Bullying is a continuing problem for adults with intellectual disabilities who live in group homes and attend adult day training settings together. Many different intervention approaches have been reviewed. Most research in this area focuses on bullying in schools with typically developing children, and therefore, a need for effective behavioral interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities still remains. Previous research has found success in teaching safety skills to a variety of populations using behavioral skills training (BST) and achieving generalization of these skills using in situ training (IST). This study evaluated BST to teach a response to bullying (RtB) to the victims of bullying, with added IST for participants whose skills did not generalize to the natural environment. This study attempted to remove the hypothesized reinforcer of social attention from the perpetrator of bullying. In situ assessments (ISA) were conducted in the natural setting after BST sessions had already occurred. When BST was not sufficient in evoking the correct response during ISA, IST was added for 2 participants and an incentive was added for 1 participant to increase motivation when responding still did not meet completion criteria. However, BST alone was successful in teaching the RtB to two participants, evident by their responses during ISA. The results of this study are consistent with previous BST and IST research.

On considère une marche aléatoire réelle dont les accroissements sont construits à partir d’une chaîne de Markov définie sur un espace abstrait. Sous des hypothèses de centrage de la marche et de décroissance rapide de la dépendance de la chaîne de Markov par rapport à son passé (de type trou spectral), on se propose d’étudier le premier instant pour lequel une telle marche markovienne passe dans les négatifs. Plus précisément, on établit que le comportement asymptotique de la probabilité de survie est inversement proportionnel à la racine carrée du temps. On étend également à nos modèles markoviens le résultat des marches aléatoires aux accroissements indépendants suivant : la loi asymptotique de la marche aléatoire renormalisée et conditionnée à rester positive est la loi de Rayleigh. Dans un deuxième temps, on restreint notre modèle aux cas où la chaîne de Markov définissant les accroissements de la marche aléatoire est à valeurs dans un espace d’états fini. Sous cette hypothèse et lorsque que la marche est dite non-lattice, on complète nos résultats par des théorèmes locaux pour la marche aléatoire conjointement avec le fait qu’elle soit restée positive. Enfin on applique ces développements aux processus de branchement soumis à un environnement aléatoire, lui-même défini à partir d’une chaîne de Markov à valeurs dans un espace d’états fini. On établit le comportement asymptotique de la probabilité de survie du processus dans le cas critique et les trois cas sous-critiques (fort, intermédiaire et faible) / We consider a real random walk whose increments are constructed by a Markov chain definedon an abstract space. We suppose that the random walk is centred and that the dependence of the Markov walk in its past decreases exponentially fast (due to the spectral gap property). We study the first time when the random walk exits the positive half-line and prove that the asymptotic behaviour of the survey probability is inversely proportional to the square root of the time. We extend also to our Markovian model the following result of random walks with independent increments: the asymptotic law of the random walk renormalized and conditioned to stay positive is the Rayleigh law. Subsequently, we restrict our model to the cases when the Markov chain defining the increments of the random walk takes its values on a finite state space. Under this assumption and the condition that the walk is non-lattice, we complete our results giving local theorems for the random walk conditioned to stay positive. Finally, we apply these developments to branching processes under a random environment defined by a Markov chain taking its values on a finite state space. We give the asymptotic behaviour of the survey probability of the process in the critical case and the three subcritical cases (strongly, intermediate and weakly).

Stock Prices have been modeled using a variety of techniques such as neural networks, simple regression based models and so on with limited accuracy. We attempt to use Random Walk method to model movements of stock prices with modifications to account for market sentiment. A simulator has been developed as part of the work to experiment with actual NASDAQ100 stock data and check how the actual stock values compare with the predictions. In cases of short and medium term prediction (1-3 months), the predicted prices are close to the actual values, while for longer term (1 year), the predictions begin to diverge. The Random Walk method has been compared with linear regression, average and last known value across four periods and has that the Random Walk method is no better that the conventional methods as at 95% confidence there is no significant difference between the conventional methods and Random Walk model. / Prediction of stock markets has been the research interest of many scientists around the world. Speculators who wish to make a “quick buck” as well as economists who wish to predict crashes, anyone in the financial industry has an interest in predicting what stock prices are likely to be. Clearly, there is no model which can accurately predict stock prices; else markets would be absolutely perfect! However, the problem is pertinent and any improvement in the accuracy of prediction improves the state of financial markets today. This forms the broad motivation of our study.

