Walking Technique Research Articles

Use of Nordic walking in the complex treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms in chronic prostatitis

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) caused by chronic prostatitis (CP) are a common condition. Standard antibiotic therapy is often not justified, since bacterial prostatitis is presented in up to 10% of the cases, while there is no effect on the risk factors for the development and relapse of the disease. This study is aimed at one of the main risk factors for LUTS - a sedentary lifestyle. To increase the effectiveness of treatment for LUTS in men using the Nordic Walking technique. 84 patients with CP were examined, which were divided into 3 groups. The 1st group (control) included 32 patients who received standard antibacterial therapy. In the 2nd group (primary) - 32 patients who received complex therapy (antibiotic therapy + 4-week course of Nordic walking). The third group (comparison) included 20 patients who were prescribed monotherapy - Nordic walking for 4 weeks. The dynamics of clinical manifestations was assessed using CP Symptom Scale (NIH-CPSI) and the international symptom index for diseases of the prostate IPSS; the volume of residual urine, uroflowmetric data, and the level of leukocytes in the secretion of the prostate gland were estimated. Laboratory studies showed a significantly faster decrease in the number of leukocytes in the secretion of the prostate gland on the 7th and 14th day in the primary (2nd) group (p<0.001). Clinical symptoms according to the NIH-CPSI and IPSS scales significantly regressed in the primary group on the 14th and 28th days of therapy. Uroflowmetric data and the volume of residual urine improved more significantly in the primary group by the 14th and 28th days. Patients receiving combined therapy showed significantly better treatment results in the form of faster normalization of prostate secretion, regression of clinical symptoms, improved urine flow rate and a decrease in residual urine volume after 4 weeks of therapy. When choosing management algorithm for patients with LUTS, it is advisable to use an integrated approach: in addition to antibiotic therapy, Nordic walking is recommended 3 times a week for at least 4 weeks.

Using the Photographic Walk Technique in the Field Work of Probation Officers

Using the potential of the photographic walk the authors studied the organization of field work of probation officers. The main area of interest is the manner of perceiving, naming, familiarizing oneself with places, and place making by the respondents. The aim of the study is to 1) verify the usefulness (potential) of the photographic walk method in the suggested project and 2) describe the field work organization of probation officers, based on collected data. In the article we reached two key conclusions, encompassing 1) the perception and description of field work conducted “in progress,” and the connection between the physical space of the city and the professional work of probation officers, and 2) subjective, emotional and transcendental perception, including ascribing symbolic meanings to “the route” traversed in the course of work.

The infrared bands of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the 1.6–1.7 μm wavelength region

Context. The 3.3 μm aromatic C–H stretching band of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules seen in a wide variety of astrophysical regions is often accompanied by a series of weak satellite bands at ∼3.4–3.6 μm. One of these sources, IRAS 21282+5050, a planetary nebula, also exhibits a weak band at ∼1.68 μm. While the satellite features at ∼3.4–3.6 μm are often attributed to the anharmonicities of PAHs, it is not clear whether overtones or combination bands dominate the 1.68 μm feature. Aims. In this work, we examine the anharmonic spectra of eight PAH molecules, including anthracene, tetracene, pentacene, phenanthrene, chrysene, benz[a]anthracene, pyrene, and perylene, to explore the origin of the infrared bands in the 1.6–1.7 μm wavelength region. Methods. Density functional theory (DFT) in combination with the vibrational second-order perturbation theory (VPT2) was used to compute the anharmonic spectra of PAHs. To simulate the vibrational excitation process of PAHs, the Wang–Landau random walk technique was employed. Results. All the dominant bands in the 1.6–1.7 μm wavelength range and in the 3.1–3.5 μm C–H stretching region are calculated and tabulated. It is demonstrated that combination bands dominate the 1.6–1.7 μm region, while overtones are rare and weak in this region. We also calculate the intensity ratios of the 3.1–3.5 μm C–H stretching features to the bands in the 1.6–1.7 μm region, I3.1 − 3.5/I1.6 − 1.7, for both ground and vibrationally excited states. On average, we obtain ⟨I3.1 − 3.5/I1.6 − 1.7⟩≈12.6 and ⟨I3.1 − 3.5/I1.6 − 1.7⟩≈17.6 for PAHs at ground states and at vibrationally excited states, respectively.

