Warp-speed adaptation to novel hosts after 300 generations of enforced dietary specialisation in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae)

Thank you to Paul Eady for providing C. maculatus to initiate our laboratory population and advice on rearing them. The study was funded by the University of Aberdeen core teaching funds (honours project budget to TP), and by a doctoral training grant to AL from the BBSRC-EastBio doctoral training partnershipPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Evidence for association between familial bipolar risk and ventral striatal volume

Background: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of striatal volumes and bipolar disorder (BD) indicate these traits are heritable and share common genetic architecture, however little independent work has been conducted to help establish this relationship. Methods: Subcortical volumes (mm3) of young, healthy offspring of BD (N= 32) and major depressive disorder (MDD) patients (N= 158) were compared to larger healthy control sample (NRANGE=925–1052) adjusting for potential confounds, using data from the latest release (S1200) of the Human Connectome Project. Based on recent GWAS findings, it was hypothesised that the accumbens and caudate would be smaller in offspring of BD, but not MDD patients. Results: After multiple comparison correction, there was a regional and BD specific relationship in the direction expected (Accumbens: F2,1067=6.244, PFDR-CORRECTED=0.014). Discussion: In line with recent GWAS, there was evidence supporting the hypothesis that reduced striatal volume may be part of the genetic risk for BD, but not MDD. Limitations: It cannot be concluded whether this association was specific to BD or consistent with a broader psychosis phenotype, due to a small sample size for offspring of schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, one cannot rule out potential shared environmental influences of parental BD. Conclusions: The common genetic architecture of BD may confer susceptibility via inherited genetic factors that affect striatal volume. Future work should establish how this relationship relates to specific BD symptomology. This work may also help to dissect clinical heterogeneity and improve diagnosis nosology

Can We Fake Academic Integrity?

In this presentation, Dr Thomas Lancaster will examine how far work on academic integrity can be faked. He will report on some of his ongoing research and experiments, much of which has depended on the widespread availability of large language models, such as ChatGPT, which can generate original text and often combine ideas in a way that appears artificially intelligent, albeit different to how a human would approach a problem. Thomas has developed several case studies of how artificial intelligence and machine learning systems can be used to generate assignment solutions, slides, computer programs, marketing materials and even academic research papers, amongst other areas. Although the ideas behind the generation can be applied to many academic disciplines, Thomas plans to share examples that are most relevant for the academic integrity community. Used as intended, artificial intelligence represents a powerful way to improve the quality of education and to better prepare students for the future. Such use also raises questions surrounding originality and authorship. Join Thomas to discover what is possible and to consider how to future-proof work in the academic integrity field

An Initial Analysis of the Contextual Information Available within Auction Posts on Contract Cheating Agency Websites

The advantages of using contextual information in order to detect contract cheating attempts by students have not yet been fully explored in the academic literature. Contract cheating occurs when a student uses a third party to produce assessed work for them. This paper focuses on contract cheating using agency websites, where an auction type process is used by students to select a contractor to have the assessed work produced for them, often at a financially advantageous price. Currently, the process of finding contract cheating on agency sites is manually intensive, with a detective required to investigate and attribute each cheating attempt. This paper aims to formally identify the context internally and externally available for contract cheating posts on an agency website. The paper is offered as a starting point for academics interested in producing an automated intelligent contextually-aware tool to detect contract cheating

An Observational Analysis of the Range and Extent of Contract Cheating from Online Courses Found on Agency Websites

Although online courses can provide access to higher education through e-learning systems which would not otherwise be available for students, they also pose challenges for academic integrity. Paramount to this is contract cheating, where students have been observed paying other people to complete work for them to complete their online courses. This paper analyses attempts by students at contract cheating using Transtutors.com, which is a billed as a site for homework support. A sample of 174 online assignments found on Transtutors.com are analysed and traced back to 17 online universities. Assignments from online institutions are demonstrated to be a particular problem for contract cheating detectives, since notifying staff at those institutions of attempts by their students to cheat has proved to be difficult or impossible. The paper concludes by looking at the wider issues posed by online contract cheating and the opportunities for automated detection within this field

