Chung-Wei Yen

Application of a web-based remote agro-ecological monitoring system for observing spatial distribution and dynamics of Bactrocera dorsalis in fruit orchards

Improving fruit farm profitability through integrated pest management (IPM) programs is always an important issue to modern agriculture systems. In order to enhance IPM programs against Bactrocera dorsalis, an automatic infield monitoring system is required to efficiently capture long-term and up-to-the-minute environmental fluctuations in a fruit farm. In this study, a remote agro-ecological monitoring system built upon wireless sensor networks has been developed to provide precision agriculture (PA) services with large-scale, long-distance, long-term, scalable, and real-time infield data collection capabilities. Historical data with spatial information is available through a web-based decision support program built upon a database. Pest population forecast results are also provided so that farmers and government officials would be able to accurately respond to infield variations. Compared with the previous version of the system, various useful functions have been added into the system, and its accuracy has been improved when measuring different parameters in the field. The system could provide a valuable framework for farmers and pest control officials to analyze the relations between population dynamics of the fruit fly and meteorological events. Based on the analysis, a better insect pest risk assessment and accurate decision-making strategy can be made as an aid to PA against B. dorsalis.

An application of the wireless sensor network technology for foehn monitoring in real time

Foehn is one of the common climate phenomena in Taiwan because of geographical factors. The foehn is associated with high temperature and low humidity, which often leads to plant death and even causes serious forest fires. The natural disaster relief fund in Taiwan has covered the loss caused by the foehn. However, no monitoring system has been developed for the foehn, so farmers are not able to immediately obtain foehn-related information and activate necessary schemes for disaster reduction. The research aims at foehn detection and uses the wireless sensor network technology to build a real-time system to monitor foehn. Since the characteristics of wireless sensor networks are low costs, unmanned control and transmission distance up to 80 meters, it is feasible to apply the networks to environmental monitoring. When foehn occurs, the wireless communication devices in the proposed monitoring system will transmit the temperature and humidity information collected by monitoring stations to the gateway module, and sprinkler module action immediately for cooling and increasing humidity to protect the plants from pericarp damage or fruit drop phenomenon caused by foehn.

An Implementation of a WSN-based Medical Monitoring System: A pilot study of the Blood Pressure Monitoring of Hemodialysis Patients*

Abstract Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a very common complication during hemodialysis. IDH may lead to nausea, vomiting, or anxiety. In some severe cases, it may cause shock or death. Each hemodialysis treatment generally lasts for four to six hours and must be repeated two or three times a week. Currently, the hemodialysis procedure may lead to dangerously low blood pressure when blood pressure is not frequently assessed by medical staff. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to use the technologies of wireless sensor networks (WSN), global systems for mobile communications (GSM), and a MySQL database to develop a PC-based gateway and an automatic monitoring system to collect physiological data during hemodialysis and continuously monitor the IDH status of patients. The clinical definition of IDH during hemodialysis is a decrease in the systolic pressure of at least 20 mmHg and a decrease in the mean arterial pressure (MAP) of at least 10 mmHg. Our system uses a threshold-based algorithm to monitor and record the systolic and mean arterial blood pressure readings. The GSM module is utilized to send medical staff a warning message, and the message is displayed on the monitor if the readings reach a critical point. The experimental results show that this monitoring system is highly reliable.