Il questionario per i docenti: costruzione, implementazione, analisi. Progetto PRODID (Preparazione alla Professionalità Docente e Innovazione Didattica) - Rapporto dell'Unità di Ricerca n.3 - prima annualità [Technical Report Series, 1/2014]

The work aims to illustrate the design and the first results of a survey which involved 1849 university professors who were teaching courses at Bachelor's and Master's Degrees of University of Padova during the academic year 2012/13. The research is part of a project of improvement of the academic educational innovation and the quality of academic teaching. The data was directly obtained using a CAWI questionnaire which was distributed to the whole teaching staff, and it was linked to administrative data related to the educational offer and students’ evaluation of teaching in the same academic year. The results were summarized using some indicators which showed the diffusion of good practices of teaching, support needs, beliefs, interest and availability of the respondents. We identified sub-groups of potential participants for the qualitative phase of the research and subjects to involve in different and integrated activities directed to develop teachers’ professional competences

PRODID project

This dataset is obtained by merging three different datasets coming from the University of Padua (academic year: 2012-2013). The first one is the standard online survey carried out by the University to measure students' opinions on the didactic activities of bachelor degree courses. The second one is the administrative dataset that collects information on the teachers and the didactic activities. The third one is an innovative dataset, collected by means of a new online survey aiming at providing a picture of the teaching experiences developed in the university classrooms. Indeed, the University of Padua in 2013 promoted the PRODID (“Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation” – in italian “Preparazione alla professionalità docente e innovazione didattica”). The goal of this project is to highlight teachers' needs, beliefs and practices of teaching and learning

Phase II trial of neoadjuvant pemetrexed plus cisplatin followed by surgery and radiation in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive tumor that has a poor prognosis and is resistant to unimodal approaches. Multimodal treatment has provided encouraging results. METHODS: Phase II, open-label study of the combination of chemotherapy (pemetrexed 500 mg/m(2)+cisplatin 75 mg/m(2) IV every 21 days × 3 cycles), followed by surgery (en-bloc extrapleural pneumonectomy, 3–8 weeks after chemotherapy) and hemithoracic radiation (total radiation beam 54 Gy, received 4–8 weeks post-surgery). The primary endpoint was event-free survival, defined as the time from enrollment to time of first observation of disease progression, death due to any cause, or early treatment discontinuation. RESULTS: Fifty-four treatment-naïve patients with T1-3 N0-2 malignant pleural mesothelioma were enrolled, 52 (96.3%) completed chemotherapy, 45 (83.3%) underwent surgery, 22 (40.7%) completed the whole treatment including 90-day post-radiation follow-up. The median event-free survival was 6.9 months (95%CI: 5.0-10.5), median overall survival was 15.5 months (95%CI 11.0-NA) while median time-to-tumor response was 4.8 months (95%CI: 2.5-8.0). Eighteen (33.3%) and 13 (24.1%) patients were still event-free after 1 and 2 years, respectively. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were nausea (63.0%), anemia (51.9%) and hypertension (42.6%). Following two cardiopulmonary radiation-related deaths the protocol was amended (21 [38.9%] patients were already enrolled in the study): the total radiation beam was reduced from 54 Gy to 50.4 Gy and a more accurate selection of patients was recommended. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of pemetrexed plus cisplatin followed by surgery and hemithoracic radiation is feasible and has a manageable toxicity profile in carefully selected patients. It may be worthy of further investigation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrial.com registrationID #NCT00087698

Tolerability of intensified intravenous interferon alfa-2b versus the ECOG 1684 schedule as adjuvant therapy for stage III melanoma: a randomized phase III Italian Melanoma Inter-group trial (IMI – Mel.A.) [ISRCTN75125874]

