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Eminus provides Distance Learning for severe disabled students who are not able to visit a school because of mobility problems, tiredness or special care. In this article we will show you how ICT and the Internet can be used to include this group into society through virtual class rooms, online internships and teleworking. © 2007 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.

Background: Although medical students' use of portfolios has been studied from many angles, little is known about their motivations. Aim: This article explores medical students' motives for voluntarily compiling a learning portfolio that widely exceeded the assignments. Methods: Content analysis was performed on 22 (8%; n = 22/269) extensive portfolios, followed by a semi-structured interview with 11 medical students. Building on the theoretical work of Simons et al. (2004), interpretative analysis was used to reconstruct and understand the medical students' motives for the effort they put into the portfolios. Results: Compiling an elaborate portfolio is mainly instigated by a personal instrumentality (internally regulated instrumental motivation). These medical students reflected on what they considered important and useful. The portfolio was a tool to achieve self-set goals, yet the specific goals turned out to be very different among the students, reflecting their particular needs and experiences during clerkship. Conclusion: Motivation theory shows that students whoare internally regulated use more deep-level learning strategies and perform better. Internally regulated motivation mainly occurs when students use the portfolio to achieve their self-set goals. The formal portfolio assignments, enforced by the medical school, were more related with externally regulated motivation.

Background: This study aimed to compare broad range of behavioral problems and their relations to working status of adolescents in samples of Turkish apprenticeship, technical and high schools. Method: The research was carried out on a total of 899 adolescents aged 15 to 20. The study sample was recruited from three different type of schools (High School, Technical School, Apprenticeship School), located in the city of Zonguldak, Turkey. Two questionnaires were administered to the students. First questionnaire evaluated the adolescents' sociodemographic variables, working status and working durations. Second questionnaire evaluated the behavioral problems namely Youth Self Report (YSR). Results: The majority of adolescents (75.2 %) in apprentice programs were working regularly. Compared to adolescents in high school and technical school, adolescent students in apprenticeship programs were found to have higher scores of withdrawn, somatic complaints, depression and anxiety, social problems, delinquent behaviors, internalization and externalization on the YSR. The Total Problems, Internalizing Problems, Somatic Complaints, Anxious/Depressed, Social Problems and Delinquent Behaviors scores of working adolescents were higher than nonworking adolescents. Conclusion: Compared to other schools, adolescents in apprenticeship programs were found to have higher behavioral problems. Longer working hours seems to be associated with withdrawn, somatic complaints, being anxious and depressed, social problems, delinquent behaviors, internalizing and externalization problems. We suggest that it is important to control working conditions of adolescents in order to prevent development of behavioral problems that may lead to several other health problems. © Universitätsverlag Ulm GmbH 2007.

Aim: To assess and observe the development of competence in oral surgical skills during a 3-year undergraduate programme. Method: Over a 3-year period 75 students were followed through from the beginning of their clinical course to their Bachelor of Dental Surgery graduation and their surgical experience monitored by the use of logbooks. Their development of competence was assessed objectively through structured assessments and subjectively by a single tutor responsible for each year. Assessments were made of their ability in exodontia, pre-surgical assessment and the surgical extraction of teeth/roots. Results: Seventy-three students completed the course (97%). Successful completion rates for the objective testing were 100% for both exodontia and pre-surgical assessment. The surgical assessment, (surgical extraction of a tooth or root) had a successful completion rate of only 23% and the caseload for students was low with a mean of four teeth removed surgically upon graduation. Relationships were examined between total numbers of teeth extracted, total number of minor oral surgical procedures completed and the successful completion of the surgical competence assessment, but no significant relationships were found. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that it is possible to achieve objectively measurable levels of competence in undergraduates undertaking oral surgery procedures. It is however, a labour and time intensive process and appropriate clinical and teaching resources are required. National co-operation towards agreed standardised competencies should be encouraged to allow data to be pooled and more powerful analyses to occur. © 2007 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Munksgaard.

Background and objective: The case/problem-based learning discussion method was recently introduced into the theory-based training program for residents run by the Catalan Society of Anaesthesiology. This study was designed to assess and compare its effectiveness with that of the lecture-based approach for teaching pre-anaesthetic assessment, applying an objective tool for knowledge evaluation before and after teaching. Methods: A prospective randomized study of two consecutive year groups of first year anaesthesiology residents was conducted. Twenty-nine residents attended a lecture, and 25, a case/problem-based learning discussion session. Their knowledge of pre-anaesthetic assessment was assessed before and after the teaching session with tests on four different clinical cases measuring six fields: (1) 'recognizing clinical data with anaesthetic implications'; (2) 'reasoning clinical data with anaesthetic implications'; (3) 'ASA class'; (4) 'Mallampati class'; (5) 'choice of anaesthetic technique'; (6) 'reasoning choice of anaesthetic technique'. Results: Before the teaching session, the lecture group scored significantly higher on field 1 (P = 0.006). Both teaching methods improved scores on fields 1, 2 and 4. The case/problem group also improved on fields 3 and 6. After the teaching session, the field 1 score was still significantly higher in the lecture group (P = 0.005), and the field 3 score was significantly higher in the case/problem group (P = 0.044). Conclusions: The effectiveness of lecture and case/problem-based learning discussion differed little in terms of improving participants' immediate knowledge of 'pre-anaesthetic assessment'. © 2007 Copyright European Society of Anaesthesiology.

