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IntroductionSociodemographic factors such as parental education level (ED) influence the physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SED) of primary school-aged children. In this context, family factors, such as the physical activity-related Family Health Climate (FHCPA), are relevant. However, the effect of FHCPA on the interaction between ED and children’s activity behavior has not yet been investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the mediating effect of FHCPA on the relation between parental ED and children’s device-based measured PA and SED.MethodsA total of 94 children and their parents participated in the study. Questionnaires were used to assess parental ED and FHCPA. Children’s moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and SED were measured using accelerometers. Bivariate correlations were conducted to investigate associations between parental ED and MVPA/SED/FHCPA. Mediation analyses were used to investigate the role of FHCPA in the association between maternal and paternal ED and children’s MVPA/SED. Results indicate a small correlation between maternal ED and FHCPA for the total sample (ρ = 0.318, p < 0.001) and a medium correlation for girls only (ρ = 0.570, p < 0.001). Mediation analyses showed no significant mediation effect. However, there was a significant direct association when considering FHCPA in the relation between higher maternal ED and SED in girls compared to lower ED.DiscussionFuture research should examine more complex models to further develop and refine to facilitate the derivation of more effective recommendations for health prevention programs, particularly for mothers and girls.

In the present work, we describe and discuss two studies in the field of motivating-speech research. The studies investigate voice-quality features (study 1) and pragmatic aspects (study 2) in German motivating speech, thereby adding to the current state-of-the-art in understanding motivating speech and language1. We find indications that a low amount of breathiness, a more periodic signal and a balanced distribution of specific pragmatic elements contribute to a motivating impact in German.

Abstract Background The number of patients with obesity continues to increase in our society. At the same time, digitalization defines our everyday life. Therefore, the question arises whether to use digital media for effective treatments against obesity. Aim of this review is a concise presentation of effects of media-assisted therapeutic approaches. Methods A systematic literature research in multiple scientific databases, PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library, was performed for literature published in the last 10 years (cut-off date 12.07.2017). Only randomized controlled trials using digital support for treatment and/or aftercare of obese adults aged between 18 to 70 years were included into the analysis. Results Overall, 14 trials with data on a total of 4979 participants were included in this review. Generally, there are positive trends for increased moderate to vigorous physical activity by the use of digital media. A simultaneous usage of various digital media, which focus on important aspects of activity behavior, has proven to be effective. A combination of various digital media shows the greatest positive effect and could significantly increase physical activity. However, the biggest potential was found in mixed approaches combining digital devices and personal face-to-face support. Conclusions Therapeutic approaches using digital media for supporting obesity treatment did not show superior benefit over traditional personal therapeutic methods. Nevertheless, using both methods together offered the greatest potential for successful obesity therapy. However, there is a backlog of transparency concerning information about the content of treatment. Furthermore, there is a lack of valid data about aftercare and follow-up.

This study investigates the interplay of spoken and gestural hesitations under varying amounts of cognitive load. We argue that not only fillers and silences, as the most common hesitations, are directly related to speech pausing behavior, but that hesitation lengthening is as well. We designed a resource-management card game as a method to elicit ecologically valid pausing behavior while being able to finely control cognitive load via card complexity. The method very successfully elicits large amounts of hesitations. Hesitation frequency increases as a function of cognitive load. This is true for both spoken and gestural hesitations. We conclude that the method presented here is a versatile tool for future research and we present foundational research on the speech-gesture link related to hesitations induced by controllable cognitive load.

Abstract Background Urban parks play an important role in promoting physical activity (PA) among adults and especially among older city residents. According to the socioecological approach the association of physical environments and psychosocial factors in the context of park-based PA of elderly have not been systematically examined until now, let alone the relevance of the city (urban area) on a cross-cultural level. This study investigated selected aspects of (1) the association of psychosocial and park environmental factors with park-based physical activity (PBPA) of older people; and (2) the moderating effect of city on the association of these factors with PBPA. Methods A face-to-face survey was conducted of a mixed-culture sample from different urban surroundings in Hong Kong (HK) and Leipzig (L). In six parks of each city physically active elderly (> = 60 years; HK: n = 306; L: n = 311) were recruited. Multiple linear regressions were used to analyse the association between psychosocial factors and perceived environmental factors with PBPA and the moderating effect of city. Results Controlled for demographic variables, all other psychosocial factors were significantly related to PBPA, except social support. In terms of environmental factors, PBPA was positively associated with safety, attractiveness, features and negatively associated with park time distance. Controlled for demographic variables, psychosocial and environmental factors, the moderating effect of city on the associations of park features and park time distance with PBPA was not significant in HK. In contrast, there was a significant positive relationship for park features and a negative relationship for park time distance with PBPA in L. Conclusions Psychosocial and perceived environmental factors significantly influence PBPA of older people. City moderates the associations of these factors and independently contributes to park-based PA of the elderly. The different interactions of environmental factors and urban area for PBPA of elderly can support policy makers on the municipal level in choosing adequate strategies for promoting PA of older people in parks.

