Challenges of Using Instant Communication Technology in the Emergency Department during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Focus Group Study

A record outbreak of community-spread COVID-19 started on 10 May 2021, in Taiwan. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, care facilities have adopted various protocols using instant communication technology (ICT) to provide remote yet timely healthcare while ensuring staff safety. The challenges of patient evaluation in the emergency department (ED) using ICT are seldom discussed in the literature. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the utility of ICT for patient assessment in emergency settings during the pandemic. The patient flow protocol and the ED layout were modified and regionalized into different areas according to the patient’s risk of COVID-19 infection. Nine iPads were stationed in different zones to aid in virtual patient assessment and communication between medical personnel. A focus group study was performed to assess and analyze the utility of the ICT module in the ED. Eight emergency physicians participated in the study. Of them, four (50%) had been directly involved in the development of the ICT module in the study hospital. Three main themes that influenced the application of the ICT module were identified: setting, hardware, and software. The setting theme included six factors: patient evaluation, subspecialty consultation, patient privacy and comfortableness, sanitation, cost, and patient acceptability. The hardware theme included six factors: internet connection, power, quality of image and voice, public or personal mode, portable or fixed mode, and maintenance. The software theme included six factors: platform choices, security, ICT accounts, interview modes, video/voice recording, and time limitation. Future studies should focus on quantifying module feasibility, user satisfaction, and protocol adjustment for different settings.

Economies

The most obvious markers of economic transition have been the increasing rate of growth, fundamental structural transformation, and the creation of economies characterized by material abundance, high mobility, and instant communication. Growth rates of traditional economies were a mere fraction of a percent, while modernizing economies grew commonly by 3–5%, some even on the order of 10%. As labor productivities rose, labor force moved from the countryside to cities, and manufacturing became temporarily the most important economic sector before the next major shift transferred most labor to services. High-energy consumer societies created by these transitions enjoy unprecedented levels of material abundance, leisure, and mobility, but these gains have been accompanying by significant economic inequality and have yet to reach most of the world’s population.

Anthropometric Analysis of External Acoustic Meatus for Ergonomic Design

Ear-related wearable products have become ubiquitous and are used daily for instant communication, entertainment, hearing protection (occupational noise) and noise reduction. The proper fit of ear related wearables is imperative to their function and comfort. Prior studies have demonstrated that some anthropometric measures of the ear changes with age. However, despite this, there is a lack of relevant studies on how key dimensions of the ear, like the external acoustic meatus (EAM), change with age. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to define EAM measurements that are important for the ergonomic design of ear-related wearable products and explore how the EAM anthropometry changes with age.

Link optimization of the new generation instant messaging network based on artificial intelligence technology

The current network environment is dynamic, open and extensible. In order to better ensure the needs of users, higher requirements are placed on link resource allocation. Based on the research and analysis of the instant communication protocol, this paper studies an intelligent routing evolution algorithm and related fault recovery strategy for the instant communication network. Research on instant messaging intelligent algorithms for routing evolution is mainly based on routing algorithms and artificial intelligence intelligent algorithms. When a link failure occurs in the communication network, the routing algorithm performs route reconstruction and optimization on the entire instant communication network. Considering that there may be evolutionary needs of large-scale routing networks in practical applications, this paper introduces artificial intelligence intelligent algorithms to optimize intelligent algorithms to improve efficiency. A cognitive routing protocol based on MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology is proposed. By using MIMO technology, a lot of gain is brought to the communication link under multiple antennas. These gains correspond to different link types. The protocol realizes cognition through intelligent routing evolution algorithm and predicts the state of the network. Setting the routing life and hello period according to the perceived network status can optimize the performance of the network.

The Discourse Analysis of E-Business Instant Communication from the Perspective of Politeness Principle

With the popularity and frequency of e-business activities, e-business instant communication plays an increasingly important role in e-business, and the appropriate and reasonable use of business language usually directly influences the economic interests. Therefore, the present study takes politeness principle as the theoretical framework and the participants’ chat records of e-business instant communication as the research data, and adopts the methodologies of discourse analysis and interview to explore the language use in e-business activities from the perspective of politeness principle. And the present study finds that servicers and customers use different linguistic resources from the perspective of politeness principle out of different interest pursuit. More specifically, servicers strictly observe the six maxims having no violations in e-business instant communication, while customers go against Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim and usually comply with Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, nevertheless, they violate Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim on special occasion in e-business instant communication. What’s more, if customers can strictly observe Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, and servicers can study how to avoid and deal with customers’ violation to Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim successfully, enterprises, servicers and customers will benefit.