Short Oral Presentations Research Articles

GenAI in the classroom: Customized GPT roleplay for process safety education

This paper outlines innovative pedagogical approaches in chemical engineering safety education, utilising three key strategies: (1) Integration of the direct experiences of experienced professional engineers to teach expertise-aligned process safety case studies; (2) Shifting from traditional short oral presentations to more comprehensive and dynamic ‘engineering meeting’ formats to drive constructive student learning; and (3) The use of Generative AI to enhance (1) and (2), with cost/time scalability, improved student access and by accommodating greater learning-style diversity. Evaluation of these educational innovations is performed through a mixed-methods approach and reveals positive impacts on student learning and engagement. The paper provides a detailed outline of classroom implementation, with supporting resources, for straightforward integration by other academics.

Increasing Student Self-Efficacy: A Case for Assigning Oral Communication Activities before Written Assignments

Because strong oral communication skills have well-known academic, social, and professional benefits, they are increasingly targeted and reinforced throughout general education programs in higher education. In these efforts, public speaking assignments most often ask students to discuss information they have previously written about (e.g., theses defenses, position statements, research papers). This article presents a reverse approach—using short oral presentations to prepare students for subsequent written assignments. Previous studies have found that students will more closely read and evaluate source materials when they must articulate the information orally for an audience. Integrating oral presentations in the writing process gives students practice with language and vocabulary, but maybe more importantly, it also has the potential to increase students’ self-efficacy—their confidence in their ability to understand and successfully complete additional research-related activities—which can, in turn, positively affect engagement and retention.

Language learning anxiety in a group of psychology students at Universidad del Norte

This article shows the results of a research on anxiety caused by language learning. It focuses on language learning anxiety related to speaking skill. This study intended to find out the external factors that produce anxiety in the development of the oral competence in a group of psychology students. In order to attain the objectives of this study, the instruments used were diaries, questionnaires, recordings (personal opinions, short oral presentations) and interviews. With regard to external factors that produce anxiety in relation to activities, results show that all kind of oral activities produce a high degree of anxiety in students, especially non prepared oral tasks. They also show a lack of participation in class with a strong rejection to oral learning tasks. Among the possible causes of this reticence, it is the fact that they do not want to be mocked in class. Also, Speaking skill was not encouraged in the first levels in the prior approach. It is vital to mention that students are aware of their lack of some aspects of the language, such as, vocabulary, grammar and fluency.

Fostering university students’ learning performance using the one-take video approach

Various studies have shown that video-based learning by explaining to a fictitious audience can be an effective learning strategy for promoting multiple knowledge domains such as memory, comprehension and knowledge transfer. However, field studies testing the effectiveness of this learning strategy in an applied setting are rare. The present study examines the effectiveness of the one-take video (OTV) approach on undergraduate students’ learning performance. The OTV method involves users recording short oral presentations without any editing and with the support of handwritten visualisations (video-based learning by explaining). To test the learning outcomes, 218 undergraduate teaching students for special educational needs were randomly assigned to two test groups (OTV and explaining in writing). After that, they completed three study tasks throughout the semester, each followed by immediate and delayed knowledge tests. The results for the OTV group show that students achieved significantly better results in the immediate memory test the more handwritten visualisations they used, but not the more often they repeated the video recordings. Analyses of variance revealed that the OTV group outperformed the writing group in terms of memory performance in the immediate test but not in the delayed posttest. The OTV group also significantly outperformed the writing group in both posttests in the transfer domain. No significant differences were found in the comprehension test scores.

Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

Background: Exposure therapy involves exposure to feared stimuli and is considered to be the gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders. While its application in Virtual Reality (VR) has been very successful for phobic disorders, the effects of exposure to virtual social stimuli in Social Anxiety Disorder are heterogeneous. This difference has been linked to demands on realism and presence, particularly social presence, as a pre-requisite in evoking emotional experiences in virtual social interactions. So far, however, the influence of social presence on emotional experience in social interactions with virtual agents remains unknown.Objective: We investigated the relationship between realism and social presence and the moderating effect of social presence on the relationship between agent behavior and experienced emotions in virtual social interaction.Methods: Healthy participants (N = 51) faced virtual agents showing supportive and dismissive behaviors in two virtual environments (short interactions and oral presentations). At first, participants performed five blocks of short one-on-one interactions with virtual agents (two male and two female agents per block). Secondly, participants gave five presentations in front of an audience of 16 agents. In each scenario, agent behavior was a within subjects factor, resulting in one block of neutral, two blocks of negative, and two blocks of positive agent behavior. Ratings of agent behavior (valence and realism), experience (valence and arousal), and presence (physical and social) were collected after every block. Moderator effects were investigated using mixed linear models with random intercepts. Correlations were analyzed via repeated measures correlations.Results: Ratings of valence of agent behaviors showed reliable relationships with experienced valence and less reliable relationships with experienced arousal. These relationships were moderated by social presence in the presentation scenario. Results for the interaction scenario were weaker but potentially promising for experimental studies. Variations in social presence and realism over time were correlated but social presence proved a more reliable moderator.Conclusion: Our findings emphasize the role of social presence for emotional experience in response to specific agent behaviors in virtual social interactions. While these findings should be replicated with experimental designs and in clinical samples, variability in social presence might account for heterogeneity in efficacy of virtual exposure to treat social anxiety disorder.

Royal Society of Chemistry - 32nd Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Eastern England. Virtual - April 29, 2021

The 32nd Hatfield MedChem 1-day virtual symposium organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector, was attended virtually by 130 delegates from different pharmaceutical and drug discovery companies, along with scientists from universities, mainly from the U.K. A total of 24 exhibitors supported the event organization, with 4 providing short oral presentations throughout the day. For this edition, networking table sessions were organized through the Grapevine platform to facilitate meetings with the speakers and interactions between all attendees and exhibitors. Sessions focused on relevant topics of current drug discovery such as protease inhibitors for the treatment of COVID-19, glue degraders as next-generation of PROTAC molecules, allosteric inhibition to circumvent cancer drug resistance and new strategies for targeting DNA damage response. Other sessions included fragment-based drug discovery approaches and specific CYP3A4 drug-metabolism optimization.

Short oral and scientific poster presentations accepted for the 96th Congress of the European Orthodontic Society, Hamburg 10–14 June 2020

Short oral and scientific poster presentations accepted for the 96th Congress of the European Orthodontic Society, Hamburg 10–14 June 2020

Short Oral Presentations on Posters

Short Oral Presentations on Posters

PIA19+MRSS19 – PHOTOGRAMMETRIC IMAGE ANALYSIS 2019 & MUNICH REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM 2019: PREFACE

Abstract. Automated extraction of objects from remotely sensed data is an important topic of research in Computer Vision, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Geoinformation Science. In order to discuss recent developments and future trends in research in automatic object extraction and their influence on sensors and processing techniques, the well-known ISPRS workshop "Photogrammetric Image Analysis" (PIA) and the "Munich Remote Sensing Symposium" (MRSS) are held as a common event for the first time.While in the past PIA specialised on the automatic exploitation of the image content, MRSS focuses on the geometric processing of aerial and in particular of space imagery. Realising that both areas - geometry and semantics - can significantly support each other when considered together in exploitation of images and point clouds, the two events, organised under a common roof, are held at Technische Universität München (TUM) in September 2019. At the same time, they keep their identity, as the meeting is organised as two parallel workshops with common plenary sessions and common proceedings.The aim of the common event is to seek, exploit and deepen the synergies between geometry and semantics, and to give the two scientific communities the possibility to discuss with and to learn from each other. Oral sessions with time slots of 25 min give space of 5 min for discussion of each presentation. Particular attention is also given to the poster sessions, which are supported by short oral presentations of the presenter before. The joint event addresses experts from research, government, and private industry. It consists of high quality papers, and provides an international forum for discussion of leading research and technological developments as well as applications in the field. It is worth mentioning that the ISPRS Foundation, Inc. (TIF) supports the event by providing six travel grants to qualified individuals especially from developing countries and regions.Prospective authors were invited to submit either full papers or abstracts. In total, we received 114 contributions from 28 countries.Full papers (max. eight pages) underwent a rigorous double blind peer review process. We received 48 full papers for review. Most papers were reviewed by three members of the program committee, 16 papers were reviewed by four members of the program committee. In total we received 157 full paper reviews from 35 reviewers. The maximum number of full papers per reviewer was eight. Altogether 31 papers were accepted based on the reviews for publication in the “ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences” which correspond to an acceptance rate of 65%. The fact that the full papers were peer reviewed is mentioned on each paper.Papers not passing the full paper peer review process were considered in the following abstract review process. In total 83 contributions were reviewed for publication in “The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences”. Finally 42 final papers (51%) were considered for publication.

