Immersive open surgery simulation

Realistic medical simulation has great potential for augmenting or complimenting traditional medical training or surgery planning, and Virtual Reality (VR) is a key enabling technology for delivering this goal. Although, medical simulators are now widely used in medical institutions, the majority of them are still reliant on desktop monitor displays, and many are restricted in their modelling capability to minimally invasive or endoscopic surgery scenarios. Whilst useful, such models lack the realism and interaction of the operating theatre. In this paper, we describe how we are advancing the technology by simulating open surgery procedures in an Immersive Projection Display CAVE environment thereby enabling medical practitioners to interact with their virtual patients in a more realistic manner.

Variable selection algorithm for the construction of MIMO operating point dependent neurofuzzy networks

An input variable selection procedure is introduced for the identification and construction of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) neurofuzzy operating point dependent models. The algorithm is an extension of a forward modified Gram-Schmidt orthogonal least squares procedure for a linear model structure which is modified to accommodate nonlinear system modeling by incorporating piecewise locally linear model fitting. The proposed input nodes selection procedure effectively tackles the problem of the curse of dimensionality associated with lattice-based modeling algorithms such as radial basis function neurofuzzy networks, enabling the resulting neurofuzzy operating point dependent model to be widely applied in control and estimation. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed construction algorithm.

Critical Mass: Sermon for the Church of the Atom (part of A Theatre to Address at Arnolfini, Bristol and Late at Tate Britain)

A Theatre to Address explores the work of contemporary artists who use text as both a visual and sonic form. In this programme, text appears not primarily as a means of communication, but as something which has shape and structure of its own. The Reading Room will also be displaying work that looks at text as concrete or visual poetry, and the script in artists' practice. Clare Gasson presents a new work The traveller - walking walking walking through ... that explores the connection between the text, the rhythm and the action. Maryam Jafri presents a performance-lecture Death With Friends, a body of visual and textual material that forms the basis for her new film of the same name. Pil and Galia Kollectiv present a radical worship for the apocalypse, featuring a sermon for the Church of the Atom with live music by Gelbart.

The long and the short of it: negotiating the right space for Asian theatre in the university drama curriculum

This article compares two approaches to teaching Asian theatre at undergraduate level in the United Kingdom. One approach samples a variety of different traditions as a means to challenge students to produce performance for a combined audience of hearing and deaf, whereas the other focuses on the effect of exploring one geographical area intensively over the course of one academic year. The article seeks to highlight the merits and pitfalls of both approaches, and questions whether student work that actively questions ethnicity and identity, as well as the tension between innovation and tradition, might be considered diasporic in character.

Distributed fuzzy logic for building management systems using local operating networks

This paper describes the development of an experimental distributed fuzzy control system for heating and ventilation (HVAC) systems within a building. Each local control loop is affected by a number of local variables, as well as information from neighboring controllers. By including this additional information it is hoped that a more equal allocation of resources can be achieved.

The experience of immediacy: emotion and enlistment in fact-based theatre

This article discusses emotion as a strategy of political agency in post-Thatcherite documentary theatre. The 1990s saw a renaissance in theatre writing based in directness and immediacy but based in two quite different forms of drama, In-Yer-Face theatre and fact-based drama. There are clear distinctions between these forms: the new brutalist writing was aggressively provocative; documentary theatre engaged the audience by revealing an urgent truth. Both claimed a kind of realism that confronted actuality, be that of situation or experience, through forms of theatre that cultivated emotional engagement. In-Yer-Face theatre used emotional shock to penetrate the numb cynicism that its creators perceived. Documentary theatre used observation and the cultivation of sympathy to enlist its audience in a shared understanding of what was hidden, not understood or not noticed. The article analyses the functioning of emotional enlistment to engage the audience politically in two examples of documentary theatre, Black Watch and Guantanamo