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Abstract Background With the growing role of social media influencers (SMIs) in providing health advice, concerns arise regarding the usefulness and reliability of online health information. This exploratory research focuses on health expert content creators (HECCs), who offer a unique perspective due to their combined medical knowledge and social media expertise. Methods We conducted semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews with HECCs to explore their views on SMI-driven health communication, their motivations for participating on social media, and the strategies they employ to counteract misleading health messages on the platforms. The study employed thematic qualitative text analysis to identify key themes and patterns. Results HECCs highlighted the complex role of SMIs in public health, acknowledging their potential to promote positive health behaviors while also noting the risks associated with the spread of inaccurate or oversimplified health messages. The findings emphasize the urgent need to broaden health communication research to address not only misinformation but also overgeneralized health messaging, which can be equally detrimental. Conclusions The findings underscore the importance of expanding health communication research to address both misinformation and overgeneralized health messaging. Practical recommendations are provided to mitigate the spread of misleading health information by SMIs, informed by the experiences and strategies of HECCs.

Abstract Gossen’s First Law describes the law of diminishing marginal utility. This paper aims to further verify the proposed hypothesis that Gossen’s First Law also holds in the modeling for Demand Side Management (DSM) with a thorough heat pump case study. The proposed hypothesis states that in general the complexity-utility relationship in the field of DSM modeling could be represented by a diminishing marginal utility curve. On the other hand, in data based modeling, when utilizing a large dataset for validation, the data integrity is critical to the reliability of the results. However, the absence of partial time series data may occur during the measurement due to missing sensors or IT related issues. In this work, an extensive real-world open dataset of a ground source heat pump is utilized for the case study. In the raw data, one key variable namely the flow rate is missing. Thus, three different algorithms based on machine learning and deep learning architectures namely Random Forest (RF), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Transformer are applied to predict the flow rate by utilizing an open loop forecasting. The raw data are first pre-processed with a time interval of one hour and then used for training, validation and forecast. Furthermore, a modified persistence model as the baseline is also defined. The predicted flow rate using LSTM yields the lowest error of 7.47 $$\%$$ % nMAE and 10.56 $$\%$$ % nRMSE respectively. The forecast results are then utilized in the following step of modeling of a heat pump use case. With the introduced quantification method for complexity and a modified version for utility, we further verify the proposed hypothesis with a longer time horizon of 7 days.

Political microtargeting is a popular campaign tool in elections worldwide. However, it is associated with democratic risks. Foremost, scholars and policymakers are concerned that citizens cannot cope with political microtargeting and, thus, stand vulnerable to persuasion. To assess this risk, an in-depth understanding of how citizens make sense of and cope with political microtargeting is required. However, empirical studies are scarce, partially inconclusive, and provide global rather than nuanced insights. This study contributes to this research by employing an innovative, qualitative gaze-cued retrospective think-aloud design to distinguish coping patterns and, based on that, assess citizens’ vulnerability to persuasion via political microtargeting (N = 25). The results reveal similarities regarding conceptual persuasion knowledge activation (i.e., advertising and targeting awareness) but differences in attitudinal and behavioral coping, illustrated along five coping patterns (avoidance, coherence assessment, ad quality assessment, partisanship bias, and neutral observation). Only individuals who cope by neutrally observing the political message seem vulnerable to political microtargeting. For individuals who cope with political messages based on their partisanship, political microtargeting might strengthen existing ties but backlash when employed by a non-preferred party. This study informs educators and policymakers about citizens’ coping mechanisms with political microtargeting and their potential vulnerability, which may guide intervention and regulation decisions.

