Research In Austria Research Articles

Smart FOX - Enabling Citizen-Based Donation of EHR-Standardised Data for Clinical Research in Austria.

Access to healthcare data for secondary use in clinical research is often restricted due to privacy concerns or business interests, hindering comprehensive analysis across patient pathways. The Smart FOX project seeks to address this challenge by developing concepts, methods, and tools to facilitate citizen/patient-driven donations of health data for clinical research. Leveraging the groundwork, laid by the national Electronic Health Record implementation in Austria (called ELGA), Smart FOX aims to harness structured datasets from ELGA for research purposes through an opt-in approach. With funding secured from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, the project embarks on innovative solutions encompassing governance frameworks, community engagement, and technical infrastructure. The Smart FOX consortium, comprising key stakeholders across various healthcare-associated domains, will evaluate these efforts through demonstrators focusing on clinical registries, patient-generated data, and recruitment services. The project targets to accompany the development of future data donation infrastructure while ultimately advancing clinical research efficiency and bolstering Austria's preparedness for the European Health Data Space. This paper presents the first systematic evaluation of the technical concept and proposal for the federated system architecture of the Austrian Health Data Donation Space, which is the socio-technical goal of Smart FOX.

Gender constructions in Austrian RE textbooks – a comparative linguistic textbook analysis

ABSTRACT The contribution gives insights into a comparative linguistic textbook analysis of two Austrian Catholic Religious Education (RE) textbooks for colleges for higher vocational schools (‘BHS’) and vocational schools for apprentices (‘VocEd’). Gender constructions are still a desideratum in RE textbook research in Austria. Previous gender-oriented analyses mostly used qualitative content analysis or mainly questionnaires. This paper followed the approach of linguistic textbook analysis addressing gender constructions on a linguistic level by comparing both textbooks, asking which and how two selected chapters of Austrian RE textbooks in use construct gender on a linguistic level. A discussion of the main results, considering previous gender sensitive RE research, aimed to develop criteria for prospects of action with teaching materials in the current context of plurality of genders and sexualities in a democratic society.

The development and structural validity testing of the Person-centred Practice Inventory-Care (PCPI-C).

Person-centred healthcare focuses on placing the beliefs and values of service users at the centre of decision-making and creating the context for practitioners to do this effectively. Measuring the outcomes arising from person-centred practices is complex and challenging and often adopts multiple perspectives and approaches. Few measurement frameworks are grounded in an explicit person-centred theoretical framework. In the study reported in this paper, the aim was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure the experience of person-centred care by service users (patients)-The Person-centred Practice Inventory-Care (PCPI-C). Based on the 'person-centred processes' construct of an established Person-centred Practice Framework (PCPF), a service user instrument was developed to complement existing instruments informed by the same theoretical framework-the PCPF. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used to construct and test the instrument, working with international partners and service users in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Australia and Austria. A three-phase approach was adopted to the development and testing of the PCPI-C: Phase 1 -Item Selection: following an iterative process a list of 20 items were agreed upon by the research team for use in phase 2 of the project; Phase 2 -Instrument Development and Refinement: Development of the PCPI-C was undertaken through two stages. Stage 1 involved three sequential rounds of data collection using focus groups in Scotland, Australia and Northern Ireland; Stage 2 involved distributing the instrument to members of a global community of practice for person-centred practice for review and feedback, as well as refinement and translation through one: one interviews in Austria. Phase 3: Testing Structural Validity of the PCPI-C: A sample of 452 participants participated in this phase of the study. Service users participating in existing cancer research in the UK, Malta, Poland and Portugal, as well as care homes research in Austria completed the draft PCPI-C. Data were collected over a 14month period (January 2021-March 2022). Descriptive and measures of dispersion statistics were generated for all items to help inform subsequent analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood robust extraction testing of the 5-factor model of the PCPI-C. The testing of the PCPI-C resulted in a final 18 item instrument. The results demonstrate that the PCPI-C is a psychometrically sound instrument, supporting a five-factor model that examines the service user's perspective of what constitutes person-centred care. This new instrument is generic in nature and so can be used to evaluate how person-centredness is perceived by service users in different healthcare contexts and at different levels of an organisation. Thus, it brings a service user perspective to an organisation-wide evaluation framework.

