The Dedicatory Presentation in Late Antiquity: The Example of Ausonius

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23064230?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.No abstract is available for this item

Validating a New Method for Ergonomic Evaluation of Human Computer Interfaces

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is the basic component of using all kinds of information technological systems. This is why examination methods capable of assessing factors influencing users´ performance, current mental effort and well-being during HCI in a well established and scientifically sound way have got great importance. The `current´ attribute for mental effort means here that in addition to overall measures concerning a relatively longer period - several hours or a whole working day - such methods should also provide informative and valid data about users´ mental investments at the temporal resolution corresponding to users´ elementary actions as keystrokes, mouse clicks, etc. It has already been shown that under certain circumstances Heart Period Variability (HPV) could be a measure of momentary mental effort. This paper gives a short overview of applications of HPV in ergonomics in general, and based on empirical evidence intends to prove that this methodology, after a careful adaptation, could be an especially adequate and powerful technique for monitoring mental effort in HCI. The paper outlines the main principles of a new method and the related components of the integrated system (INTERFACE) developed by us for investigating HCI from several aspects with emphasis on assessing mental effort. A detailed application example is also provided

Conflicting Issues of Sustainable Consumption and Food Safety: Risky Consumer Behaviors in Reducing Food Waste and Plastic Packaging

Food-related consumer decisions have an impact on the environment. However, trending patterns of sustainable consumption often pose a challenge for food-safety authorities: these initiatives may unintentionally compromise food safety. The objective of this review is to support public agencies in the integration of sustainability issues into food-safety risk communication schemes. Environmentally conscious but risky behaviors aimed at the reduction of food waste and plastic packaging were chosen for discussion and scrutinized based on expert opinions. Those expert opinions clearly indicated that a significant part of environmentally conscious behaviors, such as removing mold, eating expired perishable food, overstoring leftovers, avoiding single-use plastic packaging even when cross-contamination is a threat, and using reusable bags without cleaning for a long time, often contribute to food-safety risks. Short, easy-to-remember messages were collected for each recognized risky behavior; they concentrated on prevention or providing an alternative that was still environmentally sensible but kept food-safety risks low (such as planning ahead to avoid leftovers, freezing leftovers in time, and sanitizing reusable bags). The identified challenges and solutions might encourage authorities to rethink their risk-communication practices and integrate a sustainability aspect in them.publishedVersio