Virtual Journey Research Articles

Gamified Text Messaging Contingent on Device-Measured Steps: Randomized Feasibility Study of a Physical Activity Intervention for Cancer Survivors.

BackgroundPhysical activity can confer diverse benefits on cancer survivors. Unfortunately, many cancer survivors are not sufficiently active. The efficacy of physical activity interventions for this population may be increased by grounding them in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Combining game design elements with wearable technologies may be a useful and scalable approach to targeting SDT constructs to promote cancer survivors’ physical activity.ObjectiveThe primary aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Steps2Health, a physical activity intervention for cancer survivors. It also aims to investigate the effects of the intervention on motivation, physical activity, and step count.MethodsWe randomized 78 insufficiently active cancer survivors to an experimental or comparison group. All participants received a physical activity tracker. The experimental group participants also received a set sequence of multimedia messaging service messages that were triggered in real time by meeting predetermined cumulative step count totals. Messages presented information about a virtual journey and included photographs and vivid descriptions of locations to increase autonomous motivation. Additional messages targeted perceptions of relatedness (eg, role modeling) and competence (eg, facilitating mastery experiences). We administered pre- and postintervention surveys and conducted 15 individual interviews to evaluate the intervention. We performed directed content analysis of qualitative data and conducted mixed effects linear modeling to investigate participants’ changes in motivation, self-reported physical activity, and device-measured step counts.ResultsThere was minimal loss to follow-up (3/78, 4%), the device wear rate was high (2548/3044, 83.71% of days), and technical problems with messaging based on real-time step counts were limited. Our qualitative data analysis revealed 3 overarching themes: accessibility, autonomous motivation, and relatedness. Participants successfully navigated the technological aspects and game design elements of the intervention. Participants found messages targeting autonomous motivation and competence or self-efficacy to be enjoyable and compelling, but one feasibility criterion for participant engagement (response rate to text messages) was not met. Messages targeting relatedness were less highly rated than the messages targeting autonomous motivation and competence or self-efficacy. During the intervention, both groups increased their motivation for physical activity (B=0.16; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.30; P=.04; d=0.49), and assignment to the experimental group was associated with increased self-reported leisure activity score (B=10.78; 95% CI 3.54 to 18.02; P=.005; d=0.64). The experimental group had greater increases in daily step counts over time (B=322.08; 95% CI 54.01 to 590.15; P=.02; d=0.28).ConclusionsThis study supports the feasibility of using real-time game design elements to target SDT constructs and increase cancer survivors’ physical activity. Overall, our findings support the acceptability of the Steps2Health intervention, but fostering active participant engagement and targeting relatedness may present additional challenges. Steps2Health may help cancer survivors increase their physical activity levels.

Young Adolescents’ Perceptions of a Faith-Based Physical Activity Intervention in Parochial Middle Schools

ABSTRACT Background: Faith-based school physical activity (PA) interventions are uncommon. Process evaluations of school PA interventions, in general, rarely include student participant voices. Purpose: We interviewed a subset of participants in Physical Activity for Lent (PAL) – a pedometer-based virtual journey that traces Jesus’s life travels – to understand their various perceptions of the program. Methods: Twenty-two participants (77% ethnic/racial minority) in grades 6–8 representing four Catholic schools participated in focus group interviews. A combination of inductive thematic analysis and deductive analysis was used. Results: Participants claimed to be mindful of being physically active; however, their qualifications of mindfulness primarily cited external cues such as friends. Motivation for and enjoyment of PAL were strongly linked to involvement of friends as competitors and PA co-participants as well as striving to walk like/with Jesus. Expressions of gains in knowledge of and connectedness with Jesus were mostly literal. Discussion: PAL was generally well received although its premise of participants being mindful to perform PA in the spirit of Jesus was subservient to reinforcement from friends. Translation to Health Education Practice: Faith-based interventions in schools should include a strong prosocial component. School staff may need to provide verbal input and modeling of connections between physical activity and faith to deepen young adolescents’ understanding of the religious purpose of such interventions.