The future of clinical trials—goals, ideas, and discussion

SummaryClinical trials are subject to an ever-evolving landscape of treatment options, regulatory requirements, socioeconomic conditions, and paradigms of scientific research. In this opinion paper, we illustrate current methods and topics with a focus on clinical trial designs, conduct and modes of collaboration. The example of successful clinical breast cancer research in Austria demonstrates the opportunities, but also the challenges for academic research. We also investigate potential pitfalls, and suggest new ideas and strategies on how to increase practicability along with transparency and fairness, but ultimately also scientific and clinical relevance of clinical trials in oncology.

A Comparative Analysis of Business and Economics Researchers in the Visegrad Group of Countries, Austria and Romania Based on the Data Obtained from SciVal and Scopus

The aim of the paper is to compare the performance of economic researchers in Austria, Romania and the Visegrad 4 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) using performance indicators of researchers from the Scopus and SciVal databases. In the comparison of countries, Austria is included as a benchmark country, while the other five countries represent the countries of the former Eastern bloc. In the study, the definition of an economic researcher is based on indicators that can be obtained from databases. Paper pursued two goals. First, by presenting the relationships between the data obtained from the Scopus/SciVal databases, to present the most important key indicators, then to group the researchers with the help of the analyzed indicators, and to compare the publication performance of the chosen countries. A researcher is considered to be an economic researcher in the study whose at least thirty percent of the published articles in the SCImago database are in the subject areas of Business, Management, and Accounting and Economics, Econometrics, and Finance.

S2-5 Physical Literacy in Austria: development of the Perceived Physical Literacy Questionnaire (PPLQ) for the adult population

Abstract Purpose Physical Literacy (PL) is a relatively new concept in Austria. However, PL research in Austria is currently centered around one research group and has focused exclusively on adults, a cohort which has been largely overlooked by the PL community so far. Recent projects included an intervention to increase PL in physically inactive adults and the development of the Perceived Physical Literacy Questionnaire (PPLQ). The PPLQ is a comprehensive but easy-to-use and easy-to-understand PL questionnaire for adults in German language. We describe the development process of this questionnaire in the following. Methods The process subsumes several phases with the involvement of experts to ensure high content validity. In phase 1, a PL questionnaire was taken from our previous pilot studies for further improvement. This instrument was not yet validated, but already consisted in large part of established questionnaire (subscales) for six PL domains (motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, understanding, and physical activity behavior). In phase 2, the revised 51-item instrument was tested in an online-survey (N = 506) and a shortened version was developed using exploratory factor analyses. The remaining 31 items were inspected using cognitive interviews (phase 3) and an external comprehensibility check to ensure language level A2 (phase 4). Subsequent results belong to phase 5, in which reliability as well as factorial and convergent validity were tested in another sample of 417 adults. Results The assumed 31-item model revealed misfits on global and local level and was modified based on expert opinions and statistical considerations but remained with six PL dimensions. After reducing the complexity of the model, we found empirical support for a theory-compatible 24-item version. The global model-fit of the final model was acceptable with minor misfits at item level. Internal consistency (omega) and convergent validity results were satisfactory. Conclusion The PPLQ is the first PL assessment instrument for a broad adult population that incorporates the holistic nature of the concept. However, further studies should attempt to improve the identified minor weaknesses and apply it in different language versions. These initial results are promising for the application in research as well as practice. Support/Funding Source No specific funding.

The history of circadian rhythm research in Austria.

In view of the recent revival of interest in circadian biology and circadian epidemiology at the Medical University of Vienna, it seems appropriate to highlight the rich and pioneering history of circadian research in Austria. Among the forefathers of circadian research in Vienna are Otto Marburg (1874-1948), who discovered important elements of the pineal gland physiology, Robert Hofstätter (1883-1970), who used pineal gland extract in obstetrics/gynecology, and Paul Engel (1907-1997), who discovered that the pineal gland was controlled by light. More recently, Vera Lapin (1920-2007) showed that surgical removal of the pineal gland increased tumor growth, while Franz Waldhauser (*1946) investigated melatonin in conjunction with night work. Michael Kundi (*1950) and his team conducted among the first studies demonstrating differences in rhythms of night workers and early evidence for health impairments among them. Furthermore, Vienna-born Erhard Haus (1926-2013) pioneered the discovery of the role and importance of melatonin in relation to numerous diseases. This rich pioneering contribution of scientists in Vienna or with roots in Vienna is continued today by anew generation of chronobiologists, epidemiologists and clinicians in Vienna whose new insights contribute to the rapidly developing field of circadian rhythms research. Current topics and contributions relate to the impact of circadian rhythm disruption on health, and the application of chronotherapeutic approaches in clinical and preventive settings.

