Attitudes, knowledge, and actions with regard to organ donation among Hong Kong medical students

Objective: To study attitudes, knowledge, and actions of local medical students with regard to organ donation and self-perceived confidence and competence in approaching potential organ donors. Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Setting: Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Participants: Medical students, years 1-5. Main outcome measures: Knowledge on various aspects of organ donation was assessed, and students' self-evaluated competence and confidence about counselling for organ donation was evaluated. Factors influencing attitudes and actions were determined. Results: The response rate was 94% (655/694). A majority (85%) had a 'positive' attitude, but only a small proportion (23%) had signed the organ donation card. Inconvenience and lack of knowledge about organ donor registration, and concerns about premature termination of medical treatment accounted for such discrepancies. Socio-cultural factors such as the traditional Chinese belief in preservation of an intact body after death, unease discussing death-related issues, and family objections to organ donation were significantly associated with a 'negative' attitude. Knowledge and action increased with medical education yet only a small proportion of medical students felt competent and confident in counselling patients on organ donation. Conclusions: The medical curriculum should increase medical students' awareness of the organ shortage problem. The donor registration system should be made more convenient and public education is recommended to correct misconceptions.published_or_final_versio

Light scattering of rectangular slot antennas: parallel magnetic vector vs perpendicular electric vector

We study light scattering off rectangular slot nano antennas on a metal film varying incident polarization and incident angle, to examine which field vector of light is more important: electric vector perpendicular to, versus magnetic vector parallel to the long axis of the rectangle. While vector Babinet's principle would prefer magnetic field along the long axis for optimizing slot antenna function, convention and intuition most often refer to the electric field perpendicular to it. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that in accordance with vector Babinet's principle, the incident magnetic vector parallel to the long axis is the dominant component, with the perpendicular incident electric field making a small contribution of the factor of 1/broken vertical bar epsilon broken vertical bar, the reciprocal of the absolute value of the dielectric constant of the metal, owing to the non-perfectness of metals at optical frequencies