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Pictures speak louder than words, they say, and certainly it is easier to look at one graph than pages of figures. Now that costs are coming down more and more people are using graphics. Here, through the eyes of one of the leading suppliers of graphics equipment, we look at the equipment available and what you can do with it, and follow up with details of some of the products on the market from a variety of sources.

This paper aims to present the result of a scientometric analysis conducted using studies on high-performance computing in computational modelling. This was done with a view to showcasing the need for high-performance computers (HPC) within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry in developing countries, particularly in Africa, where the use of HPC in developing computational models (CMs) for effective problem solving is still low.

An interpretivism philosophical stance was adopted for the study which informed a scientometric review of existing studies gathered from the Scopus database. Keywords such as high-performance computing, and computational modelling were used to extract papers from the database. Visualisation of Similarities viewer (VOSviewer) was used to prepare co-occurrence maps based on the bibliographic data gathered.

Findings revealed the scarcity of research emanating from Africa in this area of study. Furthermore, past studies had placed focus on high-performance computing in the development of computational modelling and theory, parallel computing and improved visualisation, large-scale application software, computer simulations and computational mathematical modelling. Future studies can also explore areas such as cloud computing, optimisation, high-level programming language, natural science computing, computer graphics equipment and Graphics Processing Units as they relate to the AEC industry.

The study assessed a single database for the search of related studies.

The findings of this study serve as an excellent theoretical background for AEC researchers seeking to explore the use of HPC for CMs development in the quest for solving complex problems in the industry.

Provides a background on the concepts and development of data mining and data warehousing that need to be known by students and educators. Then discusses the applications of data mining for the construction of graphical mappings of the sensory space as a two‐dimensional neural network grid as well as the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and simulated annealing. Data mining is also used as a tool for the construction of computer graphics as solutions to the TSP and also for the activation of an output neuron for a three‐layer feed‐forward network that is trained using a Boolean function. Conclusions and future directions of the research are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to show how both the presentation and limitation of visual choices in massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPG) avatar creation interfaces tends to exclude or favor different real life social groups.

A novel method combining both quantitative and critical analysis of the syntagmatic‐paradigmatic structure of MMORPG avatar creation interfaces is used to inform the findings of this study.

This study concludes that as cultural interfaces, current fantasy themed MMORPGs remediate socially exclusive values both from fantasy literature and from their own game lore. The socially exclusive values deal largely with extreme and immutable racial and sexual dimorphism.

Interfaces which present users with color palettes and/or smooth slider‐based body modifiers do not lend themselves well to this method of analysis. In addition to this, only a handful of the popular MMORPGs are analyzed within the body of this work.

This paper demonstrates that MMORPG players and designers need to be more aware about how they are constructing and embedding social values in their worlds. Avatars are critical conduits for online social dynamics and embedding socially exclusive values may transfer negative ideologies from old media to new.

This paper offers one of the earliest critiques of embedded values in avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs. The paper aims to begin discussion on an overlooked area of now popular media that has not received any critical attention regarding its embedded messages of social inclusiveness or exclusiveness.

This paper aims to obtain a texture dental model with real images and improve the rendering effect of the dental model.

The paper proposes a semiautomatic method to construct a realistic dental model with real images based on two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) registration. First, a 3D digital dental model and three intraoral images are obtained by a 3D scanner and digital single-lens reflex camera. Second, the camera projection poses for every intraoral images are calculated by using the single-objective optimization algorithm. Third, with camera poses, the preliminary projection texture mapping is performed; besides, the seam between two textures is marked. Finally, the marked regions are fused based on the image pyramid to eliminate obvious seams.

The paper provides a method to construct a realistic dental model. The method can map three intraoral images to the dental model. The experimental results show that the textured dental model without obvious distortion, dislocation and seams is constructed with simple interactions.

The proposed method can be applied to the digital smile design system to improve the communication efficiency between doctors, patients and technicians.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach for designing different parts of a high voltage bushing. It also aims to consider technical and economical criteria for the optimum solution of the design problem.

A novel method for finding the optimal contours of different elements of high voltage bushings, including ceramic insulator, electrode, and flange angle is presented. The rational Bézier curves are used for defining the surface of the insulators and conductors of the equipment. Then, these curves are optimally adjusted to obtain an appropriate techno‐economical solution. The utilized optimization method is the improved bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA) with variable step sizes. In the design procedure, two‐dimensional finite element method (2D FEM) is used to calculate the performance parameters in each step of the design procedure. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, optimal design of different elements of a 110 kV bushing using BFA and genetic algorithm is presented, compared, and discussed as well.

The results of this research show that the technical design criteria and economical costs are satisfied by the proposed method. It is concluded that the rational Bézier curves can be implemented for other similar applications and optimal design of other equipment in the electrical engineering field combined with heuristic optimization techniques.

Bezier curves are used for the first time for bushing design purpose. Two heuristic techniques are also implemented in order to facilitate the comparison and avoid local solutions.

A two‐stage mapping model (TSMM), which can be thought of as a two‐levels stacked generalisation scheme for image classification, is presented. The model is proposed to bridge the semantic gap between low‐level image features and high‐level concepts in a divide‐and‐conquer manner, and aimed at minimising the gap by reducing classification errors. The idea is to design two level‐0 generalisers to classify colour and texture features into colour and texture concepts respectively. Then, a level‐1 generaliser is designed to classify the colour and texture concepts as middle‐(words)‐level concepts into high‐level conceptual classes.

This section on the broad issues of human resource management includes: a look at the problems facing joint ventures in Russia, which offers the advice: “put the locals in charge”; an examination of the increasing use of performance measurement in public sector management; and the results of a worldwide survey into issues facing human resource managers in the 1990s.

The basic information required by trainers who wish to use video to achieve training outcomes is presented for those who are not experts at video production, do not have the time or the interest to become expert, do not have, and do not wish to develop, expertise in electronics and do not have access to sufficient organisational resources to hire an expert. The essential information needed to make experiences with video as productive, creative and problem‐free as possible is included.