Abstract BackgroundEntertainment media content is often mentioned as one of the roots of children’s unhealthy food consumption. This might be due to the high quantity of unhealthy foods presented in children’s media environments. However, less is known about the role of the centrality of food placement, that is, whether foods are interacted with, consumed, verbally mentioned, or appear unobtrusively. We also lack longitudinal research measuring both children’s unhealthy and healthy food consumption behaviors as outcomes. ObjectiveThe aim is to connect content analytical data based on children’s actual media diet with panel data in order to explain children’s food preferences. Moreover, this study not only focuses on the amount of healthy and unhealthy foods children are exposed to, but also on how these foods are presented (ie, centrally or not). Furthermore, we looked at the question of how parental coviewing can diminish (or enhance) the effects of unhealthy (or healthy) food depictions, and we measured healthy and unhealthy consumption as dependent variables. MethodsWe conducted a 2-wave panel study with children and one of their parents (of 2250 parents contacted, 829 responded, for a response rate of 36.84%; 648 valid cases, ie, parent-child pairs, were used for analysis), with 6 months between the 2 panel waves. We linked the 2-wave panel data for the children and their parents to content analytical data for movies (n=113) and TV series (n=134; 3 randomly chosen episodes per TV series were used) that children were exposed to over the course of 6 months. ResultsThere was no significant relationship between exposure to unhealthy food presentation and unhealthy (b=0.008; PPPPPPPPP ConclusionsWe conclude that simply presenting more healthy foods is not sufficient to combat children’s unhealthy food preferences. Further regulations may be necessary with respect to representations of unhealthy foods in children’s media.

Uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques are increasingly relevant phenomena in politics. However, it remains unclear how they share an underlying component and how partisanship can influence their associations with democratic outcomes. We introduce the concept of dirty campaigning, which is situated at the intersection of research on negative campaigning and political scandals. Dirty campaigning involves violations of social norms and liberal‐democratic values between elite political actors in terms of style and practices, such as uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques. In a two‐wave panel study (N = 634) during the 2021 German federal election campaign, we investigate the associations of perceived dirty campaigning by the least and most favorite party with distrust in politicians, trust in democracy, attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation, as well as perceived harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy. We find that perceived dirty campaigning by the least favorite party increases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy over time. In contrast, perceived dirty campaigning by the most favorite party decreases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy as well as attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation over time. Perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy increase distrust in politicians over time and vice versa. Our findings suggest that the outcomes of dirty campaigning can depend on partisanship and can have important implications for the quality of democracy.

IntroductionTo combat the current COVID-19 pandemic, high vaccination rates are of crucial value. However, young people in particular tend to be hesitant toward vaccination. On social media, young adults are often called to vaccinate in an aggressive tone, arguing that there is no choice than to vaccinate and that all else is wrong.MethodsIn an experimental study (N = 410), we investigated the effects of (a) empathetic vs. aggressive communication styles in social media postings and (b) the origin of the communicator on young adults’ supportive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations. We treated the gender of the communicator as a moderator, and expectancy violation, psychological distance as well as the perceived credibility of the communicator as mediators.ResultsFindings showed that an aggressive communication style generally had a negative impact on young adults’ COVID-19 vaccination attitudes, fully mediated by expectancy violation and perceived credibility of the communicator. Gender and the origin of the communicator did not moderate this mediation processes.DiscussionFurther implications for online health communication strategies are discussed.

The metaverse has sparked lots of interest worldwide as many giant tech companies are pursuing this futuristic idea. However, it has not been properly studied empirically by social science scholars yet. Considering the vital role played by media frames in affecting people's attitudes and behaviors towards the technology, this study examined the framing of the metaverse in popular news across Social Network Sites (SNSs) by cluster analyzing Entman's four operational frame elements. It identified five frames: economic prospect frame, unwanted future frame, consumer prospect frame, threatening future frame, and probable future frame. Overall, findings suggest a polarized framing of the metaverse on social media. While the majority of voices about the metaverse are optimistic, there is also a strong negative and dystopian perspective in more than one third of the SNS news. This positive or negative one-sided framing of the metaverse on SNSs may therefore fragmentize and polarize the audience, rather than informing in a balanced way. Implications for future research are discussed.

