The Bachelor of Education course

The Greek Philosopher Isocrates (300 B.C.) identified the characteristics of a good teacher as one who is capable of influencing students through a demonstration of his knowledge, teaching skills and ethical conduct. Four hundred years later the Roman orator Quintillian reiterated the desirability of these qualities by his insistence that teachers should possess moral excellence, complete mastery over content, the skill to teach at a level appropriate to the learner's abilities, and the enthusiasm to motivate students by making learning interesting and attractive. These qualities, held as fundamental in the teaching profession, are built in the B. Ed. programme and generalized under two major objectives, namely to develop in course participants the commitment and the competency to teach in the most effective manner.peer-reviewe

The antiplatelet activity of Aspirin

The synthesis of aspirin in the late nineteenth century marked the development of what was to become the most widely used household analgesic in the twentieth century. However, with the increased understanding of the major role of platelets in vascular occlusion over the last ten years, the importance of aspirin as an antiplatelet drug and, consequently, its applications in reducing the risks of thrombotic vascular events, have received major attention.peer-reviewe

Hypertension

Hypertension is a rapidly moving clinical field with frequent developments in new pharmacologic agents and management strategies. Perhaps more importantly, there have been substantial improvements in our understanding of how best to use the drugs available to us. In this article, I will review some of the more important advances in our understanding of hypertension over the past two years, specifically by reviewing six important trials, one survey and two sets of guidelines, all published between January 2002 and June 2004.peer-reviewe

Tuberculosis in Malta : a case for sputum induction

Sputum induction is a procedure used to help patients expectorate samples of sputum for laboratory analysis. It is a simple, safe and standardised procedure which may avoid the use of more invasive and potentially harmful interventions such as fibreoptic bronchoscopy. This article gives an overview of the uses in particular categories of patients, arguments for and against the procedure, and some local data.peer-reviewe

Spectral graph theory : from practice to theory

Graph theory is the area of mathematics that studies networks, or graphs. It arose from the need to analyse many diverse network-like structures like road networks, molecules, the Internet, social networks and electrical networks. In spectral graph theory, which is a branch of graph theory, matrices are constructed from such graphs and analysed from the point of view of their so-called eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The first practical need for studying graph eigenvalues was in quantum chemistry in the thirties, forties and fifties, specifically to describe the Hückel molecular orbital theory for unsaturated conjugated hydrocarbons. This study led to the field which nowadays is called chemical graph theory. A few years later, during the late fifties and sixties, graph eigenvalues also proved to be important in physics, particularly in the solution of the membrane vibration problem via the discrete approximation of the membrane as a graph. This paper delves into the journey of how the practical needs of quantum chemistry and vibrating membranes compelled the creation of the more abstract spectral graph theory. Important, yet basic, mathematical results stemming from spectral graph theory shall be mentioned in this paper. Later, areas of study that make full use of these mathematical results, thus benefitting greatly from spectral graph theory, shall be described. These fields of study include the P versus NP problem in the field of computational complexity, Internet search, network centrality measures and control theory.peer-reviewe

Management of migraine

Migraine is a complex neurovascular disease characterised by episodic attacks of severe headache accompanied by autonomic and neurological symptoms. Two types of migraine have been identified: (1) common migraine, or migraine without aura, occurring in about 70% of migraine patients (migraineurs); (2) classic migraine, or migraine with aura. In the latter case, aura symptoms are usually manifested as visual hallucinations such as flashing lights, zig-zag lines or blind spots, although sensory and motor dysfunction may also occasionally occur.peer-reviewe

War and peace in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Tribal conflicts, raids and vengeance were the raison d'etre of pagan Arab Bedouin life. However others preferred 'milk' than 'blood'. These themes are well depicted in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. This paper seeks to explain the motives of the Bedouins' battles as illustrated in their oral poetry together with peace as the theme.peer-reviewe

Current approaches to research in sociology of education

Students who attempt to tackle issues in Sociology of Education are often confused by the divergent, sometimes conflicting, research approaches adopted by exponents of this emerging discipline. This paper explains that the debate among sociologists about which form of systematic study constitutes the legitimate scientific method of tackling sociological problems has diminished in intensity. In line with Dave (1972) and Nisbet (1980) it suggests that traditional positions on whether the positivistic, or the interpretative, or the phenomenological approach, among others, is the only approach, have become less categorical. It expands on Lacey's view that the tension that exists in modern sociology between the theoretical models is one of emphasis rather than exclusion and replacement (1977, p. 17) The paper further suggests that it is acceptable to apply an investigative strategy which incorporates aspects of different approaches if these are the most suitable to a particular enquiry.peer-reviewe