SEASONAL VARIABILITY OF CARBONATE SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS IN A CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEM, SOUTHERN TAIWAN

Pei-Jie Meng,Ming-Yih Leu,Cheng-Hao Tang,Chung-Chi Chen,Kwee-Siong Tew,Chia-Ming Chang 한국수산과학회 양식분과 2015 한국수산과학회 양식분과 학술대회 Vol.2015 No.5

Professionals’ experiences and attitudes toward use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in hospice palliative inpatient care units: A multicenter survey in Taiwan

Yu-Jia Lin,Hsiao-Ting Chang,Ming-Hwai Lin,Ru-Yih Chen,Ping-Jen Chen,Wen-Yuan Lin,Jyh-Gang Hsieh,Ying-Wei Wang,Chung-Chieh Hu,Yi-Sheng Liou,Tai-Yuan Chiu,Chun-Yi Tu,Yi-Jen Wang,Bo-Ren Cheng,Tzeng-Ji Ch 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.2

Background: Medical staff may have difficulties in using conventional medicine to manage symptoms among terminally ill patients, including adverse effects of the treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is regarded as a complementary or alternative medicine, and has been increasingly used in the field of palliative medicine in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of and attitudes toward using TCM among palliative care professionals, and to provide preliminary information about its use in palliative care. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted in eight inpatient hospice wards in Taiwan between December 2014 and February 2016. The questionnaire was self-administered, and was analyzed with descriptive statistics including Pearson’s Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 251 palliative care professionals responded to the questionnaire, of whom 89.7% and 88.9% believed that the use of TCM could improve the physical symptoms and quality of life in terminally ill patients, respectively. Overall, 59.8%, of respondents suggested that TCM had rare side effects, and 58.2% were worried that TCM could affect the liver and kidney function of patients. In total, 89.7% and 88.0% of professionals agreed there were no suitable clinical practice guidelines and educational programs, respectively, for TCM use in palliative care. Conclusions: Most of the respondents agreed there was insufficient knowledge, skills-training, and continuing education on the use of TCM in terminally ill patients in Taiwan. These results show that to address patient safety considerations, guidelines about use of TCM in palliative care should be established.

Development of Intelligent Supplemental Lighting in Greenhouse

( Chin-chung Yang ),( Chia-chyi Wu ),( Ming-yih Chang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Greenhouses supply better growth environment for crops and improve their yields or quality. The canopy covering on the greenhouse always restrict the sunlight entering. The supplemental lighting is the most popular method to alleviate the light shortage in greenhouse. However, the presetting scheduled light cannot be adjusted according to the real-time weather condition. It will cause the lighting useless or insufficient. This study was to develop an intelligent supplemental interlighting system. The light intensity on the plants measured a photoflux sensor, was transmitted to the computer to accumulate the light integral. Since noon, the computer recalculated the difference between the accumulating light integral (ALI) and the target daily light integral (DLI), and modified the time to switch on/off the supplemental lighting on every 5-miniute interval. A field experiment with three treatments was conducted: (1) Intelligent supplemental lighting (Intelligent, target DLI 10 mol/m2/day), and (2) scheduled supplemental lighting (scheduled, 15:00 - 22:00), and (3) no light supplement as check. In each treatment were fifteen plants of lettuce grown in a small plastic greenhouse, respectively. The results show that the yields of intelligent and scheduled treatments were significantly more than that of check treatment. The lettuce fresh weight in intelligent and scheduled treatment was 60.0% and 48.4% higher than that in check treatment, respectively. In the 45-day treatment, the lighting hours in scheduled treatment was 132 hours, and only 41.2 hours in intelligent treatment. The lighting hours was only one third of that in scheduled treatment. It proved the intelligent supplemental lighting promised a better yield and a better electric energy use efficiency.

Employing Lora Low-power Wireless Network for Environmental Monitoring in Agricultural Facillities

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Pei-wen Huang ),( Ming-yih Chang ),( Whai-en Chen ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Yilan County is located on the Lanyang Plain in northeastern Taiwan. It is characterized by typical rural life styles and agricultural activities including plantation, forestry, animal husbandry, and aquaculture. However, in recent years, extreme climate events occur more frequently, reducing the yield and quality of agricultural produce. Because environmental factors have asubstantial influence on crops and livestock, promoting the use of digitalized environmental monitoring and control is key to increasing agricultural production. Because most farmlands in Yilan County are located in remote areas with poor 4G networks, this study utilized long-range (LoRa) wireless communication technology to transmit environmental monitoring data. This study conducted cost analysis of installing LoRa wireless communication technology in agricultural facilities. The research sites in this study were three test sites in Yilan. Various sensing devices were installed at the three sites. The environmental data from the three sites located in remote areas were integrated and transmitted to the base station. Meanwhile, the environmental parameters were recorded and analyzed. This measure was effective for agricultural management, cost reduction, and production of real-time feedback for managers. Constructing and managing a digitalized knowledge base allows experiences in plantation and poultry husbandry to be shared, crop and poultry diseases to be prevented, and loss in agricultural production to be reduced.

