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Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Health, Well-Being and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 34449

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Prof. Dr. Teen-Hang Meen

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Department of Electronic Engineering National Formosa University, Yunlin 632, Taiwan
Interests: IOT devices; photovoltaic devices; STEM education
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Prof. Dr. Fukuyama Yoshiyasu

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Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Nishihama, Yamashiro-cho, Tokushima 770-8514, Japan
Interests: neuronal cell differentiation and growth; research to find neurotrophic-factor-like substances from plants that help maintain survival; development of chemical reactions of palladium catalysts
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Prof. Dr. Ming-Shyan Wang

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Vice Dean of College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Tainan, Taiwan
Interests: servo motor drive design, neural network control, intelligent robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The second IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability (IEEE ECBIOS 2020, http://www.ecbios.asia) will be held in Osaka, Japan, from 29 May to 31 May, 2020, and it will provide a unified communication platform for researchers on the topics of biomedical engineering, healthcare and sustainability. Recently, healthcare has been undergoing a sector-wide transformation thanks to advances in computing, networking technologies, big data and artificial intelligence. Healthcare is not only changing from being reactive and hospital-centered to preventive and personalized but is also changing from being disease focused to well-being centered. Healthcare systems, as well as fundamental medicine research, are becoming smarter and enabled in biomedical engineering. Furthermore, with cutting edge sensors and computer technologies, healthcare delivery could also yield better efficiency, higher quality and lower cost.

The Special Issue on “Selected Papers from the IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020 (IEEE ECBIOS 2020)” will include notable papers presented at the IEEE ECBIOS 2020 and other high-quality papers about sustainability. It will link several disciplines, including the environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability of human beings, and provide an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research relating to natural sciences, social sciences and humanities in as much detail as possible in order to promote scientific predictions and impact assessments of global change and development. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

Water pollution and sanitation;
Toxic chemicals and hazardous and radioactive wastes;
Degradation of ecosystems and species and the concomitant risks to human well-being;
Health-related aspects of sustainability;
Sustainable chemistry;
New and renewable sources of energy;
Sustainable energy preservation and regeneration methods;
Land and aquatic ecosystems maintenance and biodiversity preservation;
Sustainability tools;
Applications of sustainability;
Sustainability science;
Other topics related to sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Teen-Hang Meen
Prof. Dr. Fukuyama Yoshiyasu
Prof. Dr. Ming-Shyan Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

health-related aspects of sustainability
sustainable chemistry
sustainable energy preservation and regeneration methods
sustainability tools
applications of sustainability
sustainability science

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1413 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Case Study of Tourist Perceptions and Revisit Intention Regarding Qingwan Cactus Park in Penghu, Taiwan

by Paul Juinn Bing Tan, Hui-mei Yao and Ming-Hung Hsu

Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12404; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212404 - 10 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2642

Abstract

In recent years, the citizens of Taiwan have exhibited an increasing demand for domestic tourism and travel options. Due to their relatively early development as a domestic tourism destination, the Penghu Islands are well known for their rich natural and cultural resources. The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing tourists’ visits to Qingwan Cactus Park, including their reasons for visiting and their perceptions of their visits. With principal component analysis serving as the basis for an IPA methodology, and using the visiting destination as a reference point, the results obtained can provide a basic guideline for tourism planning. The visitors’ reactions and demands were re-examined through IPA analysis. The results could be used by national park managers to develop constructive suggestions on implementing sustainable development in Taiwan’s tourism industries. This study presents valuable data on Penghu and provides analyses of residents’ and tourists’ opinions, as well as their reactions. The study’s conclusions can be extrapolated to research on other destinations outside of Taiwan. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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14 pages, 5188 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Concretizing Research on Making Higher-Education Sustainability Count

by Muhammet Usak, Ming Yuan Hsieh and Yung-Kuan Chan

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2724; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052724 - 03 Mar 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2815

