Austrian Project Research Articles

Social Assistive Robotics to Motivate Cognitive Training in Patients with Chronic Depression

AbstractBackgroundApproximately 280 million people in the world suffer from depression, which can become chronic and often leads to cognitive problems. International literature shows that depression is known as one of the 12 main modifiable risk factors for dementia, and therefore, cognitive training is essential to foster cognition and to reduce the risk for dementia. In the last years new technologies, like robots, have been developed to support health care professionals with limited resources in their daily practice. The aim of the Austrian project AMIGA is to develop and test a gender‐sensitive and customizable Social Assisting Robotic Technology (SAR) including a cognitive training to enhance cognition and to improve the quality of life of people with chronic depression in psychiatric hospitals.MethodIn the first step of the project, the requirements of the target group will be determined using qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g. survey, interviews). Based on the results, the interactive SAR prototype will be developed which will use human‐robot interactions to motivate users to perform cognitive training with the BRAINMEE‐App on a daily basis. Target group‐specific as well as gender‐sensitive content for holistic stimulation with visual, auditory and interactive elements will be included. The prototype will then be tested in a usability study with 12 end users including patients to revise the robot. At the end, a randomized controlled trial with additional interviews including 60 patients will be conducted to test the final robotic platform.ResultAt the conference, the first results of the project will be presented.ConclusionAMIGA is the first project to investigate, on a scientific basis using neuropsychological theories, care requirements and human factor measurement technologies, the fundamental design parameters for interactions with social robotics, which contribute to increasing motivation for cognitive training, to efficiently relieve stress and strengthen the resilience of patients with depression during training. AMIGA, as a research prototype, will lay the foundation for future system developments that provide motivational support for improved adherence to training activities in the mental health care field, which includes depression and other mental illnesses, like dementia and further brain‐related disorders as well as learning disorders.

Social Assistive Robotics to Motivate Cognitive Training in Patients with Chronic Depression

AbstractBackgroundApproximately 280 million people in the world suffer from depression, which can become chronic and often leads to cognitive problems. International literature shows that depression is known as one of the 12 main modifiable risk factors for dementia, and therefore, cognitive training is essential to foster cognition and to reduce the risk for dementia. In the last years new technologies, like robots, have been developed to support health care professionals with limited resources in their daily practice. The aim of the Austrian project AMIGA is to develop and test a gender‐sensitive and customizable Social Assisting Robotic Technology (SAR) including a cognitive training to enhance cognition and to improve the quality of life of people with chronic depression in psychiatric hospitals.MethodIn the first step of the project, the requirements of the target group will be determined using qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g. survey, interviews). Based on the results, the interactive SAR prototype will be developed which will use human‐robot interactions to motivate users to perform cognitive training with the BRAINMEE‐App on a daily basis. Target group‐specific as well as gender‐sensitive content for holistic stimulation with visual, auditory and interactive elements will be included. The prototype will then be tested in a usability study with 12 end users including patients to revise the robot. At the end, a randomized controlled trial with additional interviews including 60 patients will be conducted to test the final robotic platform.ResultAt the conference, the first results of the project will be presented.ConclusionAMIGA is the first project to investigate, on a scientific basis using neuropsychological theories, care requirements and human factor measurement technologies, the fundamental design parameters for interactions with social robotics, which contribute to increasing motivation for cognitive training, to efficiently relieve stress and strengthen the resilience of patients with depression during training. AMIGA, as a research prototype, will lay the foundation for future system developments that provide motivational support for improved adherence to training activities in the mental health care field, which includes depression and other mental illnesses, like dementia and further brain‐related disorders as well as learning disorders.

Educational Transitions in War and Refugee Contexts: Youth Biographies in Afghanistan and Austria

This article addresses educational transitions under conditions of multiple insecurities. By analyzing empirical data of two research projects with youths in Afghanistan and refugee students in Austria, we show how young peoplemake sense of the social and educational inequalities they encounter on their educational pathways within different national, socio‐political, and institutional contexts. We present in‐depth analyses of two cases to elaborate how young people in different parts of the world conceive of their futures when basic security needs are not met, and how they make sense of the social and educational inequalities they face during their transition processes. After living through repeatedly fractured perspectives, young people have to make sense of their biographical experiences and continuously (re)design their plans while facing uncertain futures. In the Afghan Youth Project, we reconstructed a collective—and morally charged—biographical orientation of future plans. This orientation can also be understood as a critical response to persistent fragility and inequality and suggests an imagined generational hold and sense of belonging. In the Austrian project Translating Wor(l)ds, we reconstructed continuing experiences of educational exclusion, marginalization, and devaluation in different migration societies throughout refugee routes. Educational transitions, which can be challenging for all young people, take on special relevance under these conditions. Combining biographical and socio‐psychological research perspectives allows us to reconstruct educational processes as cumulative, non‐linear processes and to reveal the ambiguities, contradictions, and ruptures woven into them, as well as the subjects’ constructions of sense and agency.