Repeated Stackelberg security games: Learning with incomplete state information

Existing applications of Stackelberg Security Games (SSGs) have make use of Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches to learn and adapt defenders-attackers behavior. The learning process for defenders-attackers is represented by randomized strategies for the defenders applied against adversarial strategies of the attackers, which acquire feedback on their strategies observing the target that was defended-attacked. However, must of the existing SSGs RL models feature strong assumptions including that the defenders and attackers have perfect information about the behavioral model, producing inconsistencies.We address these problems proposing a practical framework for representing real-world security problems by empowering SSGs with a RL approach considering incomplete state information. The players’ behavior and rationality are restricted to a class of partially observed Markov games (POMG). We develop an algorithm that consider randomized strategies for both defenders and attackers and obtain feedback on their partially observed states. We propose adaptive rules for computing the estimated transition matrices and utilities considering the number of unobserved experiences in the game. Furthermore, we study the problems of convergence of the estimated transition matrices and utilities in SSGs. For the realization of the SSG, we propose a new partially observed random walk technique for the randomization in the scheduling of the patrol planning. Results are applied to security games between defenders and attackers, where the noncooperative behaviors are well characterized by the features of the learning process in Stackelberg games.

Redirected Smooth Mappings for Multiuser Real Walking in Virtual Reality

We propose a novel technique to provide multiuser real walking experiences with physical interactions in virtual reality (VR) applications. In our system, multiple users walk freely while navigating a large virtual environment within a smaller physical workspace. These users can interact with other real users or physical props in the same physical locations. The key of our method is a redirected smooth mapping that incorporates the redirected walking technique to warp the input virtual scene with small bends and low distance distortion. Users possess a wide field of view to explore the mapped virtual environment while being redirected in the real workspace. To keep multiple users away from the overlaps of the mapped virtual scenes, we present an automatic collision avoidance technique based on dynamic virtual avatars. These avatars naturally appear, move, and disappear, producing as little influence as possible on users’ walking experiences. We evaluate our multiuser real walking system through formative user studies, and demonstrate the capability and practicability of our technique in two multiuser applications.

Micro- and macro-level churn analysis of large-scale mobile games

As mobile devices become more and more popular, mobile gaming has emerged as a promising market with billion-dollar revenues. A variety of mobile game platforms and services have been developed around the world. A critical challenge for these platforms and services is to understand the churn behavior in mobile games, which usually involves churn at micro level (between an app and a specific user) and macro level (between an app and all its users). Accurate micro-level churn prediction and macro-level churn ranking will benefit many stakeholders such as game developers, advertisers, and platform operators. In this paper, we present the first large-scale churn analysis for mobile games that supports both micro-level churn prediction and macro-level churn ranking. For micro-level churn prediction, in view of the common limitations of the state-of-the-art methods built upon traditional machine learning models, we devise a novel semi-supervised and inductive embedding model that jointly learns the prediction function and the embedding function for user-app relationships. We model these two functions by deep neural networks with a unique edge embedding technique that is able to capture both contextual information and relationship dynamics. We also design a novel attributed random walk technique that takes into consideration both topological adjacency and attribute similarities. To address macro-level churn ranking, we propose to construct a relationship graph with estimated micro-level churn probabilities as edge weights and adapt link analysis algorithms on the graph. We devise a simple algorithm SimSum and adapt two more advanced algorithms PageRank and HITS. The performance of our solutions for the two-level churn analysis problems is evaluated on real-world data collected from the Samsung Game Launcher platform.

Estimation of Rotation Gain Thresholds Considering FOV, Gender, and Distractors.

Redirected walking techniques enable users to naturally locomote in virtual environments (VEs) that are larger than the tracked space. Redirected walking imperceptibly transforms the VE around the user with predefined estimated threshold gains. Previously estimated gains were evaluated with a 40° field of view (FOV), and have not been evaluated in the presence of a distractor-a moving object in the VE that may capture the user's attention. We conducted a 2 (FOV: 40°, 110°) × 2 (Gender: female, male) × 2 (Distractor: without, with) user study to estimate and compare thresholds for rotation gains. Significant differences in detection thresholds were found between FOVs, and significant differences were found between female and male gains with a 110° FOV. Males had significantly wider gains using a 110° FOV compared to a 40° FOV, and distractors affected females differently than males. Finally, strong correlations were found between simulator sickness scores and threshold gains.

