Background: Loneliness and social isolation are major public health concerns for older adults, with severe mental and physical health consequences. New technologies may have a great impact in providing support to the daily lives of older adults and addressing the many challenges they face. In this scenario, technologies based on voice assistants (VAs) are of great interest and potential benefit in reducing loneliness and social isolation in this population, because they could overcome existing barriers with other digital technologies through easier and more natural human-computer interaction. Objective: This study aims to investigate the use of VAs to reduce loneliness and social isolation of older adults by performing a systematic literature review and a bibliometric cluster mapping analysis. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases for articles that were published in the last 6 years, related to the following main topics: voice interface, VA, older adults, isolation, and loneliness. A total of 40 articles were found, of which 16 (40%) were included in this review. The included articles were then assessed through a qualitative scoring method and summarized. Finally, a bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer software (Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies). Results: Of the 16 articles included in the review, only 2 (13%) were considered of poor methodological quality, whereas 9 (56%) were of medium quality and 5 (31%) were of high quality. Finally, through bibliometric analysis, 221 keywords were extracted, of which 36 (16%) were selected. The most important keywords, by number of occurrences and by total link strength; results of the analysis with the Association Strength normalization method; and default values were then presented. The final bibliometric network consisted of 36 selected keywords, which were grouped into 3 clusters related to 3 main topics (ie, VA use for social isolation among older adults, the significance of age in the context of loneliness, and the impact of sex factors on well-being). For most of the selected articles, the effect of VA on social isolation and loneliness of older adults was a minor theme. However, more investigations were done on user experience, obtaining preliminary positive results. Conclusions: Most articles on the use of VAs by older adults to reduce social isolation and loneliness focus on usability, acceptability, or user experience. Nevertheless, studies directly addressing the impact that using a VA has on the social isolation and loneliness of older adults find positive and promising results and provide important information for future research, interventions, and policy development in the field of geriatric care and technology.

Innovative technologies can support older adults with or without disabilities, allowing them to live independently in their environment whilst monitoring their health and safety conditions and thereby reducing the significant burden on caregivers, whether family or professional. This paper discusses the design of a study protocol to evaluate the acceptance, usability, and efficiency of the SAVE system, a custom-developed information technology-based elderly care system. The study will involve older adults (aged 65 or older), professional and lay caregivers, and care service decision-makers representing all types of users in a care service scenario. The SAVE environmental sensors, smartwatches, smartphones, and Web service application will be evaluated in people’s homes situated in Romania, Italy, and Hungary with a total of 165 users of the three types (cares, elderly, and admin). The study design follows the mixed method approach, using standardized tests and questionnaires with open-ended questions and logging all the data for evaluation. The trial is registered to the platform ClinicalTrials.gov with the registration number NCT05626556. This protocol not only guides the participating countries but can be a feasibility protocol suitable for evaluating the usability and quality of similar systems.

In this paper, we present an exhaustive description of an extensible e-Health Internet-connected embedded system, which allows the measurement of three biometric parameters: pulse rate, oxygen saturation and temperature, via several wired and wireless sensors residing to the realm of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and cognitive assessment through Choice Reaction Time (CRT) analysis. The hardware used is based on ATMEGA AVR + MySignals Hardware printed circuit board (Hardware PCB), but with multiple upgrades (including porting from ATMEGA328P to ATMEGA2560). Multiple software improvements were made (by writing high-level device drivers, text-mode and graphic-mode display driver) for increasing functionality, portability, speed, and latency. A top-level embedded application was developed and benchmarked. A custom wireless AT command firmware was developed, based on ESP8266 firmware to allow AP-mode configuration and single-command JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data-packet pushing towards the cloud platform. All software is available in a git repository, including the measurement results. The proposed eHealth system provides with specific NCDs and cognitive views fostering the potential to exploit correlations between physiological and cognitive data and to generate predictive analysis in the field of eldercare.

The study conducted a systematic review with a bibliometric analysis to examine the extent of utilization and effectiveness of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and concurrent engineering (CE) in managing and optimizing system design factors in complex systems across various domains, including space, healthcare, as well as active and assisted living and smart environments. The study aims to explore how MBSE and CE can address the inherent challenges in complex system definition and development, particularly focusing on their impact on system design factors such as mission analysis, system architecture, cost, schedule, and risk contingencies, which are commonly considered critical across the entire system lifecycle. By utilizing the PICO framework, the review formulates research questions and systematically searches multiple databases to identify relevant studies. The systematic review highlights that MBSE is prominently used in approximately 88% of the analyzed articles. These integrations enhance the methodologies’ ability to manage complexity and improve efficiency across various stages of the system lifecycle. Specialized tools such as MagicDraw, Cameo Systems Modeler, and OPCAT play a crucial role in the technical implementation of MBSE and CE, providing detailed diagrams and models that represent system components with their interactions and behavior. The principal findings highlight how MBSE and CE support product systems engineering (PSE) in the early lifecycle stages of complex systems of interest. This support is particularly evident in optimizing system design, reducing time, costs, and technological risks, and enhancing the efficiency of business systems engineering through lifecycle management and quality management.

Background: The study adapts the corporate entrepreneurship assessment instrument (CEAI), a notable North American psychometric instrument used to evaluate entrepreneurial culture, and investigates its construct validity scale, taking into account that psychometric instruments have limited cross-cultural portability. Objectives: We aim at identifying the perceived internal management key factors in the Romanian entrepreneurial culture (private sector) and applying CEAI to emergent economies. Method: The corporate entrepreneurship assessment instrument uses a 48-item Likert scale questionnaire to collect information from a large sample of employees working in different companies. The questions, seen as random variables, are then factor analysed in order to get a reduced more manageable structure. Factors are finally interpreted with respect to the entrepreneurial propensity of the business sector in study. The software used for statistical analysis was SPSS. Results: The survey conducted on 175 professionals from Romanian technology-based companies yielded a 10-factor structure for this particular business environment: reinforcement and work discretion, dynamic environment and decreased formalisation, delegation, time availability, strategic awareness, management support, stress, vertical communication, horizontal communication and knowledge sharing. Conclusion: The study provides a thorough understanding of the Romanian post-communist corporate culture, and, together with a similar analysis recently performed in South Africa, aims to create a clearer picture of cross-cultural portability of entrepreneurship psychometric instruments.

Long-duration space flight missions impose extreme physiological stress and/or changes, such as musculoskeletal function degradation, on the crew due to the microgravity exposure. A great deal of research studies have been conducted in order to understand these physiological stress influences and to provide countermeasures to minimize the observed negative effects of weightlessness exposure on musculoskeletal function. Among others, studies and experiments have been conducted in DI analogue Earth-based facilities in order to reproduce the weightlessness negative effects on the human body. This paper presents a complex muscular analysis of mechanical wave propagation in striated muscle, using MusTone, a device developed in-house at the Institute of Space Science, Romania. The data were collected during a 21-day DI campaign in order to investigate muscle fibers’ behavior in longitudinal direction, after applying a mechanical impulse, taking into account two particular parameters, namely propagation velocity and amortization ratio. The parameters were determined based on the wave-propagation data collected from five points (one impact point, two distal direction points, and two proximal direction points) along the muscle fiber. By statistically analyzing propagation velocity and amortization ratio parameters, the study revealed that muscle deconditioning is time dependent, the amortization ratio is more significant in the distal direction, and the lower fibers are affected the most.