A quantitative study of Maltese primary school teachers and their perceptions towards education for sustainable development

The study aims to explore Maltese primary school teachers’ perceptions towards Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The research focused on 3-6 years old Maltese educators’ level of ESD awareness and knowledge, their attitudes towards ESD, and their willingness to adopt ESD within the classroom setting. Primary teachers’ ESD methodological skills were investigated as were issues that hinder ESD adoption as a regular teaching tool. The quantitative research involved the collection and analysis of 271 questionnaires. This data was plotted on graphs and analysed through Statistic Package for Social Science (SPSS) statistical tests. The findings show that in general, junior years’ primary school teachers show interest in implementing ESD and exhibit a positive attitude towards the area. However, it was noted that the participants’ level of awareness and knowledge of the various ESD concepts are rather low or unclear. Notwithstanding, many educators integrate ESD values and skills in their teaching methodology unconsciously. Several obstacles are shown to impede educators in their attempt to integrate ESD to its full potential. The main findings from the research were used to construct a model that visually illustrates the relationships between the variables and drafts a list of recommendations.peer-reviewe

Kompetence za poucevanje za trajnostni razvoj na podrocju izobrazevanja uciteljev

Competences are intensively discussed in the context of cross-curricular themes, such as Sustainable Development and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), especially in light of the United Nations Decade for ESD (2004–2015). Recent literature on ESD lists a number of competences for ESD in various fields with the exception of teacher education. A competence model for ESD for educators was generated in the Austrian research project KOM-BiNE (Competences for ESD in Teacher Education) as part of a large-scale EU project. The KOM-BiNE competence model consists of areas of competences within fields of action. The constituent elements of the competence model are described in detail and are illustrated with examples. (DIPF/Orig.

Learning for a Change: Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place

A task and performance analysis of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) surgery

BACKGROUND: ESD is an endoscopic technique for en bloc resection of gastrointestinal lesions. ESD is a widely-used in Japan and throughout Asia, but not as prevalent in Europe or the US. The procedure is technically challenging and has higher adverse events (bleeding, perforation) compared to endoscopic mucosal resection. Inadequate training platforms and lack of established training curricula have restricted its wide acceptance in the US. Thus, we aim to develop a Virtual Endoluminal Surgery Simulator (VESS) for objective ESD training and assessment. In this work, we performed task and performance analysis of ESD surgeries. METHODS: We performed a detailed colorectal ESD task analysis and identified the critical ESD steps for lesion identification, marking, injection, circumferential cutting, dissection, intraprocedural complication management, and post-procedure examination. We constructed a hierarchical task tree that elaborates the order of tasks in these steps. Furthermore, we developed quantitative ESD performance metrics. We measured task times and scores of 16 ESD surgeries performed by four different endoscopic surgeons. RESULTS: The average time of the marking, injection, and circumferential cutting phases are 203.4 (σ: 205.46), 83.5 (σ: 49.92), 908.4 s. (σ: 584.53), respectively. Cutting the submucosal layer takes most of the time of overall ESD procedure time with an average of 1394.7 s (σ: 908.43). We also performed correlation analysis (Pearson's test) among the performance scores of the tasks. There is a moderate positive correlation (R = 0.528, p = 0.0355) between marking scores and total scores, a strong positive correlation (R = 0.7879, p = 0.0003) between circumferential cutting and submucosal dissection and total scores. Similarly, we noted a strong positive correlation (R = 0.7095, p = 0.0021) between circumferential cutting and submucosal dissection and marking scores. CONCLUSIONS: We elaborated ESD tasks and developed quantitative performance metrics used in analysis of actual surgery performance. These ESD metrics will be used in future validation studies of our VESS simulator

Safety and efficacy of endoscopic submucosal dissection for rectal neoplasia: a multicenter North American experience.

