Plagiarism : student perspectives

Abstract: Context. Universities are often required to lay the ethical foundation of student behaviour and none is more prevalent than the issue of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity although it is not specific to the academic community alone. The aim of this paper is to assess students’ understanding of plagiarism and plagiarism policies, the extent to which they engage in plagiarism practices, and their perceptions on the adequacy of training workshops on writing practices for undergraduate and post-graduate students at a metropolitan university in South Africa. Problem and results. Contradictory evidence was found about the students’ understanding of plagiarism. The prevalence of plagiarism was perceived as low amongst students. The students seemed to understand plagiarism policies as the majority indicated awareness of departmental penalties for student plagiarism and perceived these penalties to be fair. Additionally, the results revealed that different faculty departments placed equal emphasis on plagiarism and that the students perceived the university and the department’s workshops on academic writing and plagiarism to be adequate. Solution. This study highlights that South African universities mirror the global trend of increasing student plagiarism practices and that efforts to improve academic integrity should adopt global best practices while taking into account local characteristics

Measurement of the methodology and effectiveness of the Caltex's training program at Canadian Motors.

Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal (Durban), 2004.Caltex have successfully implemented a training programme (Appendix O) designed in New Zealand where it has shown various levels of success. Based on those successes Caltex want to role out this programme to the rest of the world. The home country is imposing its training schedule on the host country. The Caltex training programme is designed with the premise that one size fits all. Thus the assumption is drawn that the needs and habits of motorists and employees in one country are the same, as in other countries. The reliability of service delivery is often totally within the control of front line employees. When service deteriorates or fails, employees are essential for setting things straight and using their judgement to determine the best course of action for service recovery. The responsiveness of front line employees directly influences customer's perception through their eager willingness to serve customers. The assurance of service quality is highly dependant on the employee's ability to communicate their credibility and to inspire trust and confidence. Empathy to consumers needs shows that the employees are caring and attentive. This attitudinal study is intended to show that the Caltex training program of frontline staff will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction levels. The study aims to show that training and development of frontline staff in a South African context needs more than a general approach but also requires staff assessment and a practical on the job focus

The chromatin modifier Satb1 regulates cell fate through Fgf signalling in the early mouse embryo

The separation of embryonic from extra-embryonic tissues within the inner cell mass to generate the epiblast (EPI), which will form the new organism, from the primitive endoderm (PE), which will form the yolk sac, is a crucial developmental decision. Here, we identify a chromatin modifier, Satb1, with a distinct role in this decision. Satb1 is differentially expressed within 16-cell-stage embryos, with higher expression levels in the inner cell mass progenitor cells. Depleting Satb1 increases the number of EPI cells at the expense of PE. This phenotype can be rescued by simultaneous depletion of both Satb1 and Satb2, owing to their antagonistic effect on the pluripotency regulator Nanog. Consequently, increasing Satb1 expression leads to differentiation into PE and a decrease in EPI, as a result of the modulation of expression of several pluripotency- and differentiation-related genes by Satb1. Finally, we show that Satb1 is a downstream target of the Fgf signalling pathway, linking chromatin modification and Fgf signalling. Together, these results identify a role for Satb1 in the lineage choice between pluripotency and differentiation and further our understanding of early embryonic lineage segregation.We are grateful to the Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship to M.Z.-G. who funded this work (grant 098287)

Comparison of targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods for analysing the lung microbiome