Nowadays, the use of mobile phones and other wireless devices has become an indispensable part of daily life. However, the focus of wireless communication is on infrastructure-based networks, making them prone to service outage if for any reason the infrastructure is overloaded or there is no network coverage. This is the case in a disaster area, where the infrastructure that supports the communication may be destroyed or could become useless. Different approaches to complement the exchange of information in these scenarios are emerging as research results. This thesis concerns Random-Walk Gossip (RWG), which is a protocol to disseminate information in disaster areas. RWG is a many-cast protocol for intermittently connected mobile ad hoc networks. The more people can communicate, the more chances of success there are. Therefore, it is useful to investigate the possibility of implementing such protocols on commodity devices. Since Symbian is currently the most widespread mobile phone operating system, this master's thesis presents the implementation of the protocol in that platform. The protocol is also implemented in Linux and Mac OS X in order to provide heterogeneity. Finally, some aspects of the performance of the protocol in different devices are analyzed, studying the CPU load, memory consumption, radio range, energy consumption and response time of different devices using the protocol. The studies show that the use of the RWG protocol in both laptops and handheld devices is viable.

The main objects of interest in this thesis are relatively hyperbolic groups. We will study some of their geometric properties, and we will be especially concerned with geometric properties of their boundaries, like linear connectedness, avoidability of parabolic points, etc. Exploiting such properties will allow us to construct, under suitable hypotheses, quasi-isometric embeddings of hyperbolic planes into relatively hyperbolic groups and quasi-isometric embeddings of relatively hyperbolic groups into products of trees. Both results have applications to fundamental groups of 3-manifolds. We will also study probabilistic properties of relatively hyperbolic groups and of groups containing ``hyperbolic directions'' despite not being relatively hyperbolic, like mapping class groups, Out(F<sub>n</sub>), CAT(0) groups and subgroups of the above. In particular, we will show that the elements that generate the ``hyperbolic directions'' (hyperbolic elements in relatively hyperbolic groups, pseudo-Anosovs in mapping class groups, fully irreducible elements in Out(F_n) and rank one elements in CAT(0) groups) are generic in the corresponding groups (provided at least one exists, in the case of CAT(0) groups, or of proper subgroups). We also study how far a random path can stray from a geodesic in the context of relatively hyperbolic groups and mapping class groups, but also of groups acting on a relatively hyperbolic space. We will apply this, for example, to show properties of random triangles.

In the recent years, virtual reality has been used as an effective tool for a wide range of areas such as training, rehabilitation, education and games. The affordability of the new generation headsets helped this medium to become more widespread. However, in order for virtual reality to become mainstream, more content that is specifically designed for this medium is needed. Since virtual reality is a different technology than the computer systems, different design principles may be required for these content for better user experience. One of the crucial components of virtual reality applications is locomotion, since the viewpoint of the user is very important in immersing the users into virtual reality and locomotion is used for moving the viewpoint of user in virtual environments. Locomotion in virtual reality is expected to have a direct effect on user experience in terms of many elements such as effort, enjoyment, frustration, motion sickness and presence. Up to date, many locomotion techniques for virtual reality have been studied in the literature. However, many of these techniques were evaluated in large tracked areas. Although professional motion tracking systems can track large areas, today’s new generation affordable commercial virtual reality systems can only track room scale environments. This dissertation aims at evaluating different locomotion techniques in room scale tracked areas for neurotypical individuals and individuals with ASD. Several previous studies concurred that virtual reality is an effective medium for the training and rehabilitation of individuals with ASD. However, no previous study evaluated locomotion in virtual reality for this specific population. Thus, this dissertation aims at finding out the suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for individuals with ASD. With these motivations, in this dissertation, locomotion techniques for room scale virtual reality were evaluated under three experiments: virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation system, evaluation of eight virtual reality locomotion techniques, and point & teleport direction specification experiment. In the first experiment of virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation system, locomotion, interaction, and display components in an immersive virtual reality system for vocational rehabilitation was evaluated by 10 neurotypical individuals and 9 individuals with high functioning ASD. The results indicated that neurotypical individuals favored real walking over walk-in-place; tangible interaction over haptic device, touch & snap and touch screen; and head mounted display over curtain screen. For the participants with high functioning ASD, real walking was favored over walk-in-place; touch screen was favored over haptic device, tangible interaction and touch & snap; and curtain screen was favored over head mounted display. In the second experiment, eight virtual reality locomotion techniques were evaluated in a room scale tracked area (2m by 2m). These eight locomotion techniques were: redirected walking, walk-in-place, stepper machine, point & teleport, joystick, trackball, hand flapping and flying. Among these locomotion techniques, the three were commonly used in virtual reality (redirected walking, walk-in-place and joystick), the two were unexplored –explored previously only by a few related studies (stepper machine and point & teleport), and the three were selected and/or modified for individuals with ASD based on their common characteristics (trackball, hand flapping and flying). These eight techniques were evaluated in an immersive virtual reality test environment. A user study was performed with 16 neurotypical participants and 15 participants with high functioning ASD. The results indicated that for neurotypical individuals, point & teleport, joystick and redirected walking were suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for room scale tracked areas whereas hand flapping and flying were not suitable. For individuals with high functioning ASD, point & teleport, joystick and walk-in-place were suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for room scale tracked areas whereas hand flapping and flying were not suitable. Locomotion techniques that are similar to point & teleport have been starting to be used in commercial video games, however were not evaluated in the literature. For this reason, a separate experiment was performed as the third experiment to investigate the effects of an additional direction specification component of point & teleport. Since this direction specification component exerted an additional cognitive load into the use of the same technique, which was recommended to be avoided for individuals with ASD in the literature, it was only evaluated by neurotypical individuals. An immersive virtual maze environment was developed and a user study was performed with 16 neurotypical users. The results indicated that the additional direction specification feature did not improve the user experience.

