Altered thermal regimes associated with climate change are impacting significantly on the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the Earth’s natural ecosystems, with important implications for the biology of aquatic organisms. As well as impacting the biology of individual species, changing thermal regimes have the capacity to mediate ecological interactions between species, and the potential for climate change to impact host–parasite interactions in aquatic ecosystems is now well recognized. Predicting what will happen to the prevalence and intensity of infection of parasites with multiple hosts in their life cycles is especially challenging because the addition of each additional host dramatically increases the potential permutations of response. In this short review, we provide an overview of the diverse routes by which altered thermal regimes can impact the dynamics of multi-host parasite life cycles in aquatic ecosystems. In addition, we examine how experimentally amenable host–parasite systems are being used to determine the consequences of changing environmental temperatures for these different types of mechanism. Our overarching aim is to examine the potential of changing thermal regimes to alter not only the biology of hosts and parasites, but also the biology of interactions between hosts and parasites. We also hope to illustrate the complexity that is likely to be involved in making predictions about the dynamics of infection by multi-host parasites in thermally challenged aquatic ecosystems.

Accreditation systems in several developing countries are similar to those in the developed world. Data suggest the trend towards instituting quality assurance mechanisms in medical education is spreading to some developing countries, although generalization to other areas of the world is difficult to ascertain.

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Concerned with intellectual theft, we decided to examine intellectual theft among undergraduates at a higher education institution. The aim of this study was to compare the act and frequency of plagiarism, particularly between programmes, gender, year of study and academic performance. This study adopted the quantitative approach, using a questionnaire to gather the students' background information and the general practice of intellectual theft. It was administered to 120 students. For the purpose of this study, we categorised the programmes into Technical programme (TP) and Non-Technical programme (NTP). This study found that the act of plagarising was prevalent in both categories of the programmes, however, more prevalent among the technical programme students than the non-technical programme students. We also found that the act of intellectual theft was more evident among the males than female, junior than seniors and average academic achievers than high achievers. A comparison between programmes found significant differences in the act of plagiarism among gender, particularly among the female NTP students, among the Year 3 students and among the high achievers. No significant difference was found in relation to the frequency of plagiarism between programmes and gender, but among the students who sometimes plagiarise by level of study and by academic achievements.

To date, plagiarism continues to be a widespread problem in higher education. Deemed to be endemic, researchers continue to examine various aspects of plagiarism, including students' perception, practices, attitudes and reasons for plagiarism, in addressing this growing concern. Most studies, however, tend to examine these aspects independently. This paper reports on a study that examined both the students' attitudes and reasons for plagiarism, particularly among the Technical and Non-Technical programme students. A questionnaire was administered to 120 students, i.e. 60 each from each programme to gather quantitative data on their attitudes and reasons for plagiarising. The study found that students in both groups hold negative attitudes towards plagiarism. They deem it synonymous to cheating in final examinations and advocate severe penalty to offenders who submit free downloaded or purchased articles. However, they disagree on being penalised for permitting their peers to plagiarise their work. Significant differences were found for the latter two attitudes between the groups. Albeit, disfavouring plagiarism, the two most cited reasons that compel students in both groups to plagiarise are their self-inadequacy in writing skills and poor time management, followed by the temptation and opportunity to plagiarise from the internet and to cope with the institutional load. With an understanding of these variables, all parties will be able to make more informed decisions in addressing this malpractice and upholding academic integrity.