"Looking at What One Believies". Indagine sulla Relazione tra Movimenti Oculari e Associazioni Implicite

Social information processing involves embodiment, i.e. thoughts comprise mental simulations of bodily experiences, and, at the same time, cognition directly affects the content of sensory-motor systems. We investigate whether it is possible to observe a top-down effect of implicit association on eye gaze behaviour by means of eye-tracking methods and techniques. We assume that if attitudes, social perception, and emotion are the outcome of embodied processes, then people with different kinds of mental attributes (e.g. racial prejudices) must perform different kinds of eye gaze movements when they explore the visual content of implicit association tasks. The relationship between the eye movements –recorded by the open-source ITU Gaze Tracker eye tracking system– and implicit associations occurring during an Implicit Association Test (IAT) on hidden ethnic biases of about 80 Caucasian participants was investigated in two experiments with the same experimental paradigm. Both total times of fixations and total number of fixations emerged as significant predictors of IAT scores. The analysis carried out on the number of fixations showed that subjects implicitly watch what they believe, i.e. the association according to their psychological attributes. Eye-tracking methodology hence seems to be a promising approach to obtain objective measures to investigate the unintended characteristics underlying behaviour in ecological settings and could be applicable to different research contexts such as studies on stereotypes, implicit attitudes, self-esteem, and self-concept

An RFID-Based Tracing and Tracking System for the Fresh Vegetables Supply Chain

The paper presents an innovative gapless traceability system able to improve the main business processes of the fresh vegetables supply chain. The performed analysis highlighted some critical aspects in the management of the whole supply chain, from the land to the table of the end consumer, and allowed us to reengineer the most important processes. In particular, the first steps of the supply chain, which include cultivation in greenhouses and manufacturing of packaged vegetables, were analyzed. The re-engineered model was designed by exploiting the potentialities derived from the combined use of innovative Radio Frequency technologies, such as RFID and NFC, and important international standards, such as EPCglobal. The proposed tracing and tracking system allows the end consumer to know the complete history of the purchased product. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the potential benefits of the reengineered processes in a real supply chain, a pilot project was implemented in an Italian food company, which produces ready-to-eat vegetables, known asIV gammaproducts. Finally, some important metrics have been chosen to carry out the analysis of the potential benefits derived from the use of the re-engineered model

Measuring the experience of remote home workers: A scoping review

Introduction: Working from home (WFH) remotely is a modality of working that requires the careful design of systems of rules and tools to enable people to exchange information and perform actions. WFH is expected to expand after the COVID-19 pandemic, and how best to reliably assess and compare the experience of workers with different (sociotechnical) systems of WFH is central to the diffusion of acceptable modalities of remote working. However, the concept of experience and how it can be measured in the domain in WFH is yet to be clearly characterized. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology for scoping reviews, we systematically map the approaches used by researchers to assess WFH, identify which aspects are usually investigated, and examine how such aspects are usually measured in terms of questions and tools. Literature is collected using Scopus and Web of Science. Results: Thirty-four records out of 323 focusing either on validating a scale, presenting theoretically the experience of workers or testing this empirically are included in the qualitative synthesis. The results highlight a lack of unified terminology and tools, with assessments of workers’ experience mainly characterized by survey approaches and qualitative questions. Conclusion: Clustering together the most investigated aspects in the literature and reviewing how these aspects are assessed, we propose a list of 10 relevant overarching dimensions and attempt to define workers’ experience in the domain of WFH remotely. This definition can be used as a tool by researchers aiming to assess the experience of workers in order to inform the design or redesign of the sociotechnical systems that enable WFH

Digital interaction: where are we going?

In the framework of the AVI 2018 Conference, the interuniversity center ECONA has organized a thematic workshop on "Digital Interaction: where are we going?". Six contributions from the ECONA members investigate different perspectives around this thematic

A Chatbot Solution for eGLU-Box Pro: The Usability Evaluation Platform for Italian Public Administrations

This paper shows a chatbot solution for eGLU-box Pro, a usability testing platform for Italian Public Administration (PA). eGLU-box Pro is a web-based tool designed to help PA practitioners in creating remote usability tests and analyzing participants’ answers and interaction data after they complete the usability tasks. The impact of the chatbot solution on users’ experience was assessed by bio-behavioral evaluation methods such as eye tracking, electroencephalography, and facial expression recognition. This work describes the platform and its integrated chatbot solution and shows the results of a preliminary laboratory study involving 20 end-users. The study is part of an ongoing design and development project based on a user-centered approach

Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] KNOPE1, a class 1 KNOX orthologue to Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS/KNAT1, is misexpressed during hyperplasia of leaf curl disease

Class 1 KNOTTED-like (KNOX) transcription factors control cell meristematic identity. An investigation was carried out to determine whether they maintain this function in peach plants and might act in leaf curliness caused by the ascomycete Taphrina deformans. KNOPE1 function was assessed by overexpression in Arabidopsis and by yeast two-hybrid assays with Arabidopsis BELL proteins. Subsequently, KNOPE1 mRNA and zeatin localization was monitored during leaf curl disease. KNOPE1 and Arabidopsis BREVIPEDICELLUS (BP) proteins fell into the same phyletic group and recognized the same BELL factors. 35S:KNOPE1 Arabidopsis lines exhibited altered traits resembling those of BP-overexpressing lines. In peach shoot apical meristem, KNOPE1 was expressed in the peripheral and central zones but not in leaf primordia, identically to the BP expression pattern. These results strongly suggest that KNOPE1 must be down-regulated for leaf initiation and that it can control cell meristem identity equally as well as all class 1 KNOX genes. Leaves attacked by T. deformans share histological alterations with class 1 KNOX-overexpressing leaves, including cell proliferation and loss of cell differentiation. Both KNOPE1 and a cytokinin synthesis ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE gene were found to be up-regulated in infected curled leaves. At early disease stages, KNOPE1 was uniquely triggered in the palisade cells interacting with subepidermal mycelium, while zeatin vascular localization was unaltered compared with healthy leaves. Subsequently, when mycelium colonization and asci development occurred, both KNOPE1 and zeatin signals were scattered in sectors of cell disorders. These results suggest that KNOPE1 misexpression and de novo zeatin synthesis of host origin might participate in hyperplasia of leaf curl disease

eGLU-Box Mobile:A Smartphone App for Usability Testing by Italian Public Administration Webmasters

Smartphones and tablets now offer consumers unique advantages such as portability and accessibility. Developers are also working with a mobile-first approach, and are prioritizing mobile applications over desktop versions. This study introduces eGLU-box Mobile, an application for performing a drive usability test directly from a smartphone. An experimental study was conducted in which the participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group, which used the new mobile application from a smartphone, and a control group, which used the desktop application from a computer. The participants’ behavior was assessed using explicit (self-report questionnaires) and implicit measures (eye movement data). The results were encouraging, and showed that both the mobile and desktop versions of eGLU-box enabled participants to test the usability with a similar level of UX, despite some minimal (although significant) differences in terms of satisfaction of use