This study explores whether a clinical teaching effectiveness (CTE) instrument provides valid scores for summative faculty assessment. The sample included all CTE instruments (n = 10,087) that learners (N = 1,194) completed to assess clinical teachers (N = 872) during 1 academic year. The authors investigated response processes (e.g., missing data, straight-line responses, level of learner), internal structure (e.g., confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis), teaching ratings by learner group (medical student or resident), and relation to other variables (e.g., correlation with global rating). Response processes identified a high prevalence of straight-line responses (same rating across all items) and differential patterns of missing data by learner group. Medical students rated their teachers higher than residents, and CTE scores had different factor structures depending on learner group. High correlation coefficients of CTE items with a single rating of overall teaching performance suggest that learners consider global performance when assessing clinical teaching performance. © 2007 Sage Publications.

A handbook on recent advancements and the state of the art in array processing and sensor Networks Handbook on Array Processing and Sensor Networks provides readers with a collection of tutorial articles contributed by world-renowned experts on recent advancements and the state of the art in array processing and sensor networks. Focusing on fundamental principles as well as applications, the handbook provides exhaustive coverage of: wavelets; spatial spectrum estimation; MIMO radio propagation; robustness issues in sensor array processing; wireless communications and sensing in multi-path environments using multi-antenna transceivers; implicit training and array processing for digital communications systems; unitary design of radar waveform diversity sets; acoustic array processing for speech enhancement; acoustic beamforming for hearing aid applications; undetermined blind source separation using acoustic arrays; array processing in astronomy; digital 3D/4D ultrasound imaging technology; self-localization of sensor networks; multi-target tracking and classification in collaborative sensor networks via sequential Monte Carlo; energy-efficient decentralized estimation; sensor data fusion with application to multi-target tracking; distributed algorithms in sensor networks; cooperative communications; distributed source coding; network coding for sensor networks; information-theoretic studies of wireless networks; distributed adaptive learning mechanisms; routing for statistical inference in sensor networks; spectrum estimation in cognitive radios; nonparametric techniques for pedestrian tracking in wireless local area networks; signal processing and networking via the theory of global games; biochemical transport modeling, estimation, and detection in realistic environments; and security and privacy for sensor networks. Handbook on Array Processing and Sensor Networks is the first book of its kind and will appeal to researchers, professors, and graduate students in array processing, sensor networks, advanced signal processing, and networking. © 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This article argues in favour of a situated approach to understanding learning in practice at trade vocational school and at trade in vocational education. Boundary crossing is regarded as contributing to expansive situated learning by apprentices across trade vocational school and the trade. The purpose of the article is to show that the relationship between strangeness and legitimacy is central to situated learning across different contexts such as at trade and at trade vocational schools. The article draws on examples from a recent qualitative field study of learning among apprentices in the Danish vocational education sector.

This article argues that partnerships for vocational education and training (VET) reflect contradictions within capitalism and labour power, and therefore should be analysed within the broader context of industrial and workplace relations. Therefore, in contrast to a consensual model, we posit an understanding of social partnerships as sites of struggle and negotiation. Our analysis of interview data suggests tensions between employers, educators and unions over who can deliver training and how training is to be delivered and regulated. These tensions have implications for access to apprenticeship opportunities and for how apprenticeship operates. We argue that a greater understanding of the social, political and economic contexts in which work experience programs operate is needed to move beyond partnerships that seek to produce appropriately skilled labour.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that pediatric residents would display similar levels of asthma interpersonal and communication skills in announced versus unannounced adolescent standardized patient (SP) encounters. Methods: We conducted a prospective repeat measures experimental study at a pediatric residency program at an inner-city children's hospital. A cohort of residents (N = 18) was subjected at random to 3 SP exercises: announced and being directly observed by faculty, announced and not observed by faculty, and unannounced and unobserved. Six adolescent SPs were trained to complete checklists that included items like asthma daytime and nighttime symptoms, exercise-induced symptoms, triggers, and asthma education. For the unannounced exercises, SPs were inserted into residents' regularly scheduled clinics. Standardized patients rated residents immediately following each exercise. Residents were rated by faculty following the observed encounter. Faculty rating validated SP ratings on the observed encounter. Differences in proportions of categorical variables were tested by chi-square analyses. Results: Fifty-four resident-SP encounters were analyzed. Residents consistently displayed significantly lower levels of desired behaviors in interpersonal and communication skills in the unannounced SP encounters on 10 of 14 checklist items. For example, residents asked about exercise-induced symptoms 90% of the time in announced/observed encounters versus 95% in announced/unobserved encounters versus 72% in unannounced/unobserved encounters (P = .001). There were no significant differences in residents' behaviors in the announced SP exercises (whether observed or unobserved). Conclusion: In this study, residents demonstrated lower levels of asthma communication skills during unannounced SP exercises. By using unannounced SPs, we were able to assess residents' interpersonal and communication skills in real clinical settings. © 2007 Ambulatory Pediatric Association.