Abstract

In order to manage the worrying predicament of declining global birth rates, a majority of higher-education institutions have commenced to institute a series of diversified strategies in order to make higher-education sustainability count. The aim of this research is to present the results of a study with the goal of helping educational institutions achieve their sustainability. As a succession of quantitative and qualitative analyses and measurements, there are four valuable and contributive findings in this research. First, total tuition and miscellaneous revenues (TTMR), total university–industry cooperative revenues (TUCIR) and total grants from government (TGG) of higher-education governance (HEG) were able to directly and effectively increase higher-education sustainable value. This definitively indicates that current higher-education students and staff, as well as higher-education experts and professionals, indeed agree that the tuition and miscellaneous fees, university–industry cooperative, and government grant revenues have become the most critical determinants of university environment social governance (UESG). This is because the majority of higher-education institutions do need these revenue resources to advance a succession of environmental protections, social responsibilities, and governance performance for current higher-education institution sustainability development. Second, comprehensive scale of QS rankings (CS-QS) was the most important key determinant to evaluate the university social responsibility development (USRD), which means the majority of higher-education institutions have to pay more attention on the comprehensive scale of QS rankings (CS-QS) in order to make more sustainability count. The third finding is the number of student’s publications (NSP), which was the most crucial key determinant to assay return on investments (ROI), meaning current higher-education students, staff, experts, and professionals consent to higher-education institutions having to establish an evaluated system for student’s publications to stimulate students to publish their diversified studying outcomes in order to make students recognize their growth after taking courses in higher education. The last finding is total tuition and miscellaneous revenues (TTMR) was the most momentous key determinant to control high education governance (HEG), which means current higher-education students, staff, experts, and professionals are concerned with the various governance performances of their tuition and miscellaneous fees. As for the future direction, there are still some evaluated criteria and assessed methods to be comprehensively considered and employed for inducing in-depth conclusions and findings with higher research reliability and validity without time limitations and resource restrictions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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28 pages, 9031 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Study of the Simulation and Analysis of the Flow Field of Natural Convection for a Container House

by Hsin-Hung Lin and Jui-Hung Cheng

Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9845; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239845 - 25 Nov 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2064

Abstract

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, windstorms, and tsunamis, can occur all over the world, and disasters caused by human factors, such as civil wars, are also a source of major disturbance. The temporary rehousing of the population is a major problem when disasters occur. The installation of the combination house is time consuming, and tents cannot be used in the event of strong rain and wind; therefore, the container house is the most effective way of solving the rehousing problem. Natural ventilation is the main factor affecting the indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and health inside a container house, and solar radiation heat can also affect temperature changes inside. The air flow field inside a dwelling is very complex, and its flow mode is affected by inlet wind speed, inlet temperature, solar radiation heat, and the size of doors and windows, etc. In this paper, the influence of natural ventilation on the ventilation inside container houses is analyzed. Assuming that there is complex fluid motion in the activity space of the container house, it is not easy to use conventional methods to predict the flow rate. Based on the correlation analysis motion between the corresponding internal flow rates, the calculation and application method of flow is simplified from the results of the wind speed coefficient obtained previously. In addition, an analysis of flow characteristics in the container house is made; simulation analysis in the container house is made by carrying out the numerical analysis of several factors, including velocity field and temperature field. The variation state of the temperature of the environment and a numerical variation of the three-dimensional space are obtained by numerical calculation; the standard k-ε turbulence model is adopted to describe the turbulence phenomena of the fluid, and the mathematical model matched by B-spline surface is used for data analysis through the surface algorithm in order to deal with complex simulation data. The research results show that, regarding the influence of natural ventilation on container houses, the ideal relative position of openings includes the combination of asymmetric windows, followed by the central positioning of the door. The four-opening configurations, where better natural ventilation performance can be achieved, are located at different diagonal positions. The average flow velocity vector form, velocity amplitude, radiation temperature distribution, and the effect of the air volume coefficient of temperature change are analyzed. The research results show that the design of container houses can meet the requirements of air flow, such as the energy consumed by the thermal comfort space. Measurements taken over time and algorithms can also check the residents’ indoor natural ventilation and provide health care by the use of various sensors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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18 pages, 4486 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Autonomic Nerve Activation Observed for Hemodialysis Patients While Squeezing a Soft Ball

by Jian-Chiun Liou, Chih-Wei Peng, Philippe Basset and Zhen-Xi Chen

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9646; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229646 - 19 Nov 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2108

Abstract

In this study, a medical grade pulse rate (PR) instrument was used to monitor hemodialysis patients, and the wearable product was applied for the 4 h observation. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) data were simultaneously collected to observe physiological phenomena in patients undergoing hemodialysis. The analyzed results of 38 patients undergoing the treatment (as sympathetic/parasympathetic balance indicators before-hemodialysis (HD), and after-HD) and autonomic nerve activation for the pulse rate (PR) measurement accompanied by squeezing a soft ball were also observed. The results prove the pulse rate measurement while squeezing the soft ball and analyze data, and we show that the analyzed results have a very concentrated normal distribution. This study presents oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and continuous pulse rate distribution curves during the 4 h observation of the hemodialysis patients and we show that some patients undergoing kidney dialysis have sleep apnea. They become lethargic during dialysis and experience severe hypoxia due to intermittent respiratory arrest. Studies have confirmed that such monitoring and biofeedback designs can reduce the incidence of hypotension during dialysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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19 pages, 10681 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Digital Preservation and Reconstruction of Old Cultural Elements in Augmented Reality (AR)

by Naai-Jung Shih, Hui-Xu Chen, Tzu-Yu Chen and Yi-Ting Qiu

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 9262; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12219262 - 07 Nov 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3479

