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BackgroundMeal-Q and its shorter version, MiniMeal-Q, are 2 new Web-based food frequency questionnaires. Their meal-based and interactive format was designed to promote ease of use and to minimize answering time, desirable improvements in large epidemiological studies.ObjectiveWe evaluated the validity of energy and macronutrient intake assessed with Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q as well as the reproducibility of Meal-Q.MethodsHealthy volunteers aged 20-63 years recruited from Stockholm County filled out the 174-item Meal-Q. The questionnaire was compared to 7-day weighed food records (WFR; n=163), for energy and macronutrient intake, and to doubly labeled water (DLW; n=39), for total energy expenditure. In addition, the 126-item MiniMeal-Q was evaluated in a simulated validation using truncated Meal-Q data. We also assessed the answering time and ease of use of both questionnaires.ResultsBland-Altman plots showed a varying bias within the intake range for all validity comparisons. Cross-classification of quartiles placed 70%-86% in the same/adjacent quartile with WFR and 77% with DLW. Deattenuated and energy-adjusted Pearson correlation coefficients with the WFR ranged from r=0.33-0.74 for macronutrients and was r=0.18 for energy. Correlations with DLW were r=0.42 for Meal-Q and r=0.38 for MiniMeal-Q. Intraclass correlations for Meal-Q ranged from r=0.57-0.90. Median answering time was 17 minutes for Meal-Q and 7 minutes for MiniMeal-Q, and participants rated both questionnaires as easy to use.ConclusionsMeal-Q and MiniMeal-Q are easy to use and have short answering times. The ranking agreement is good for most of the nutrients for both questionnaires and Meal-Q shows fair reproducibility.

we found that high physical activity was associated with a lower risk of contracting URTI for both men and women. In addition, we found that highly stressed people, particularly men, appear to benefit more from physical activity than those with lower stress levels.

Improved methods for quantitative self-reports of total physical activity in epidemiological studies are needed. We evaluated randomly selected individuals' ability to integrate their perception of physical activity over time to produce an estimate of the "usual" level, using a novel instrument for self-quantification of energy expenditure. A population-based sample of 418 Swedish men and women, age 20-59, completed a questionnaire containing the new instrument. For validation, three 24 hour recalls by phone served as gold standard. Reproducibility was assessed through administering the instrument another three times. The validation involved 133 subjects and another 160 completed the reproducibility evaluation. Pearson correlation between usual daily energy expenditure measured by the instrument and the mean of the 24 hour recalls was 0.73. After subdividing the self-reported daily energy expenditure and the mean of the 24 hour recalls into quintiles, 83.5% of the participants remained in the same quintile, or one quintile apart. There was a tendency towards overestimation of usual daily physical activity. This was significantly associated with low education. Reproducibility showed an intraclass correlation of 0.55. Although integrated reports of usual daily energy expenditure over longer periods seem to be afflicted with a tendency of overestimation, total energy expenditure can be estimated with reasonable validity and reproducibility using our instrument.

The aim of this paper is to summarise how pronunciation feedback on the phoneme level should be given in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) in order to be effective. The study contains a literature survey of feedback in the language classroom, interviews with language teachers and their students about their attitudes towards pronunciation feedback, and observations of how feedback is given in their classrooms. The study was carried out using focus group meetings, individual semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The feedback strategies that were advocated and observed in the study on pronunciation feedback from human teachers were implemented in a computer-animated language tutor giving articulation feedback. The virtual tutor was subsequently tested in a user trial and evaluated with a questionnaire. The article proposes several feedback strategies that would improve the pedagogical soundness of CAPT systems.

BackgroundThe meal- and Web-based food frequency questionnaires, Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q, were developed for cost-efficient assessment of dietary intake in epidemiological studies.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the relative validity of micronutrient and fiber intake assessed with Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q. The reproducibility of Meal-Q was also evaluated.MethodsA total of 163 volunteer men and women aged between 20 and 63 years were recruited from Stockholm County, Sweden. Assessment of micronutrient and fiber intake with the 174-item Meal-Q was compared to a Web-based 7-day weighed food record (WFR). Two administered Meal-Q questionnaires were compared for reproducibility. The 126-item MiniMeal-Q, developed after the validation study, was evaluated in a simulated validation by using truncated Meal-Q data.ResultsThe study population consisted of approximately 80% women (129/163) with a mean age of 33 years (SD 12) who were highly educated (130/163, 80% with >12 years of education) on average. Cross-classification of quartiles with the WFR placed 69% to 90% in the same/adjacent quartile for Meal-Q and 67% to 89% for MiniMeal-Q. Bland-Altman plots with the WFR and the questionnaires showed large variances and a trend of increasing underestimation with increasing intakes. Deattenuated and energy-adjusted Spearman rank correlations between the questionnaires and the WFR were in the range ρ=.25-.69, excluding sodium that was not statistically significant. Cross-classifications of quartiles of the 2 Meal-Q administrations placed 86% to 97% in the same/adjacent quartile. Intraclass correlation coefficients for energy-adjusted intakes were in the range of .50-.76.ConclusionsWith the exception of sodium, this validation study demonstrates Meal-Q and MiniMeal-Q to be useful methods for ranking micronutrient and fiber intake in epidemiological studies with Web-based data collection.

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O l l e BiilterI n t e r a c t i o n a n d P r e s e n t a t i o n L a b o r a t o r y N a d a , R o y a l I n s t i t u t e o f T e c h n o l o g y S E -100 4 4 S t o c k h o l m , S w e d e n + 4 6 8 7 9 0 9 1 5 7 b a l t e r @ n a d a . k t h . s e ABSTRACT Organization of email messages takes an increasing amount of time for many email users. Research has demonstrated that users develop very different strategies to handle this organization. In this paper, the relationship between the different organization strategies and the time necessary to use a certain strategy is illustrated by a mathematical model based on keystroke-level analysis. The model estimates time usage for archiving and retrieving email messages for individual users. Besides explaining why users develop different strategies to organize email messages, the model can also be used to advise users individually when to start using folders, clean messages, learn the search functionality, and using filters to store messages. Similar models could assist evaluation of different interface designs where the number of items increase with time.The model is based on keystroke-level analysis and is thereby limited to the context-independent aspects of email message organization.The paper begins with a short description of keystroke-level analysis and then the model of email storage and retrieval is presented. The model is illustrated with a description of some fictitious users to explain the development of organization habits. Finally, an analysis of the model is presented by comparing the model's predictions with observed long time user behaviour. METHODSKeystroke-level analysis can be used to estimate how much time it will take for a user to accomplish a given task with a given interface. The method has been tested empirically with good results [3].