El nuevo Grado de Medicina en la Universidad Miguel Hernández

La puesta en marcha del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) es en este momento un motor de reforma pedagógica y docente. Dirigido por la Conferencia Nacional de Decanos de las Facultades de Medicina, se ha realizado un esfuerzo considerable por plantear una reforma que se adecúe a las necesidades asistenciales y de investigación en biomedicina existentes en el momento actual en nuestro país. Teniendo en cuenta la experiencia y las directrices existentes en otros países, se ha realizado una propuesta plasmada en el libro blanco de la titulación de Medicina, centrada en la adquisición de competencias por parte de los alumnos, marcando objetivos docentes a distintos niveles y respetando al máximo la autonomía de cada facultad. 2 An. R. Acad. Med. Comunitat Valenciana, 11 Con relación a nuestra Comunidad Valenciana, la Conselleria de Sanitat, a través de la Agencia Valenciana de Salut, ha realizado un análisis en profundidad de cómo debe ser un hospital universitario realizando 7 constataciones (tabla 1) y proponiendo 19 medidas

Application of LQG and H∞ gain scheduling techniques to active suppression of flutter

Aircraft flutter behaviour is highly dependent on flight conditions, such as airspeed, altitude and Mach number. Thus when closed-loop control is applied to suppress flutter, if these variations are taken into account then improved performance can be obtained if the controller has a certain degree of adaptivity to the variations. In this paper, a Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) model of a rectangular wing including a trailing-edge control surface is considered. Two different gain scheduling controllers based on LQG and H∞ techniques are designed to suppress flutter and reject perturbations. Simulations of the closed-loop system show that gain scheduling techniques are capable of fully stabilizing the system over the full range of the considered air velocity, and they increase flutter speed by more than 90%

Adapting a component-based model approach to SOA: A robotic experience

C-Forge is an approach that combines Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Model Driven Software Development (MDSD), and has been previously used to define the software architecture of robotic systems. However, as robotic systems become part of a dynamic and heterogeneous environment, CBSE becomes limited. A paradigm that promises to easily adapt and integrate collaborative, heterogeneous and distributed systems is Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). In this paper, we enrich C-Forge with service oriented architectural primitives by extending its CBSE metamodel and Model Driven Methodology.MINECO/FEDER and “Research Program for Groups of Scientific Excellence in the Region of Murcia" of the Seneca Foundatio

How many and which physicians? A comparative study of the evolution of the supply of physicians and specialist training in Brazil and Spain

Abstract Background: In the face of the medical workforce shortage, several countries have promoted the opening of medical schools and the expansion of undergraduate and specialization education in medicine. Few studies have compared the characteristics and effects of expanding the supply of general practitioners and specialist physicians between countries. Brazil and Spain, two countries with distinct historical processes and socioeconomic scenarios, yet both with universal public health systems and common aspects in training and medical work, have registered a significant increase in the number of physicians and can be used to understand the challenges of strategic planning for the medical workforce. Methods: This study provides a descriptive approach using longitudinal data from official databases in Brazil and Spain from 1998 to 2017. Among the comparable indicators, the absolute numbers of physicians, the population size, and the physician’s ratio by inhabitants were used. The number of medical schools and undergraduate places in public and private institutions, the supply of residency training posts, and the number of medical specialists and medical residents per 100 000 inhabitants were also used to compare both countries. Seventeen medical specialties with the highest number of specialists and comparability between the two countries were selected for further comparison. Results: Due to the opening of medical schools, the density of physicians per 1 000 inhabitants grew by 28% in Spain and 51% in Brazil between 1998 and 2017. In that period, Spain and Brazil increased the supply of annual undergraduate places by 60% and 137%, respectively. There is a predominance of private institutions providing available undergraduate places, and the supply of medical residency posts is smaller than the contingent of medical graduates/general practitioners each yea

Comprehensive framework for the development of control and navigation systems of autonomous underwater vehicles: the mission-sicuva project