Abstract

This research aimed to preserve traditional elements and urban fabric with enabled interaction in augmented reality (AR). Cultural elements and fabrics are mutually influential in Lukang, Taiwan. Evolved routes for tourism and religious activities have created characteristic elements and activity-based fabrics and facilities. The sustainable promotion of digital cultural assets started from photogrammetry modeling of alley space and shops. The application of AR enabled situated learning of 68 objects, including decorated façades, jar walls, the Lukang Gate, beggar seats, and other creative cultural elements. The heritages were promoted under a new interactive measure of feasibility that facilitated cultural sustainability in a remote site. A mobile interface with a convenient smartphone configured certain settings that were sufficiently flexible and easy to apply. The study presented an effective and efficient remote and situated learning process that correlated the development or setting of both locations. Correlation was achieved with a high fidelity of appearance and utilizing a flexible transformation interface. An approach, which recreated the background and formerly reconstructed objects during AR simulation, was used to verify the outcome of the situated study with conflicting qualitative and quantitative findings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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12 pages, 1428 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of an IoT-Based Health Promotion System for Seniors

by Chia-Hui Liu and Jih-Fu Tu

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8946; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218946 - 28 Oct 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2978

Abstract

With a reducing fertility rate and the increase in life expectancy in Taiwan, the changing structure of the population has pushed Taiwan into an aged society. The demand for elderly care environments is rapidly increasing. However, to prevent an illness for the elderly is better than to treat it. Monitoring of an individual’s health is required as a periodic activity. Using wireless technology combined with physiological measurement techniques and home care equipment can assist elderly individuals to promote health and the health care service at home. In this research, a wireless sensor network has been adopted to develop context aware health promotion for an elderly-care system. The system is divided into three subsystems: the IoT-based physiological information subsystem, the context awareness-based service subsystem, and the elderly nutrition diet and health promotion subsystem. In this system, users also can select an Aging Diet Module or an Aging Exercise Module in our app. After the user selects the Aging Diet Module, the system will record and give suggestions. Moreover, the system can integrate long-term elderly diet and exercise records, and then, assist elderly to complete personal nutrition assessment and health management. The research goal is to construct a health promotion system utilizing IoT technology. In this paper, the system’s functions and implementation approaches are introduced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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15 pages, 4603 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wind Resources Assessment and Development of Grid Connected Wind Farm—A Case Study

by Ming-Hong Chen, Yan-Ting Lin, Pao-Hsiung Chiu, Ching-Chang Cho and Huei Chu Weng

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8903; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218903 - 27 Oct 2020

Viewed by 1971

Abstract

In the present study, the case study of micro-siting for the campus of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) is conducted. Results from the effect of weather data suggest that for the wind turbine system higher than 20 m, the effect of nearby building and wake on electricity production would be less important. The effect of different weather data on the generated annual electricity production (AEP) is consistent for the wind turbine higher than 20 m. The difference between the calculated and real AEP of INER-150 kW wind turbine is only 1.1%, which is much better than some previous studies. The good agreement is mainly due to the higher height of the INER-150 kW (50 m), more stable coming wind and smaller impact of building on the performance of power production. Considering the proactivity on the installation for the site in INER campus, the finalized decision on the selection of wind turbine is 1 kW system. The power generation-related data are collected and processed for the fine tuning of model parameters in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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33 pages, 4490 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of SW Interface between Healthcare Standards—DASTA and HL7

by Simona Plischke, Jana Machutova, Pavel Stasa and Jakub Unucka

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7649; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187649 - 16 Sep 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2802

Abstract

The prescription and administration of drugs are the most common process that takes place in hospitals. Although a relatively simple process, it is considered the riskiest process in hospitals because mistakes during drug administration are among the most common ones. The aim is to introduce technological and process changes that will contribute to maximally increase the safety of the medication process and the efficiency of drug management. To support the automation of the medication process, it is desirable to use the international standard Health Level 7 (HL7). However, the Czech healthcare system currently supports the local healthcare standard—DASTA. For that reason, the paper introduces some of the options how to transfer data from DASTA to HL7 and deals with the development of a software (SW) interface that converts data necessary for robotic preparation of patient medication from the Czech DASTA data standard to the HL7 international standard used by selected robotics. Based on the performed analyses, a combination of robotics for the preparation of single-dose packages of drugs with one of the automated warehouses is recommended. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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9 pages, 1158 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy and Resource Utilization of Refining Industry Oil Sludge by Microwave Treatment

by Chien Li Lee, Cheng-Hsien Tsai and Chih-Ju G. Jou

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6862; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176862 - 24 Aug 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2250