The opera prevention project

The OPERA (Obesity, Programmes of nutrition, Education, Research and Assessment of the best treatment) PREVENTION PROJECT was a campaign of prevention of obesity that was held on October 11th–13th 2019 in Naples. The project was based on the organization of a medical, athletic, tasting and psychological path with the following objectives: 1) Providing a free medical examination to subjects with obesity; 2) providing athletic advices to perform physical activity; 3) performing a show-cooking in order to teach subjects with obesity to cook healthy food; 4) providing a gustatory and olfactory sensitivity assessment; 4) providing a psychological examination through questionnaires to evaluate obstacles to start a weight loss programme and to psycologically support subjects with obesity on a virtual journey made through a reshaping software programme. In conclusion the OPERA PREVENTION PROJECT could represent a health promotion intervention reproducible in all the countries having high rates of subjects with obesity and overweight.

Этнокультурные сообщества в архивном кино: «За Полярным кругом» Владимира Ерофеева

At the turn of the 1930s, the Soviet film industry produced for the wide screen many educational films about the life of remote regions of the country, allowing the audience to make a virtual journey through the multi-structured multinational Union of the SSR. The article is to introduce Vladimir Erofeev’s archival ethnographic film “Beyond the Arctic Circle” (1927), an assembled film about the “exotic” frontier region of the Far North. The socio-political and cultural-ideological context of the film creation is being analyzed. The author concludes that Vladimir Erofeev’s concept of documental film was radically different from that of Dziga Vertov (poetical Constructionism) or of Mikhail Kalatozov (revolutionary romanticism) or of Nikolai Lebedev (ideology journalism). The method consistently used by Vladimir Erofeev when creating his documentary films involved systematic study of source material and its retranslation in cinema; it thus may be called “anthropological newsreel.” Due to the specifics of silent cinema, the film “Beyond the Arctic Circle” is a kind of visual text consisting of approximately the same number of film images and captions alternating in a narration. The film is built as a sequence of episodes describing the geography and ethnography of distinctive North-Eastern outskirts of the country. In the course of the study it becomes obvious that this film is to the utmost a documental film / chronicle, which distinguishes it from many propaganda films of the Soviet period. The source base of the research is little-known archival film and photo sources, as well as data from the Soviet periodicals and excerpts from the theoretical heritage of the film director Vladimir Erofeev. The method discovered by Vladimir Erofeev, while working on the “Beyond the Arctic Circle” film, amount to combining research and creative approach, and thus his film conveys not just information about the events, but also provides their visual and emotional context, the vital “feeling” of the North. This is a case-study providing historical and anthropological analysis of the Far North image in the Soviet documentary. No wonder that the film “Beyond the Arctic Circle” has broken the framework of purely enlightening narrative and become an outstanding phenomenon in the cinema art and a significant experience of visual anthropology in the Soviet period, as well as a multi-layered historical source that has not lost its relevance for contemporary scientific research.

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul: The Success of an Immersive Exhibition at the Service of Endangered Heritage

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul: The Success of an Immersive Exhibition at the Service of Endangered Heritage

Physical Activity for Lent: Changes in and Associations Between Religiosity, Enjoyment, Motivation, and Physical Activity

ABSTRACTPurpose: Given the unequal distribution of physical activity (PA) opportunities across middle schools, alternative options for promoting it should be explored. Faith-based schools are positioned to offer religious-themed PA interventions, yet few have been reported. We replicated previous research by investigating the effects of the Physical Activity for Lent (PAL) program on change in step count (ΔPA) and its associations with religiosity, enjoyment, and motivation (four subscales). Method: Over the 6-week Lenten season, three Catholic middle schools’ students (n = 128) participated in a randomly allocated controlled crossover trial of a pedometer-based virtual journey that followed Jesus’s life path. We used the Reliable Change Index (RCI), general linear mixed models, and logistic regression to identify changes (pre- to post-Lent) in the independent variables, and their association with ΔPA overall and of being in the highest ΔPA tertile. Results: Between 11.6% (religiosity) and 34.7% (external regulation) of participants’ scores changed. School (School 3 > Schools 1 and 2 by ~2,400 steps/day, p < .001) and grade (6th grade > 7th and 8th grades by ~2,500 steps/day, p < .001) – but not religiosity, enjoyment, or motivation – were significant predictors of ΔPA. As RCI for intrinsic motivation and identified regulation increased, students were more (OR = 2.49) and less (OR = 0.74) likely, respectively, to be in the high ΔPA tertile. Conclusion: Desirable ΔPA was situational (i.e., school, grade) and highest ΔPA tertile was associated with autonomous motivation. Faith-based PA interventions may need to include additional components to realize even greater gains.