Context: Increased physical activity participation and fitness are cardioprotective. The EUROACTION trial demonstrated that a preventive cardiology programme significantly increased self-reported physical activity participation (Wood et al., 2008). Objective: The EUROACTION Physical Activity and Fitness (EPAF) Study aimed to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the EUROACTION physical activity and exercise intervention at increasing physical activity participation and fitness in people with coronary artery disease (COR) and those at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease (HRI) compared to standard care. Study design: A nested study within a paired cluster randomised controlled trial in eight European countries. Methodology: 12 pairs of centres (12 hospitals and 12 general practices) were randomised to receive the EUROACTION programme (INT) or be monitored for usual care (UC). In the INT hospitals, COR patients participated in a 16-week supervised exercise programme and a home-based activity intervention, delivered by a physiotherapist. In INT general practice nurses were trained to deliver personalised physical activity advice to HRI. Outcome measures: Objective physical activity participation was measured by mean number of steps per day (Yamax Digiwalker SW200 pedometer). Fitness was determined by the Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT) [hospital centres] and Chester Step Test (CST) [general practice centres]). Results: The mean number of steps in COR patients at 1–year was significantly higher in INT (+2310 steps, 95% CI +1226 to +3394 steps; P=0.003). The difference in cardiorespiratory fitness (ISWT) exceeded the minimal clinically important difference but was not statistically significant (+54 metres [95% CI - 102.8 to +211.0 metres]; P=0.42). In general practice centres, whilst no significant differences were found at 1 year in mean steps per day (+982 steps, 95% CI -569 to +2533 steps) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CST) at 1-year (+0.93 minutes, 95% CI -0.62 to +2.48 minutes), there was a difference in the change over time in fitness in favour of the INT (+0.94 mins [95% CI +0.23 to +1.66 mins]; P=0.02). Marked heterogeneity impacted on statistical power. All differences observed represented clinically important differences. Conclusion: The EPAF-Study has demonstrated that the EUROACTION programme was effective at increasing physical activity participation but objective measures indicate to a lesser degree than the self-reported physical activity outcomes previously published. Clinically important differences in objectively measured physical activity participation and cardiorespiratory fitness suggest further research, which is sufficiently powered, is warranted.

This thesis proposes a new chroma keying method that can automatically detect background, foreground, and unknown regions. For background color detection, we use K-means clustering in color space to calculate the limited number of clusters of background colors. We use spatial information to clean the background regions and minimize the unknown regions. Our method only needs minimum inputs from user. For unknown regions, we implement the alpha matte based on Wang's robust matting algorithm, which is considered one of the best algorithms in the literature, if not the best. Wang's algorithm is based on modified random walk. We proposed a better color selection method, which improves matting results in the experiments. In the thesis, a detailed implementation of robust matting is provided. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can handle images with one background color, images with gridded background, and images with difficult regions such as complex hair stripes and semi-transparent clothes.

A random walk is a mathematical formalization of a trajectory that consists of taking succesive random steps. The results od random walk analysis have been applied to computer science, economics, biology tec. This thesis is concentrated on connection between random walk and games theory especially with thinglering simulation. The application part of this thesis is focused on game strategies, that determine the amount of bet in next game.

This thesis is devoted to the technical analysis with the emphasis on design, testing and using of trading systems. Its objective is to find out whether it is possible for a trader to design and trade his own profitable trading system with widely accessible tools and methods. First part of the thesis is focused on the chart analysis and description of candlestick charts including their rate of profit success, all based on hands-on experience in a real market. It continues with a breakdown of most used methods based on moving averages. The second chapter fully describes main stage of trading system development and follows up with third chapter on practical application of the theoretical assumption on the real market conditions, i.e. to design a profitable trading system