In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of SMART, an educational system that uses augmented reality for teaching 2 nd grade-level concepts, adequate and integrated with national curriculum guidelines. SMART puts children exploring concepts like means of transportation, types of animals and similar semantic categories through the use of a set of racquets that are used to manipulate a TV-show style game with 3D models which are superimposed to the real time video feed of the whole class. Experiments were performed with several classes of students in three different, local primary schools. Results suggest that SMART is effective in maintaining high levels of motivation among children, and also that SMART has a positive impact on the students' learning experience, especially among the weaker students.

Lower extremity muscle strength (LEMS) and body balance (BB) are essential for older adults to maintain an upright posture and autonomously perform their basic activities of daily living. This study aimed to examine whether LEMS and BB mediate the relationship between physical activity (PA) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a large sample of community-dwelling older adults. This is a cross-sectional study carried out with 802 individuals, 401 males and 401 females (69.8 ± 5.6 years), residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal. PA and HRQoL were assessed by the Baecke Questionnaire and e SF-36, respectively. LEMS was assessed by the Senior Fitness Test and BB by the Fullerton Advance Balance (FAB). The serial mediation pathway model pointed out that LEMS and BB partially mediated the association between PA and HRQoL in approximately 39.6% and 47%, respectively. The total variance in HRQoL explained by the entire model was 98%. Our findings may indicate the role that LEMS and BB play in the relationship between PA and HRQoL in the older population.

Many studies have analyzed general software development practices and how organizations can better support them. However, literature that qualitatively studies user-interface-related work practices in software development is relatively rare. Supporting workstyle transitions in UI practices is nonetheless important. A survey of 370 practitioners about their workstyles and tool use offers concrete examples of design tools that support the most important workstyle transitions. The survey also resulted in recommendations for making design tools more human-centric and appealing to practitioners interested in the UI aspects of software development

Outdoor virtual environments (OVEs) are becoming increasingly popular, as they allow a sense of presence in places that are inaccessible or protected from human intervention. These virtual environments (VEs) need to address physical modalities other than vision and hearing. We analyze the influence of four different physical modalities (vision, hearing, haptics, and olfaction) on the sense of presence on a virtual journey through the sea and the Laurissilva Forest of Funchal, Portugal. We applied Slater et al.'s (2010) method together with data gathered by the Emotiv EPOC EEG in an OVE setting. In such a setting, the combination of haptics and hearing are more important than the typical virtual environment (vision and hearing) in terms of place and plausibility illusions. Our analysis is particularly important for designers interested in crafting similar VEs because we classify different physical modalities according to their importance in enhancing presence.