This paper addresses the degree of readiness of manufacturing companies in the well-defined area of Transylvania, Romania for tackling the challenges of the low-carbon economy (LCE) in view of the ambitious goals of the European Union. The presented survey aims to provide a better understanding about the management and reduction in the carbon footprint among production companies in Romania, as this sector is not usually included official strategies or studies. One hundred and three companies, selected based on voluntary sampling responses, were investigated using a 40-item questionnaire. The survey was applied to the manufacturing sector, including automotive, furniture production, and metal processing domains, which are locally representative and a good approximation of what small- and medium-sized firms look like across the EU, thus furnishing a good view of what takes place in other countries as well. The results obtained were analyzed using univariate descriptive statistics, multi-variate item analysis, and hypothesis testing to arrive at conclusions with a high degree of applicability. The purpose was to obtain an accurate overview about the actual situation and help companies find solutions in order to reduce the carbon footprint in the production field and achieve sustainable manufacturing. We arrive at the conclusion that manufacturing firms have a high degree of interest in decarbonization, but understand the efforts required to the same degree they understand the opportunities it brings. For example, 55% of respondents are interested in the benefits of LCE, while 90% of them observe at least one environmental standard, and ca. 70% implement at least common decarbonization measures, such as electricity savings or process optimization. While raising awareness and improving technological processes are accepted and embraced, other issues (i.e., involvement in RDI and CSR, change management, as well as financing investment efforts) should be addressed by proper policies.

This article proposes a new, improved home-based cardiac telerehabilitation system enhanced by a robotic and Virtual Reality module for cardiac patients to be used in their rehabilitation program. In this study, a novel strategy was used to integrate existing equipment and applications with newly developed ones, with the aim of reducing the need for technical skills of patients using remote control. Patients with acute or chronic heart diseases require long-term, individualized rehabilitation in order to promote their motor recovery and maintain an active and independent lifestyle. This will be accomplished by creating a system for at-home cardiac telerehabilitation augmented by a VR and cobot systems, which can be used long-term at home by each individual patient. In the pre-feasibility study carried out on healthy volunteers familiar with software applications and robotic systems, we demonstrate that RoboTeleRehab could be technically feasible both hardware and software.

Following cardiac surgery, patients experience difficulties with the rehabilitation process, often finding it difficult, and therefore lack the motivation for rehabilitation activities. As the number of people aged 65 and over will rise by 207 percent globally by 2050, the need for cardiac rehabilitation will significantly increase, as this is the main population to experience heart problems. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a new robotic exoskeleton concept with 12 DoFs (6 DoFs on each arm), with a symmetrical structure for the upper limbs, to be used in the early rehabilitation of cardiac patients after open-heart surgery. The electromechanical design (geometric, kinematic, and dynamic model), the control architecture, and the VR-based operating module of the robotic exoskeleton are presented. To solve the problem of the high degree of complexity regarding the CardioVR-ReTone kinematic and dynamic model, the iterative algorithm, kinetic energy, and generalized forces were used. The results serve as a complete model of the exoskeleton, from a kinematic and dynamic point of view as well as to the selection of the electric motors, control system, and VR motivation model. The validation of the concept was achieved by evaluating the exoskeleton structure from an ergonomic point of view, emphasizing the movements that will be part of the cardiac rehabilitation.

The present research focuses on operational agility in service organizations, which are subject to variability through customers, service providers, suppliers, or unexpected events. As such, their management teams may face challenges in understanding their agility-related assets and success metrics, and furthermore in defining the scope of work for improvement initiatives. Previous research offers quite general insights into agility-related capabilities, practices, obstacles, or (agility-related) information quality evaluation. Yet, management teams need specific practices and techniques in order to improve operational agility capabilities, and thus increase their sustainable performance. We propose a conceptual framework and an artifact-centric algorithm that elicits and prioritizes improvement initiatives by (a) understanding agility-related assets by modelling operational business artifacts, (b) determining agility bottlenecks by identifying quality issues in operational artifacts, and (c) eliciting and prioritizing improvement initiatives to increase artifact quality. The framework application is discussed through a case study in a company operating in the rail freight industry, in which a set of initiatives to improve operational agility capabilities is obtained and prioritized. We conclude that the proposed algorithm is an applicable and relevant tool for management teams in service organizations, in their operational agility improvement endeavors.