Background: With an increase in the evidence for the associations between park-based physical activity (PA) and physical environments (especially park and neighborhood environments), researchers face an important challenge in interpreting and summarizing the evidence to develop environmental change interventions. An updated review is needed to better inform policymaking and environmental interventions. The current study aimed to systematically review the research on the associations of park-based PA with park and neighborhood environmental characteristics. Methods: We targeted English peer-reviewed articles from 5 electronic databases using keywords related to park-based PA, park environments, and neighborhood environments. Of the 4071 identified papers, 25 studies published between 2008 and 2016 met all the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Results: The characteristics of physical environment that received consistent support included paths/trails, lighting, and incivilities (e.g., broken glasses and litter). Mixed findings were revealed for 6 park environmental factors (unspecified active facilities, playgrounds and skating areas, fitness stations, picnic areas, greenness, and park size) and 2 neighborhood environmental factors (park density and park proximity). Conclusion: It can be concluded that paths/trails, lighting, and incivilities are 3 key physical environmental attributes of park-based PA. Given the inconsistent findings on park and neighborhood environmental factors, more robust designs such as prospective investigation are required. Keywords: Neighborhood, Park-based physical activity, Park environment, Physical environment, Systematic review

Background: To address the challenge of juvenile obesity, effective therapeutic concepts focusing on lifestyle changes are necessary. A relevant aspect is the media use, which is associated with nutrition and physical activity patterns and is influenced by socio-demographic factors. To optimise obesity therapy, the use of media depending on these socio-demographic factors needs to be analysed to adjust the aims, content and methods of interventions as well as to harness the potential of media use in obesity therapy. The question considered in this research is: What media and physical activity patterns show 11- to 17-year-old obesity therapy participants in dependence on socio-demographic factors? Methods: A national multicentre study was conducted in 2015. A questionnaire was used to survey 432 participants' aged 13.75 ± 1.4 years. Standardised instruments were used to assess the variables: physical activity, media use and socio-demographic factors. Results: The participants were 1-hour physically active for 3.9 ± 1.9 days/week, 14.1% daily. Televisions, mobile phones and computers were available in all socio-demographic groups and used for 2 h/day. Socio-demographic differences emerged in the duration of media use (h/day). Girls were found to use mobile phones for longer (2.49 vs. 1.90; p Conclusion: Compared to current recommendations, the sample shows reduced physical activity and increased media use, which vary between the groups. Hence, differentiated therapy approaches appear recommendable. Future research needs to evaluate, how media (despite its risks) can facilitate therapy, training and aftercare concepts.

Abstract Background The impact of proper aspiration of nasal secretions during upper respiratory infection on the frequency and severity of symptoms of lower airways has never been investigated. The study was aimed at testing if cleaning the nasal cavities of children with recurrent wheezing using an automatic nasal aspirator improves the upper and lower respiratory symptoms during the cold season. Methods Parents of wheezing children (age 3-72 mo.) answered questionnaires and learned using a nebulizer equipped (cases) or not equipped (controls) with an automatic nasal aspirator (DuoBaby, OMRON, Japan). During a 90-days monitoring period parents filled an electronic diary (BreathMonitor, TPS, Rome, Italy) on their child’s symptoms of the upper and lower airways. Results Eighty-nine/91 patients (43 cases, 46 controls) completed the study. Less days with upper (25.0% vs 46.4%, p = 0.004) or lower (21.8% vs 32.8%, p = 0.022) airways symptoms and less days with salbutamol inhalation (12.2% vs 16.9%, p