Kinder sind regelmäßig eingebetteten Werbeformen wie Produktplatzierungen (PP) ausgesetzt. Und obwohl Eltern die Konsumentensozialisation ihrer Kinder wesentlich beeinflussen, wurde der Perspektive der Eltern gegenüber dieser Werbeform und den damit verbundenen staatlichen Regulierungsmaßnahmen bis dato kaum Beachtung geschenkt. Die spärlichen Ergebnisse in diesem Forschungsbereich zeigen, dass Eltern PP kritisch gegenüberstehen und sich in Kinderprogrammen eine stärkere Regulierung wünschen. Zwei schriftliche Befragungen untersuchten die Regulierungswünsche von Eltern, deren Einstellungen gegenüber einer aktuellen Regulierungsmaßnahme (Einblendung von Hinweisen auf PP) und deren Bewertungen der praktischen Umsetzung dieser aufklärenden Botschaften. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich Eltern in erster Linie für ein gänzliches Verbot von PP in kindergerechten Inhalten aussprechen und diese Form der Regulierung stärker begrüßen würden als die derzeit umgesetzten Hinweise. Sowohl die Regulierungswünsche der Eltern als auch deren Einstellungen gegenüber den PP-Hinweisen und deren Bewertungen der praktischen Umsetzung stehen in Zusammenhang mit elterlichen Attributen wie dem werblichen Mediationsstil. Die Ergebnisse haben zudem gezeigt, dass Eltern nur beschränkt dazu in der Lage sind, ihre Kinder hinsichtlich PP zu sozialisieren. Vor allem aber scheint die bestehende Regulierung durch PP-Hinweise nicht bei allen Elternteilen gleichermaßen eine unterstützende Rolle bei der Förderung des kindlichen Persuasionswissens einzunehmen.

Prestressed concrete bridges built between 1960 and 1990 no longer meet today’s requirements due to loads and increasing mileage of higher loads that have increased since the bridges were designed. Prestressed concrete bridges are representative of Germany’s existing bridges. In order to deal with the large number of ageing bridges, recalculations and measurements for control as well as bridge monitoring are an important means of support. For both, it is important to find features that are damage-sensitive as well as robust against measurement noise, vehicle parameters (dynamics, geometry, weight, etc.) and environmental influences (temperature, wind, etc.). In this paper, we present features for damage detection based on the influence line, which are investigated with respect to the above requirements by using the analytical solution of the Euler–Bernoulli beam and more complex numerical bridge simulations. In this context, we restrict ourselves to the damage caused by bending stress. The features are calculated on the basis of single vehicle crossings over the bridge for the strain in the longitudinal direction as well as for the deflection of the bridge at different sensor positions. The ratio-based features are compared with raw data and natural frequencies in a classification. Additionally, the sensor positioning is considered. The investigations shows that the ratio-based integrated influence lines are equivalent to or better than the modal parameters, especially when noise and temperature changes are taken into account.

For many individuals, the media function as a primary source of information about preventative measures to combat COVID-19. However, a considerable number of citizens believe that the media coverage about pandemics is exaggerated. Although the perception of media exaggeration may be highly consequential for individual health behaviors, we lack research on the drivers and consequences of this perception. In a two-wave panel study, we examined associations between trust in science, perceptions of media exaggeration about COVID-19, and social distancing behavior during the lockdown in Austria (NT2 = 416). Results showed that trust in science at T1 led to less perceptions of media exaggeration about COVID-19 at T2. Furthermore, consistent with the theory of psychological reactance, perceptions of media exaggeration about COVID-19 at T1 caused less social distancing behavior at T2. Thus, findings suggest that trust in science may positively affect individuals' social distancing behavior by decreasing perceived media exaggeration about COVID-19 over time. Implications for research on media effects in times of COVID-19 and conclusions for journalists are discussed.

This paper describes a benchmark dataset for the detection of fuel particles in 2D and 3D image data in a rotary kiln combustion chamber. The specific challenges of detecting the small particles under demanding environmental conditions allows for the performance of existing and new particle detection techniques to be evaluated. The data set includes a classification of burning and non-burning particles, which can be in the air but also on the rotary kiln wall. The light-field camera used for data generation offers the potential to develop and objectively evaluate new advanced particle detection methods due to the additional 3D information. Besides explanations of the data set and the contained ground truth, an evaluation procedure of the particle detection based on the ground truth and results for an own particle detection procedure for the data set are presented.