Understanding AWE: Can a Virtual Journey, Inspired by the Overview Effect, Lead to an Increased Sense of Interconnectedness?

Immersive technology, such as virtual reality, provides us with novel opportunities to create and explore affective experiences with a transformative potential mediated through awe. The profound emotion of awe, that is experienced in response to witnessing vastness and creates the need for accommodation that can lead to restructuring of one's worldview and an increased feeling of connectedness. An iconic example of the powers of awe is observed in astronauts who develop instant social consciousness and strong pro-environmental values in response to the overwhelming beauty of Earth observed from space. Here on Earth, awe can also be experienced in response to observing vast natural phenomenon or even sometimes in response to some forms of art, presenting vast beauty to its audience. Can virtual reality provide a new powerful tool for reliably inducing such experiences? What are some unique potentials of this emerging medium? This paper describes the evaluation of an immersive installation "AWE" – Awe-inspiring Wellness Environment. The results indicate that the experience of being in "AWE" can elicit some components of awe emotion and induce minor cognitive shifts in participant's worldview similar to the Overview Effect, while this experience also has its own attributes that might be unique to this specific medium. Comparing the results of this study to other virtual environments designed to elicit Overview Effect provides insights on the relationship between design features and participant's experience. The qualitative results highlight the importance of perceived safety, personal background and familiarity with the environment, and the induction of a small visceral fear reaction as a part of the emotional arc of the virtual journey – as some of the key contributers to the affective experience of the immersive installation. Even though the observed components of awe and a few indications of cognitive shift support the potential of Virtual Reality as a transformative medium, many more iterations of the design and research tools are required before we can achieve and fully explore a profound awe-inspiring transformative experience mediated through immersive technologies.

Changes in school-day step counts during a physical activity for Lent intervention: a cluster randomized crossover trial of the Savior\u2019s Sandals

BackgroundParticipation in regular physical activity (PA) has many health benefits for school-aged children. However, only about 20% of children worldwide meet recommendations for being sufficiently active. Children spend many hours per day at school and schools have a mandate for promoting PA. Private religious schools could serve as a novel source for religious-themed PA interventions.MethodsWe randomly allocated 2 clusters of 2 Catholic middle (grades 6–8) schools/cluster to a 2-week no treatment/4-week intervention crossover trial to determine the effects of a 20-day Lenten-themed PA intervention on 187 students’ pedometer steps taken at school. Specifically, students independently progressed through a workbook (Savior’s Sandals) that depicted and informed about 11 locations in the Holy Land where Jesus lived, visited, and/or ministered, and included Scripturally-based questions about each place for students to answer. In all, students would accumulate 110,000 steps if they completed the workbook virtual journey. General linear mixed models with restricted maximum likelihood estimation to compensate for missing data were used to compute the intervention effects on mean daily steps.ResultsThere were significant main effects for the intervention overall and by school and grade level. Follow-up tests isolated that a single school (Meandiff = + 2156 steps/day) and grade 6 students (Meandiff = + 1678 steps/day) across all four schools experienced the greatest treatment effects.ConclusionsReligious-themed PA interventions can be effective; however, specific adjustments may be needed to optimize the intervention’s effectiveness for a broader population of students.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN10273669. Retrospectively registered 23 Oct 2018.