PIA19+MRSS19 – PHOTOGRAMMETRIC IMAGE ANALYSIS 2019 & MUNICH REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM 2019: PREFACE

Abstract. Automated extraction of objects from remotely sensed data is an important topic of research in Computer Vision, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Geoinformation Science. In order to discuss recent developments and future trends in research in automatic object extraction and their influence on sensors and processing techniques, the well-known ISPRS workshop "Photogrammetric Image Analysis" (PIA) and the "Munich Remote Sensing Symposium" (MRSS) are held as a common event for the first time.While in the past PIA specialised on the automatic exploitation of the image content, MRSS focuses on the geometric processing of aerial and in particular of space imagery. Realising that both areas - geometry and semantics - can significantly support each other when considered together in exploitation of images and point clouds, the two events, organised under a common roof, are held at Technische Universität München (TUM) in September 2019. At the same time, they keep their identity, as the meeting is organised as two parallel workshops with common plenary sessions and common proceedings.The aim of the common event is to seek, exploit and deepen the synergies between geometry and semantics, and to give the two scientific communities the possibility to discuss with and to learn from each other. Oral sessions with time slots of 25 min give space of 5 min for discussion of each presentation. Particular attention is also given to the poster sessions, which are supported by short oral presentations of the presenter before. The joint event addresses experts from research, government, and private industry. It consists of high quality papers, and provides an international forum for discussion of leading research and technological developments as well as applications in the field. It is worth mentioning that the ISPRS Foundation, Inc. (TIF) supports the event by providing six travel grants to qualified individuals especially from developing countries and regions.Prospective authors were invited to submit either full papers or abstracts. In total, we received 114 contributions from 28 countries.Full papers (max. eight pages) underwent a rigorous double blind peer review process. We received 48 full papers for review. Most papers were reviewed by three members of the program committee, 16 papers were reviewed by four members of the program committee. In total we received 157 full paper reviews from 35 reviewers. The maximum number of full papers per reviewer was eight. Altogether 31 papers were accepted based on the reviews for publication in the “ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences” which correspond to an acceptance rate of 65%. The fact that the full papers were peer reviewed is mentioned on each paper.Papers not passing the full paper peer review process were considered in the following abstract review process. In total 83 contributions were reviewed for publication in “The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences”. Finally 42 final papers (51%) were considered for publication.

Effects Of Practice And Formal Feedback On Students' Oral And Written Communication On A Healthcare Profession Undergraduate Track Cohort

