Publications

The appearance of virtual humans (avatars and agents) has been widely explored in immersive environments. However, virtual humans’ movements and associated sounds in real-world interactions, particularly in Augmented Reality (AR), are yet to be explored. In this paper, we investigate the influence of three distinct movement patterns (circle, side-to-side, and standing), two rendering styles (realistic and cartoon), and two types of audio (spatial audio and non-spatial audio) on emotional responses, social presence, appearance and behavior plausibility, audiovisual coherence, and auditory plausibility. To enable that, we conducted a study (N=36) where participants observed an agent reciting a short fictional story. Our results indicate an effect of the rendering style and the type of movement on the subjective perception of the agents behaving in an AR environment. Participants reported higher levels of excitement when they observed the realistic agent moving in a circle compared to the cartoon agent or the other two movement patterns. Moreover, we found an influence of agent’s movement pattern on social presence and higher appearance and behavior plausibility for the realistic rendering style. Regarding audiovisual spatial coherence, we found an influence of rendering style and type of audio only for the cartoon agent. Additionally, the spatial audio was perceived as more plausible than non-spatial audio. Our findings suggest that aligning realistic rendering styles with realistic auditory experiences may not be necessary for 1-1 listening experiences with moving sources. However, movement patterns of agents influence excitement and social presence in passive unidirectional communication scenarios.

News reporting on child sexual abuse (CSA) plays an important role in educating the public and fighting sexual violence, according to the public interest model of normative media theory. Bad reporting, however, is widespread and hinders a solution-oriented approach. Against this backdrop, the current study investigated which normative and subjective criteria are used by readers when they assess the quality of CSA newspaper reporting (RQ1). Furthermore, it was tested if readers can differentiate between good and bad CSA reporting quality (RQ2) and if their personal involvement in the topic - concerning victimization, exposure to CSA reporting, CSA knowledge - influences assessments of journalistic quality (RQ3). An experimental online study with a national quota sample of N = 2724 adults (18–65 years; Mage  = 44.1; 52.5% women) from Germany was conducted in 2020. The study is preregistered and further materials are shared on osf.io. It turned out that readers mostly used the normative criteria to assess CSA reporting quality that are suggested by the academic literature (RQ1). Readers were able to differentiate between CSA reporting with high versus low journalistic quality (RQ2) - irrespective of their own CSA victimization (RQ3). Readers rated bad reporting as mediocre, though, indicating potential unawareness of certain quality issues.

Background: Rough sex refers to consensual sexual activities that incorporate playful aggression, such as hair pulling, spanking, or choking. It is relevant in the context of sexual health as it can enhance sexual arousal, pleasure, and intimacy among consenting partners. However, it can also be associated with consent violations, discomfort, and injuries ranging from mild to severe or even fatal. The prevalence of rough sex in Germany is widely unknown. Our study aims to establish, for the first time, the overall age-related and gender-related prevalence rates of active and passive rough sex involvement among adults in Germany. Methods: A national online sample of 1101 adults from Germany, aged 18-69 years (50% men, 49% women, 1% gender-diverse individuals) gave informed consent and reported on their lifetime engagement in rough sex in active and passive roles. We recruited participants through a professional panel provider for a multi-themed sexual health survey. Data analysis was conducted using R, with 95% confidence intervals of prevalence rates computed to answer the research questions. Results: Lifetime prevalence of rough sex involvement was 29%. Adults below the age of 40 reported higher rates of involvement (up to 43%) than people over 40 (up to 26%). Men reported predominantly active role involvement and women reported primarily passive role involvement. Discussion: Results show that rough sex is common. Sexual health professionals, educators, and researchers should be prepared to guide current and aspiring practitioners of rough sex, helping them understand potential benefits, risks, and age- and gender-related differences.

The productivity gap between East and West Germany is a long ongoing discussion among the public and policy makers. Regional disparities still appear to be substantial. In this paper, we shed light on the role of allocative efficiency as a region?s driver of productivity disparities. We show that over 50 percent of the East-West productivity gap is associated with a less efficient labor allocation in former East Germany. Controlling for the heterogeneity among German federal states, we perform spatial regression on official firm-level data (AFiD), revealing that the regional differences in allocative efficiency are significantly associated with trade openness, competitive intensity, economies of scale and labor mobility.

Waste sorting is an important recovery process in circular product systems. Engineering sciences deal with its performance measurement by analysing various parameter settings based on technical key figures derived from object and component quantities. They are difficult to aggregate, especially since there are no prices for all inputs and outputs. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) allows an aggregation without implementing prices or weight restrictions. This paper shows how DEA can be used as performance measurement method for sorting processes, whose purpose it is to separate different material components from a waste mixture as effectively and efficiently as possible. This is achieved when the individual components are sorted out into their respective recycling bins with as little effort as possible and without allowing too many incorrect throws. In this respect, sorting processes represent pure material reallocations - and no material transformations. Thus, valid material balances of sorting technologies do not allow for free disposability. A new multiple criteria DEA approach is suggested, which uses input and output objects that entirely consist of components determining the object's value. Different from common DEA approaches, the technological perspective of modelling the underlying production system is strictly separated from the preference perspective of modelling multiple performance criteria for the relevant input and output types and sorts. In more detail, we develop DEA models for a combined evaluation of operating and quality efficiency where both inputs and outputs are characterised by sorts or grades of varying quality. In contrast to existing approaches that map quality into DEA we reflect upon the underlying technological assumptions and analyse which dominance relations result from that in our case of waste sorting.