Tyrone Constitution, News for Tyrone and Ireland

Some countries are refusing to accept NI meat and dairy produce
The message that NI produce is free from foot-and-mouth disease is getting across to the rest of the world, the deputy first minister has said.

Martin McGuinness was speaking to reassure local firms which experienced problems exporting to Japan, Germany and south America.

Northern Ireland is exempt from the export ban imposed in the rest of the UK after the Surrey outbreak.

But there has been confusion and some importers are wary.

“Whilst there may have been some initial confusion in many different parts of the world over the use of the words ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘Great Britain’, I think we are now making it clear to people that the island of Ireland is totally and absolutely free of foot-and-mouth,” Mr McGuinness said.

MEP Jim Allister has said any attempt by Germany to refuse NI exports of dairy and pork products, would be an unacceptable breach of EU rules.

Cancelled

He contacted the office of the internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, after shipments of sausage meat to Germany had been cancelled.

“I’m saying to Commissioner McCreevy, who’s in charge of the internal market, that it’s up to him to stop this defiance of EU rules,” Mr Allister said.

“It really is quite appalling that when success is obtained in securing exemption for Northern Ireland, which puts us in the category of any other part of Europe with the exception of GB, that there should be a member state who would seek to defy that.”

Meanwhile, First Minister Ian Paisley has spoken to the Foreign Office about the difficulties encountered by some NI firms shipping meat and dairy products abroad.

Precautions are being taken at Fermanagh County show
Disinfectant mats are being used as a precaution againt the disease

A shipment of pork from County Tyrone was stopped from entering Japan and a local dairy company claimed Germany had refused its produce.

Mr Paisley said he would stress that NI had not been affected by the outbreak.

Dale Farm said orders were at risk after what it claimed was Germany’s decision to ban all UK milk products.

Difficulties were also being encountered in shipping dairy products to South American markets.

The pork stopped in Japan was sent from Grampian Foods in Cookstown.

Hugh McReynolds, the firm’s managing director, said it was not good news for Northern Ireland’s pig farmers.

Grampian said it was also experiencing difficulties in shipping its products to the US and Germany.

On Monday, Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew’s confirmed that Northern Ireland was to be allowed to continue to export meat and dairy products.

Doctors are turning to graphic artists to help patients better understand their illness and course of treatment.

The artists turn medical images from 3D anatomical scans into less formidable forms, suitable for patients.

Trials of the system have shown it can aid understanding and deepen dialogue between patients and their care givers.

The system is also being used as part of a project to raise awareness among diabetics of some of the most serious side-effects of their condition.

“Doctors talk shop, which can be difficult for patients to penetrate,” said John McGhee, a PhD student and 3D computer artist from the University of Dundee, who helped to direct the visualisation project.

The tools and methods used to pass on information about illnesses and cures were as various as the doctors themselves, Mr McGhee said.

“None are that great,” he said.

But, by producing simplified images from detailed MRI scans, for example, patients can get a far better grasp of what is happening inside them, how it came about, and what is being done about it, he said.

Knowledge base

The effect of the images has been used in a study of 18 patients suffering from arteriosclerosis, an illness that causes hardening of the arteries which can, over time, lead to heart attacks and stroke.

Computer image of cancer cell
Cancer cells can also be imaged using the technique

Initially, Mr McGhee said, the trial was all about whether the patients - average age 71 - could understand what the images depicted.

But, he said, it proved its effectiveness in other ways too.

“It was about imparting information but more importantly about getting a dialogue going on to help to get the patient discussing what is going on,” he said.

Exposure to the images also helped in subsequent discussions, said Mr McGhee.

“When they talk to health professionals and go armed with better questions and knowledge of their anatomy,” he said.

Early warning

In a related project, computer graphics derived from medical images are being used in a bid to prompt diabetics to keep an eye on their health.

Computer generated image of an eye
Diabetes-induced blindness goes through several distinct stages

Run by PhD student Emma Fyfe, also from the University of Dundee, the project has produced a five minute film that explores the effect diabetes has on the retina.

In some cases diabetes can cause abnormalities in the blood vessels serving the retina and make sight deteriorate.

It was important for diabetics to have regular scans to catch the side effects of diabetes at the earliest opportunity, she said.

“If they catch it early they can stop it,” said Ms Fyfe. “But they cannot go backwards; they cannot cure it.”

The film has been shown to the Scottish Diabetes Group and there are plans to show it to other groups around the UK.

The research was shown off at the Siggraph computer graphics convention being held in San Diego, US from 5-9 August.

Games like Crysis are hoping to push the boundaries of realism

More than good looks are needed to make a great video game, according to Glenn Entis, chief technical officer at games giant Electronic Arts.

Mr Entis told the Siggraph conference that games makers had to use much more than graphics to make their creations believable, engaging and fun.

Game worlds must not just look lifelike, he said, they must also react in a realistic manner too.

Tools that let players create content were also becoming important, he said.

Siggraph, held in San Diego, is the world’s leading computer graphics conference.

During his speech, Mr Entis warned against assuming that games which look lifelike automatically take on the characteristics of the real world.

He said this problem was most acute when creating believable human video game characters.

Exquisitely sensitive

Humans were so exquisitely sensitive to how other people move and behave, said Mr Entis, that the smallest differences undermine the almost perfect physical representations of people becoming possible on next-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

“When a character’s visual appearance creates the expectation of life and it falls short your brain is going to reject that,” he said.

Improvements in graphics would not boost believability, he said. “Just adding polygons makes it worse.”

He said that to add authenticity EA had made extensive use of motion capture to catalogue how stance, gait and the tiny movements of facial muscles combine when people display different emotions.

Every part of nature that can respond will respond
Glenn Entis, EA

Using this, he said, the game maker had created a movement system for characters that unites these gross and fine-grained changes.

“It gives us alertness and empathy that we have never really had in our games before,” he said.

“Model and motion are what gives fidelity for non-interactive characters,” said Mr Entis, “but it is responsiveness and intelligence that really brings them alive.”

“Players have to relate to the characters they are holding in the palm of their hand,” he said.

Movement matching

The emotion and movement matching system was going to get its first airing in the next release of EA’s basketball game, NBA Live.

Similar demands held true for game worlds as well as the characters that inhabit them, said Mr Entis.

Game worlds must also react in a lifelike manner to whatever people do, he said. Often this can be done via good physics that dictates how scenery reacts when blown up or how liquids or gases move to produce an engaging, thrilling game.

“Every part of nature that can respond will respond,” he said.

Mr Entis said the forthcoming Crysis title was a good example of a game in which the responsiveness of the world made it more fun to play.

“It’s about worlds that look beautiful but behave beautifully as well,” said Mr Entis.

Finally, he said, easy to use tools for players were growing in importance and in some cases had become as important as the gameplay itself.

EA research

For example, he said, EA research had revealed that more than half the people that played The Sims spent more than half the time they play it just making stuff - be it characters or game extras such as furniture.

“They love making the stuff so much that it becomes the game,” he said.

EA was now working on a European Xbox 360 title called Virtual Me that gives players unprecedented control over the looks and wardrobe of the character they create. The game will be released alongside a TV programme put together by Big Brother creator Endemol.

The move by the games industry to give players more tools, such as the much-anticipated Spore game by Sim City creator Will Wright, was like the trend towards user-generated content seen on the web, said Mr Entis.

“It’s an exploding area,” he said.

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