Participative Cooperation During Educational Transition: Experiences of Young People With Disabilities in Austria

The results of international research studies show that early and careful planning, preparation, and implementation can contribute significantly to a successful transition from compulsory education to vocational training and employment. One key aspect in this respect is participative cooperation (i.e., involvement and active participation in the planning process), above all of the youths with disabilities themselves as the target group, but also of their parents. The project Cooperation for Inclusion in Educational Transitions of the Austrian Science Fund is the first Austrian project conducting research into participative cooperation. It aims to find out about and analyse the experiences of cooperation of youths with disabilities and their parents with professionals during the period of transition from education to vocational training and employment. Based on qualitative, longitudinal data material from the project, the present article illustrates the experiences of participative cooperation of the youths with disabilities who participated in the project along with their parents. Our main aim is to show the experiences reported by the interviewed youths and their parents concerning cooperation during the period of transition from education to employment. An additional goal is to provide impulses to improve the planning of vocational transition from education to employment in relation to the inclusion of youths with disabilities.

Using an off-the-shelf platform to develop a gender-sensitive health care robot for older adults and chronically ill people

Social robots are often envisioned as companions for older adults and chronically ill people to support them in everyday life (taking medication, staying physically active, etc.). For all these tasks a high-level of personalization is required, in order to achieve satisfying support as well as a high degree of engagement to motivate people to continue a healthy lifestyle. In the Austrian project RoboGen, we wanted to achieve exactly that. Using an off-the-shelf low-cost robotic platform (Q.bo One), we extended it with a learning agent and designed the interaction in a gender-sensitive way. In this brief communication we present the evaluation results derived from a case study with potential users and semi-structured interviews with experts. Our results show the challenges that come with off-the-shelf robotic platforms and usability (speech recognition, text-to-speech output etc.), also highlight the perception of the potential users as well as how experts rated the concept.

The Congress of the German Princes in Frankfurt in 1863: the Last Attempt to Reform the German Confederation

The article examines the preparation and holding of the congress of German princes in Frankfurt am Main in 1863. Being an important stage in the Austro-Prussian rivalry for dominance in Germany, the congress was at the same time the highest point in the efforts of the reform group of German states by absorbing the experience of plans for the development of the Federal Constitution of 1815, the plans which had been discussed since 1849. The article pays particular attention to the role of ministers and princes of the middle German states, who tried during the congress to balance the Austrian project and prevent not only the excessive strengthening of Austria and Prussia, but also the rejection of the reform by public opinion. The defeat of the project in this context was a consequence of not only the Bismarck’s politics against the Confederation, but also of mistakes made by the Austria, who didn’t understand all the complexities of the reform and failed to redirect its strategy to support the middle states that fought to keep Germany on the path of a smooth transition from the confederative model to the federative and to preserve the equality between the members of the Confederation as a historical basis of German federalism.

A Systemic Analysis of Impacts of Individual and Shared Automated Mobility in Austria

