ABSTRACT
Introduction Academic dishonesty threatens the environs of medical education, wherein medical graduates are expected to exhibit professional honesty. Despite the efforts of institutions and governing bodies, the implementation of an environment of academic integrity is a challenge. We hypothesized that what medical students perceive as academic dishonesty might be different from the prevalent understanding of academic dishonesty among the teaching fraternity. This exploratory study was done to identify and explore in depth what constitutes cheating in the eyes of a medical student. Methods This qualitative study was planned as a semi-structured interview among undergraduate medical students in the second year of study (n=25). The dimensions studied were the individual perceptions of what constitutes cheating, self-reported responses with underlying reasoning to hypothetical academic cheating scenarios, and responses on instances of self-experienced or self-observed instances of academic dishonesty. Results The responses indicate the ambiguous interpretation of academic honesty by students and four chief themes of the interpretation of dishonesty, based on student understanding. Our results identify core areas, such as the need for a clear and unambiguous institutional academic integrity policy, an environment of academic honesty, and strict enforcement of penalties for breach of ethical conduct, that need to be addressed to tackle the menace of academic dishonesty. Conclusion Themes derived from our study describe student factors, including trivialization of academic integrity, that lead to academic dishonesty. Advocacy for academic honesty in educational institutions must address these factors to enforce institutional standards.
ABSTRACT
Two dimensional (2D) NMR and molecular dynamics simulations have been used to determine the three dimensional (3D) structure of a hairpin DNA, d-CTA-GAGGATCC-TUTT-GGATCCT (22mer; abbreviated as U2-hairpin), which has uracil at the second position from the 5' end of the tetraloop. The(1)H resonances of this hairpin have been assigned almost completely. NMR restrained molecular dynamics and energy minimization procedures have been used to describe the 3D structure of U2-hairpin. This study establishes that the stem of the hairpin adopts a right-handed B-DNA conformation, while the T(12)and T(15)nucleotides stack upon 3' and 5' ends of the stem, respectively. Further, T(14)stacks upon both T(12)and T(15). Though U(13)partially stacks upon T(14), no stacking interaction is observed between U(13)and T(12). All the individual nucleotide bases belonging to the stem and T(12)and T(15)of the loop adopt ' anti ' conformation with respect to their sugar moiety, while the U(13)and T(14)of the loop are in ' syn ' conformation. The turning phosphate in the loop is located between T(13)and T(14). This study and a concurrent NMR structural study on yet another hairpin DNA d-CTAGAGGAATAA-TTTU-GGATCCT (22mer; abbreviated as U4-hairpin), with uracil at the fourth position from the 5' end of the tetraloop throw light upon various interactions which have been reported between Escherichia coli uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) and uracil containing DNA. The epsilon of T(12)and alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon and zeta of U(13)and gamma of T(14), which partially influence the local conformation of U(13)in U2-hairpin are all locked in ' trans ' conformation. Such stretched out backbone conformation in the vicinity of U(13)could be the reason as to why the U2-hairpin is found to be the poor substrate for its interaction with UDG compared to the other substrates in which the uracil is at first, third and fourth positions of the tetraloop from its 5' end, as reported earlier by Vinay and Varshney. This study shows that UDG actively promotes the flipping of uracil from a stacked conformation and rules out the possibility of UDG recognizing the flipped out uracil bases.
