Bernstein Processes Associated with a Markov Process

Abstract. A general description of Bernstein processes, a class of diffusion processes, relevant to the probabilistic counterpart of quantum theory known as Euclidean Quantum Mechanics, is given. It is compatible with finite or infinite dimensional state spaces and singular interactions. Although the rela-tions with statistical physics concepts (Gibbs measure, entropy,...) is stressed here, recent developments requiring Feynman’s quantum mechanical tools (ac-tion functional, path integrals, Noether’s Theorem,...) are also mentioned and suggest new research directions, especially in the geometrical structure of our approach. This is a review of various recent developments regarding the construction and properties of Bernstein processes, a class of diffusions originally introduced for the purpose of Euclidean Quantum Mechanics (EQM), a probabilistic analogue o

Profile and professional expectations of medical students from 11 Latin American countries: the Red-LIRHUS project

Background Latin America is undergoing a human resource crisis in health care in terms of labor shortage, misdistribution and poor orientation to primary care. Workforce data are needed to inform the planning of long-term strategies to address this problem. This study aimed to evaluate the academic and motivational profile, as well as the professional expectations, of Latin American medical students. Results We conducted an observational, cross-sectional, multi-country study evaluating medical students from 11 Spanish-speaking countries in 2011–2012. Motivations to study medicine, migration intentions, intent to enter postgraduate programs, and perceptions regarding primary care were evaluated via a self-administered questionnaire. Outcomes were measured with pilot-tested questions and previously validated scales. A total of 11,072 valid surveys from 63 medical schools were gathered and analyzed. Conclusions This study describes the profile and expectations of the future workforce being trained in Latin America. The obtained information will be useful for governments and universities in planning strategies to improve their current state of affairs regarding human resources for health care professions

Reciprocal Class of Jump Processes

Processes having the same bridges as a given reference Markov process constitute its reciprocal class. In this paper we study the reciprocal class of compound Poisson processes whose jumps belong to a finite set A 82 Rd. We propose a characterization of the reciprocal class as the unique set of probability measures on which a family of time and space transformations induces the same density, expressed in terms of the reciprocal invariants. The geometry of A plays a crucial role in the design of the transformations, and we use tools from discrete geometry to obtain an optimal characterization. We deduce explicit conditions for two Markov jump processes to belong to the same class. Finally, we provide a natural interpretation of the invariants as short-time asymptotics for the probability that the reference process makes a cycle around its current state