Development of a Microclimate Model for the Environmental Control Strategy Decision in a Desktop Growth Chamber

( Shao-xuan Luo ),( Chia-chyi Wu ),( Ming-yih Chang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

The plant factory was a rapid-developed agricultural technology in East Asia in the past decade. It provides a well-controlled environment for crop growth to guarantee better yield or quality. However, its high energy consumption always leads to criticism. A good environmental control strategies would achieve better plant growth environment or efficient energy utilization. Unfortunately, the control strategy was usually based on the previous growth experience in the field. It is necessary to develop a fast and low-cost, easy-replicated approach to verify the performance of the control strategies. The objective of this study was to develop a microclimate model to simulate the environment conditions when using different environmental control strategies. This model was based on temperature-humidity equilibrium and plant evapotranspiration equations. The ambient environmental conditions, parameters of control strategy, plant evapotranspiration rate were input into this model and the outputs were the calculated temperature and humidity. A desktop grow chamber was used to verify the feasibility of the microclimate model. Ten plants of hydroponically grown lettuce were grown in this chamber. The results shows that the simulation results of this model fit the real cultivation results. This model provided an easy and low cost way to screen the feasible control strategies by simulated the environment change in a plant factory.

The Study of Environment Monitoring System for Closed Taiwan Country Chicken House

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Zi-yin Liu ),( Ming-yih Chang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

This paper presents an environmental monitoring system for closed Taiwan country chicken houses. The system measures various environmental parameters through sensors, uses LoRa (a long-range low-power wide area network) to record changes in these parameters, tracks the age of chickens, and comprehensively analyzes the rearing of chickens within a given period. During rearing, chickens are prone to illness and heat stress. It accessed measurement values through SHH Sensor v 2.0 and used LoRa to send the data to the base station, from which the data were uploaded onto a MySQL database. Test 1 showed that the temperature in the chicken house where the study was conducted remained fairly constant, regardless of weather conditions. However, the lowest temperature was 25.4°C during the incubation period (i.e., within 2 weeks of hatching). Test 2 showed that the chickens gained less weight on a few days during the rearing period: 27.79 g on 2 December (i.e., 44 days old), 20.46 g on 13 December (i.e., 54 days old), and 28.85 g on 14 December (i.e., 55 days old). By analyzing changes in the environmental parameters, the monitoring system contributes to the formulation of precautionary measures against the factors that negatively affect chicken rearing and approaches to preventing chickens from becoming sick, thus improving chicken quality. Moreover, it can be combined with a control system to facilitate the development of environmental control measures tailored to chickens of different ages.

Precipitation Behavior of σ Phase in Fusion Zone of Dissimilar Stainless Steel Welds during Multi-Pass GTAW Process

( Chih Chun Hsieh ),( Tao Chih Chang ),( Dong Yih Lin ),( Ming Che Chen ),( Wei Te Wu ) 대한금속재료학회 ( 구 대한금속학회 ) 2007 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.13 No.5

The purpose of this study is to investigate the precipitation characteristics of σ phase in the fusion zone of stainless steel welds at various welding passes during a tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. The morphology, quantity, and chemical composition of the δ-ferrite and σ phase were analyzed using optical microscopy (OM), a ferritscope (FS), a X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA), and a wavelength dispersive spectrometer (WDS), respectively. Massive δ-ferrite was observed in the fusion zone of the first pass welds during welding of dissimilar stainless steels. The σ phase precipitated at the inner δ-ferrite particles and decreased δ-ferrite content during the third pass welding. The σ and δ phases can be stabilized by Si element, which promoted the phase transformation of δ→σ + γ2 in the fusion zone of the third pass welds. It was found that the σ phase was a Fe-Cr-Si intermetallic compound found in the fusion zone of the third pass welds during multi-pass welding.

Delay of Surgery for Spinal Metastasis due to the COVID-19 Outbreak Affected Patient Outcomes

Chia-Jung Hsieh,Chun-Yu Wu,Yen-Heng Lin,Yu-Cheng Huang,Wen-Chi Yang,Tom Wei-Wu Chen,Wei-Li Ma,Wei-Hsin Lin,Feng-Ming Hsu,Furen Xiao,Shih-Hung Yang,Dar-Ming Lai,Chang-Mu Chen,Shin-Yi Chao,Fon-Yih Tsuan 대한척추신경외과학회 2023 Neurospine Vol.20 No.4

Objective: The present study is to analyze the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 2019) outbreak and the subsequent lockdown on the outcomes of spinal metastasis patients. Methods: The study was a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort study. All patients underwent surgical intervention for spinal metastases between January 2019 and December 2021 and had at least 3 months of postoperative follow-up. The primary outcome was overall mortality during the 4 different stages (pre-COVID-19 era, COVID-19 pandemic except in Taiwan, national lockdown, lifting of the lockdown). The secondary outcomes were the oncological severity scores, medical/surgical accessibility, and patient functional outcome during the 4 periods as well as survival/mortality. Results: A total of 233 patients were included. The overall mortality rate was 41.20%. During the Taiwan lockdown, more patients received palliative surgery than other surgical methods, and no total en bloc spondylectomy was performed. The time from surgeon visit to operation was approximately doubled after the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan (75.97, 86.63, 168.79, and 166.91 hours in the 4 periods, respectively). The estimated survival probability was highest after the national lockdown was lifted and lowest during the lockdown. In the multivariate analysis, increased risk of mortality was observed with delay of surgery, with emergency surgery having a higher risk with delays above 33 hours, urgent surgery (below 59 and above 111 hours), and elective surgery (above 332 hours). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and related policies have altered daily clinical practice and negatively impacted the survival of patients with spinal metastases.