Abstract Background Upper and lower airways diseases share in part their pathogenic mechanisms and frequently occur simultaneously as “United Airway Disease.” Local treatment with nebulizers delivers anti-symptomatic drugs in either the upper or the lower airways, according to the particle size generated by the nebulizer. To our knowledge, no nebulizer combines both application ways. The aim of this study is to test the efficacy and usability of a new nebulizer (OMRON A3 complete), generating aerosols with particles diameters of 2-4.5 μm, 4.5-7.5 μm or >7.5 μm, according to the user’s choice. Methods Seventy-seven patients between 5 and 17 years of age with a diagnosis of rhinitis or asthma were examined. Oxymetazoline or Salbutamol were prescribed according to best clinical practice guidelines. Both drugs were administered through the OMRON A3 Complete nebulizer, with a particle dimension of >7.5 μm to treat nasal obstruction and 2-4.5 μm for bronchial obstruction. The efficacy of treatment was assessed by total nasal inspiratory airflow and FEV-1, Tiffeneau index (FEV1/FVC) and MMEF 25/75 respectively, 10 min before and after treatment. Symptom improvement and usability were measured by patients’ and doctors’ questionnaires. Results Overall, 77 patients seeking care for acute respiratory symptoms were assigned to the upper (n = 39) or lower (n = 38) airways disease group. For symptoms of the upper airways, 92% (95% CI, 77-97%) of the patients reported subjective improvement, while 87% (95% CI, 73-94%) did so for the lower airways. The average total nasal inspiratory airflow improved significantly (p = 0.030) among the patients with upper airways symptoms, from 275 ml/s (95% CI, 207-342 ml/s) to 359 ml/s (95% CI, 300-419 ml/s) after Oxymetazoline administration. All selected lung function parameters (FEV1, Tiffeneau Index and MMEF25-75) significantly improved among the patients with lower airways symptoms after inhalation of Salbutamol (p

A qualitative study of Austria’s national strategy against violence in the public school system introduced in 2008. The national strategy developed by researchers consists of six activity domains with specific goals and projects defined for each. The evaluation (1) analyzes how the realized projects contributed to the six activity domains, (2) evaluates the national strategy at a general level, and (3) provides future recommendations. Eight members of the steering committee were interviewed at two points in the implementation process. The systematic interviews were coded according to the goals of the activity domains. According to the interviewees most of the projects have been satisfactorily implemented. Networking and cooperation with the different actors in the field of violence prevention and cooperation among steering committee members have been improved. However, the national strategy has not achieved the intended public recognition. The lessons learned from the evaluation and its results are discussed.

The original article [1] contained a typesetting error in Table 5; this has now been corrected.

Conversational spoken dialogue systems that interact with the user rather than merely reading the text can be equipped with hesitations to manage dialogue flow and user attention. Based on a series of empirical studies, we elaborated a hesitation synthesis strategy for dialogue systems, which inserts hesitations of a scalable extent wherever needed in the ongoing utterance. Previously, evaluations of hesitation systems have shown that synthesis quality is affected negatively by hesitations, but that they result in improvements of interaction quality. We argue that due to its conversational nature, hesitation synthesis needs interactive evaluation rather than traditional mean opinion score (MOS)-based questionnaires. To validate this claim, we dually evaluate our system’s speech synthesis component, on the one hand, linked to the dialogue system evaluation, and on the other hand, in a traditional MOS way. We are thus able to analyze and discuss differences that arise due to the evaluation methodology. Our results suggest that MOS scales are not sufficient to assess speech synthesis quality, leading to implications for future research that are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, our results indicate that synthetic hesitations are able to increase task performance and that an elaborated hesitation strategy is necessary to avoid likability issues.

Background: In program evaluation interventions are usually examined for global effects but not always for differential effects. The reasoning behind the focus on global effects is that most of the concepts applied in data analyses, and most of the hypotheses being assessed, are variable-oriented. Consequently, existing differential effects will not be detected through global analyses based on a variable-oriented perspective. Accordingly, the intervention under evaluation will be wrongly considered to be ineffective. Purpose: This contribution, therefore, argues for the application of person-oriented analyses in addition to the common variable-oriented approach in order to identify the differential effects of an intervention during evaluation. Setting: Both approaches will be applied in the evaluation of a showcase program conducted in real life setting. The results of the two perspectives will be compared. Intervention: An internet supported program for the promotion of self-regulated learning in an academic context called Vienna E-Lecturing (VEL). Research Design: The evaluation of the VEL was conducted with a treatment-control-design. Data was collected at the beginning as well as at the end of the intervention. Data Collection and Analysis: Data regarding motivation as well as factual knowledge was collected. All motivational variables were assessed using previously published scales consisting of 3-4 items. Factual knowledge in statistics and methodology was tested regarding the aspects of reproduction, comprehension and the production of methodological content. Findings: The application of a variable-oriented perspective showed small effects with low practical relevance. Through the application of a person-oriented approach, and taking into account the theoretical framework of the intervention, three students groups which differed systematically in their learning motivation could be identified. For two of these groups the intervention was very successful. The discussion provides recommendations on how person-oriented approaches can be used systematically in program evaluation. Keywords: person-oriented approach; program evaluation; differential effects; learning motivation; variable-oriented approach; academic context