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Music stimulation is considered beneficial for people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this paper is to assess a tablet-based program to promote music-related hand responses and positive engagement (e.g. singing or moving the body with the music) in people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

The program was implemented with 20 participants according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The participants were provided with a tablet whose screen worked as a sensor. During the intervention, sensor activations by hand responses led the tablet to present 10 s segments of preferred songs; an absence of sensor activation led the tablet to produce a prompt.

The participants’ mean frequencies of hand responses (i.e. sensor activations) per 5 min session increased from mostly zero during baseline to between about 9 and 20 during the intervention. The mean percentages of observation intervals with participants’ positive engagement increased from 0 to 12 during the baseline to between 13 and 55 during the intervention. The differences between baseline and intervention data were statistically significant for all participants.

A tablet-based program, such as that used in this study, may help people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease develop specific music-related responses and positive engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to review studies that evaluated technology-based prompting systems for supporting participants with dementia or acquired cognitive impairment in their performance of multistep daily tasks.

A scoping review was conducted to identify eligible studies through a search of four electronic databases, that is, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The search, which covered the 2010–2020 period, led to the identification of 1,311 articles, 30 of which were included in the review. These articles evaluated six different types of prompting systems: context-aware, automatic computer prompting, context-aware, mediated computer prompting, teleoperated robot prompting, self-operated augmented reality prompting, self-operated computer or tablet prompting and time-based (preset) computer, tablet or smartphone prompting.

Technology-aided prompting to help people with dementia or acquired cognitive impairment perform relevant multistep daily tasks is considered increasingly important. This review provides a picture of the different prompting options available and of their level of readiness for application in daily contexts.

Persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease experience increasing activity engagement failures, with consequent cognitive, social, and physical drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to assess a technology-aided program to help these persons to independently start and carry out daily activities at the appropriate times.

The program was implemented with eight participants according to an adapted non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The program provided each participant with: timely reminders about the activities to carry out, verbal instructions about the activity steps, and brief encouragements and praise.

All participants showed improvement during the program, that is, they managed to independently start the activities at the scheduled times and perform those activities with satisfactory levels of accuracy (i.e. with mean percentages of correct steps nearing or exceeding 90).

A technology-aided program, such as that used in this study, may help persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer disease engage in daily activities, with possible benefits for their cognitive functioning, social image, and physical condition.

This study assessed two technology systems aimed at enabling a man with intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and motor and tactile discrimination problems to make verbal requests through simple one-hand signs.

The study was conducted according to an ABAB design. During the B (intervention) phases, the man used the two systems, which included (1) nine mini recording devices fixed on the man’s clothes or wheelchair (i.e. in positions the man touched with his sign movements) and (2) nine tags with radio frequency identification codes (fixed at approximately the same positions as the mini recording devices) and a dedicated tag reader, respectively. Making a sign (i.e. touching a recording device or reaching a tag) led to the verbalization of the request related to that sign.

During baseline, the mean frequency of signs/requests made was below 2 per session, and only some of those requests were identified/satisfied. During the intervention, the mean frequency of requests made and satisfied was about 10 per session with each of the systems.

The results, which are to be taken with caution given the preliminary nature of the study, seem to suggest that the systems can help translate simple signs into verbal requests.

The purpose of this paper is to explore service users’ experiences of a mindfulness group intervention.

In total, 15 participants with a diagnosis of a mild or moderate intellectual disability and concurrent mental health difficulties were interviewed using semi-structured interviews about their experiences of attending the mindfulness group.

Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The three super ordinate themes that emerged were positive aspects of mindfulness, positive aspects of attending the group and negative aspects of attending the group. There were seven subthemes. The results highlighted that participants found the mindfulness group to be beneficial, partly due to specific aspects of the mindfulness intervention and partly due to the group process. The negative aspects of the group were harder to elicit, and were less specifically related to mindfulness.

Mindfulness-based interventions have emerged as a promising approach for individuals with intellectual disabilities with mental health difficulties. There is currently a lack of research exploring service users with intellectual disabilities about their experiences of mindfulness interventions.

Every company or manufacturing system is vulnerable to breakdowns. This research aims to analyze the role of Multi-Agent Technology (MAT) in minimizing breakdown probabilities in Manufacturing Industries.

This study formulated a framework of six factors and twenty-eight variables (explored in the literature). A hybrid approach of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Technique (MCDM) was employed in the framework to prioritize, rank and establish interrelationships between factors and variables grouped under them.

The research findings reveal that the “Manufacturing Process” is the most essential factor, while “Integration Manufacturing with Maintenance” is highly impactful on the other factors to eliminate the flaws that may cause system breakdown. The findings of this study also provide a ranking order for variables to increase the performance of factors that will assist manufacturers in reducing maintenance efforts and enhancing process efficiency.

The ranking order developed in this study may assist manufacturers in reducing maintenance efforts and enhancing process efficiency. From the manufacturer’s perspective, this research presented MAT as a key aspect in dealing with the complexity of manufacturing operations in manufacturing organizations. This research may assist industrial management with insights into how they can lower the probability of breakdown, which will decrease expenditures, boost productivity and enhance overall efficiency.

This study is an original contribution to advancing MAT’s theory and empirical applications in manufacturing organizations to decrease breakdown probability.

Service quality has been highlighted as the vital element in fulfilling customers' needs, which contributes to the customers' evaluation on the services given. As food truck business is increasingly popular in Malaysia, it is important for the food trucks' service provider to ensure that their service quality meets the standard to satisfy the customers in order to build customer loyalty. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between food trucks' service quality with customer satisfaction and its impact toward customer loyalty. The customer service was measured using service quality (SERVQUAL) attributes (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy).

A quantitative study was conducted to examine the influence of food trucks' service quality on customer satisfaction and its impact toward customer loyalty. A total of 100 food truck customers have been randomly selected to answer the self-administered questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using frequency, descriptive, reliability, Pearson correlation and regression analysis.

Findings indicated that three out of five attributes of service quality have significant relationships toward customer satisfaction. They are tangibles (β = 0.225, p < 0.05), reliability (β = 0.349, p < 0.05) and assurance (β = 0.311, p < 0.05). Moreover, the customer loyalty (β = 0.643, p < 0.01) has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction.

Service quality can be characterized as the discrepancy between customer service standards and actual service. When expectations are higher than performance, perceived quality is less than acceptable and therefore consumer disappointment exists which eventually decreases customer loyalty toward a product or services. The study suggested that physical image of the food trucks' service like physical facilities, how the service being performed and also courtesy and knowledge of the food trucks' employees are very important to transfer confidence and trust to customers, which then will influence them to be loyal.