Rationale: Increasing digitalization and automation is expected to significantly change the transport system, mobility and settlement structures. A decade ago automated, self-driving vehicles were nothing more than an unrealistic (boyhood) dream. But today the concept of highly and fully automated vehicles is rapidly becoming a reality, with a series of real-world trial applications underway. Government plans and industry predictions expect automation to be introduced from the early 2020s onwards. Nevertheless, there is still a high level of uncertainty in which form and to what extent automated vehicles will enter the market. Furthermore, there are ongoing discussions concerning net effects of positive and negative aspects of automation.Background: The authors have been involved in several research projects analyzing potential impacts of automated driving. The EU funded project CityMobil (Towards Advanced Road Transport for the Urban Environment) was one of first to address automated driving on a large scale. As part of this project the System Dynamics based model MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) was adapted to assess scenarios of automated driving in four European cities. Simulations demonstrated that automated vehicles integrated into public transport have a potential to reduce car kilometers travelled and improve carbon footprint. On the contrary, privately owned automated vehicles lead to an increase in car kilometers travelled and carbon footprint, unless propulsion technology is changed.While the focus of CityMobil was on the urban scale, the nationally funded Austrian project Shared Autonomy (Potential Effects of the Take-up of Automated Vehicles in Rural Areas – own translation) focused on rural areas. The findings of Shared Autonomy show potential contributions of automated cars to improve the environmental situation and social inclusion in rural areas.Finally, the nationally funded Austrian project SAFiP (System Scenarios Automated Driving in Personal Mobility) takes a look at the national territory of Austria.Method: The relationship between vehicle automation, travel demand and environmental effects consists of a multitude of complex cause-effect-chains. The toolbox of System Dynamics offers appropriate methods to tackle such complexities. Causal Loop Diagrams are used to analyze and discuss relevant cause-effect-chains and are used to adapt an existing Stock-Flow-Model of the Austrian land use and transport demand system. The modified Stock-Flow-Model is used for a quantitative impact assessment. Sensitivity analysis in form of Monte-Carlo-Simulations is employed to tackle the high level of uncertainty concerning key factors.Findings, results: The key factors, influencing mode choice and travel demand, are generalized costs of travel time, weighted costs of use and availability. The automation of driving, expressed as the share of highly and fully automated vehicles in the fleet, is influencing all three key factors via different cause-effect-chains and feedback loops. In SAFiP we identified four key impact sources: automated and remote parking, road capacity and travel speed, value of in-vehicle time and widening the range of users. Sensitivity tests for each of the impact sources have been carried out. Widening the range of users has the highest impact on a national level, potentially increasing car kilometers by about 17 percent in 2050. Remote parking increases car kilometers by about 5 percent in total, ranging from about 1 percent in peripheral districts to about 17 percent in Vienna.

Application of the WHO nutrient profile model on food product data recorded for the Austrian project “Food in the Spotlight”

AbstractIntroduction:Children are exposed to marketing of foods with a high content of energy, fat, sugar and salt on a daily basis, which can have negative consequences via increasing children's preferences for those foods. An unhealthy diet can promote obesity and other noncommunicable diseases. The objective of this scientific work was to assess the applicability of the nutrient profile model (NPM) for food products available in the Austrian market. The model was developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe to reduce the impact of marketing to children.Material and Methods:The NPM was applied to food product information, which was recorded for the project “Food in the Spotlight” (www.lebensmittellupe.at). Food products were assigned to food categories made by the WHO and the NPM was applied to identify products, which should not be allowed to be marketed to children. As the WHO NPM is flexible and can be adapted to the national context possible adaptations of the model to the Austrian market were developed.Results:Among those product groups which were included in Food in the Spotlight 0% of cocoa (n = 89), milk drinks with additional ingredients (e.g. strawberry milk, n = 111), soup pearl croutons (n = 13), ketchups (n = 79) and pestos (n = 119), 0.4% of soft drinks (Cola, lemonade etc., n = 454), 8% of pizza and pizza-like products (n = 274), 13% of yoghurt products with additional ingredients (n = 611), 18% of sugos (n = 193), 28% of fruit and vegetable purees (n = 36) and 33% of breakfast cereals (n = 678) were found to be eligible for marketing to children. Those 0.4% of soft drinks which would be allowed are two waters flavoured with aroma. Pure products such as whole milk and yoghurts with 3.5% fat would not be allowed because they exceed the thresholds for total fat. For those products with a packaging appealing to children and adolescents almost none passed the NPM.Conclusion:Our results showed, that before the NPM can be implemented in Austria, it is important to adapt the model to national dietary guidelines. Additionally, food categories could be modified to be more suitable for the Austrian market, as some products which are common in Austria could not be easily assigned to the WHO food categories. To adapt the WHO NPM to the national context cooperation between health experts and food manufacturers is necessary.

Efficiency Increase of Solar Heated Buildings by Thermal Activation of Construction Elements

The Austrian project “solSPONGEhigh” [1] examines the use of thermal activation of building components in order to increase the solar fraction of the heat demand of buildings. The aim of the project is to evaluate, under which conditions a high solar fraction of a single family house (low energy building) can be achieved with solar technologies (PV and solar thermal, in this paper the focus is on solar thermal). Different heat supply systems based on solar thermal energy (basic or complex supply systems) have been defined. The systems were modeled in the simulation environment TRNSYS [2], analyzed concerning their system behavior and further developed. The investigated systems range from classical monovalent heat supply systems, systems combined with solar thermal up to complex integrated hydraulic solutions. The heating of the building via concrete core activation was compared with a conventional underfloor heating system. A detailed analysis of the dynamic system and building simulation results shows that the system efficiency can be significantly increased, if solar heat is used to charge the storage capacity of the building structure directly. A further advantage when activating the building structure (primarily concrete) is the less rapidly changing room air temperature with strongly fluctuating environmental conditions.

