient method which can avoid singularities and breakdowns in the moving least squares method caused by particular configurations of nodes in the system. The method is tested by applying it to the estimation of first and second derivatives of test functions on random point distributions in two and three dimensions and by examining in detail the evaluation of second derivatives on one selected configuration. The accuracy and convergence of the method are examined with respect to length scale (point separation) and the number of points used. The method is found to be robust, accurate and convergent.Comment: Extensively revised in response to referees' comment

Information in spinning sound fields

The information content of a spinning sound field is analyzed using a combination of exact and asymptotic results, in order to set limits on how accurately source identification can be carried out. Using a transformation of the circular source to an exactly equivalent set of line source modes, given by Chebyshev polynomials, it is found that the line source modes of order greater than the source wavenumber generate exponentially small fields. Asymptotic analysis shows that the remaining, lower order, modes radiate efficiently only into a region around the source plane, with this region shrinking as the mode order is increased. The results explain the ill-conditioning of source identification methods; the successful use of low order models in active noise control; and the low radiation efficiency of subsonic jets.Comment: Submitted to Journal of the Acoustical Society of Americ

Quadrature for second-order triangles in the Boundary Element Method

A quadrature method for second-order, curved triangular elements in the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is presented, based on a polar coordinate transformation, combined with elementary geometric operations. The numerical performance of the method is presented using results from solution of the Laplace equation on a cat's eye geometry which show an error of order $P^{-1.6}$, where $P$ is the number of elements.Comment: 14 pages; 6 figures; submitted to International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineerin

DISCUSSION: AGRICULTURAL PRICES IN THE 1970'S: HOW WILL VALUE BE ESTABLISHED?

Demand and Price Analysis,