Citizen science research has been rapidly expanding in the past years and has become a popular approach in youth education. We investigated key drivers of youth participation in a citizen social science school project and the effects of participation on scientific and topic-related (i.e., political) interest and efficacy. Findings suggest that females, more politically and scientifically interested and more scientifically efficacious adolescents were more motivated to learn from the project. Science efficacy was also positively related to external reward motivation (i.e., winning an award). Both learning and external reward motivation increased the likelihood of participation. Pre- and post-measurement further indicated that participation in the project slightly increased science interest, but not science efficacy. However, it did increase both political interest and efficacy. Furthermore, our data revealed a decrease in science efficacy and interest in those who did not participate in the project, indicating an increasing gap in adolescents’ scientific involvement.

There is an abundance of evidence that the presentation of unhealthy foods (UHFs) in different media has the power to shape eating habits in children. Compared to this rich body of work with regard to the effects of UHF presentations, studies testing the effects of healthy foods (HFs) are less conclusive. In particular, while the persuasive mechanisms behind HF presentations are well-understood, we lack insights about the role of messages factors, that is, how are (and should) HFs (be) presented in order to foster healthy eating habits in children. This paper tackles this research gap by suggesting the Persuasive Strategies Presenting Healthy Foods to Children (PSPHF) typology, classified along three pillars: (a) composition-related characteristics, (b) source-related characteristics, and (c) information-related characteristics. Against the background of the PSPHF typology, we review the available empirical evidence, outline pressing research gaps, and discuss implications for researchers, health promoters, and program planers.

BackgroundGiven that governmental prevention measures restricted most face-to-face communications, online self-disclosure via smartphones emerged as an alternative coping strategy that aimed at reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s psychological health. Prepandemic research demonstrated that online self-disclosure benefits people’s psychological health by establishing meaningful relationships, obtaining social support, and achieving self-acceptance, particularly in times of crisis. However, it is unclear whether these dynamics transition well to lockdown conditions where online self-disclosure must stand almost entirely on its own. Longitudinal investigations are needed to gain insights into the psychological functionalities of online self-disclosure during the COVID-19 pandemic. ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the temporal associations between smartphone online self-disclosure (as a communicative behavior) and critical indicators of psychological health (including psychopathological, as well as hedonic and eudaimonic states) during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. MethodsWe conducted a representative 2-wave panel survey between late March/April 2020 and May 2020. A total of 416 participants completed both waves (43.1% attrition rate, given n=731 participants who completed the first wave). A partially metric measurement invariant overtime structural equation model was used to determine the temporal associations among online self-disclosure, fear of COVID-19, happiness, and psychological well-being. ResultsThe analysis revealed that fear of COVID-19 significantly predicted online self-disclosure over time (b=0.24, P=.003) and happiness over time (b=−0.14, P=.04), but not psychological well-being (b=0.03, P=.48), that is, stronger COVID-19 fears at T1 prompted more online self-disclosure and less happiness at T2. Online self-disclosure, on the other hand, significantly predicted happiness (b=0.09, P=.02), but neither fear of COVID-19 (b=−0.01, P=.57) nor psychological well-being (b=−0.01, P=.57) over time. Participants who engaged more strongly in online self-disclosure at T1 felt happier at T2, but they did not differ from less-disclosing participants concerning COVID-19 fears and psychological well-being at T2. Importantly, happiness and psychological well-being were significantly related over time (happiness T1 → psychological well-being T2: b=0.11, P

RETRACTION NOTICE The authors requested to retract this paper. The retraction does by no means invalidate the findings of the study. The first author has integrated items on sexting-related privacy management into the survey. The source of these original items had been disclosed and cited in the paper. The original items were publicly available online at the time of paper submission and paper publication. However, permission to use those items was not granted, also not after publication. Therefore, the paper is retracted. Retraction date: January 26, 2023

