A practical introduction to first steps : assessment, teaching and learning. 'Una introducción práctica a los primeros pasos : evaluación, enseñanza y aprendizaje'.

Es un recurso pensado para apoyar a los docentes en la labor de mejorar los niveles de alfabetización infantil y, alcanzar los objetivos que se han marcado para los estudiantes y las escuelas. Para ello, se establece la evaluación de este proceso de enseñanza del lenguaje oral y escrito, a través del llamado 'proceso de desarrollo continuo', por el cual el profesor puede supervisar y evaluar el progreso de sus alumnos desde la guardería y en los sucesivos años de escolarización, mediante la utilización de estrategias que cubran las necesidades específicas de cada uno de ellos en el contexto de la misma clase.

Banking Union in three steps. CEPS Commentary, 12 June 2012

As the banking crisis in the eurozone becomes even more acute, CEPS Chief Executive Karel Lannoo exhorts the EU to not lose further precious time in creating a fully functional bank union, which would entail three main steps: creating a single supervisory authority, a common deposit protection and a harmonised bank resolution and liquidation system.

An agenda for the European Council: feasible steps to bring the eurozone back from the precipice. CEPS Policy Brief No. 274, 20 June 2012

In the run-up to the emergency European Council meeting at the end of June, Stefano Micossi outlines in this Policy Brief the main elements of a realistic and yet incisive policy package, capable of reassuring financial markets and a bewildered public opinion. It is more than Germany has been willing to accept so far but much less than many of the demands it will confront at the Council meeting. More importantly, it only requires a minimum of additional disbursements by the member states, while strengthening risk-sharing for sovereign and banking risks.

Rate-limiting steps in the development of atherosclerosis: the response-to-influx theory

A large number of processes are involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis but it is unclear which of them play a rate-limiting role. One way of resolving this problem is to investigate the highly non-uniform distribution of disease within the arterial system; critical steps in lesion development should be revealed by identifying arterial properties that differ between susceptible and protected sites. Although the localisation of atherosclerotic lesions has been investigated intensively over much of the 20th century, this review argues that the factor determining the distribution of human disease has only recently been identified. Recognition that the distribution changes with age has, for the first time, allowed it to be explained by variation in transport properties of the arterial wall; hitherto, this view could only be applied to experimental atherosclerosis in animals. The newly discovered transport variations which appear to play a critical role in the development of adult disease have underlying mechanisms that differ from those elucidated for the transport variations relevant to experimental atherosclerosis: they depend on endogenous NO synthesis and on blood flow. Manipulation of transport properties might have therapeutic potential. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Monodisperse binary nanocomposite in silica with enhanced magnetization for magnetic separation

The majority of research on magnetic nanoparticles has focused on optical, electrical, and magnetic storage areas. Recently, the application of magnetic nanoparticles as magnetically separable nanovehicles for chemical or biological species has become an area of intensive research but with rather different challenging criteria that are yet to be addressed. For example, the enhancement of intrinsically weak magnetic properties, avoidance of magnetic interactions among particles, and improvement of the stability of the nanoparticles remain key issues. Here, it is demonstrated using sequential nanochemistry preparation techniques that exchange-coupled nanomagnets, such as FePt-Fe3Pt or FePt-Fe3O4 with dramatically enhanced magnetization, can be placed inside a silica nanosphere. The advantages of enhanced magnetization and the provision of protective coating and anchored sites on the silica shell surface render these new coated particles suitable for use in magnetic separation.