Surveillance was enhanced and a retrospective interview study performed in 1998-99 to determine incidence, causes, and costs of foodborne illnesses in Uppsala, Sweden. Sixty-eight percent of the detected foodborne illness incidents were single cases, and 32% were outbreaks. Most (85%) of the incidents came to the attention of the municipal authorities through telephone calls from affected persons. Calicivirus, Campylobacter spp., and Staphyloccocus aureus were the most common etiological agents; meat, meat products, and mixed dishes were the most implicated food categories. The incidence of foodborne illness was estimated to be 38 cases per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The estimated average costs per illness were 2,164 Swedish Krona (SEK) ($246) to society and 500 SEK ($57) to the patient. The annual cost of foodborne illnesses in Sweden was estimated to be 1,082 million SEK ($123 million).

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The Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille (TPB) published web-based computer games for children with different kinds of visual impairments. As the target groups have very different needs, when it comes to the use of graphics and sound, TPB have developed two kinds of games. Image-based games aim to encourage children with partial sight to practice recognizing visual objects, whereas sound-based games also intend to be accessible without relying on vision. Based on the results of two pilot studies, this paper discusses central design issues of the graphical and sound-based interfaces for this type of application.

For some forty years the eye-tracking technology has facilitated the study of eye movement patterns for sighted people during reading and other visual activities. Today -a newly developed automatic finger tracking system makes it possible to reconstruct blind peopleÕs tactile reading in real time and to automatically analyze finger movements during Braille text reading and tactile picture recognition. In this case study, the very first automatic finger tracking system is presented together with results indicating how Braille readers can increase awareness of their own reading styles. This opens up for future Braille education to become more evidence-based and, at the same time, for a new research field: contrastive studies of language in its auditory, visual and tactile manifestations.

This study addresses the role of visual representations in supporting communication between an R&D team and geographically distributed suppliers for a new product development (NPD) project. It specifically focuses on the design and use of visual representations as a feasible way for communication between the distributed actors when they face communication challenges originating from differences in skills in the English language, but also from differences in work experiences. Relying on empirical materials from a Swedish manufacturing company in the mechanical engineering industry, this paper makes the following contributions to the literature. First, it shows that visual representations are effective boundary objects able to support process-oriented and product-oriented communication in distributed NPD projects. Second, it illustrates that visual representations do not necessarily have to follow graphic design principles, but can still be effective if distributed actors share the same project context. Finally, it highlights the need for a dynamic and context-dependent perspective on communication in NPD projects.