Shaped nozzles for cryogenic buffer gas beam sources

Cryogenic buffer gas beams are important sources of cold molecules. In this work we explore the use of a converging-diverging nozzle with a buffer-gas beam. We find that, under appropriate circumstances, the use of a nozzle can produce a beam with improved collimation, lower transverse temperatures, and higher fluxes per solid angle

对商业合同作弊产业学科整合的国际化对比

يعد الغش في العقود التجارية, أي مطالبة طرف ثالث بإكمال مهمة مقابل أجر, صناعة متنامية وتطرح مشكلة تحاول المؤسسات الأكاديمية معالجتها على نطاق دولي. يتم تحليل نطاق هذه الصناعة في تسعة مجالات تعليمية وفي أربعة مواقع - أستراليا والمملكة المتحدة وكندا والولايات المتحدة - من خلال عملية جمع البيانات الآلية على إجمالي 4032 عملية بحث على Google وبمساعدة التعلم الآلي. نموذجتدريبهم على تحديد النتائج التي هي مصانع المقال.تم اكتشاف أن 49% من جميع النتائج عبارة عن مصانع مقالات، وأن 3247 منها عبارة عن إعلانات مدفوعة الأجر, على الرغم من مخالفتها لسياسات Google الإعلانية. مجالات الفنون والعلوم الإنسانية والتعليم هي الأكثر عرضة لخطر الاستغلال من قبل هذه الصناعة. وتختتم الوثيقة بالتوصية بأن يواصل المجتمع التعليمي مراقبة نطاق صناعة الغش ودراسة الحلول لمواصلة تعزيز النزاهة الأكاديميةCommercial contract cheating, the act of requesting a third party to complete an assignment for payment, is a growing industry and poses a problem that academic institutions are trying to tackle internationally. The reach of the industry in nine fields of education and across four locations – Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States – are analysed through an automated data-gathering process on a total of 4032 Google searches and with the help of a machine learning model trained to identify which results are essay mills. 49% of all results are found to be essay mills, 3247 of which results are found to be paid advertisements despite this being against Google’s advertising policies. The fields of Arts and Humanities and Education are found to be at the highest risk of further exploitation by the industry. The paper concludes by recommending that the educational community continues to monitor the reach of the contract cheating industry and that it considers solutions to further promote academic integrity.El fraude académico basado en la suplantación, el acto de solicitar a un tercero que complete una actividad a cambio de un pago, es una industria en crecimiento y plantea un serio problema que las instituciones académicas están tratando de abordar a nivel internacional. En el presente trabajo se analiza el alcance de la industria de compra-venta de trabajos académicos en nueve áreas de conocimiento y en cuatro países (Australia, Reino Unido, Canadá y Estados Unidos). El método seguido se basa en un proceso automatizado de recopilación de datos sobre un total de 4032 búsquedas en Google y con la ayuda de un modelo de aprendizaje automático entrenado para identificar qué resultados son portales de compra-venta de trabajos académicos. El 49% de todos los portales analizados ofrece los servicios de elaboración de trabajos académicos, de los cuales 3247 resultados se publicitan a través de anuncios en Google, a pesar de que esto va en contra de las políticas publicitarias del buscador. Se considera que los campos de las artes, las humanidades y la educación corren el mayor riesgo de sufrir una mayor explotación por parte de la industria. El documento concluye recomendando que la comunidad educativa continúe monitoreando el alcance de la industria del fraude académico por suplantación y que considere soluciones para promover aún más la integridad académica.A fraude de contratos comerciais, o ato de pedir a terceiros que realizem um trabalho a troco de pagamento, é uma indústria em crescimento e constitui um problema que as instituições académicas estão a tentar resolver a nível internacional. O alcance da indústria em nove áreas de ensino e em quatro locais – Austrália, Reino Unido, Canadá e Estados Unidos – é analisado através de um processo automatizado de recolha de dados num total de 4032 pesquisas no Google e com a ajuda de um modelo de aprendizagem automática treinado para identificar cujos resultados são “essay mills” (fábricas de ensaios). 49% de todos os resultados são considerados “essay mills”, 3247 dos quais são anúncios pagos, apesar de tal ser contrário às políticas de publicidade do Google. Os domínios das Artes e Humanidades e da Educação são os que correm o maior risco de exploração pelo setor. O documento conclui recomendando que a comunidade educativa continue a monitorizar o alcance da indústria da fraude de contratos e que considere soluções para promover ainda mais a integridade académica.A fraude de contratos comerciais, o ato de pedir a terceiros que realizem um trabalho a troco de pagamento, é uma indústria em crescimento e constitui um problema que as instituições académicas estão a tentar resolver a nível internacional. O alcance da indústria em nove áreas de ensino e em quatro locais – Austrália, Reino Unido, Canadá e Estados Unidos – é analisado através de um processo automatizado de recolha de dados num total de 4032 pesquisas no Google e com a ajuda de um modelo de aprendizagem automática treinado para identificar cujos resultados são “essay mills” (fábricas de ensaios). 49% de todos os resultados são considerados “essay mills”, 3247 dos quais são anúncios pagos, apesar de tal ser contrário às políticas de publicidade do Google. Os domínios das Artes e Humanidades e da Educação são os que correm o maior risco de exploração pelo setor. O documento conclui recomendando que a comunidade educativa continue a monitorizar o alcance da indústria da fraude de contratos e que considere soluções para promover ainda mais a integridade académica.商业合同作弊，这种第三方以换取报酬为目的来完成相应任务的行为，已成为一项不断扩张的产业，也是全世界学术机构需要解决的问题。该研究范围包含了该产业覆盖的九个教育领域和四个国家（澳大利亚、英国、加拿大和美国）。我们对4032次谷歌搜索进行数据自动收集，并在机器学习模型的帮助下分析哪些结果是论文工厂。研究发现49%的搜索结果都是论文工厂，其中3247个为付费广告，这与谷歌广告政策完全相悖。艺术、人文和教育是受该产业影响最深的领域。最后，研究一方面建议教育界对合同作弊保持持续的监视，另一方面也希望能够找到不断促进学术诚信的解决方案