Archaeology and Audience Development digital strategies: a research conducted with the team of Archeologia e Calcolatori

An internship at the CNR-ISMA was the starting point for the Master’s Graduation thesis ‘Audience Development in Archaeology: Strategies Based on Digital Innovation’ (Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi). The three-month internship was linked to several different educational initiatives carried out by the Institute. A series of activities was designed expressly: namely, analysis of the database of the scholarly journal ‘Archeologia e Calcolatori’, with a special focus on the articles related to data dissemination and education in archaeology, as well as Virtual Reality and multimedia projects; field observation of Audience Development initiatives in archaeology through on-site multimedia projects, presented in the cultural itinerary for the Virtual Museum of Archaeological Computing (Virtual Journey at ‘Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini’); and finally focus-group interviews both with high-school students, taking part to the Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro (ASL) program, and with expert scholars.

Bisphenol A binding promiscuity: A virtual journey through the universe of proteins.

Significant efforts are currently being made to move toxicity testing from animal experimentation to human relevant, mechanism-based approaches. In this context, the identification of molecular target(s) responsible for mechanisms of action is an essential step. Inspired by the recent concept of polypharmacology (the ability of drugs to interact with multiple targets) we argue that whole proteome virtual screening might become a breakthrough tool in toxicology reflecting the real complexity of chemical-biological interactions. Therefore, we investigated the value of performing ligand-protein binding prediction screening across the full proteome to identify new mechanisms of action for food chemicals. We applied the new approach to make a broader comparison between bisphenol A (BPA) (food-packaging chemical) and the endogenous estrogen, 17β-estradiol (EST). Applying a novel high-throughput ligand-protein binding prediction tool (BioGPS) by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud (to speed-up the calculation), we investigated the value of performing in silico screening across the full proteome (all human and rodent x-ray protein structures available in the Protein Data Bank). The strong correlation between in silico predictions and available in vitro data demonstrates the high predictive power of the method used. The most striking results obtained was that BPA was predicted to bind to many more proteins than the ones already known, most of which were common to EST. Our findings provide a new and unprecedented insight on the complexity of chemical-protein interactions, highlighting the binding promiscuity of BPA and its broader similarity compared to the female sex hormone, EST.

Bisphenol A binding promiscuity: A virtual journey through the universe of proteins_suppl

Bisphenol A binding promiscuity: A virtual journey through the universe of proteins_suppl

Simulating a Virtual Journey on Italian Alps through a Multisensory Mixed Reality Environment

Simulating a Virtual Journey on Italian Alps through a Multisensory Mixed Reality Environment

Staging the Silk Road Journey Abroad: The Case of Dunhuang Performative Arts

Staging the Silk Road Journey Abroad: The Case of Dunhuang Performative Arts

Evaluation of the knowledge of postoperative pain among participants of a virtual scientific journey in Anesthesiology

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Postoperative pain still undertreated, which is associated to increased morbidity and mortality. This study aimed at evaluating the knowledge of physicians participating in a virtual journey in Anesthesiology. Anesthesiologists are professionals often involved with postoperative pain management. METHODS: Five hundred participants of a virtual journey in Anesthesiology were invited to answer a questionnaire available in SurveyMonkey website on specific knowledge of postoperative pain and its management. RESULTS: The questionnaire was answered by 136 individuals and, according to 94.86% of them, postoperative pain management may decrease the incidence of chronic postoperative pain. For 72 (52.95%) participants, postoperative pain is adequately managed in their workplaces. For 71 participants, more than 50% of patients refer postoperative pain. Excluding fear of anesthesia, major concerns of patients, according to 49.26 and 37.5% of respondents, is fear of feeling pain during surgery and after surgery, respectively. For 74 (75%) participants, analgesic prescription as needed should be avoided for postoperative pain. CONCLUSION: In general, participants of the virtual journey are not familiar with the problems of postoperative pain, probably due to their limited contact with hospitalized patients. These deficiencies may be solved with ongoing education and and improvements in the medical school curricula and residency programs.