Promoting health-related behaviors such as healthy eating or doing sports are important to counteract the problem of obesity, which is on the rise. In this regard, initial studies suggest that appearance compared to health framing can lead to negative body-related outcomes in young women. This study aimed to extend these findings by investigating the role of the context. Furthermore, as previous studies focused on young women only, we considered a more diverse sample. This seems especially important as health campaigns focusing on healthy eating and sports should appeal to a more diverse population. This experimental study (N = 286) follows a 2 (appearance frame vs. health frame) × 2 (social media vs. magazine website) between-subjects design. Results revealed that exposure to appearance-focused framing led to a lower positive mood compared with exposure to health-focused framing. These effects were most prevalent in overweight and obese participants. Moreover, participants in the social media condition showed lower body satisfaction and lower positive mood compared with participants in the magazine website condition independent of the frame. No other interaction effects occured. Overall, health promoters should focus their campaigns on the health aspects of health-related behaviors and should consider promotion on social media platforms. Also, they should keep in mind that not only the framing, but also the context, might have effects on body-related outcomes.

One of the most critical arenas for conflicts between parents and their children relates to food. Although parent-child conflicts about food are a real occurrence, this form of parent-child interaction has been rarely examined. Given the special role of parents in shaping children's diet, we especially focus on the impact of parental measures. This study investigates how parental communication strategies (i.e., active vs. restrictive) and feeding practices (i.e., overt control vs. covert control) affect the emergence of parent-child conflicts about food over time. Based on previous research, we assessed overt control through parents' use of food as a reward and restriction of their children's access to specific food types. We explored the impact of our predictors on both conflicts about unhealthy and healthy food with a two-wave panel study including parents and their children (N = 541; children aged between 5 and 11) in Austria between fall 2018 and spring 2019. Results of two multiple linear regressions indicated that predominantly parents' use of unhealthy food as a reward is connected to both healthy and unhealthy food conflicts. Furthermore, inconsistent parental educational styles increased the respective conflict potential. Active food-related mediation and covert control did not relate to food-related conflicts about unhealthy and healthy food. Parents' increased use of overtly controlling and restrictive feeding practices might not be only counterproductive for children's diet but also for food-related parent-child interactions. Instead, a “health discourse” (i.e., active food-related mediation) might prevent food-related conflicts and foster a healthy growth in the future.

The energetic usage of fuels from renewable sources or waste material is associated with controlled combustion processes with industrial burner equipment. For the observation of such processes, camera systems are increasingly being used. With additional completion by an appropriate image processing system, camera observation of controlled combustion can be used for closed-loop process control giving leverage for optimization and more efficient usage of fuels. A key element of a camera-based control system is the robust segmentation of each burners flame. However, flame instance segmentation in an industrial environment imposes specific problems for image processing, such as overlapping flames, blurry object borders, occlusion, and irregular image content. In this research, we investigate the capability of a deep learning approach for the instance segmentation of industrial burner flames based on example image data from a special waste incineration plant. We evaluate the segmentation quality and robustness in challenging situations with several convolutional neural networks and demonstrate that a deep learning-based approach is capable of producing satisfying results for instance segmentation in an industrial environment.

While most right-wing populist parties use negative political ads that openly attack foreigners and immigrants, some have begun to frame their campaigns more positively. This study examines the 2013 poster campaign on ‘brotherly love’ by the Austrian Freedom Party, which preaches love only for fellow countrymen, excluding foreign citizens. A quota-based experiment reveals that this campaign yields interesting effects on attitudes: Party opponents and ambivalent voters reacted with more negative campaign evaluations and less patriotic feelings. This, in turn, strengthened positive attitudes toward foreigners. Party supporters were unaffected by the poster advertisements.