BACKGROUND : Targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro method are two of the many methods that have been used to study the microbiome. The two methods target different regions of the 16 S rRNA gene. The aim of this study was to compare targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods for the ability to discern the microbial composition of the lung microbiome of COPD patients. METHODS : Spontaneously expectorated sputum specimens were collected from COPD patients. Bacterial DNA was extracted and used for targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro method. The analysis was performed using QIIME2 (targeted metagenomics) and IS-Pro software (IS-Pro method). Additionally, a laboratory cost per isolate and time analysis was performed for each method. RESULTS : Statistically significant differences were observed in alpha diversity when targeted metagenomics and ISPro methods’ data were compared using the Shannon diversity measure (p-value = 0.0006) but not with the Simpson diversity measure (p-value = 0.84). Distinct clusters with no overlap between the two technologies were observed for beta diversity. Targeted metagenomics had a lower relative abundance of phyla, such as the Proteobacteria, and higher relative abundance of phyla, such as Firmicutes when compared to the IS-Pro method. Haemophilus, Prevotella and Streptococcus were most prevalent genera across both methods. Targeted metagenomics classified 23 % (144/631) of OTUs to a species level, whereas IS-Pro method classified 86 % (55/64) of OTUs to a species level. However, unclassified OTUs accounted for a higher relative abundance when using the ISPro method (35 %) compared to targeted metagenomics (5 %). The two methods performed comparably in terms of cost and time; however, the IS-Pro method was more user-friendly. CONCLUSIONS : It is essential to understand the value of different methods for characterisation of the microbiome. Targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods showed differences in ability in identifying and characterising OTUs, diversity and microbial composition of the lung microbiome. The IS-Pro method might miss relevant species and could inflate the abundance of Proteobacteria. However, the IS-Pro kit identified most of the important lung pathogens, such as Burkholderia and Pseudomonas and may work in a more diagnostics-orientated setting. Both methods were comparable in terms of cost and time; however, the IS-Pro method was easier to use.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Table S1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for COPD patients in this study. Table S2. Clinical characteristic of patients. Table S3. Comparison of the number of amplicons and operational taxonomic units for each sample for the targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods. Figure S1. Relative abundance of specific phyla in the sputum microbiome of COPD participants as detected by targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods (n = 23). The dots represent the different abundances of each sample, according to the different phyla. Phyla that are depicted with a single line on the y-axis were not present in any samples for that method. Figure S2. Bar plots showing the relative abundance of genera in the sputum microbiome of COPD participants as characterised by targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods (n = 23). The operational taxonomic units that could not be classified at a genus level are indicated as NA on the graph. Figure S3. The distribution of the unclassified operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a class level of the sputum microbiome of COPD participants for targeted metagenomics and IS-Pro methods by phyla. At a class level, all the OTUs from targeted metagenomics could be classified.National Health Laboratory Service of South Africa (NHLS) Research Trusthttps://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.comam2022Internal MedicineMedical Microbiolog

Normalizing single-cell RNA sequencing data: challenges and opportunities

Single-cell transcriptomics is becoming an important component of the molecular biologist's toolkit. A critical step when analyzing data generated using this technology is normalization. However, normalization is typically performed using methods developed for bulk RNA sequencing or even microarray data, and the suitability of these methods for single-cell transcriptomics has not been assessed. We here discuss commonly used normalization approaches and illustrate how these can produce misleading results. Finally, we present alternative approaches and provide recommendations for single-cell RNA sequencing users

Clustering of small - sample single - cell RNA - seq data via feature clustering and selection

We present FeatClust, a software tool for clustering small sample size single-cell RNA-Seq datasets. The FeatClust approach is based on feature selection. It divides features into several groups by performing agglomerative hierarchical clustering and then iteratively clustering the samples and removing features belonging to groups with the least variance across samples. The optimal number of feature groups is selected based on silhouette analysis on the clustered data, i.e., selecting the clustering with the highest average silhouette coefficient. FeatClust also allows one to visually choose the number of clusters if it is not known, by generating silhouette plot for a chosen number of groupings of the dataset. We cluster five small sample single-cell RNA-seq datasets and use the adjusted rand index metric to compare the results with other clustering packages. The results are promising and show the effectiveness of FeatClust on small sample size datasets

Critical care admission of South African (SA) surgical patients: Results of the SA Surgical Outcomes Study

Background. Appropriate critical care admissions are an important component of surgical care. However, there are few data describing postoperative critical care admission in resource-limited low- and middle-income countries.Objective. To describe the demographics, organ failures, organ support and outcomes of non-cardiac surgical patients admitted to critical care units in South Africa (SA).Methods. The SA Surgical Outcomes Study (SASOS) was a 7-day national, multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study of all patients ≥16 years of age undergoing inpatient non-cardiac surgery between 19 and 26 May 2014 at 50 government-funded hospitals. All patients admitted to critical care units during this study were included for analysis.Results. Of the 3 927 SASOS patients, 255 (6.5%) were admitted to critical care units; of these admissions, 144 (56.5%) were planned, and 111 (43.5%) unplanned. The incidence of confirmed or strongly suspected infection at the time of admission was 35.4%, with a significantly higher incidence in unplanned admissions (49.1 v. 24.8%, p<0.001). Unplanned admission cases were more frequently hypovolaemic, had septic shock, and required significantly more inotropic, ventilatory and renal support in the first 48 hours after admission. Overall mortality was 22.4%, with unplanned admissions having a significantly longer critical care length of stay and overall mortality (33.3 v. 13.9%, p<0.001).Conclusion. The outcome of patients admitted to public sector critical care units in SA is strongly associated with unplanned admissions. Adequate ‘high care-dependency units’ for postoperative care of elective surgical patients could potentially decrease the burden on critical care resources in SA by 23%. This study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02141867)