The virtual journey through history: from projects to building phases of one of the most famous baroque Royal Palace in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List

&lt;p&gt;In this paper we present an experience designed to introduce virtual reality and computer graphic modeling as representing tools in all phases of interpretation, analysis, reconstruction and communication of archaeological and historical researches on Venaria Reale Complex. Ten three-dimensional CG reconstructions represent exterior shapes of the Complex corresponding its five major building phases: the relationship between the old town centre, the Royal Complex and its Gardens has been consistently the result of an unified vision. The virtual pass into the history of that site since seventeenth century to the present has been realized with careful virtual camera flight through 3D reconstructions. The main purpose for the final video was to highlight the most significant elements that mark urban and architectural evolutions.&lt;/p&gt;

Combining EEG Data with Place and Plausibility Responses as an Approach to Measuring Presence in Outdoor Virtual Environments

Outdoor virtual environments (OVEs) are becoming increasingly popular, as they allow a sense of presence in places that are inaccessible or protected from human intervention. These virtual environments (VEs) need to address physical modalities other than vision and hearing. We analyze the influence of four different physical modalities (vision, hearing, haptics, and olfaction) on the sense of presence on a virtual journey through the sea and the Laurissilva Forest of Funchal, Portugal. We applied Slater et al.'s (2010) method together with data gathered by the Emotiv EPOC EEG in an OVE setting. In such a setting, the combination of haptics and hearing are more important than the typical virtual environment (vision and hearing) in terms of place and plausibility illusions. Our analysis is particularly important for designers interested in crafting similar VEs because we classify different physical modalities according to their importance in enhancing presence.

Highway design software as support of a project‐based learning course

AbstractTraditionally, practical training of students in highway design has been based on solving geometric problems without using professional highway design software. In a degree of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), teaching of this subject has been redesigned using a project‐based learning approach. Along the course, the students make a complete project of a highway using professional software and procedures. The highway design software chosen includes a simulator that makes a virtual journey along the highway from the point of view of a driver traveling on it. A detailed description of the course program and the software used is provided. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 468–473, 2012

Konotacyjne i asocjacyjne właściwości określeń identyfikujących barwy (na przykładzie nazw farb ściennych)

The article analyses the names that define colours of interior wall paints that are currently available on the Polish market. The results of the analysis are then used to identify and discuss substantial problems that accompany unequivocal classification of these descriptions (descriptors) into a delimitatrion of the category of proper names. More detailed analyses, approaching the available linguistic material from the perspective of their marketing value and function, have made it possible to reveal the manifestations of the ritualisation of language, and to provide a typology for the most frequently used themes employed by creators of names, such as “closeness to nature” or “virtual journey” that, in the process of perception, provoke and enhance particular associations in the recipient’s consciousness.

Virtual journey coupled with face‐to‐face exchange: enhancing the cultural sensitivity and competence of graduate students

This study attempted to enhance cultural sensitivity for graduate students at an American and a South African university, using a six‐week online List Serv, email buddy exchange, and two‐week face‐to‐face experience. After the course was over, results of the intercultural developmental inventory, using t‐tests for related samples, showed that there was a significant difference (alpha equals .04) in the universalism and cognitive frame shifting clusters as well as the overall developmental cultural level of sensitivity. Positive trends were noted in the areas of cultural self‐identity enhancement, and a decrease in inflation in the area of perceived intercultural sensitivity was noted.

Olive Tree in Emilia Romagna Region: an Ancient Crop, a New Environmental and Cultural Economic Resource

The National Research Council Institute of Biometeorology of Bologna (IBIMET-CNR) carried out a study aimed to the safeguard of autochthonous cultivars, through the census of secular olive tree plants, belonging to varieties at extinction risk or located in sites with historical or landscape add value in the Province of Bologna (North Italy) with particular attention to phytometric characters, sanitary status of the plants and the relation with their location characteristics. The presence of ancient plants in a specific site may indicate the absence of limiting factors for olive trees development. Considering the environmental factor values of these locations, a classification of the territory in classes of suitability for the cultivation was defined, with the support of a Geographic Information System (GIS). Ancient olive trees data were also collected and catalogued in an internet site (http://olivisecolari.ibimet.cnr.it) where it is possible to reach a virtual journey through studied olive trees. All plants are supplied with a phytometric card and a visualization on a map providing the exact location. The GIS elaboration of the environmental factors considered for the definition of the suitable lands for olive trees cultivation, identified 3556 ha as suitable, of which 972 ha highly suitable belonging to class I, where olive trees cultivation could be profitable because of suitable land morphology and the possibility of a good mechanization due to low field slopes.