A Markov chain-based multi-elimination preconditioner for elliptic PDE problems

Preconditioning is a simple but very powerful technique for accelerating the convergence of an iterative method for solving large, sparse linear systems. Traditionally, to design a good preconditioner implemented on a personal computer or a cluster of computer systems with CPUs, the preconditioner should meet the following three conditions. (a) the preconditioner is a good approximation of the inverse of the original linear coefficient matrix in some sense, (b) Setting up the components needed for the preconditioning operator is easy, and (c) the cost for the application of the preconditioner with a given vector is low. However, as new computer systems are rapidly invented, such designing strategies need to be reinvestigated. Motivated by the random walk technique, which is a computationally intensive task, we proposed a different preconditioner based on a multi-elimination algorithm, where the inversion operator is approximated explicitly by a partial product of the Neumann series of the iterative matrix for the original system. The computation of such an approximation takes advantages of the strengths of the GPU system. We report some numerical results implemented by CUDA PETSc. In our implementation, we adopt the hybrid GPU–CPU approach that preconditioning setup and application are performed on GPU, while Krylov subspace iteration, which requires a certain degree of communications is done on CPU. This method minimizes data communication between GPU–CPU, which is a bottleneck for many existing algorithms.

The walking rhythm of physical education teaching: an in-path analysis

ABSTRACTBackground: While studies of teaching frequently preserve an interest in teacher–pupil encounters that take place in certain spots, this article shows how teachers’ can be understood as in-path instructors, which is significant for student-based learning. This complements studies that have mainly focused on teachers instructional work taking place at certain spots.Purpose: The purpose is to describe how a PE teacher’s rhythmic labouring of the diverse settings in the gym creates a learning environment. By examining emplacement (spatial) and empacement (temporal) as important aspects of how learning environments are constituted, this article contributes a framework for studying and analysing a teacher’s work from a moving vantage point.Conclusions: Based on a video ethnographic approach and using a wearable camera attached to the teacher’s chest, the analysis of a station-wise lesson show how the teacher frequently covers a large part of the room and creates a web of educational challenges and possibilities. These brief encounters are identified as important tools that support each pupil’s rhythm and engagement in the learning activities and maintain the corporate rhythm of a class. Furthermore, by analysing the teacher’s temporal and spatial walking technique, which helps the pupils to transit between and accomplish practical exercises, the article highlights how the teacher’s ability to support pupils’ progression partly builds on a regional knowledge that is cultivated by the array of encounters.

Hierarchical-Biased Random Walk for Urban Remote Sensing Image Segmentation

Random walk (RW) technique, with benefit of handling complicated boundaries, has recently drawn increasing attention in image segmentation. In this paper, RW is employed for urban remote sensing image segmentation. To deal with the complex spatial distribution with heterogeneous structures, a novel hierarchical-biased RW (HBRW) method is proposed. Firstly, edge regions extracted by fractional differential are combined with histograms to obtain plentiful features. Then, Dirichlet process mixture model is used to generate hierarchical global prior distribution and local seeds, which substitute manual scribbles. Moreover, the proposed model can adapt to different resolution segmentation tasks through adjusting the concentration parameter. Final segmentation output is obtained by biased RW. Experimental results on urban high-resolution remote sensing images demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Modeling (and Learning from) Inventory Inaccuracies in E‐retailing/B2B contexts

ABSTRACTPractical experience and scientific research show that there is scope for improving the performance of inventory control systems by taking into account the discrepancies between the actual physical inventory levels and those recorded in the information system (IS). Such discrepancies, which are often referred to as inventory (record) inaccuracies, are a major concern in contemporary supply chains where commitments to orders are usually made based on IS records only. Empirical data obtained in two case studies motivate the development of a multiperiod inventory control model that explicitly accounts for the differences between physical inventory levels and IS stock records. Numerical experiments help derive some key managerial insights. We find that previous important results on the behavior of the optimal order quantity in the retailing environment do not necessarily apply in an e‐retailing/Business‐To‐Business (B2B) context. We adjust and apply the zero balance walk technique to the e‐retailing/B2B case and deduce a simple and efficient learning mechanism about the errors’ distributions. We close with an agenda for further research in this area.

