Experience of a Medical School in the Philippines on the Sudden Shift to Online Learning amidst COVID-19

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions to adapt to a full online learning environment. Medical schools in particular were disrupted by this shift since the majority of the learning objectives, skills, and necessary competencies are learned through classroom and hospital face-to-face activities. Objective The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences of a medical school in the country as it navigated the sudden shift to full online learning vis-à-vis a framework on the barriers and solutions to online learning. Method This is a descriptive paper written from the perspective and observations of an administrator who participated in crafting the immediate response of the school to the sudden shift to online delivery and who worked with the stakeholders of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH). Results To address concerns on time, skills and infrastructure, the school reprioritized its learning objectives for the remainder of the school year. It conducted in-service sessions for faculty while also immediately setting up a learning management system and a technical support team that was available on demand. Strategies employed included a deliberate switch to asynchronous learning, curation of content and creativity in delivery and assessment, and the reshaping of the management and public health activities into the online platform. To manage attitudes and provide institutional support, the school worked collaboratively with stakeholders and transformed its traditional support services of campus ministry, counselling, formation, and physical and mental health to be readily available online. Conclusion We described the experience of ASMPH when medical schools were forced to completely shift to online delivery of their programs because of the pandemic. We identified the barriers and solutions of online learning in medical education. The unique context of the ASMPH for having a dual degree in medicine and management; having an inter-disciplinal, non-departmentalized set-up at each year level; and, possessing the traditions of Jesuit education were instrumental in the school’s ability to navigate this sudden shift

Propagation of chaos for the Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck equation with a polynomial cut-off

We consider a N-particle system interacting through the Newtonian potential with a polynomial cut-off in the presence of noise in velocity. We rigorously prove the propagation of chaos for this interacting stochastic particle system. Taking the cut-off like N−δ with δ<1/d in the force, we provide a quantitative error estimate between the empirical measure associated to that N-particle system and the solutions of the d-dimensional Vlasov–Poisson–Fokker–Planck (VPFP) system. We also study the propagation of chaos for the Vlasov–Fokker–Planck equation with less singular interaction forces than the Newtonian one

¿Mentimos a nuestros hijos cuando les decimos que 1+1 son 2?

La gente cree que la forma de contar sigue unas reglas predeterminadas por la aritmética convencional y que no existen ni pueden existir otro tipo de aritméticas.  El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar la existencia de aritméticas distintas de la usual que dan respuesta a problemas reales  en los que las reglas cotidianas entran en contradicciones o paradojas. En muchas ocasiones, tenemos que utilizar diferentes reglas para contar y esto es un signo de la existencia de distintas aritméticas. A estas aritméticas las llamaremos no diofantinas, en honor a Diophantus cuyas contribuciones  a la aritmética clásica  fueron fundamentales.Palabras claves: Aritmética convencional o diofantina, aritméticas no diofantinas, problemas reales.Do we lie to our children when we tell them that 1 + 1 is 2?People believe that the way of counting follows rules predetermined by conventional arithmetic and that there are no and there can not exist other types of arithmetic. The objective of this article is to show the existence of arithmetic different from the usual one that give answer to real problems in which the daily rules enter into contradictions or paradoxes. On many occasions, we have to use different rules to count and this is a sign of the existence of different arithmetic. To these arithmetic we will call them non-diophantine, in honor of Diophantus whose contributions to classical arithmetic were fundamental.Keywords: Conventional or diophantine arithmetic, non-diophantine arithmetic, real problems

Nonlinear aggregation-diffusion equations: radial symmetry and long time asymptotics

We analyze under which conditions equilibration between two competing effects, repulsion modeled by nonlinear diffusion and attraction modeled by nonlocal interaction, occurs. This balance leads to continuous compactly supported radially decreasing equilibrium configurations for all masses. All stationary states with suitable regularity are shown to be radially symmetric by means of continuous Steiner symmetrization techniques. Calculus of variations tools allow us to show the existence of global minimizers among these equilibria. Finally, in the particular case of Newtonian interaction in two dimensions they lead to uniqueness of equilibria for any given mass up to translation and to the convergence of solutions of the associated nonlinear aggregation-diffusion equations towards this unique equilibrium profile up to translations as t → ∞

Stochastic dynamics of an electron in a Penning trap: phase flips correlated with amplitude collapses and revivals

We study the effect of noise on the axial mode of an electron in a Penning trap under parametric-resonance conditions. Our approach, based on the application of averaging techniques to the description of the dynamics, provides an understanding of the random phase flips detected in recent experiments. The observed correlation between the phase jumps and the amplitude collapses is explained. Moreover, we discuss the actual relevance of noise color to the identified phase-switching mechanism. Our approach is then generalized to analyze the persistence of the stochastic phase flips in the dynamics of a cloud of N electrons. In particular, we characterize the detected scaling of the phase-jump rate with the number of electrons.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Photoproduction total cross section and shower development

The total photoproduction cross section at ultra-high energies is obtained using a model based on QCD minijets and soft-gluon resummation and the ansatz that infrared gluons limit the rise of total cross sections. This cross section is introduced into the Monte Carlo system AIRES to simulate extended air-showers initiated by cosmic ray photons. The impact of the new photoproduction cross section on common shower observables, especially those related to muon production, is compared with previous results