BACKGROUND: High-dose interferon alfa-2b (IFNalfa-2b), according to the ECOG 1684 schedule, is the only approved adjuvant treatment for stage III melanoma patients by the FDA and EMEA. However, the risk/benefit profile has been questioned limiting its world-wide use. In the late nineties, the Italian Melanoma Inter-group started a spontaneous randomized clinical trial (RCT) to verify if a more intense, but shorter than the ECOG 1684 regimen, could improve survival without increasing the toxicity profile. The safety analysis in the first 169 patients who completed the treatment is here described. METHODS: Stage III melanoma patients were randomized to receive IFNalfa-2b 20 MU/m(2)/d intravenously (IV) 5 days/week × 4 weeks, repeated for three times on weeks 9 to 12, 17 to 20, 25 to 28 (Dose-Dense/Dose-Intense, DD/DI, arm), or IFNalfa-2b 20 MU/m(2)/d IV 5 days/week × 4 weeks followed by 10 MU/m(2 )subcutaneously (SC) three times per week × 48 weeks (High Dose Interferon, HDI, arm). Toxicity was recorded and graded, according to the WHO criteria, as the worst grade that occurred during each cycle. RESULTS: The most common toxicities in both arms were flu-like and gastrointestinal symptoms, leukopenia, liver and neuro-psichiatric morbidities; with regard to severe toxicity, only leukopenia was statistically more frequent in DD/DI arm than in HDI arm (24% vs 9%) (p = 0.0074), yet, this did not cause an increase in the infection risk. Discontinuation of treatment, due to toxicity, was observed in 13 and 17% of the patients in the DD/DI and HDI arm, respectively. The median actual dose intensity delivered in the DD/DI arm (36.4 MU/m(2)/week) was statistically higher than that delivered in the HDI arm (30.7 MU/m(2)/week) (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Four cycles of intravenous high-dose IFNalfa-2b can be safely delivered with an increase in the median dose intensity. Efficacy results from this trial are eagerly awaited

Study and synthesis of organic precursors for salt treatments developed to protect and strengthen building materials and frescos

An attempt to find out possible ways to synthesise sulphates and oxalates, to be utilised for strengthening and consolidating limestone and frescos surfaces was made. Particularly organic sulphates were prepared and tested for their reactivity with barium salts, trying to obtain slow sulphates hydrolysis and, so, BaSO4 precipitation. Different solutions were applied on Opificio delle Pietre Dure´s standards using different methodologies and applications times. The characterisation of chemical interactions between carbonaceous bodies and solutions was done by X-ray diffraction (XRPD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTAR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS). The synthesis of organic sulphates resulted not difficult and the solutions are very easy to use. More difficult was oxalate synthesis. The application results are promising

La ricerca valutativa nel campo della didattica: una indagine tra i docenti dell\u2019Universit\ue0 di Padova. Evaluative research in education: a survey among professors of University of Padova

This work aims at illustrating to illustrate the design and the first results of a survey which involved 1849 university professors who were teaching courses at Bachelor's and Master's Degrees of University of Padova during the academic year 2012/13. The research is part of a project of improvement of the academic educational innovation and the quality of academic teaching. The kind of approach is an evaluative research which was conducted within the academic organization and carried out among peers, using a quali-quantitative mixed method. The data was directly obtained using a CAWI questionnaire which was distributed to the whole teaching staff, and it was linked to administrative data related to the educational offer and students\u2019 evaluation of teaching in the same academic year. After a preliminary analysis of the factors which affected the probability of answering to the questionnaire, the results were summarized using some indicators which showed the diffusion of good practices of teaching, support needs, beliefs, interest and availability of the respondents to discuss more extensively the questions of the survey. The results are presented considering as reference context of teaching action and learning activities the eight Schools into which the degree courses are organized. Lastly, we identified sub-groups of potential participants for the qualitative phase of the research: they were characterized by different levels of professional practice and interest in innovating university teaching and they will be the right subjects to involve in different and integrated activities directed to develop teachers\u2019 professional competences

Il questionario per i docenti: costruzione, implementazione, analisi. Progetto PRODID (Preparazione alla Professionalit\ue0 Docente e Innovazione Didattica) - Rapporto dell\u2019Unit\ue0 di Ricerca n.3

The work aims to illustrate the design and the first results of a survey which involved 1849 university professors who were teaching courses at Bachelor's and Master's Degrees of University of Padova during the academic year 2012/13. The research is part of a project of improvement of the academic educational innovation and the quality of academic teaching. The data was directly obtained using a CAWI questionnaire which was distributed to the whole teaching staff, and it was linked to administrative data related to the educational offer and students\u2019 evaluation of teaching in the same academic year. The results were summarized using some indicators which showed the diffusion of good practices of teaching, support needs, beliefs, interest and availability of the respondents. We identified sub-groups of potential participants for the qualitative phase of the research and subjects to involve in different and integrated activities directed to develop teachers\u2019 professional competences

Tools for teaching assessment at Padua University: role, development and validation. PRODID Project - Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation - Report of the Research Unit n.3. (Lo strumento dell'Università di Padova per la valutazione della Didattica: funzione, evoluzione e validazione. Progetto PRODID - Preparazione alla Professionalità Docente e Innovazione Didattica - Rapporto dell’Unità di Ricerca n.3)

The report presents aims, history, current contents and characteristics of statistical validity and reliability of the instrument used at Padua university in the survey about students opinion on didactics activities (first cycle, second-cycle, and single-cycle degree courses)