Communication is critical in Healthcare professions. However; based on a survey of our Optometry School's faculty, student writing assessments are rare. Oral presentations are more regularly assigned but still not common. Our graduates will ultimately find themselves providing healthcare or regularly communicating with those who do, so our lack of emphasis on developing thoughtful expression is unfortunate. Here we report the effects of practice and formal feedback on health science students' reflective expression and overall performance in both written and oral formats.Seventeen vision science undergraduate students (enrolled in either an integrated ocular science or epidemiology/public health course) completed four 100–150‐word essays based on readings or resources related to topics being covered in each course. The first and fourth of these assignments were both written and short oral (2–5 min) presentations and occurred early in and near the end of the semester, respectively. There were two “midterm” written assignments unaccompanied by oral presentations. The goal of this design from an educational perspective was to provide practice in expression as well as to provide formal feedback to students. From a research perspective, we observed whether student performance improved either on written or oral presentation assignments with only repeated written assignments.Up to six instructors graded all written essays on structure and reflection, assigning structure grades based on the readability and information contained in the essays. Reflection was graded by assigning a number (in half‐step increments) from 1 to 4 based on the level of reflection (habitual, reporting, reflective, or critically reflective) in the writing. The oral presentations were only graded by the two course coordinators. A descriptive analysis of all outcomes was performed as well as an analysis of the change in grades between the first and final assignments to determine whether practice improved performance.Written percentage scores (mean ± S.E.) increased from 76.0 ± 1.7 to 78.5 ± 1.7 over the semester, but the improvement was not statistically significant (t[16] = 0.856, p = 0.41). There was however a positive trend in oral presentation scores, as they increased from 73.9 ± 3.7 to 82.7 ± 2.7 (t[16] = 1.907, p = 0.075). The largest average improvement over the semester was in oral reflection component grades, but higher variability in oral reflection grades for both assignments (S.E. = 4.6 and 8.5, respectively) made statistical significance hard to achieve in the comparisons.Our results suggest that there was an improvement over the semester in both written and oral presentation grades, but only the oral presentation grades approached significance. We do believe that improvements in reflection and overall written and presentation abilities can be made in health science students with intentional and critical feedback. However, any inferences in our study were limited by a series of factors such as small number of subjects, the short duration of the intervention limited to one semester, and the variability in grading by relatively novice graders.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

20th International School on Condensed Matter Physics

PREFACEWe are pleased to introduce the Proceedings of the 20th JUBILEE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS “Physics and Applications of Advanced and Multifunctional Materials (20th ISCMP). The school was held from September 3rd to September 7th, 2018 in Varna, Bulgaria. It was organized by the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (ISSP-BAS), and took place at one of the fine resorts on the Bulgarian Black sea “Saints Constantine and Helena”.The aim of this international school is to bring together top experimentalists and theoreticians, with interests in interdisciplinary areas, with the younger generation of scientists, in order to discuss current research and to communicate new forefront ideas. This year special focus was given to advanced organic and inorganic materials and their application in biophysics and sensors. Traditionally covered areas, such as characterization of nanostructured materials and thin films were also discussed. Participants from 16 countries presented 26 invited lectures, 28 short oral presentations and 60 posters.The hope of the organizing committee is that the 20th ISCMP provided enough opportunities for direct scientific contacts, interesting discussions and interactive exchange of ideas between the participants. The nice weather certainly helped a lot in this respect. The editors would like to thank all authors for their high-quality contributions and the members of the international program committee for their commitment.The papers submitted for publication in the Proceedings were refereed according to the publishing standards of the Journal of Physics: Conference Series. The Editorial Committee members are very grateful to the Journal’s staff for the continuous fruitful relations and for giving us the opportunity to present the work from the 20th ISCMP.Prof. DSc Hassan Chamati, Prof. DSc Doriana Dimova-Malinovska, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julia Genova Prof. DSc Diana Nesheva, and Prof. DSc Albena Paskaleva

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: from biology to society-Summary Latsis Symposium Aug 28-30, 2017, Zürich, Switzerland.

In biology, inheritance is a process that ensures the transfer of features and traits from parent to offspring. The most classic view of parental inheritance is that it is genetic and is embedded in genes contained in the genome in germ cells. However, genetic inheritance is now known to contribute to only a part of what an individual can transmit to its progeny. Thus, further to innate traits that each individual receives from its parents, acquired traits, which are traits acquired upon exposure to environmental factors or personal experiences, can also be inherited. This form of inheritance is not encoded in the sequence of genes but is mediated by mechanisms and processes elicited by the environment that modify the activity of the genome persistently across generations. Because it is not encoded in DNA sequences, it is called epigenetic or non-genetic. These mechanisms establish a link between the genome and the environment. They relate to the extremely important question of nature versus nurture namely, how much our own make-up is genetically or epigenetically determined, a question that remains unresolved. In August 2017, an international symposium was organized in Zurich, Switzerland to address the question of epigenetic inheritance. The Latsis symposium 2017 on “Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: from biology to society” held at the ETH Zurich gathered international leaders in the field and focused on major questions and current challenges raised by the concept of epigenetic inheritance. The symposium was one of the first fully dedicated to the theme of epigenetic inheritance and covered scientific aspects from invertebrates to humans, and from behavior to metabolism in humans and animal models, mental health and epidemiology, bioinformatics and ethics. The symposium lasted 2.5 days and was attended by about 150 people from different countries. The program was structured in sessions of 3–3 h 30 min each (total of five sessions) including invited talks and short oral presentations. This summary provides an overview of the speakers’ presentations and focuses on four major topics: (i) evidence and challenges for epigenetic inheritance in humans, (ii) new insight and major questions raised by work in animal models, (iii) methodologies in epigenetics and (iv) evolution, societal impact and broader considerations.