Background and aims  Rectal lesions traditionally represent the first lesions approached during endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) training in the West. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of rectal ESD in North America. Methods  This is a multicenter retrospective analysis of rectal ESD between January 2010 and September 2018 in 15 centers. End points included: rates of en bloc resection, R0 resection, adverse events, comparison of pre- and post-ESD histology, and factors associated with failed resection. Results  In total, 171 patients (median age 63 years; 56 % men) underwent rectal ESD (median size 43 mm). En bloc resection was achieved in 141 cases (82.5 %; 95 %CI 76.8-88.2), including 24 of 27 (88.9 %) with prior failed endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). R0 resection rate was 74.9 % (95 %CI 68.4-81.4). Post-ESD bleeding and perforation occurred in 4 (2.3 %) and 7 (4.1 %), respectively. Covert submucosal invasive cancer (SMIC) was identified in 8.6 % of post-ESD specimens. There was one case (1/120; 0.8 %) of recurrence at a median follow-up of 31 weeks; IQR: 19-76 weeks). Older age and higher body mass index (BMI) were predictors of failed R0 resection, whereas submucosal fibrosis was associated with a higher likelihood of both failed en bloc and R0 resection. Conclusion  Rectal ESD in North America is safe and is associated with high en bloc and R0 resection rates. The presence of submucosal fibrosis was the main predictor of failed en bloc and R0 resection. ESD can be considered for select rectal lesions, and serves not only to establish a definitive tissue diagnosis but also to provide curative resection for lesions with covert advanced disease

Entanglement sudden death in qubit-qutrit systems

We demonstrate the existence of entanglement sudden death (ESD), the complete loss of entanglement in finite time, in qubit-qutrit systems. In particular, ESD is shown to occur in such systems initially prepared in a one-parameter class of entangled mixed states and then subjected to local dephasing noise. Together with previous results, this proves the existence of ESD for some states in all quantum systems for which rigorously defined mixed-state entanglement measures have been identified. We conjecture that ESD exists in all quantum systems prepared in appropriate bipartite states.Comment: 10 pages. To appear in Physics Letters

Hybrid TiO2 Solar Cells Produced from Aerosolized Nanoparticles of Water-Soluble Polythiophene Electron Donor Layer

Hybrid solar cells (HSCs) with water soluble polythiophene sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethyloxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS) thin films produced using electrospray deposition (ESD) were fabricated, tested, and modeled and compared to devices produced using conventional spin coating. A single device structure of FTO/TiO2/PTEBS/Au was used to study the effects of ESD of the PTEBS layer on device performance. ESD was found to increase the short circuit current density (Jsc) by a factor of 2 while decreasing the open circuit voltage (Voc) by half compared to spin coated PTEBS films. Comparable efficiencies of 0.009% were achieved from both device construction types. Current-voltage curves were modeled using the characteristic solar cell equation and showed a similar increase in generated photocurrent with an increase by two orders of magnitude in the saturation current in devices from ESD films. Increases in Jsc are attributed to an increase in the interfacial contact area between the TiO2 and PTEBS layers, while decreases in Voc are attributed to incomplete film formation from ESD

Physics of electro-thermal effects in ESD protection devices

Damage in ESD protection devices can be caused by high local temperatures resulting from heat generation by an ESD pulse. In order to obtain physical insight into the process that leads to permanent damage, device simulations of coupled thermal and electrical behaviour have been performed. Additional to the potential and the electron and hole concentrations the lattice temperature is solved as a variable. Simulations of ESD pulses (forward bias) applied to a diode have been performed. The discharge mechanism could be visualised by using the coupled thermal/electrical model. Locations with considerable temperature rise that eventually lead to damage can be extracted from the calculated temperature distributions. Protection devices with optimum electrical and thermal characteristics can be designed by adjusting doping profiles and layout parameters. The buried layer of the protection device does not contribute in conducting current at high current levels. Therefore the buried layer is not functional in diodes that are subjected to ESD in forward bias. Measurements determining the ESD vulnerability of protection devices with and without buried layer confirm this fact