Exchange constants in molecule-based magnets derived from density functional methods

Cu(pyz)(NO3)2 is a quasi-one-dimensional molecular antiferromagnet that exhibits three-dimensional long-range magnetic order below T N = 110 mK due to the presence of weak interchain exchange couplings. Here, we compare calculations of the three largest exchange coupling constants in this system using two techniques based on plane-wave basis-set density functional theory: (i) a dimer fragment approach and (ii) an approach using periodic boundary conditions. The calculated values of the large intrachain coupling constant are found to be consistent with experiment, showing the expected level of variation between different techniques and implementations. However, the interchain coupling constants are found to be smaller than the current limits on the resolution of the calculations. This is due to the computational limitations on convergence of absolute energy differences with respect to basis set, which are larger than the interchain couplings themselves. Our results imply that errors resulting from such limitations are inherent in the evaluation of small exchange constants in systems of this sort, and that many previously reported results should therefore be treated with caution

A simple model for a transverse dune field

We present a simple one-dimensional model to describe the evolution of a transverse dune field. The model is characterized by the distances between the dunes and their heights, which determine the inter-dune sand flux. The model reproduces the observation that the dunes in a given field have approximately all the same height. We find that this result is independent of the initial configuration of the field, as well as of coalescence effects between migrating dunes. The time for the final state to be reached is studied as a function of the relevant phenomenological parameters