Vision and reality: community involvement in Irish urban regeneration

This article examines the processes and outcomes of community involvement in six Irish urban regeneration case studies, three in Dublin and three in Belfast. The findings are part of a wider study using a Complex Adaptive Systems perspective to analyse public sector decision making. Key points included: (1) the community ‘vision’ of the regeneration as an emergent property, which converged towards the vision held by the implementing agencies in the four most successful programmes; and (2) the identification of three features that contribute to non-linear (unpredictable) behaviour: a history of community involvement; the availability of resources; and the intervention of key individuals at crisis points.

"Commando Raids on the Nature of Reality"

This essay examines Norman Mailer's theory of the "commando raid" shooting style that guided his film MAIDSTONE (1970). Mailer's own published commentary is compared with the various narrative and aesthetic concessions he had to make during both the highly-improvised production phase and the tightly-controlled post-production phase.

Perceptions and reality: Economic voting at the 2004 European Parliament elections

One of the most influential explanations of voting behaviour is based on economic factors: when the economy is doing well, voters reward the incumbent government and when the economy is doing badly, voters punish the incumbent. This reward-punishment model is thought to be particularly appropriate at second order contests such as European Parliament elections. Yet operationalising this economic voting model using citizens' perceptions of economic performance may suffer from endogeneity problems if citizens' perceptions are in fact a function of their party preferences rather than being a cause of their party preferences. Thus, this article models a 'strict' version of economic voting in which they purge citizens' economic perceptions of partisan effects and only use as a predictor of voting that portion of citizens' economic perceptions that is caused by the real world economy. Using data on voting at the 2004 European Parliament elections for 23 European Union electorates, the article finds some, but limited, evidence for economic voting that is dependent on both voter sophistication and clarity of responsibility for the economy within any country. First, only politically sophisticated voters' subjective economic assessments are in fact grounded in economic reality. Second, the portion of subjective economic assessments that is a function of the real world economy is a significant predictor of voting only in single party government contexts where there can be a clear attribution of responsibility. For coalition government contexts, the article finds essentially no impact of the real economy via economic perceptions on vote choice, at least at European Parliament elections.

Using Virtual Reality to Analyze Sports Performance

Improving performance in sports requires a better understanding of the perception-action loop employed by athletes. Because of its inherent limitations, video playback doesn't permit this type of in-depth analysis. Interactive, immersive virtual reality can overcome these limitations and foster a better understanding of sports performance.

A heuristic model for the simulation of the deformation of elastic and spongy material for virtual reality applications

This paper presents a practical algorithm for the simulation of interactive deformation in a 3D polygonal mesh model. The algorithm combines the conventional simulation of deformation using a spring-mass-damping model, solved by explicit numerical integration, with a set of heuristics to describe certain features of the transient behaviour, to increase the speed and stability of solution. In particular, this algorithm was designed to be used in the simulation of synthetic environments where it is necessary to model realistically, in real time, the effect on non-rigid surfaces being touched, pushed, pulled or squashed. Such objects can be solid or hollow, and have plastic, elastic or fabric-like properties. The algorithm is presented in an integrated form including collision detection and adaptive refinement so that it may be used in a self-contained way as part of a simulation loop to include human interface devices that capture data and render a realistic stereoscopic image in real time. The algorithm is designed to be used with polygonal mesh models representing complex topology, such as the human anatomy in a virtual-surgery training simulator. The paper evaluates the model behaviour qualitatively and then concludes with some examples of the use of the algorithm.