Mental health of sexual and gender minority youth in Austria: scoping review and research agenda based on international evidence

A robust body of international evidence documents that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other youth with diverse sexual orientations and/or gender identities (i.e., sexual and gender minority youth) face unique mental health vulnerabilities but are also equipped with unique resources. However, it is unclear to what extent these findings are applicable to sexual and gender minority youth in Austria, because the sociolegal and developmental contexts differ across countries. According to PRISMA guidelines, we conducted asystematic scoping review (1)to identify published studies on the mental health of sexual and gender minority youth in Austria, and, based on this, (2)to derive research recommendations supplemented by international evidence. We searched five scientific databases (PsycInfo, PSYNDEX, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science; March 2022) and additionally contacted researchers and community leaders to find pertinent studies. Only two published empirical studies on the mental health of sexual and gender minority youth in Austria could be located, reflecting the sparse state of research in Austria. Against this background, we outline adetailed research agenda following asocio-ecological approach. Including sexual orientation and non-binary gender identities in population-based studies to assess onset, prevalence, and trajectory of mental health burdens, as well as conducting targeted, resource-based, and developmentally sensitive research on all levels seem paramount to reduce health disparities and societal stigma and to support sexual and gender minority youth in their development.

Current Status and Future Perspectives of Carbon Pricing Research in Austria

In the context of the European Green Deal, the European Commission and the European Parliament proposed to intensify Europe’s ambition for its 2030 climate targets. In the case of Austria, the current government set itself the goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. The Federal Chancellery of Austria also presented a plan to introduce a carbon price for emissions from the non-EU ETS; a task force is underway to launch a formal proposal in 2022, and thus it is relevant to investigate the present stage of scientific research on carbon pricing in Austria. Therefore, the present paper examines and evaluates scientific publications using bibliometric techniques, combined with a systematic literature review (SLR). Our results show that even though the current government presented a plan to introduce a carbon price, there are still uncertainties about the design of the carbon pricing instrument, the institutional and regulatory framework, revenue recycling policies, impacts on sectoral GDP, competitiveness indicators and international trade. Furthermore, the transport sector was the largest contributor to the increase in total emissions in recent years in Austria; therefore, it requires special attention in terms of mitigating and adaptive measures.

Spread and conditions of Social Innovation Research in Austria in the field of Social Sciences

This paper scrutinises the spread and the conditions of social innovation research in Austria in social sciences. Although the empirical results are inconclusive, social innovation is definitely not a marginal topic in social sciences in Austria. More than 80% of the responding social scientists deal with social innovation at different levels of intensity. It also seems that social innovation works well for the overall self-representation of the universities. The construct of social entrepreneurship has probably contributed most to anchoring the notion of social innovation in the higher education sector in Austria, especially in teaching. Although some curricula and courses are more confined to traditional business school topics, some transcend the narrow business focus towards sociological and political approaches. The academic embedding of social innovation in Austria, however, is still hampered by structural factors. Our findings show a lack of both tangible and intangible support measures.

Targeting the Gut Microbiota in Coronavirus Disease 2019: Hype or Hope?

Targeting the Gut Microbiota in Coronavirus Disease 2019: Hype or Hope?

Differences in English teachers’ beliefs and practices and inequity in Austrian English language education: could plurilingual pedagogies help close the gap?

ABSTRACT Educational research in Austria has demonstrated that early tracking into academic secondary schools and middle schools results in inequities for students with low socioeconomic status, from migration backgrounds and/or with German as an additional language. It has also found gaps in performance between students in the two school types, including in English. To better understand the reasons for this, we collected data from teachers in both school types about their beliefs and classroom practices. Teachers in academic secondary schools indicate higher achievement levels for English amongst their students compared to teachers in middle schools. Descriptive and inferential analyses reveal higher perceived levels of motivation amongst academic secondary school compared to middle school students, and students’ perceived level of motivation influenced English language outcomes in both school types. Moreover, there were significant differences aligning with school type in teachers’ reported language use in the classroom and their perceptions of students’ access to English outside of school. These findings suggest factors that contribute to gaps in achievement in English language education according to school type. The article closes by considering how plurilingual pedagogies might be employed to transform beliefs, alleviate disadvantage and support equity in English language education in Austria and beyond.