This paper presents an overview of coordinated project MISSION-SICUVA, and the results achieved at its recent completion. A prototype of UUV has been built with an orientation to oceanographic research and test of new control algorithms. It consist of an underwater vehicle towing a surface buoy, with applications such as monitoring water quality, high resolution bathymetry of the seabed and its map projection. New biological inspired navigation algorithms have been implemented using a comprehensive component based development framework.Peer Reviewe

Communication research in Spain: labor temporality, intensive production and competitiveness

In the last years, the academic body seems to have exceeded the saturation point of the employment structure. This situation has led to an increase in professional competitiveness that affects the practices of communication research. Through the longitudinal quantitative analysis of public financing, academic personnel employment, and the scientific production in communication –explained by the development in the number of papers, the methodological approach and its specialization–, we interpret the effects of the current paradigm of this discipline, characterized by the stagnation of the investment in science, labor temporality and the numerical increase of articles and researchers

Metabolites related to purine catabolism and risk of type 2 diabetes incidence; modifying efects of the TCF7L2-rs7903146 polymorphism

Studies examining associations between purine metabolites and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are limited. We prospectively examined associations between plasma levels of purine metabolites with T2D risk and the modifying effects of transcription factor-7-like-2 (TCF7L2) rs7903146 polymorphism on these associations. This is a case-cohort design study within the PREDIMED study, with 251 incident T2D cases and a random sample of 694 participants (641 non-cases and 53 overlapping cases) without T2D at baseline (median follow-up: 3.8 years). Metabolites were semi-quantitatively profiled with LC-MS/MS. Cox regression analysis revealed that high plasma allantoin levels, including allantoin-to-uric acid ratio and high xanthine-to-hypoxanthine ratio were inversely and positively associated with T2D risk, respectively, independently of classical risk factors. Elevated plasma xanthine and inosine levels were associated with a higher T2D risk in homozygous carriers of the TCF7L2-rs7903146 T-allele. The potential mechanisms linking the aforementioned purine metabolites and T2D risk must be also further investigated

Admixture in Latin America: Geographic Structure, Phenotypic Diversity and Self-Perception of Ancestry Based on 7,342 Individuals

The current genetic makeup of Latin America has been shaped by a history of extensive admixture between Africans, Europeans and Native Americans, a process taking place within the context of extensive geographic and social stratification. We estimated individual ancestry proportions in a sample of 7,342 subjects ascertained in five countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, México and Perú). These individuals were also characterized for a range of physical appearance traits and for self-perception of ancestry. The geographic distribution of admixture proportions in this sample reveals extensive population structure, illustrating the continuing impact of demographic history on the genetic diversity of Latin America. Significant ancestry effects were detected for most phenotypes studied. However, ancestry generally explains only a modest proportion of total phenotypic variation. Genetically estimated and self-perceived ancestry correlate significantly, but certain physical attributes have a strong impact on self-perception and bias self-perception of ancestry relative to genetically estimated ancestry

Socioeconomic Status Is Not Related with Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry: Evidence from Latin-American Populations

The expression of facial asymmetries has been recurrently related with poverty and/or disadvantaged socioeconomic status. Departing from the developmental instability theory, previous approaches attempted to test the statistical relationship between the stress experienced by individuals grown in poor conditions and an increase in facial and corporal asymmetry. Here we aim to further evaluate such hypothesis on a large sample of admixed Latin Americans individuals by exploring if low socioeconomic status individuals tend to exhibit greater facial fluctuating asymmetry values. To do so, we implement Procrustes analysis of variance and Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) to estimate potential associations between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and socioeconomic status. We report significant relationships between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and age, sex, and genetic ancestry, while socioeconomic status failed to exhibit any strong statistical relationship with facial asymmetry. These results are persistent after the effect of heterozygosity (a proxy for genetic ancestry) is controlled in the model. Our results indicate that, at least on the studied sample, there is no relationship between socioeconomic stress (as intended as low socioeconomic status) and facial asymmetries