Compact ventilation and heat pump with recirculation air for renovation of small apartments

A new compact and cost effective heating and ventilation concept for decentral renovation of small flats in multifamily houses was developed and investigated in the framework of the Austrian project “SaLüH!” through a dynamic building and HVAC simulation study based on results of laboratory measurements of functional models. The system consists of a façade integrated supply air/exhaust air heat pump equipped with a desuperheater allowing to increase the heating power and to add more freedom to control the system. The simulation results show that such a system is able to improve the thermal comfort of the flat (compared to the standard heating concept without desuperheater) with good indoor air quality and satisfying energy performance. The proposed system - because of its versatility and compactness - represents an ideal solution for decentral renovation of flats in multi-family houses, especially in case of limited space inside the flat and if central solutions are not possible for technical, economic or social reasons.

Assessing the Influence of Greenery on the Behaviour of Road Users<sup>1</sup>

The share of active mobility in traffic - walking and cycling - can be increased by enhancing of the urban vegetation; this is the core assumption of the Austrian project GoGreen. The main objective of this research project was to elaborate criteria of the roadside greenery that need to be incorporated into the planning of urban and street spaces, and finally implemented in order to create a highly aesthetic and stimulating atmosphere in public spaces. In addition to literature studies, qualitative methods (expert interviews, focus groups) and quantitative methods (street surveys) were used in this project to identify the needs and wishes of the residents. Subsequently, internal and external workshops helped to design evaluation criteria and recommendations for ordinary measures for promoting and supporting active mobility. In this paper, we focus on the street surveys that allow a glimpse on how citizens perceive the relationship between appropriately set urban vegetation, with respect to safety and attractiveness among other things, and its potential to motivate (more) citizens to walk (more).

Designing Information Systems to Facilitate Civil-Military Cooperation in Disaster Management

The efficient management of natural and man-made disasters typically represents a major information exchange and coordination challenge, as in most countries a number of organizations are involved in all phases of the disaster management cycle. In this article, the authors introduce the approach of the Austrian national project INKA, which aims at improving civil-military interoperability between the Austrian Armed Forces and the corresponding federal state level institutions through the introduction of IT-supported information exchange without media discontinuities. Apart from providing a comprehensive overview of their interdisciplinary research methodology, the authors present a number of important results which are based on a detailed qualitative assessment of stakeholder requirements. Furthermore, they provide first insights into designing a valuable IT-platform for civil-military interoperability in Austria.

Solar Hybrid Heating & Cooling Systems on District Level – The Austrian Project CiQuSo

The Austrian research project City quarters with optimised solar hybrid heating and cooling systems-. (CiQuSo) aims to develop, evaluate and optimize concepts for solar energy systems to provide energy for buildings and cities. The comparison and alignment of the energy demand (heating, cooling, domestic hot water, electricity) with the production in terms of dynamic behavior and spatial distribution enables the optimization of the energy performance of a district or a small city. Based on solar thermal and solar electrical systems highly innovative solar hybrid concepts (based on the assumption of possible energy exchange between certain or all buildings in the district) will be developed and will be applied in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning- (HVAC) systems for buildings. The applications will be evaluated on city district level in order to identify further optimization potentials gained by the intra-building energy exchange as well as load shifting strategies. The applicability of the developed methods and concepts will be tested in Itzling, a district in the city of Salzburg, Austria.This paper presents the planned methodology to optimize the use of solar energy on a district level and will reports on first achievements of the project activities.

Female Migrants as “Mediators between Two Worlds”: Spatio-Temporal Articulations of Intersectional Positions

This article takes as its point of departure the media attention for a Vienna-based project, which recruits migrant women to act as mediators between migrant communities and ‘Austrian’ society. Drawing on historical literature on gendered and racialised cultural brokers, it understands the appeal of this project as arising from its correspondence with dominant intersectional gender and ethnic stereotypes. In this article, I offer a critical analysis of the media sources and argue that the contemporary media narratives present a reconfigured version of the historic colonial tropes of “panoptical time” and “anachronistic space” (McClintock, 1995); two tropes that express hierarchical narratives of progress, placing gendered, racial, and classed ‘others’ outside modernity. I suggest that the gendered and ethnicised intersectional positions of the female migrant mediators are mapped onto a modernising narrative, which is articulated through spatio-temporal images. By contrasting the three main figures of the project – the project founders, the target group, and the female migrant mediators – I illustrate how gender and ethnicity get imbued with distinct hierarchical and relational meanings at different intersectional junctions. Particular spatial and temporal locations come to stand in for specific intersectional positions, and communicate a hierarchy between gendered Austrianness and gendered othered migrant-status. This article makes a contribution beyond the particular case of the Austrian project analysed here, by demonstrating that intersectional analysis can gain from attending to continuities with colonial discourse and to spatial-temporal metaphors.