Ovarian Cancer Prevention, Screening, and Early Detection: Report From the 11th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium.

The aim of this study is to provide a summary report on recent research advances in ovarian cancer prevention, screening, and early detection that were presented at the 11th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium in Seattle, Wash. At the symposium, researchers from around the world participated in the poster, invited oral presentation and keynote presentation, and discussed the latest advances in the areas of cancer prevention, screening, and early detection. In the Scientific Session for Prevention, Screening, and Early Detection, Usha Menon, PhD (University of College London), presented exploratory studies from the ongoing UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening trial. Karen Lu, MD, presented her studies on BRCA testing and salpingectomies as prevention strategies. Eight speakers were selected from the abstracts for short oral presentations, and the topic ranges from Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program by Saul Rivkin, MD, to the ultra-deep sequencing of somatic mutations in TP53 in normal and cancer patients by Rosana Risques, PhD. Fourteen additional poster presentations, ranging from the potential role of cancer stem cells in recurrence to retrotransposons in ovarian cancer development, round up the session. Although progress is being made in the areas of prevention, screening, and early detection, these advances have not yet translated into tangible clinical benefits for patients with ovarian cancer. A wide array of research topics presented in the session provides a glimmer of hope that better understanding of genetic risk factors, refining screening strategies, and developing new methods for early detection will eventually lead to improved outcome for patients with ovarian cancer.

Editorial

The local organizing committee warmly invites you to join us at the 14th International Congress of the Spanish Association of Animal Reproduction, scheduled for November 9th, 10th and 11th 2017, in Barcelona, Spain. This meeting is being organized by the School of Veterinary of the University Autonomous of Barcelona (Spain). This Congress is certainly a special occasion for those who work for the development of animal reproduction and their applications to clinical practice, either in education, research or professional development. It will be an occasion to meet, to listen, to discuss, to share information and to plan for the future. Indeed, this Congress is an opportunity to discuss key points of scientific and professional policies and strategies, helping us to define how we should encourage responsible conduct in our decisions, to promote animal reproduction and also to establish personal contacts with colleagues and generate new scientific and professional bridges. The scientific committee has prepared an attractive scientific programme, which includes four invited conferences on the most recent progress in animal reproduction technologies, with relevance for basic science and practical application of modern breeding technologies. Moreover, the meeting features one workshop, nineteen short oral presentations selected from abstracts, 71 poster presentations and an interesting industrial exhibition. This supplement of Reproduction in Domestic Animals includes all the manuscripts and abstracts that have been peer-reviewed as praxis by the Journal rules. Furthermore, a pre-congress focused in “Research funding opportunities for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students” has been organized to provide some tools that can help these students to plan their professional future. The meeting will take place in Barcelona, at the “Casa de la Convalescència-UAB”. Barcelona is a great city that it is always worth visiting. Barcelona is a captivating and a cosmopolitan city, steeped in a rich history, architecture, art and culture, with a perfect weather and an excellent gastronomy. In this way, the Congress will give you the chance to visit and enjoy this wonderful city. With these words, we hope this Congress provides you with a forum to exchange scientific ideas, inspire new research and new contacts for closer cooperation, so that we can, together, envisage the future of a promising development of the animal reproduction.

