Mapping higher education for sustainable development in Portugal

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) addresses sustainable development issues, in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The positive role of higher education institutions (HEIs), such as Universities and Polytechnic Institutes, in educating decision makers and leaders, and therefore contributing to progress and the public good, has been widely acknowledged. This investigation aims to map the BSc and MSc courses offered by Portuguese HEIs that address Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) in their curricula with the aim of proving their graduates with the right knowledge and competencies to overcome the Sustainable Development challenges. A systematic review utilizing a structured approach was used to analyze Portuguese HEIs BSc and MSc courses and the content analysis of their curricular units. The conclusions show that Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) is covered in most Social Sciences, Engineering, and Management, BSc and MSc courses, offered by the top 8 Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. However, ESD is fragmented by different approaches, issues, methodologies, and implications, lacking a consistent body of knowledge. Some courses focus more on the Social dimension, while others are more directed to the Environment or the Economic one. Sometimes the chosen approach is more normative (do what is right to do; the ethical way) and in other cases is more instrumental (do what is good for the business; the business case). Social Sciences, Engineering and Science, and Management and Economics are the three top clusters that address Sustainability related syllabus in their curricula, with 49 hours teaching hours in average for the curricular units covering Sustainability (with considerable variation). Universities have more curricular units addressing the topic while Polytechnic Institutes show a higher number of hours per curricular unit and most are of compulsory nature (while in Universities more than 50% of the curricular units are of optional nature). As the collected information was in some cases of generic nature, additional research should be used to confirm and detail these results and evaluate the effectiveness of this education to empower students to act as change agents for Sustainable Development. Benchmarking with other countries (e.g., from the European Union) is also an interesting avenue to pursue this investigation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications

Mapping higher education for sustainable development in Portugal

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) addresses sustainable development issues, in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The positive role of higher education institutions (HEIs), such as Universities and Polytechnic Institutes, in educating decision makers and leaders, and therefore contributing to progress and the public good, has been widely acknowledged. This investigation aims to map the BSc and MSc courses offered by Portuguese HEIs that address Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) in their curricula with the aim of proving their graduates with the right knowledge and competencies to overcome the Sustainable Development challenges. A systematic review utilizing a structured approach was used to analyze Portuguese HEIs BSc and MSc courses and the content analysis of their curricular units. The conclusions show that Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) is covered in most Social Sciences, Engineering, and Management, BSc and MSc courses, offered by the top 8 Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. However, ESD is fragmented by different approaches, issues, methodologies, and implications, lacking a consistent body of knowledge. Some courses focus more on the Social dimension, while others are more directed to the Environment or the Economic one. Sometimes the chosen approach is more normative (do what is right to do; the ethical way) and in other cases is more instrumental (do what is good for the business; the business case). Social Sciences, Engineering and Science, and Management and Economics are the three top clusters that address Sustainability related syllabus in their curricula, with 49 hours teaching hours in average for the curricular units covering Sustainability (with considerable variation). Universities have more curricular units addressing the topic while Polytechnic Institutes show a higher number of hours per curricular unit and most are of compulsory nature (while in Universities more than 50% of the curricular units are of optional nature). As the collected information was in some cases of generic nature, additional research should be used to confirm and detail these results and evaluate the effectiveness of this education to empower students to act as change agents for Sustainable Development. Benchmarking with other countries (e.g., from the European Union) is also an interesting avenue to pursue this investigation

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)