Virtual Flavor: High-fidelity simulation of real flavor experiences.

Food and drink are a key part of our lives. While Virtual Reality has the potential to provide high-fidelity simulation of real experiences in virtual worlds, the incorporation of flavor appreciation within these virtual experiences has largely been ignored. This paper introduces a virtual flavor device to simulate real flavor experiences.

Using virtual environments to facilitate refugee integration in third countries.

Virtual experiences (VEs) have significant potential to enrich emotional interactions, to encourage socialisation and improve communication. In education, VEs offer new approaches for delivering content. In this paper we consider the application of VEs for assisting refugees in Senegal to learn how to navigate the complexities of the UK health system; a substantial stumbling block for their integration into society and for their own health.

A Machine-Learning-Driven Sky Model.

Sky illumination is responsible for much of the lighting in a virtual environment. A machine-learning-based approach can compactly represent sky illumination from both existing analytic sky models and from captured environment maps. The proposed approach can approximate the captured lighting at a significantly reduced memory cost and enable smooth transitions of sky lighting to be created from a small set of environment maps captured at discrete times of day.

Viewing past science from the point of view of present science, thereby illuminating both: Philosophy versus experiment in the work of Robert Boyle.

The seventeenth century witnessed the replacement of an Aristotelian worldview by a mechanical one. It also witnessed the beginnings of significant experimental enquiry. Alerted by the fact that the methods involved in the latter, but not in the former, resemble those employed in later science, I argue the historical case that the emergence of the mechanical worldview and the emergence of science were not closely related and that it was the latter that was to develop into science as we have come to know it.

Qualitative novelty in seventeenth-century science: Hydrostatics from Stevin to Pascal.

Two works on hydrostatics, by Simon Stevin in 1586 and by Blaise Pascal in 1654, are analysed and compared. The contrast between the two serves to highlight aspects of the qualitative novelty involved in changes within science in the first half of the seventeenth century. Stevin attempted to derive his theory from unproblematic postulates drawn from common sense but failed to achieve his goal insofar as he needed to incorporate assumptions involved in his engineering practice but not sanctioned by his postulates.

Importance Driven Environment Map Sampling.

In this paper we present an efficient method for supporting image based lighting (IBL) for bidirectional methods. This improves both sampling of the environment, and the detection and sampling of important regions of the scene, such as windows and doors. These parts of the scene often have a small area proportional to that of the entire scene, so paths which pass through them are generated with a low probability.

A high-fidelity virtual environment for the study of paranoia.

Psychotic disorders carry social and economic costs for sufferers and society. Recent evidence highlights the risk posed by urban upbringing and social deprivation in the genesis of paranoia and psychosis. Evidence based psychological interventions are often not offered because of a lack of therapists.

The recognition of web pages' hyperlinks by people with intellectual disabilities: an evaluation study.

Background: One of the most mentioned problems of web accessibility, as recognized in several different studies, is related to the difficulty regarding the perception of what is or is not clickable in a web page. In particular, a key problem is the recognition of hyperlinks by a specific group of people, namely those with intellectual disabilities.

Materials And Methods: This experiment investigated a methodology based on the direct observation, video recording, interview and data obtained by an eye tracker device.

High-fidelity interactive rendering on desktop grids.

Desktop grids combine arbitrary computational resources connected to a network. However, the prevalent interactive rendering algorithms can't seamlessly handle the variable computational power offered by a desktop grid's nondedicated resources. In this article, a method for achieving interactive high-fidelity rendering on nondedicated machines such as desktop grids is developed, without the expensive requirements of a dedicated render farm.

Boyle and the origins of modern chemistry: Newman tried in the fire.

William Newman construes the Scientific Revolution as a change in matter theory, from a hylomorphic, Aristotelian to a corpuscular, mechanical one. He sees Robert Boyle as making a major contribution to that change by way of his corpuscular chemistry. In this article it is argued that it is seriously misleading to identify what was scientific about the Scientific Revolution in terms of a change in theories of the ultimate structure of matter.

Interactive highly realistic virtual reality as a tool for understanding the genesis and treatment of psychotic symptoms.

Schizophrenia can be a devastating lifelong psychotic disorder with a poor prognosis. National guidelines in the UK recommend the provision of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to all those suffering with psychotic disorders, but there is a lack of trained therapists in the UK able to provide such a treatment. Developing high quality automated technologies that can serve as an adjunct to conventional CBT should enhance the provision of this therapy, and increase the efficiency of the therapists in practice.

Morphology of the mesorectum in patients with primary rectal cancer.

Purpose: The size and contents of the pelvis differ between the genders, and this may affect mesorectal size and shape. The aim of this prospective pilot study was to examine radiologically the applied anatomy of the mesorectum.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients (35 male, 23 female) with primary rectal cancer who had suitable high-resolution staging pelvic magnetic resonance images between November 2002 and July 2004 were studied.

Evaluation of a protocol-based management of rectal cancer.

Introduction: The management of rectal cancer is multidisciplinary. We have devised and implemented a standardized protocol. This study was designed to evaluate the protocol and identify areas for improvement.

Surgery for locally recurrent rectal cancer.

Purpose: Resection of locally recurrent rectal cancer after curative resection represents a difficult clinical problem and a surgical challenge. The aim of this study was to assess the outcome of a series of patients who underwent resection of locally recurrent rectal cancer with curative intent.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed of 64 patients who underwent surgical exploration with a view to cure for locally recurrent rectal cancer under the care of one surgeon between April 1997 and April 2004.