Skill performance in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation among Laypersons and health care professionals

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the key determinant for survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The skill and ability of the rescuer to perform quality CPR are important to assure the success or failure of survival. This study aims to explore the differences and factors that affect performance of CPR skills, by taking into account demographic variations between the Health Care Professionals (HCP) and laypersons. A total of 144 responders were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire and a skill evaluation checklist by two qualified instructors. HCP and laypersons groups report comparable skill retention in CPR but HCP shows better basic life support (BLS) knowledge. Results suggest female HCP has better BLS knowledge compared to male HCP and time length after first BLS course contributes to significant difference in BLS knowledge among laypersons. Laypersons who had attended refresher course have better CPR skill rentention compared to those who had not

Parameter estimations of the generalized extreme value distributions for small sample size

The standard method of the maximum likelihood has poor performance in GEV parameter estimates for small sample data. This study aims to explore the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) parameter estimation using several methods focusing on small sample size of an extreme event. We conducted simulation study to illustrate the performance of different methods such as the Maximum Likelihood (MLE), probability weighted moment (PWM) and the penalized likelihood method (PMLE) in estimating the GEV parameters. Based on the simulation results, we then applied the superior method in modelling the annual maximum stream flow in Sabah. The result of the simulation study shows that the PMLE gives better estimate compared to MLE and PMW as it has small bias and root mean square errors, RMSE. For an application, we can then compute the estimate of return level of river flow in Sabah

Progression of Impending Central Retinal Vein Occlusion to the Ischemic Variant Following Intravitreal Bevacizumab

A 60-year-old woman who had experienced two episodes of amaurosis fugax in her right eye presented with vision loss. Two weeks earlier, at a private clinic, she was diagnosed with impending central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) of the right eye and received an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab. Two weeks after this injection she was diagnosed with ischemic CRVO. At 11-weeks post-presentation, extremely ischemic features were observed with fluorescein angiographic findings of severe vascular attenuation and extensive retinal capillary obliteration. At 22-weeks post-presentation she was diagnosed with neovascular glaucoma; she experienced no visual improvement over the following several months

The Brain Wave Analysis for Robot Movement Using One Electrode

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a system that uses a network of communication between the nervous system of the human brain with machines or robots. Through this system, people will move the machine without using a computer or a member of his body. The system is very useful especially for people with disabilities such as paralysis and stroke. The aim of this project is to create a study conducted on brain waves produced by humans according to age category of children (6-12 years), teenagers (18-22 years old) and adult (30 years and over). A device called Neurosky Mindwave Mobile is a single electroencephalogram (EEG) electrode. Each respondent was required to use the device to test the resulting attention when they were thinking of the robot movements. There were five thoughts of robot movement; forward (F), right (R), left (L), backward (B) and stop (S). The extracted levels from Neurosky ThinkGear software were recorded and set as an input command to move a robot. Through the analysis, the age group that has the highest attention level is teenagers and the lowest is women. It can be concluded that the level of attention that resulted in moving the robot varies according to an individual's age and gender category. Major implications in doing this project were to move the robot using only the power of the mind

MEASUREMENT OF NATURAL MAGNESIUM ISOTOPE EFFECTS IN HUMAN URINE BY GRAVIMETRIC SPIKING-ISOTOPE DILUTION ANALYSIS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Hanja alexia with agraphia after left posterior inferior temporal lobe infarction: a case study.

Korean written language is composed of ideogram (Hanja) and phonogram (Hangul), as Japanese consists of Kanji (ideogram) and Kana (phonogram). Dissociation between ideogram and phonogram impairment after brain injury has been reported in Japanese, but few in Korean. We report a 64-yr-old right-handed man who showed alexia with agraphia in Hanja but preserved Hangul reading and writing after a left posterior inferior temporal lobe infarction. Interestingly, the patient was an expert in Hanja; he had been a Hanja calligrapher over 40 yr. However, when presented with 65 basic Chinese letters that are taught in elementary school, his responses were slow both in reading (6.3 sec/letter) and writing (8.8 sec/letter). The rate of correct response was 81.5% (53 out of 65 letters) both in reading and writing. The patient's performances were beyond mean-2SD of those of six age-, sex-, and education-matched controls who correctly read 64.7 out of 65 and wrote 62.5 out of 65 letters with a much shorter reaction time (1.3 sec/letter for reading and 4.0 sec/letter for writing). These findings support the notion that ideogram and phonogram can be mediated in different brain regions and Hanja alexia with agraphia in Korean patients can be associated with a left posterior inferior temporal lesion