Coburg University of Applied Sciences

About: Coburg University of Applied Sciences is a education organization based out in Coburg, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Diesel fuel & Virtual reality. The organization has 280 authors who have published 447 publications receiving 3852 citations. The organization is also known as: Coburg University.

Body Movements for Affective Expression: A Survey of Automatic Recognition and Generation

Abstract: Body movements communicate affective expressions and, in recent years, computational models have been developed to recognize affective expressions from body movements or to generate movements for virtual agents or robots which convey affective expressions. This survey summarizes the state of the art on automatic recognition and generation of such movements. For both automatic recognition and generation, important aspects such as the movements analyzed, the affective state representation used, and the use of notation systems is discussed. The survey concludes with an outline of open problems and directions for future work.

Evaluation of a Seven-Week Web-Based Happiness Training to Improve Psychological Well-Being, Reduce Stress, and Enhance Mindfulness and Flourishing: A Randomized Controlled Occupational Health Study

Abstract: Background. As distress in society increases, including work environments, individual capacities to compete with stress have to be strengthened. Objective. We examined the impact of a web-based happiness training on psychological and physiological parameters, by self-report and objective means, in an occupational health setting. Methods. Randomized controlled trial with 147 employees. Participants were divided into intervention (happiness training) and control groups (waiting list). The intervention consisted of a seven-week online training. Questionnaires were administered before, after, and four weeks after training. The following scales were included: VAS (happiness and satisfaction), WHO-5 Well-being Index, Stress Warning Signals, Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, Recovery Experience Questionnaire, and Flourishing Scale. Subgroup samples for saliva cortisol and alpha-amylase determinations were taken, indicating stress, and Attention Network Testing for effects on attention regulation. Results. Happiness (; ), satisfaction (; ), and quality of life (; ) improved; perceived stress was reduced (; ); mindfulness (; ), flourishing (; ), and recovery experience (; ) also increased significantly. No significant differences in the Attention Network Tests and saliva results occurred (intergroup), except for one saliva value. Conclusions. The web-based training can be a useful tool for stabilizing health/psychological well-being and work/life balance.