■ HEALTH
Lab reports platform success
The National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) yesterday touted the preliminary success of an imaging diagnostic platform for Obstructive Sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a sleep disorder that affects 450,000 adults nationwide. Traditionally, physicians put patients through a one to two day diagnostic process with the polysomnogram (PSG), which tracks a long list of bio-stats such as EEG, EOG and EKG, NARL’s national center for high-performance computing (NCHC) division manager Yao Chih-min (姚志民) said. Using technologies already available such as the CT scan, the NCHC developed a diagnostic platform where the two-dimensional data is fed into a calculation model for the virtual reconstruction of the three-dimensional nasal system in the computer, so that physicians can make quantitative and qualitative observations of the patient’s cause of problems in mere minutes, Yao said.
■ TRANSPORT
Muzha Line to be suspended
As the government has made Jan. 2 — a Friday — a holiday, the service of Taipei City’s MRT Muzha Line will be suspended as well, the Taipei City Government announced yesterday. The service, which is scheduled to be suspended on Jan. 10 and Jan. 17, will be resumed on the two make-up work days, the department said. Weekend service on the line will be suspended for seven weeks starting this Saturday to allow for testing the integration of the Muzha Line and the Neihu Line so the Neihu Line can begin operations as scheduled in June. The city government said it will note the change of schedule in MRT stations and on its web site, urging the public to take advantage of bus services when the MRT service was suspended.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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