• VRIA: A Web-based Framework for Creating Immersive Analytics Experiences

  Butcher, Peter; John, Nigel W; Ritsos, Panagiotis D.; University of Chester and Bangor University

  We present<VRIA>, a Web-based framework for creating Immersive Analytics (IA) experiences in Virtual Reality.<VRIA>is built upon WebVR, A-Frame, React and D3.js, and offers a visualization creation workflow which enables users, of different levels of expertise, to rapidly develop Immersive Analytics experiences for the Web. The use of these open-standards Web-based technologies allows us to implement VR experiences in a browser and offers strong synergies with popular visualization libraries, through the HTMLDocument Object Model (DOM). This makes<VRIA>ubiquitous and platform-independent. Moreover, by using WebVR’s progressive enhancement, the experiences<VRIA>creates are accessible on a plethora of devices. We elaborate on our motivation for focusing on open-standards Web technologies, present the<VRIA>creation workflow and detail the underlying mechanics of our framework. We also report on techniques and optimizations necessary for implementing Immersive Analytics experiences on the Web, discuss scalability implications of our framework, and present a series of use case applications to demonstrate the various features of <VRIA>. Finally, we discuss current limitations of our framework, the lessons learned from its development, and outline further extensions.
• Investor Regret, Share Performance and the role of Corporate Agreeableness

  Vohra, Shalini; Davies, Gary; Sheffield Hallam University and University of Chester

  Drawing on regret and reputation literatures, the authors demonstrate how positive corporate associations can mitigate the effects of share performance on investor regret. Three studies are presented, the first involved the observation of six investment club meetings. The second is a survey of investors exploring some of the findings of the first study, specifically the relationship between investor regret and corporate associations. The final study uses an experimental design to test whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) messaging can influence regret in the context of disappointing share performance by influencing corporate agreeableness. The main findings are that a range of corporate associations are important to investors, more so than actual share performance, in their decision-making. Specifically, the more agreeable (e.g. trustworthy, supportive) the company is perceived to be, the lower will be any regret felt over share performance. Finally, CSR information was found to affect regret via an influence on agreeableness.
• The Furling of the Sails

  Piasecka, Shelley; University of Chester

  Conference report on the Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut. A post-conference day trip for presenters and participants of "Melville’s Origins: The Twelfth International Melville Conference.”
• The Anniversary Politics of 17 June 1953 since 1990

  Millington, Richard; University of Chester

  This article analyses the politics of anniversaries through examination of the role that the anniversary of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953 has played in German politics since 1990. Prior to reunification, West Germany commemorated the date as the ‘Tag der deutschen Einheit’. This annual public holiday was a chance for politicians to express their views on the possibility of German unification and to lambast the East German regime. After 3 October became the ‘Tag der Deutschen Einheit’ in 1990, German politicians all but ignored the anniversary of 17 June until political commemoration of the date enjoyed a revival in 2003. This article shows that the ‘genre memory’ (Olick) of a commemoration ensures that continuities in political commemoration of an anniversary persist, even after long periods in which an historical event is not commemorated. Significantly, the analysis demonstrates further that consideration of the drivers of political mnemonic activity in the twenty-first century must now take into account the technology-led ubiquity of the media in motivating politicians to act. Moreover, the article concludes that politicians’ internationalisation of anniversaries has enabled them to find new political capital in dates that may appear to be politically redundant.
• Attachment Theory: Developments, Debates and Recent Applications in Social Work, Social Care and Education

  Harlow, Elizabeth; University of Chester

  Attachment theory may be considered controversial given that some of its foundational principles are contested. Not only this, it is currently being developed by insights from neuroscience, another perspective that academics have subjected to critique. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the twenty-first century in England and the United Kingdom in general, there has been a renewed interest in its explanation of child development, as well as its application in schools, social care settings and the practice of professionals such as social workers and teachers. This paper outlines the core principles of attachment theory, acknowledges some of the criticisms, then traces the ways in which the theory has been developed over time. The theory is then illustrated with a description of the ways in which it is being applied in the training of foster carers, the provision of support to adoptive parents and in the school environment.

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