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Every year, I have a section in my syllabus labeled Academic Dishonesty. It's about a paragraph long, intentionally vague, and copy/pasted into every teacher's syllabus in my department to maintain consistency. If this paragraph were a person, I imagine the person wagging a finger from the margins with a sober mouth and eyes staring over reading glasses. I share this policy the first week of school, but otherwise, I only give it a cursory mention before a major essay is due. Most of us English teachers employ plagiarism detection sites to assist us in monitoring student plagiarism; we show students how to cite with MLA or APA and how to create a works cited list, but often, this is where the discussion ends. Historically, educators have responded to plagiarism with punitive measures, which are not only ineffective but also fail to address the root causes of plagiarism and the crucial role educators play in inadvertently perpetuating the process.

Understanding how students develop critical thinking skills can help us create lessons that more explicitly center these skills as the goal of a lesson. Here, Cavanaugh shares her approach to teaching students how to formulate a thesis and follow a step-by-step process of critical analysis.

As the most energetic and powerful objects in the universe, quasars (quasi-stellar objects or QSOs) shine across the electromagnetic spectrum. This radiation originates from the accretion of material around a central massive black hole. A type of active galactic nucleus (AGN), they have served as the focus of much research. In particular, multiple investigations have looked at the Palomar-Green Survey (PG) quasars in various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These regions have included the far-infrared, mid-infrared, optical, ultraviolet (UV), soft X-ray, and hard X-ray. The near-infrared stands out as absent from this range of coverage. Observable quasar spectral properties and correlations among them, as these studies have shown, provide valuable insight into the physical processes and parameters of these objects. This study fills the near-infrared gap in electromagnetic spectrum coverage. Here is presented near-infrared spectroscopy of 87 low-redshift PG quasars using TRIPLESPEC on the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 meter telescope. A composite spectrum of the sample is constructed to illustrate the typical near-infrared properties of quasars, along with composite spectra of subsamples selected by luminosity and Eddington ratio.

Leaf-cutter ants are one of the most important herbivorous insects in the Neotropics, harvesting vast quantities of fresh leaf material. The ants use leaves to cultivate a fungus that serves as the colony's primary food source. This obligate ant-fungus mutualism is one of the few occurrences of farming by non-humans and likely facilitated the formation of their massive colonies. Mature leaf-cutter ant colonies contain millions of workers ranging in size from small garden tenders to large soldiers, resulting in one of the most complex polymorphic caste systems within ants. To begin uncovering the genomic underpinnings of this system, we sequenced the genome of Atta cephalotes using 454 pyrosequencing. One prediction from this ant's lifestyle is that it has undergone genetic modifications that reflect its obligate dependence on the fungus for nutrients. Analysis of this genome sequence is consistent with this hypothesis, as we find evidence for reductions in genes related to nutrient acquisition. These include extensive reductions in serine proteases (which are likely unnecessary because proteolysis is not a primary mechanism used to process nutrients obtained from the fungus), a loss of genes involved in arginine biosynthesis (suggesting that this amino acid is obtained from the fungus), and the absence of a hexamerin (which sequesters amino acids during larval development in other insects). Following recent reports of genome sequences from other insects that engage in symbioses with beneficial microbes, the A. cephalotes genome provides new insights into the symbiotic lifestyle of this ant and advances our understanding of host-microbe symbioses.

Employer Roth Contributions Q. How did the SECURE Act change the law with respect to employer contributions to a 401(k) plan? A. SECURE 2.0 added a provision that permits the sponsor of a 401(k) plan to add a provision permitting plan participants to pay taxes on employer contributions allocated to their account to recharacterize the contributions as designated Roth contributions. Prior to this change in the law, the only way to classify employer contributions as designated Roth contributions was through an in-plan Roth conversion. [...]after a period of years, a participant becomes 100% vested in their account based on the plan's vesting schedule.

If payment of a Roth account is not considered a qualified distribution, any earnings are taxable at personal income tax rates and may be subject to a 1 0% early withdrawal penalty. With the new Roth mandate for high-income taxpayers, it's unclear whether employers will be entitled to continue to do so and if permitted, the tax reporting requirements for doing such. Because there are so many unanswered questions, over 200 employers and several national benefit associations have written to Congress in hopes of delaying the implementation of this new rule. Amy Cavanaugh is an ERISA consultant with Datair Employee Benefit Systems in Westmont, Illinois.

According to the Notice, there are a list of EPCRS provisions that apply to self-correction currently that do not apply to the new more expansive program. [...]under the new program, the plan is not required to have a determination letter to be eligible to self-correct. Amy Cavanaugh is an ERISA consultant with Datair Employee Benefit Systems in Westmont, Illinois.