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This paper reports on one important aspect of the preliminary findings from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project, Academic integrity standards: Aligning policy and practice in Australian universities (Bretag et al., 2010) Our project aims to identify approaches to the complex issues of academic integrity, and then to build on these approaches to develop exemplars for adaptation across the higher education sector. Based on analysis of publicly available online academic integrity policies at each of the 39 Australian universities, we have identified five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy. These have been grouped under the headings, Access, Approach, Responsibility, Detail and Support, with no element given priority over another. In this paper we compare the five core elements identified in our research with best practice guidelines recommended by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. We conclude that an exemplar policy needs to provide an upfront, consistent message, reiterated throughout the entire policy, which indicates a systemic and sustained commitment to the values of academic integrity and the practices that ensure it. Whereas the HEA created two discrete resources, the key aim and challenge of this project will be to develop exemplars that demonstrate a strong alignment between policy and practice.

This report describes the evaluation of a curriculum-integrated programme designed to help students develop an awareness of the nursing literature, the skills to locate and retrieve it, and skills required in its evaluation; in other words'information literacy'. Positive changes in student performance on objective measures of information-literacy skills were revealed as well as a significant increase in the levels of confidence of the student in performing those skills. Students who had undertaken the information-literacy programme ('programme' students) performed better on a range of objective measures of information literacy, as well as reporting higher levels of confidence in these skills, than students who had not participated in the programme ('non-programme' students). Evaluation of this programme provides evidence of the potential usefulness of a curriculum-integrated approach for the development of information-literacy skills within nursing education. With these underlying skills, students will be better equipped to consolidate and extend their key information-literacy skills to include research appreciation and application. These are vital for effective lifelong learning and a prerequisite to evidence-based practice.

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The predisposition of keeshonds (Dutch barge dogs) to an idiopathic epilepsy appears to be determined by a single autosomal recessive gene. The pedigrees of 15 litters which included animals diagnosed as epileptic ('fitters') were compared with those of 34 contemporary, normal animals. The pedigrees of all the fitters traced back, on both the paternal and maternal sides, to a common ancestor. Subsequently, further pedigrees and details of litters were gathered. If both parents of a fitter were heterozygous ('carriers'), the progeny (120 in number) of all known carrier x carrier matings would be expected to have a ratio of three phenotypically normal animals to one fitter, that is, 90:30. The ratio observed (91:29) was not significantly different. The Keeshond Club has published a list from which the identities of carriers can be inferred, with the intention that known carriers should be excluded from breeding. A genetic counselling programme has been in operation since 1989, which is based on advising breeders on the probability that the offspring of proposed matings would be fitters or carriers; advice has been given on 77 proposed matings. The mean probability that the proposed matings would result in carriers has declined significantly, and this is consistent with a decline in the frequency of the gene for this form of epilepsy in the breed.

This study determined if black and white adolescents differed significantly in cancer knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. Using the Health Belief Model, a 97-item questionnaire was developed by the researchers and completed by 573 black and 297 white junior and senior high school students from a large, midwest school district. Chi-square analyses yielded nine significant differences (p less than .01) between blacks and whites on cancer knowledge (etiology, warning signs, and prevention techniques). Further significant differences were found when items comprising the separate Health Belief Model subscales were analyzed. Blacks and whites differed significantly on cues to action (one item), perceived susceptibility (two items), perceived severity (one item), perceived barriers (two items), perceived benefits (three items), and interpersonal relationships (three items). Blacks and whites received cancer information from the same sources, with the exception of books, which was reported more by blacks.

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