Abstract

Abstract
Food fraud is a growing problem and happens in many ways including mislabelling. Since lack of consumers' knowledge about mandatory food labeling information and different types of food fraud may impact public health, the present work assesses consumers' knowledge about these issues. Principal component analysis was performed to obtain a smaller number of uncorrelated factors regarding the usefulness and confidence of information displayed in food labels and the perception of food fraud. Results indicated that information displayed in food labels is useful, however the way it is presented may decrease consumer interest and understanding. Regarding respondents' confidence in foodstuffs, over half of them stated that information provided in food labels is reliable. However, a lack of confidence about food composition is observed in those processed foodstuffs such as meat products. Food fraud is recognized by more than half of respondents with a higher perception of those practices that imply a risk to public health than those related to economic motivation. Age and education of consumers influenced the perception of the information displayed in the food labels, their confidence and knowledge about food fraud. Implementation of education programs to increase consumer knowledge about food labelling and fraud is essential. Respondents' perception results could be use as guidelines by the food industry to improve food label design in order to enhance consumer understanding.

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
This paper presents a day-ahead scheduling approach for a multi-carrier residential energy system (MRES) including distributed energy resources (DERs). The main objective of the proposed scheduling approach is the minimization of the total costs of an MRES consisting of both electricity and gas energy carriers. The proposed model considers both electrical and natural gas distribution networks, DER technologies including renewable energy resources, energy storage systems (ESSs), and combined heat and power. The uncertainties pertinent to the demand and generated power of renewable resources are modeled using the chance-constrained approach. The proposed model is applied on the IEEE 33-bus distribution system and 14-node gas network, and the results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in the matters of diminishing the total operation costs and enhancing the reliability of the system.

Abstract
Current concerns in the field of sustainability are cross-cutting across several sectors. In this sense, the ability of organizations to effectively use information and communication technologies and to focus on sustainability, innovation and creativity are recognized as important factors. In this article, an approach is proposed to incorporate sustainability factors when introducing creativity into the Requirements Engineering process. With a view to building more agile and sustainable Information Systems, a case of applying the approach in identifying requirements is presented, incorporating sustainability concerns. The approach stimulates the discussion on sustainability in its multiple dimensions (human, environmental, social, technical, and economic), focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals and the needs of people.