Firefighting and evacuation training are important tasks in maritime education and training, especially for crews working on large passenger ships, to ensure the safety of the vessel, cargo and passengers. With the evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology and the introduction of wearable hardware, a change in paradigm has happened in firefighting and evacuation training where these new technologies are being introduced. This paper serves as a review on the use of VR technology in maritime firefighting and evacuation training, trying to answer the following questions: what is the current state of using VR technology, and what are the research gaps that need to be addressed to further accelerate the implementation of VR? Research shows that other industries have adopted the use of VR technology relatively quickly, but the maritime industry still seems reluctant. As for the research gaps, the physics-based modelling of fire spread is discussed along with two other topics: the lack of immersive solutions for evacuation and the potential for developing search and rescue scenarios onboard a ship.

The integration of innovative technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), into maritime education presents a substantial challenge but also offers significant potential for enhancing training and knowledge transmission. This study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by providing segmented insights into maritime students’ Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) of an immersive engine room VR simulator. The study analysed a sample of 58 students from the Faculty of Maritime Studies at the University of Rijeka, covering undergraduate, graduate, and specialized maritime education programs. Through hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses, two distinct segments were identified and named Proactivists and Moderates. The findings reveal significant differences between extracted sub-groups regarding (i) perceived benefits of using the VR engine room simulator in learning and education, (ii) future intention to use the technology, and (iii) overall experience. Study insights can directly aid educators and software developers in enhancing the further implementation of VR technology in maritime education.

Fully immersive engine room simulators are increasingly recognised as prominent tools in advancing maritime education and training. However, end-users’ acceptance of these innovative technologies remains insufficiently explored. To address this research gap, this case-specific pilot study applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt the newly introduced head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) engine room simulator as a training tool. Sampling (N = 84) was conducted at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, during the initial simulator trials. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that perceived usefulness was the primary determinant of students’ behavioural intention to accept the simulator as a tool for training purposes, acting both as a direct predictor and as a mediating variable, transmitting the positive effect of perceived ease of use onto the intention. By providing preliminary empirical evidence on the key factors influencing maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt HMD-VR simulation technologies within existing training programmes, this study’s findings might offer valuable insights to software developers and educators in shaping future simulator design and enhancing pedagogical practices in alignment with maritime education and training (MET) standards.

The aim of this paper was to propose a model for the evaluation of the flow of goods delivered to urban centers based on a systematic approach, generating possible scenarios of delivery activities and selecting those criteria for evaluation that contributed to the development of delivery activities and their evaluation by individual stakeholders. The number of users of delivery services is increasing, which leads to an increase in the volume of goods in the city center, creating additional traffic congestion—so-called bottlenecks—which results in an increased noise level and the emission of harmful exhaust gases, increasing dissatisfaction with the quality of life of the city population. It is, therefore, necessary for decision-makers to make a decision that achieves the best consensus among stakeholders. A test was carried out in the city of Rijeka. Based on a review of the literature and the spatial planning of the city of Rijeka, this paper proposed the following possible scenarios for the delivery of goods within the city center: status quo, delivery from one consolidation center, delivery from two consolidation centers, delivery by environmentally friendly vehicles from one consolidation center and livability. The criteria were evaluated by relevant stakeholders to determine the weight of each criterion for the development of goods deliveries in the city center. This paper used a multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) based on the optimization and ranking of scenarios in accordance with the given objective, the research problem, the defined criteria and the interests of the stakeholders. The solution of the MAMCA analysis evaluated the scenario with two consolidation centers best in accordance with the specified optimization objective.

Maritime refrigerated containers operate under harsh and highly variable conditions, where gradual equipment degradation can lead to temperature excursions, cargo losses, and operational disruptions. In current practice, monitoring relies largely on threshold-based temperature alarms, which are reactive and provide limited insight into early abnormal behaviour. This study proposes a hybrid framework for early anomaly detection in maritime refrigerated containers that combines a lightweight physics-based digital twin with a deep learning anomaly detector trained exclusively on fault-free operation. The approach is designed for shipboard constraints and uses only controller-level signals augmented by locally derived features, enabling low-complexity edge execution. The digital twin produces physically interpretable temperature residuals, while a convolutional autoencoder learns normal multivariate operating patterns and flags deviations via reconstruction error. Both indicators are integrated using conservative persistence gating to suppress short-lived transients typical of maritime operation. The framework is evaluated in a simulation environment calibrated to representative reefer thermal dynamics under variable ambient conditions and progressive fault injection across gradual and abrupt fault categories. Results indicate earlier and operationally credible detection compared to conventional alarms, supporting practical predictive maintenance in maritime cold-chain logistics.

This paper analyses attitudes toward meeting app features that support collaboration in business, private, and public affairs and offers an entity relationship diagram of an electronic meeting system (EMS) that can be successfully applied in those three spheres. An empirical research was conducted on a sample of 120 (N) respondents from the Republic of Croatia, while the research instrument was an online questionnaire containing 15 mandatory and 2 open-ended questions. The analysis revealed a statistically significant positive and strong relationship between organisations that should use an EMS but do not use it and organisations that spend too much time and resources on managing official meetings (τb = .576, p < .01). 48.3% of respondents claim that their organisations should use an EMS in business operations, while 57.5% of respondents believe that the EMS improves productivity. 65% of respondents agree and strongly agree that it is desirable to use authorised electronic voting in public affairs, while 33.4% of respondents agree and strongly agree that they would like to use the electronic voting system in private affairs. The conducted research shows that followers are more inclined to vote anonymously (U = 1109, z = -2.947, p = .003, r = .07) and comment anonymously (U = 1178, z = -2.580, p = .010). , r = .06) from their leaders. For this reason, authors have designed an entity relationship diagram of an EMS that supports both anonymous and transparent interaction.