Abstract

The oily sludge from crude oil contains hazardous BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene) found in the bottom sediment of the crude oil tank in the petroleum refining plant. This study uses microwave treatment of the oily sludge to remove BTEX by utilizing the heat energy generated by the microwave. The results show that when the oily sludge sample was treated for 60 s under microwave power from 200 to 300 W, the electric field energy absorbed by the sample increased from 0.17 to 0.31 V/m and the temperature at the center of the sludge sample increased from 66.5 °C to 96.5 °C. In addition, when the oily sludge was treated for 900 s under microwave power 300 W, the removal rates were 98.5% for benzene, 62.8% for toluene, 51.6% for ethylbenzene, and 29.9% for xylene. Meanwhile, the highest recovery rates of light volatile hydrocarbons in sludge reached 71.9% for C₃, 71.3% for C₄, 71.0% for C₅, and 78.2% for C₆. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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17 pages, 15215 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Model Process of Integrating Context of Local Culture for Pre-Development Stage in the Design of Cultural and Creative Products—Using Macao’s Historical Buildings as an Example

by Xizhi Zhang and Kuo-Hsun Wen

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6263; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156263 - 04 Aug 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5288

Abstract

In the context of the research on local architectural culture of Macao, this paper explores how architecture’s cultural elements can be integrated into cultural and creative product design at the pre-development stage. Therefore, local culture can be effectively disseminated through the medium of cultural and creative products. However, in the process of product design, seemingly, designers often rely on their experience as the main way to develop ideas and designs. This approach can fall short in generating sufficient cognition and interpretation between culture and product design, and the product may fail to truly reflect cultural and creative values. This paper focuses on the cultural elements and the designer’s cognition in design development of cultural and creative products. It applies theoretical concepts of Kansei engineering theory as the basis, and, combined with the Semantic Differential Method, tries to extract the most powerful product image elements that influence designers for better understanding of the cultural elements in design development. This paper aims to employ scientific methods to enable designers to better develop designs with cultural and creative connotations, thereby improving the success rate of cultural and creative products. It further proposes a model process of image perception to be employed by designers in early design research and the development stage. By enhancing the resonance of cultural elements for cultural and creative products, the model may shorten the perceptual distance between the designer and the local culture, improve the designer’s product development efficiency, and increase consumer satisfaction with the design outcome through added cultural and creative value. As such, the model can optimize the design development for cultural and creative products to achieve the public’s aesthetic and cultural expectations, as well as for a sustainable design approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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20 pages, 10144 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of a Chinese Chess Robotic System for the Elderly Using Convolutional Neural Networks

by Pei-Jarn Chen, Szu-Yueh Yang, Chung-Sheng Wang, Muslikhin Muslikhin and Ming-Shyan Wang

Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 3980; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12103980 - 13 May 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4332

Abstract

According to the data from Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) in 2018, it is estimated that 10 million new dementia patients will be added worldwide, and the global dementia population is estimated to be 50 million. Due to a decline in the birth rate and the development and great progress of medical technology, the proportion of elderly people has risen annually in Taiwan. In fact, Taiwan has become one of the fastest-growing aged countries in the world. Consequently, problems related to aging societies will emerge. Dementia is one of most prevailing aging-related diseases, with a great influence on daily life and a great economic burden. Dementia is not a single disease, but a combination of symptoms. There is currently no medicine that can cure dementia. Finding preventive measures for dementia has become a public concern. Older people should actively increase brain-protective factors and reduce risk factors in their lives to reduce the risk of dementia and even prevent the occurrence of dementia. Studies have shown that engaging in mental or creative activities that stimulate brain function has a relative risk reduction of nearly 50%. Elderly people should develop the habit of life-long learning to strengthen effective neural bonds between brain cells and preserve brain cognitive functions. Playing chess is one of the suggested activities. This paper aimed to develop a Chinese robotic chess system for the elderly. It mainly uses a camera to capture the contour of the Chinese chessman, recognizes the character and location of the chessman, and then transmits this information to the robotic arm, which will grab and place the chessman in the appropriate position on the chessboard. The camera image is transmitted to MATLAB for image recognition. The character of the chessman is recognized by convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Forward and inverse kinematics are used to manipulate the robotic arm. Even if the chessmen are arbitrarily placed, the experiment showed that their coordinates can be found through the camera as long as they are located within the working scope of the camera and the robotic arm. For black chessmen, no matter how many degrees they are rotated, they can be recognized correctly, while the red ones can be recognized 100% of the time within 90° of rotation and 98.7% with more than a 90° rotation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2020)

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