Supporting Higher Education—Hospital Transition through Blended Learning

The purpose of this paper is to present two exploratory studies that have a potential for identifying research-based blended learning tools for CBME. The studies focus on the development of a group of medical students’ professional image (in Genova and Rome) during their hospital internship. The paper addresses three related questions: 1. How does their professional representation change in the transition from university to hospital? 2. Which competences emerge from the students’ reports? 3. Which competences are still under represented

Relaciones preferenciales MERCOSUR-Corea : perspectivas de una idea en construcción

El artículo analiza las características principales de las relaciones entre el MERCOSUR y la República de Corea. El inicio del estudio de factibilidad para llevar a cabo la negociación de un Tratado de Libre Comercio y la visita del Presidente de Corea a Brasil y Argentina son las dos iniciativas que, para el autor, refuerzan las relaciones y pueden demostrar los beneficios de un mayor acercamiento.L'article analitza les característiques principals de les relacions entre el MERCOSUR i la República de Corea. Les dues iniciatives que, segons l'autor, reforcen les relacions i mostren els beneficis d'un acostament són l'estudi de factibilitat per dur a terme la negociació de un Tractat de Lliure Comerç i la visita del President de Corea a Brasil i a Argentina.The article focus on the main characteristics of the relations between MERCOSUR and the Republic of Korea. The start of the study of feasibility to carry out the negotiation of a Treaty Free Commerce and the visit of the President from Korea to Brazil and Argentina are two initiatives that, for the author, reinforce the relations and can show the benefits of a greater approach

The challenge of developing korean studies in Latin America

The author provides a overview on the relevance, difficulties and positive factors of the studies dedicated to Korea elaborated in Latin America. The article was presented on International Forum on Korean Studies on July 14th, 2005 (International Center for Korean Studies, Institute of Korean Culture, Korea University).L'autor elabora un estat de la cuestió sobre la rellevància, dificultats i factors a favor dels estudis dedicats a Corea elaborats a Amèrica Llatina. Article presentat en el Forum on Korean Studies el 14 de juliol de 2005 (International Center for Korean Studies, Institute of Korean Culture, Korea University).El autor elabora un estado de la cuestión sobre la relevancia, dificultades y factores a favor de los estudios dedicados a Corea elaborados en America Latina. Artículo presentado en el Forum on Korean Studies el 14 de julio de 2005 (International Center for Korean Studies, Institute of Korean Culture, Korea University)

Asymptotic Analysis for Piecewise Linear Filtering

A discrete-time nonlinear filtering problem with piecewise linear coefficients and not necessarily Gaussian disturbances is considered. It is shown that it possesses asymptotic properties that coincide with the analogous properties of a filtering problem for a suitably randomized linear model which admits a finite-dimensional solution. The asymptotic properties are connected to the behavior of the nonlinear filters when some parameters of the distribution of the initial condition and of the signal disturbances become small. These asymptotic properties allow to consider the finite-dimensional filter as an approximate solution to the original problem. It can in fact be shown that, asymptotically, the original and the approximate models have the same conditional moments and, in particular, the same conditional mean square errors

NBS1 Heterozygosity and Cancer Risk

Biallelic mutations in the NBS1 gene are responsible for the Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by chromosome instability and hypersensitivity to ionising radiation (IR). Epidemiological data evidence that the NBS1 gene can be considered a susceptibility factor for cancer development, as demonstrated by the fact that almost 40% of NBS patients have developed a malignancy before the age of 21. Interestingly, also NBS1 heterozygotes, which are clinically asymptomatic, display an elevated risk to develop some types of malignant tumours, especially breast, prostate and colorectal cancers, lymphoblastic leukaemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). So far, nine mutations in the NBS1 gene have been found, at the heterozygous state, in cancer patients. Among them, the 657del5, the I171V and the R215W mutations are the most frequently described. The pathogenicity of these mutations is presumably connected with their occurrence in the highly conserved BRCT tandem domains of the NBS1 protein, which are present in a large superfamily of proteins, and are recognized as major mediators of processes related to cell-cycle checkpoint and DNA repair

Small Noise Analysis for Piecewise Linear Stochastic Control Problems

A discrete-time stochastic control problem is considered for a dynamical model with piecewise linear coefficients and not necessarily Gaussian disturbances. The cost criteria and the class of admissible controls include piecewise polynomial costs and piecewise linear controls respectively. It is shown that relevant asymptotic (for vanishing noise) properties of this problem coincide with the corresponding properties of a suitably chosen adaptive control problem with linear dynamics. In particular, it turns out that the optimal values of the two problems tend to coincide and that almost optimal controls for one problem are almost optimal also for the other