Research Directions in European Veterinary Pathology in 2010-2016 based on the Congresses of the European Society of Veterinary Pathology and the European College of Veterinary Pathologists.

The objective of this paper is to depict the current research directions in veterinary pathology in Europe. The analysis was carried out based on the abstracts and agendas of the annual European Society of Veterinary Pathology (ESVP) congresses organised together with the European College of Veterinary Pathologists (ECVP) in 2010-2016. In total, 1444 presentations were evaluated, including 41 plenary lectures, 319 short oral presentations, and 1081 posters, and in 2016 also three science slams. It was found that infectious and parasitic diseases (467 presentations, 32.34%) and oncology (450 presentations, 31.16%) were the most commonly discussed topics. Organ pathology was also addressed (327 presentations, 22.65%), with the subsequent places taken by research on different topics (140 presentations, 9.70%) and toxicopathology (67 presentations, 4.64%). Among the most commonly presented issues, there was a substantial number of presentations on neurology (129 speeches, 8.93%) and mammary gland diseases (101 presentations, 6.99%). A downward trend was revealed for infectious and parasitic diseases and for oncology, and a positive trend for organ pathology, the first and the third being statistically significant.

Fish from Head to Tail: The 9th European Zebrafish Meeting in Oslo.

The 9th European Zebrafish Meeting took place recently in Oslo (June 28-July 2, 2015). A total of 650 participants came to hear the latest research news focused on the zebrafish, Danio rerio, and to its distant evolutionary relative medaka, Oryzias latipes. The packed program included keynote and plenary talks, short oral presentations and poster sessions, workshops, and strategic discussions. The meeting was a great success and revealed dramatically how important the zebrafish in particular has become as a model system for topics, such as developmental biology, functional genomics, biomedicine, toxicology, and drug development. A new emphasis was given to its potential as a model for aquaculture, a topic of great economic interest to the host country Norway and for the future global food supply in general. Zebrafish husbandry as well as its use in teaching were also covered in separate workshops. As has become a tradition in these meetings, there was a well-attended Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and ZFIN workshop focused on Zebrafish Genome Resources on the first day. The full EZM 2015 program with abstracts can be read and downloaded from the EZM 2015 Web site zebrafish2015.org .

Introduction to the 1st International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (ISPMF 2015).

The 1st International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (ISPMF 2015) was held in Shanghai, China, from June 26th to 29th, 2015. The 1st ISPMF was organized by the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and the Phytochemical Society of Asia (PSA). More than 270 scientists from 48 countries attended this meeting. The program of ISPMF 2015 consisted of 12 plenary lectures, 20 invited talks, and 55 short oral presentations in 16 sessions, including phytochemistry, phytomedicine, pharmacology, and application of phytochemicals in medicine and food. The 1st ISPMF has obtained support from Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, Food Chemistry, Phytochemistry Reviews, and Nutrients. As supported by Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann, a special issue on Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (ACS) for the 1st ISPMF was initiated in January 2015.

Phytochemicals in Food and Nutrition

The International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (ISPMF2015) was held from June 26 to 29, 2015, in Shanghai, China. It is for the first time that a Phytochemical Society of Europe conference took place in China, which provided an opportunity for 270 scientists from 48 countries to communicate their up-to-date knowledge on phytochemicals. ISPMF2015 comprised exciting and various programs with 16 sessions, including 12 plenary lectures, 20 invited talks, 55 short oral presentations, and more than 130 posters. With the help of Prof. Fergus M. Clydesdale, a special issue of Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition containing 11 reviews from scientists was presented in this conference. In this special issue, bioactive flavonoids and polysaccharides for human health received significant attention.

The ESPID/ESWI Joint Symposium—A strong vote for universal influenza vaccination in children in Europe

During this year's 33rd annual meeting in Leipzig, Germany, the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) jointly together with the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI), organized a staged debate on the motion of universal annual immunization of children against influenza as a cost-effective health intervention in Europe. Six invited speakers, all experts in the field of influenza vaccination, who were not necessary confident with their given position of pro or contra, battled each other with short oral presentations to convince the audience to vote for or against the motion.