Thermal power plants in different fields are regularly adapted to the state-of-the-art emissions standards, applying “The Best Available Techniques Reference”. Since 2016 in the power plant area new, more stringent limits for power plant units with a thermal output of more than 300 MW operated with black coal are valid. Usually, in order to reach the new limits e.g., for NOX emissions, downstream reduction processes (Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction, SNCR or Selective Catalytic Reduction) are applied, which use of operating resources (essentially ammonia water) thereby increase. By the means of an experimentally validated process, by which pulverized fuel is fed by oscillation through a swirl burner into a pilot combustion chamber with a thermal output of 2.5 MW, nitrogen oxides can be reduced without further activities, for instance from 450 mg/mN3 in non-oscillation operation mode (0 Hz) to 280 mg/mN3 in oscillation operation mode (3.5 Hz), normalized to an O2–content of 6% each. These findings were patented in EP3084300. Particularly promising are the experiments which utilize oscillation of a large portion of the burn out air instead of the fuel in order to minimize the fatigue of the pulverized fuel oscillator, amongst others. Thereby, the nitrogen conversion rate, which describes the ratio of NOX to fuel nitrogen, including thermal NOX can be reduced from 26% for non-oscillation operation mode down to 16%. The present findings show that fuel oscillation alone is not sufficient to achieve nitrogen oxides concentrations below the legislative values. Therefore, a combination of different primary (and secondary) measures is required. This paper presents the experimental results for oscillating coal-dust firing. Furthermore, an expert model based on a multivariate regression is developed to evaluate the experimental results.

Negativität ist ein zentrales Konzept in der Forschung zur politischen Kommunikation, doch hinsichtlich Konzeptualisierung und Operationalisierung besteht weitgehend Uneinigkeit. Auch beruhen viele Befunde auf der Analyse von Spezialzeiten wie dem Wahlkampf. Der vorliegende Beitrag zerlegt Negativität in die vier zentralen Dimensionen Tonalität, Konflikt, Untauglichkeit und Unvorteilhaftigkeit und untersucht die Politikberichterstattung von Leitmedien gezielt in den Routineperioden zwischen Wahlkämpfen. Er zieht Vergleiche zwischen drei deutschsprachigen Ländern (Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz), Online- und Offline-Angeboten, vier Mediengattungen (öffentlicher und privatwirtschaftlicher Rundfunk, Qualitäts- und Boulevardzeitungen) sowie verschiedenen Darstellungsformen und Themen. Es zeigt sich, dass Medien in Österreich, online und in meinungsbetonten Darstellungsformen negativer über Politik berichten als in ihren Vergleichsgruppen. Schweizerische Medien bringen mehr positiv gehaltene Beiträge und stellen politische Akteure seltener unvorteilhaft dar. Außerdem offenbart sich entgegen den gängigen Erwartungen, dass die Boulevardpresse unter allen Mediengattungen am wenigsten negativ schreibt.

During early adolescence children are increasingly using their smartphones not only throughout the day, but also before or even during the nighttime. Prior research has revealed that children's school performance might suffer because of late-night smartphone use. To gain a further understanding of the consequences of nighttime smartphone use on school performance, this study set out to examine whether children's nighttime smartphone use is associated with children's attentional problems over time and with their achieved and subjective school performance. We tested these associations using a two-wave panel study among children aged 10-14 years and one of their parents (parent-child pairs, N[subscript Time2] = 384). The findings revealed that children's nighttime smartphone use was positively related to parent-reported perceptions of children's attentional problems over time which were negatively related to both subjective and achieved school performance. We discuss the implications of these results for the regulation of children's smartphone use at night.

Two experimental studies investigated how news reports about terrorist attacks committed by unidentified perpetrators influence beliefs about the perpetrators and Muslims in general. In Study 1, a quota-based sample of 354 Germans was exposed to terror news coverage describing either non-Muslim or Muslim victims with no reference to the perpetrators of the attacks. Upon stimulus exposure, participants were asked the likelihood that the perpetrators were either Islamist extremists, far-right extremists, or lone operators. In Study 2, no information about the victims was provided, but the perpetrators were either Muslims or unidentified. In addition, we measured news consumers’ Islamophobic attitudes in both studies. Results from Study 1 revealed that participants attributed perpetrator-unidentified attacks to Islamist perpetrators when the victims were non-Muslims. In contrast, terrorist attacks directed against Muslim victims were more likely to be attributed to far-right extremists. Additionally, Study 2 revealed that news consumers associated perpetrator-unidentified terrorist attacks with Islamist extremists to an equal degree as terrorist attacks that were committed by Muslim perpetrators. Attributing the attack to Islamists was in turn significantly related to Islamophobic attitudes in both studies. Implications of these findings for journalism practice and society at large are discussed.