Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for neonatal congenital diaphragmatic hernia: The initial single-center experience in Taiwan

Background/Purpose Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a treatment option for stabilizing neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in a critical condition when standard therapy fails. However, the use of this approach in Taiwan has not been previously reported. Methods The charts of all neonates with CDH treated in our institute during the period 2007–2014 were reviewed. After 2010, patients who could not be stabilized with conventional treatment were candidates for ECMO. We compared the demographic data of patients with and without ECMO support. The clinical course and complications of ECMO were also reviewed. Results We identified 39 neonates with CDH with a median birth weight of 2696 g (range, 1526–3280 g). Seven (18%) of these patients required ECMO support. The APGAR score at 5 minutes differed significantly between the ECMO and non-ECMO groups. The survival rate was 84.6% (33/39) for all CDH patients and 57.1% (4/7) for the ECMO group. The total ECMO bypass times in the survivors was in the range of 5–36 days, whereas all nonsurvivors received ECMO for at least 36 days (mean duration, 68 days). Surgical bleeding occurred in four of seven patients in the ECMO group. Conclusion The introduction of ECMO rescued some CDH patients who could not have survived by conventional management. Prolonged (i.e., > 36 days) ECMO support had no benefit for survival

[[alternative]]The relationship between Activity Involvement, Place Attachment and Resource Knowledge of Volunteer Interpreters: The Er-ge Mountain Environmental Observation Group of the Society of Wilderness

[[abstract]]The Society of Wilderness (SOW) is a private environmental organization that relies on volunteers to conduct public education and conservation activities in Taiwan. Volunteers are assigned to specific locations known as Environmental Observation Groups (EOG’s). Nearly 1,000 volunteer interpreters work at 40 EOG’s. Ideally, volunteer interpreters are knowledgeable about and emotionally attached to their EOG, and enjoy participating in SOW functions. Since volunteers play an important role in resource management and environmental education, more information is needed to understand their motives for participation in SOW. This study examined the relationship between place attachment, resource knowledge, and activity involvement in a sample of volunteer interpreters assigned to the Er-Ge Mountain EOG. Surveys were used to gather data from a sample of volunteer interpreters during July 2003. Forty-eight questionnaires were mailed and 45 were received, yielding a response rate of 93.8%. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study: Activity involvement is one indicator of interest and enthusiasm for recreational participation. The overall mean for activity involvement was 3.41. Three dimensions comprise activity involvement. In this study, attraction scored the highest (x=3.84), self-expression was next (x=3.45), and centrality was the lowest (x=2.64). Place attachment is an emotional bond with nature. It consists of two factors. The overall mean for place attachment was 3.40. Volunteer interpreters scored higher on place identity (x=3.77) than place dependence (x=3.03). A multiple-choice test measuring resource-based knowledge was administered to volunteers. The mean score was 14.91 (out of 20 questions). Selected socio-demographic characteristics were tested against activity involvement, place attachment and resource knowledge using t-tests or one-way analysis of variance. Gender, attendance at indoor seminars, participation in outdoor observation, and length of interpretive service were significantly related to level of activity involvement. In relation to place attachment, frequency of visitation to Er-Ge Mountain showed a significant difference. Gender, residence, attendance at indoor seminars, participation in outdoor observation, frequency of visitation, and length of interpretive service were significantly related to resource knowledge. The relationship between activity involvement, place attachment, and resource knowledge was examined using Pearson correlation coefficient. Results indicated that activity involvement was significantly related to place attachment (r= 0.622, p< .001) and resource knowledge (r= 0.318, p< .05). However, there is no significant relationship between place attachment and resource knowledge. These results were shared with SOW. Also, recommendations for future studies were proposed.

SensorTalk: An IoT Device Failure Detection and Calibration Mechanism for Smart Farming

In an Internet of Things (IoT) system, it is essential that the data measured from the sensors are accurate so that the produced results are meaningful. For example, in AgriTalk, a smart farm platform for soil cultivation with a large number of sensors, the produced sensor data are used in several Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to provide precise farming for soil microbiome and fertility, disease regulation, irrigation regulation, and pest regulation. It is important that the sensor data are correctly used in AI modeling. Unfortunately, no sensor is perfect. Even for the sensors manufactured from the same factory, they may yield different readings. This paper proposes a solution called SensorTalk to automatically detect potential sensor failures and calibrate the aging sensors semi-automatically. Numerical examples are given to show the calibration tables for temperature and humidity sensors. When the sensors control the actuators, the SensorTalk solution can also detect whether a failure occurs within a detection delay. Both analytic and simulation models are proposed to appropriately select the detection delay so that, when a potential failure occurs, it is detected reasonably early without incurring too many false alarms. Specifically, our selection can limit the false detection probability to be less than 0.7%

Modeling Channel Assignment of Small-Scale

In a cellular telecommunications network, the call blocking, forced termination, and call incompletion probabilities are major output measures of system performance. Most previous analytic studies assumed that the handover traffic to a cell is a fixedrate Poisson process. Such assumption may cause significant inaccuracy in modeling. This paper shows that the handover traffic to a cell depends on the workloads of the neighboring cells. Based on the above observation, we derive the exact equation for the handover force-termination probability when the mobile station (MS) cell residence times are exponentially distributed. Then we propose an approximate model with general MS cell residence time distributions. The results are compared with a previously proposed model. Our comparison study indicates that the new model can capture the handover behavior much better than the old one for small-scale cellular networks

Abstract Connection Failure Detection Mechanism of UMTS Charging Protocol

to Charging Gateways (CGs). To ensure that the mobile operator receives the charging information, availability for the GTP ’ transmission is essential. One of the most important issues on GTP ’ availability is connection failure detection. We study the GTP ’ connection failure detection mechanism specified in 3GPP TS 29.060 and 3GPP TS 32.215. It is desirable to select appropriate parameter values to avoid false failure detections (e.g., temporary network congestions). It is also important to detect the true failures quickly, and after a true failure is detected, the GSNs can immediately re-direct to another CG. We propose an analytic model to compute the false failure detection probability and the expected true failure detection time. The analytic model is validated against simulation experiments. Based on our study, the network operator can select the appropriate parameter values for various traffic conditions to reduce the probability of false failure detection and/or true failure detection time