Rethinking Tribology–Tracking Trends, Their Presence at the ECOTRIB 2019 Conference, and Their Impact on Tribology Research in Austria

Economic and societal changes and technological development guide the focus of tribology research. “Classical” tasks, such as the improvement of materials or the tuning of a lubricant, have long been replaced by a function-oriented aggregate design, including specifications defined by needs arising from production and the environment. Tribology faces, among other remarkable changes, a paradigm shift according to the tendency to replace classic internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrains with electric drives. How tribology will develop, and which research topics will prevail in the future, are being explored by several studies based on the experience of experts. The variety of contributions to journals and conferences provide an indicator of the importance of such tasks or topics. Here, a report on the ECOTRIB 2019—7th European Conference on Tribology held in Vienna, Austria, is presented. From the available information, an even stronger integration of other disciplines into tribology is noticeable, with certain hype in the fields of advanced material technology, sensor integration and the implementation of data science. Measures to rethink tribology from both an organizational and scientific point of view to cope with future tasks are being targeted and comprehensively implemented in the current research program “InTribology”, operated by the Austrian Center of Competence for Tribology (AC²T) in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.

Flow topology dynamics in a three-dimensional phase space for turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

F.X.T., F.D. and A.O. are financially supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain (ENE2017-88697-R). F.X.T. is supported by a Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral contract (RYC-2012-11996). F.D. is supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development, and the K1MET center for metallurgical research in Austria (www.k1-met.com). Calculations have been performed on the IBM MareNostrum 4 supercomputer at the BSC (PRACE 15th Call, Ref. 2016163972, \Exploring new frontiers in Rayleigh-Benard convection). Preliminary simulations were carried out using computational resources of MCC NRC \Kurchatov Institute, http://computing.nrcki.ru/. The authors thankfully acknowledge these institutions.

Infectious Wildlife Diseases in Austria—A Literature Review From 1980 Until 2017

This literature review examines infectious wildlife disease research in Austria. We analyzed 226 research papers, published between 1980 and 2017. We determined that wildlife disease papers increased significantly from 0.8 ± 0.8 publications per year in the first decade (1980–1989) when compared to 2008–2017 with an average of 12.9 ± 4.1 publications per year. We illustrate information about the most investigated diseases and highlight the lack of research into certain wildlife pathogens. A special emphasis was given to diseases with zoonotic potential. The review showed that research focused on a few select species like the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), red deer (Cervus elaphus), and wild boar (Sus scrofa), all game species. Moreover, diseases affecting livestock and human health were seen more often. The review also found that only a low number of publications actually stated disease prevalence and confidence interval data. The reported diseases identified were classified according to their notifiable status and the distribution at the wildlife–human and wildlife–livestock interface. Furthermore, we try to argue why research into some diseases is prioritized, and why other diseases are underrepresented in current Austrian research. While spatiotemporal indicators could not be assessed due to the variability in methodologies and objectives of various studies, the information provided by this review offers the first comprehensive evaluation of the status of infectious wildlife disease research in Austria. Therefore, this study could assist investigators to identify further areas of priorities for research and conservation efforts and for wildlife management professionals to inform policy and funding strategies. With this review, we want to encourage research in the field of wildlife diseases in Austria to enhance current knowledge in the prevention of further loss in biodiversity and to find new measures to promote “One Health” on a global scale.

\u201cI am Primarily Paid for Publishing\u2026\u201d: The Narrative Framing of Societal Responsibilities in Academic Life Science Research

Building on group discussions and interviews with life science researchers in Austria, this paper analyses the narratives that researchers use in describing what they feel responsible for, with a particular focus on how they perceive the societal responsibilities of their research. Our analysis shows that the core narratives used by the life scientists participating in this study continue to be informed by the linear model of innovation. This makes it challenging for more complex innovation models [such as responsible research and innovation (RRI)] to gain ground in how researchers make sense of and conduct their research. Furthermore, the paper shows that the life scientists were not easily able to imagine specific practices that would address broader societal concerns and thus found it hard to integrate the latter into their core responsibilities. Linked to this, researchers saw institutional reward structures (e.g. evaluations, contractual commitments) as strongly focused on scientific excellence (“I am primarily paid for publishing…”). Thus, they saw reward structures as competing with—rather than incentivising—broader notions of societal responsibility. This narrative framing of societal responsibilities is indicative of a structural marginalisation of responsibility practices and explains the claim, made by many researchers in our sample, that they cannot afford to spend time on such practices. The paper thus concludes that the core ideas of RRI stand in tension with predominant narrative and institutional infrastructures that researchers draw on to attribute meaning to their research practices. This suggests that scientific institutions (like universities, professional communities or funding institutions) still have a core role to play in providing new and context-specific narratives as well as new forms of valuing responsibility practices.

