Gyroscopes have been used in previous studies to measure the peak angular velocity of the shoe or foot in the frontal plane (evVel). However, it is not clear whether different test conditions (footwear hardness or locomotion speed) can influence the accuracy of evVel. The purpose of the present study was to compare the accuracy of gyroscopes and electrogoniometers when measuring evVel and the time until evVel (t_evVel) in 12 different conditions using a single axis gyroscope attached to the heel cap. Twenty-four recreational runners were instructed to walk and run on a 15-m indoor track at four locomotion speeds (1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 m/s, and individual running speed) and in three footwear conditions (low to high hardness). The gyroscope data and electrogoniometer data were sampled at a rate of 1000 Hz. Comparisons between both measurement devices showed small mean differences up to 49.8 ± 46.9 deg/s for evVel and up to 5.3 ± 3.5 ms for t_evVel. Furthermore, strong relationships between gyroscope and electrogoniometer data were found for evVel as well as for t_evVel for all conditions. It can be concluded that gyroscopes can be used to accurately determine evVel and t_evVel under a variety of conditions.

In recent years, research on embodied cognition has inspired a number of studies on multimedia learning and instructional psychology. However, in contrast to traditional research on education and multimedia learning, studies on embodied learning (i.e., focusing on bodily action and perception in the context of education) in some cases pose new problems for the measurement of cognitive load. This review provides an overview over recent studies on embodied learning in which cognitive load was measured using surveys, behavioral data, or physiological measures. The different methods are assessed in terms of their success in finding differences of cognitive load in embodied learning scenarios. At the same time, we highlight the most important challenges for researchers aiming to include these measures into their study designs. The main issues we identified are: (1) Subjective measures must be appropriately phrased to be useful for embodied learning; (2) recent findings indicate potentials as well as problematic aspects of dual-task measures; (3) the use of physiological measures offers great potential, but may require mobile equipment in the context of embodied scenarios; (4) meta-cognitive measures can be useful extensions of cognitive load measurement for embodied learning.

Objectives Rehabilitation following medical conditions is largely offered as in-patient service in Germany. Foreign-national residents use rehabilitative services less often than Germans and attain less favourable treatment outcomes. These differences are independent of demographic, socioeconomic and health characteristics. Satisfaction with different aspects of rehabilitative care presumably affects the effectiveness of rehabilitative services. We compared the degree of satisfaction with different domains of the rehabilitative care process between Germans and non-German nationals residing in Germany. Methods We used data from a cross-sectional rehabilitation patient survey annually conducted by the German Statutory Pension Insurance Scheme. The sample comprises 274 513 individuals undergoing medical rehabilitation in 642 hospitals during the years 2007–2011. Participants rated their satisfaction with different domains of rehabilitation on multi-item scales. We dichotomised each scale to low/moderate and high satisfaction. For each domain, a multilevel adjusted logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine differences in the levels of satisfaction between German and non-German nationals. Average marginal effects (AMEs) and 99.5% CI were computed as effect estimates. AMEs represent differences in the probability for the occurrence of the outcome. Results Turkish nationals had a higher probability for being less satisfied with most aspects of their rehabilitation, with AMEs ranging between 0.05 (99.5% CI 0.00 to 0.09) for ‘satisfaction with psychological care’ and 0.11 (99.5% CI 0.08 to 0.14) for ‘satisfaction with treatments during rehabilitation’. Patients from former Yugoslavia and from Portugal/Spain/Italy/Greece were as satisfied as Germans with most aspects of their rehabilitation. Conclusions Turkish nationals are less satisfied with their rehabilitative care than other population groups. This may be attributable to the diversity of the population in terms of its expectations towards rehabilitation. Rehabilitative care institutions need to provide services that are sensitive to the needs of all clients. Diversity management can contribute to this process.

The calculation of frequency-dependent cable parameters is essential for simulations of transient phenomena in electrical power systems. The simulation of transients is more complicated than the calculation of currents and voltages in the nominal frequency range. The model has to represent the frequency dependency and the wave propagation behavior of cable lines. The introduced model combines an improved subconductor method for the determination of the frequency-dependent parameters and a PI section wave propagation model. The subconductor method considers the skin and proximity effect in all conductors for frequency ranges up to few megahertz. The subconductor method method yields accurate results. The wave propagation part of the cable model is based on a cascaded PI section model. A modal transformation technique has been used for the calculation in the time domain. The frequency-dependent elements of the related modal transformation matrices have been fitted with rational functions. The frequency dependence of cable parameters has been reproduced using a vector fitting algorithm and has been implemented into an resistor-inductor-capacitor network (RLC network) for each PI section. The proposed full model has been validated with measured data.

In binocular rivalry, paradigms have been proposed for unobtrusive moment-by-moment readout of observers' perceptual experience (“no-report paradigms”). Here, we take a first step to extend this concept to auditory multistability. Observers continuously reported which of two concurrent tone sequences they perceived in the foreground: high-pitch (1008 Hz) or low-pitch (400 Hz) tones. Interstimulus intervals were either fixed per sequence (Experiments 1 and 2) or random with tones alternating (Experiment 3). A horizontally drifting grating was presented to each eye; to induce binocular rivalry, gratings had distinct colors and motion directions. To associate each grating with one tone sequence, a pattern on the grating jumped vertically whenever the respective tone occurred. We found that the direction of the optokinetic nystagmus (OKN)—induced by the visually dominant grating—could be used to decode the tone (high/low) that was perceived in the foreground well above chance. This OKN-based readout improved after observers had gained experience with the auditory task (Experiments 1 and 2) and for simpler auditory tasks (Experiment 3). We found no evidence that the visual stimulus affected auditory multistability. Although decoding performance is still far from perfect, our paradigm may eventually provide a continuous estimate of the currently dominant percept in auditory multistability.

Accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to detect foot strike (FS), i.e., the moment when the foot first touches the ground. However, it is unclear whether different conditions (footwear hardness or foot strike pattern) influence the accuracy and precision of different FS detection methods when using such micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS). This study compared the accuracy of four published MEMS-based FS detection methods with each other and the gold standard (force plate) to establish the most accurate method with regard to different foot strike patterns and footwear conditions. Twenty-three recreational runners (12 rearfoot and 11 forefoot strikers) ran on a 15-m indoor track at their individual running speed in three footwear conditions (low to high hardness). MEMS and a force plate were sampled at a rate of 3750 Hz. Individual accuracy and precision of FS detection methods were found which were dependent on running styles and footwear conditions. Most of the methods were characterized by a delay which generally increased from rearfoot to forefoot strike pattern and from high to low midsole hardness. It can be concluded that only one of the four methods can accurately determine FS in a variety of conditions.

The investigation of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) has revealed many promising properties. HEAs with a high share of Al and Ti are suitable for the formation of lightweight materials. Investigations of the alloy system AlCoCrFeNiTi showed high strength, hardness, ductility, and wear resistance, which makes this special alloy interesting for surface engineering and particularly for thermal spray technology. In this study, the suitability of inert gas-atomised HEA powder for high-velocity-oxygen-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray is investigated. This process allows for high particle velocities and comparatively low process temperatures, resulting in dense coatings with a low oxidation. The microstructure and phase composition of the atomised powder and the HVOF coating were investigated, as well as the wear behaviour under various conditions. A multiphase microstructure was revealed for the powder and coating, whereas a chemically ordered bcc phase occurred as the main phase. The thermal spray process resulted in a slightly changed lattice parameter of the main phase and an additional phase. In comparison with a hard chrome-plated sample, an increase in wear resistance was achieved. Furthermore, no brittle behaviour occurred under abrasive load in the scratch test. The investigation of wear tracks showed only minor cracking and spallation under maximum load.

In this article a Novikov engine with fluctuating hot heat bath temperature is presented. Based on this model, the performance measure maximum expected power as well as the corresponding efficiency and entropy production rate is investigated for four different stationary distributions: continuous uniform, normal, triangle, quadratic, and Pareto. It is found that the performance measures increase monotonously with increasing expectation value and increasing standard deviation of the distributions. Additionally, we show that the distribution has only little influence on the performance measures for small standard deviations. For larger values of the standard deviation, the performance measures in the case of the Pareto distribution are significantly different compared to the other distributions. These observations are explained by a comparison of the Taylor expansions in terms of the distributions’ standard deviations. For the considered symmetric distributions, an extension of the well known Curzon–Ahlborn efficiency to a stochastic Novikov engine is given.

Previous studies have used accelerometers with various operating ranges (ORs) when measuring biomechanical parameters. However, it is still unclear whether ORs influence the accuracy of running parameters, and whether the different stiffnesses of footwear midsoles influence this accuracy. The purpose of the present study was to systematically investigate the influence of OR on the accuracy of stride length, running velocity, and on peak tibial acceleration. Twenty-one recreational heel strike runners ran on a 15-m indoor track at self-selected running speeds in three footwear conditions (low to high midsole stiffness). Runners were equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) affixed to the heel cup of the right shoe and with a uniaxial accelerometer at the right tibia. Accelerometers (at the tibia and included in the IMU) with a high OR of ±70 g were used as the reference and the data were cut at ±32, ±16, and at ±8 g in post-processing, before calculating parameters. The results show that the OR influenced the outcomes of all investigated parameters, which were not influenced by tested footwear conditions. The lower ORs were associated with an underestimation error for all biomechanical parameters, which increased noticeably with a decreasing OR. It can be concluded that accelerometers with a minimum OR of ±32 g should be used to avoid inaccurate measurements.

Previous studies on self-esteem and depression demonstrated the usefulness of both implicit and explicit self-esteem as well as their congruence (also known as self-esteem consistency) to predict future depressive symptoms. High self-esteem consistency describes when implicit and explicit self-esteem match (e.g., both high or both low). In the current study, we investigated if implicit and explicit self-esteem and self-esteem consistency predict the course of treatment efficacy of a cognitive behavioral depression therapy. Explicit self-esteem was assessed by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, implicit self-esteem by a priming task. Participants were 31 patients with a major depressive or recurrent depressive disorder receiving cognitive behavioral therapy treatment in an inpatient setting. Self-esteem measures were administered before treatment. The development of depression symptoms during treatment and at the 4-month follow-up was measured on the Beck Depression Inventory. Implicit and explicit self-esteem did not predict the course of the therapy. Patients with congruent self-esteem, however, improved faster and showed lower severity of symptoms throughout treatment. In contrast, neither explicit nor implicit self-esteem nor self-esteem consistency predicted the stability of effects after treatment. Practical implications such as targeting discrepancies in self-esteem during treatment are discussed.