Gallery Walk Technique to Improve Students’ Speaking Skill

This study aims to overcome some problems of students’ speaking ability at the Second Grade Students of Senior High School 6 Bengkulu Tengah, Bengkulu, Indonesia by using gallery walk technique. The participants of this study were 30 students. The method used in this study was Classroom Action Research (CAR). This study was carried out in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of four meetings. Each cycle consisted of four stages-planning, action, observing and reflecting. The result of this study showed that the students’ speaking ability was improved after the action was given to the students. Besides, using gallery walk technique could motivate the students to speak up confidently and also could make the students became more active and enjoy in learning process at the classroom. Most of the students gradually gained good scores at the end of the cycle. The minimum score of Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) of English subject was 71 (seventy-one). In cycle I, the result of the students’ score was failed, where the mean score of the students was 70.29 (poor). However, in cycle II, the result of the cycle showed that there was good improvement. The students’ mean score in this stage was 80.83 (very good). In conclusion, gallery walk technique could improve students’ speaking ability.Â

Floral diversity assessment of the buffer zones and vicinity of the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary (MHRWS), Davao Oriental: basis for inclusion to protected area zone

In 2016, municipal ordinances to expand the protected area of the MHRWS were issued with the aim of protecting and preserving the remaining biodiversity of the buffer zones and to strengthen the core zone. The municipal ordinances however, have limitations and do not guarantee legal promulgation. Hence, this study is on the gathering of complete and concrete floral data so that these expansion sites will become part of the protected area and encompassed in legal promulgations. Botanical fieldworks conducted from Oct to Dec 2017 were carried out in five study sites of the MHRWS expansion sites using 40 20 x 20 m sampling plot with a distance of 20 m between plots and opportunistic transect walk techniques. The study disclosed 228 taxa of plants, of these, 74 species were ferns and lycophytes, 6 species of gymnosperms, 30 species of herbs and vines and 118 species were trees and shrubs. There were three new records of ferns and lycophytes increasing the number of species to 155. There are 13 (5.7%) threatened species, 22 (9.6%) and endemic species. Findings suggest that species in each site are unique and maybe attributed to the vegetation present, elevation variations of the different sampling sites and anthropogenic activities. The proposed expansion sites harbor diverse threatened and plants deserving protection and conservation efforts. Results of this study support the contention that the expansion sites, which are included in the municipal ordinances, be part of the official protected area.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Pteropurpura falcatus (Sowerby, 1834)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Pteropurpura falcatu was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of P. falcatu was 15,319 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 29.4% for A, 38.3% for T, 15.6% for C, and 16.7% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (67.7%)-rich feature occurs in the P. falcatu mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 12 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbor-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Lirabuccinum musculu Collomon Et Lawless, 2013

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Lirabuccinum musculu was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of L. musculu was 15,290 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 30.2% for A, 37.7%% for T, 15.7% for C and 16.4% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (67.9%)-rich feature occurs in the L. musculu mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 12 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbour-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software (MEGA Inc., Memphis, TN).

The complete mitochondrial genome of Neptune subdilatata (Yen, 1936)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Neptune subdilatata was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of N. subdilatata was 15,402 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 17 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 30.59% for A, 38.42% for T, 15.19% for C and 15.73% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (69.01%)-rich feature occurs in the N. subdilatata mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 12 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbour-joining method using MEGA 5.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ceratostoma burnetti (Adams Et Reeve, 1849)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ceratostoma burnetti was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of C. burnetti was 15,327 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 24 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 30.2% for A, 38.7%% for T, 14.9% for C, and 16.2% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (68.9%)-rich feature occurs in the C. burnetti mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 15 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbour-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ceratostoma inornata (Récluz, 1851)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ceratostoma inornata was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of C. inornata was 15,317 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 21 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 29.1% for A, 38.1% for T, 15.9% for C, and 16.9% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (67.2%)-rich feature occurs in the C. inornata mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 15 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbour-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Boreotrophon candelabrum (Reeve, 1848)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Boreotrophon candelabrum was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of B. candelabrum was 15,208 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 21 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 30.45% for A, 38.83%% for T, 14.55% for C, and 16.15% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (69.28%)-rich feature occurs in the B. candelabrum mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 14 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbour-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ceratostoma rorifluum (Adams Et Reeve, 1849)

The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ceratostoma rorifluum was determined using genome walking techniques in this study. The total length of the mt genome sequence of C. rorifluum was 15,331 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 23 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 30.1% for A, 38.4% for T, 15.2% for C, and 16.3% for G, respectively, indicating that an A + T (68.5%)-rich feature occurs in the C. rorifluum mitogenome. The phylogenetic relationships of 15 mollusc species were constructed based on the complete mtDNA sequences by the neighbor-joining method using MEGA 7.0 and DNAMAN 6.0 software.