Researching Consumer Research. An Analysis of Consumer Researchers in Austria with Some Implications for the Scientific Field and Consumer Policy

Abstract Since over a decade, there are ongoing debates about the relationships between the scientific field of consumer research and the political field of consumer policy. To date, there exist theoretical overviews of the international state of the art in consumer research and its historical developments regarding topics, and theoretical and methodological advancements. There also exist few empirical studies which approached this field through content analysis of scientific articles, case studies or literature reviews. Nonetheless, prior research has yet neglected consumer researchers themselves and, above all, their stances toward consumer policy. To fill this gap, this article seeks to enhance knowledge about consumer researchers by presenting empirical results of a survey among Austrian consumer researchers. In contrast with previous research, this article relates its empirical findings to better understand how consumer research can become a more integrated and institutionalized research area, in Austria and elsewhere. As the results indicate, there are some commonalities in Austrian consumer research which may serve as a fertile ground for a closer integration of the field and which could enhance cooperation between the scientific and the political field. Yet, as this article shows, there also exist some obstacles, which may hinder such efforts. It concludes with some propositions for consumer research as a scientific field and discusses obstacles and prospects of a future collaboration between this scientific field and consumer policy. In doing so, this article seeks to contribute to the debate about a so-called “evidence-based” consumer policy suggesting that consumer policy can draw on a wide array of scientific perspectives and should not restrict itself to behavioural insights alone, a current trend in some European countries and in the European Commission. As will be shown, the Austrian case is furthermore informative to better understand internal and external (political) efforts to foster cooperation within consumer research and the relationship between consumer research and consumer policy.

Passive houses for active students – Providing knowledge about eco-efficient buildings

The OeAD-Housing Office is a non-profit organisation in the area of international cooperation in education, science and research in Austria. We cooperate with our parent company OeAD-GmbH as well as various Austrian student residences and partner universities worldwide. The main responsibility is accommodating international and national students in Austria’s university towns. Our success story started with the construction of the first halls of residence built according to the passive house standards world-wide in Vienna in 2005. Since its completion, the OeAD-Guesthouse Molkereistraße has accommodated 280 international students and guest professors per semester. We are successful in managing a total of 8 student guesthouses in the passive house design constructed in Vienna, Graz and Leoben.This paper describes the benefits of passive houses and raising awareness for eco-efficient buildings. We focus on two OeAD-Guesthouses in Austria and highlight their design, architecture and what it is like to live in both of them. Upon request we are also able to propose the OeAD-Guesthouse PopUp dorms. As we want to share our knowledge with the rest of the world we initiated 2 summer universities which pay attention to ecological buildings and the financial and economic system. We also draw attention to several awards we have won during the past years.

Direct versus indirect measurement of digit ratio: New data from Austria and a critical consideration of clarity of report in 2D:4D studies

BackgroundDigit ratio (2D:4D), has been the subject of many studies. However, the best method of measuring digit length, either directly (d2D:4D) or indirectly (i2D:4D), is controversial. In many reports i2D:4D has been found to show a directional effect such that d2D:4D > i2D:4D. The exception is three studies from one group of researchers in Austria. Thus, it is unclear whether this effect is nation- or lab-specific. AimsTo examine evidence for effects of direct versus indirect measurements of mean 2D:4D in Austrians. Study designWe compared 2D:4D based on direct and indirect measurements of digit lengths of Austrians. SubjectsThere were 80 participants, 21 adults and 59 children. Outcome measures2D:4D of right and left hands, measured directly (from the palm) and indirectly (from hand scans). ResultsRepeatability was high for both d2D:4D and i2D:4D, with the latter slightly higher than the former. d2D:4D and i2D:4D correlated strongly and the sex difference in 2D:4D (males < females) was greater for i2D:4D. With regard to directional differences, we found d2D:4D > i2D:4D for both right (d = −0.53) and left hands (d = −0.80). ConclusionThere was no evidence of an “Austrian” effect on direct versus indirect measurements of 2D:4D, i.e. mean d2D:4D was greater than i2D:4D. We discuss our findings in the light of issues regarding “clarity of report” from earlier Austrian studies.

Tunnelling research in Austria

Geomechanics and TunnellingVolume 11, Issue 3 p. 186-187 EditorialFree Access Tunnelling research in Austria Forschungsarbeiten auf dem Gebiet des Tunnelbaus in Österreich Bernd Moritz, Bernd MoritzSearch for more papers by this author Bernd Moritz, Bernd MoritzSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 June 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/geot.201870303AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume11, Issue3June 2018Pages 186-187 RelatedInformation