Evaluation of Combined Solar Thermal Heat Pump Systems Using Dynamic System Simulations

This paper presents results from the national Austrian project “Highly efficient combinations of solar thermal and heat pump systems (SolPumpEff)”. In this project different combinations of solar energy and heat pump systems are considered through dynamic system simulations in TRNSYS [1]. In such systems solar thermal energy can be used on one hand directly to charge the buffer storage and on the other hand as heat source for the evaporator of the heat pump (HP). In this work systems, in which solar heat is only used directly (parallel operation of solar and HP) and systems using the collectors also as a heat source for the HP are analysed and compared to conventional air HP systems. With a combined parallel solar thermal HP system the system performance compared to a conventional HP system can be significantly increased. Unglazed selectively coated collectors as source for the HP have the advantage, that the collector can be used as an air heat exchanger. If solar radiation is available and the collector is used as source for the HP, higher temperatures at the evaporator of the HP can be achieved than with a conventional air HP system.

Regional networks in education: a case study of an Austrian project

This case study presents the development of networks in education, using the Austrian IMST (Innovations Make Schools Top) project as illustration. The regional networks are coordinated in every Austrian federal province by groups made up of teachers, representatives of the educational authorities, and members of academia. In the framework of the IMST project, all networks are monitored by a team of the Institute of Instructional and School Development at the University of Klagenfurt. This article presents theoretical concepts, network structures and network activities, as well as evaluation data. The overall challenge in trying to enable sustainable development of learning of those involved might be described as keeping momentum between network structures and network processes or, in other words, between stability and flow.

Hydrogeochemistry in Transboundary Thermal Water Management

This study gives a brief and general overview of the hydrogeology and hydrogeochemistry of the transboundary geothermal resources in the western part of the Pannonian Basin, carried out within the framework of a joint Hungarian, Slovenian, Slovakian and Austrian project (TRANSENERGY). Chemical and isotope data were used to describe the different flow systems, to calculate the groundwater ages along both the flow paths and the main discharge zones, and to help calibrate the hydrogeological flow and transport models used as input for a sustainable transboundary thermal water management scheme.

‘Gender-into-teaching’ at the Vienna University of Technology. Experiences and reflections on an Austrian project

‘Gender-into-teaching’ is the first Austrian project to develop strategies on how to implement gender topics at a technical university. This project can really be qualified as a model for other universities and as unique in Austria. Up to now, there are many more males in higher-level positions in the university hierarchies. The – very slow – increase in women has no relation to the continuous and serious efforts of various affirmative action programmes for women. Gender-into-teaching was designed as an answer to that phenomenon. During the project, some research as well as concrete measures were carried out, e.g. an in-depth, quantitative gender analysis of the two participating faculties, a qualitative gender analysis on the faculty culture and milieu as well as gender and didactic trainings for teachers. This paper highlights the project in general as well as its results. The theoretical aims are also pointed out.

Miller- and Atkinson-Cycle on a turbocharged diesel engine

Using a variable valve train on a diesel engine offers a number of alternative gas-exchange strategies. One of these is the shift of intake valve closure, on which this paper will concentrate. It is better known as the Miller-Cycle when shifted to early, or Atkinson-Cycle when shifted to late closure. Both processes were investigated at Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamic at TU Graz within the project “KNET-VKM der Zukunft”. This Austrian project is state-aided within the program Industrielle Netzwerke und Kompetenzzentren.

Experiences with benchmarking of sewerage systems with a special focus on investment costs

In February 2002 an Austrian benchmarking project was completed. The present paper reports on the part of the project dealing with benchmarking of sewerage systems, with a focus on the analysis of investment costs of 34 sewerage system projects. The paper explains the methodology used to make the investment costs of the projects comparable. This was based on an analysis of the final accounts of the finished projects. The paper further delineates the results of the project and considers in detail the important influence of unquantifiable factors, such as economic fluctuations and tendering strategies of the successful contractors, on the calculation of the construction costs.