The antimicrobial use (AU) option within the National Healthcare Safety Network summarizes antimicrobial prescribing data as a standardized antimicrobial administration ratio (SAAR). A hospital’s antimicrobial stewardship program found that greater involvement of an infectious disease physician in prospective audit and feedback procedures was associated with reductions in SAAR values across multiple antimicrobial categories.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:721–723

Recent observations of rapidly rotating stars have revealed the presence of regular patterns in their pulsation spectra. This has raised the question as to their physical origin, and, in particular, whether they can be explained by an asymptotic frequency formula for low-degree acoustic modes, as recently discovered through numerical calculations and theoretical considerations. In this context, a key question is whether compositional/density gradients can adversely affect such patterns to the point of hindering their identification. To answer this question, we calculate frequency spectra using two-dimensional ESTER stellar models. These models use a multi-domain spectral approach, allowing us to easily insert a compositional discontinuity while retaining a high numerical accuracy. We analyse the effects of such discontinuities on both the frequencies and eigenfunctions of pulsation modes in the asymptotic regime. We find that although there is more scatter around the asymptotic frequency formula, the semi-large frequency separation can still be clearly identified in a spectrum of low-degree acoustic modes.

Classical Cepheids form one of the foundations of modern cosmology and the extragalactic distance scale; however, cosmic microwave background observations measure cosmological parameters and indirectly the Hubble Constant, H0, to unparalleled precision. The coming decade will provide opportunities to measure H0 to 2% uncertainty thanks to the Gaia satellite, JWST, ELTs and other telescopes using Cepheids and other standard candles. In this work, we discuss the upcoming role for variable stars and asteroseismology in calibrating the distance scale and measuring H0 and what problems exist in understanding these stars that will feed back on these measurements.

Many early-type stars have been measured with high angular velocities. In such stars, mode identification is difficult as the effects of fast and differential rotation are not well known. Using fundamental parameters measured by interferometry, the ESTER structure code and the TOP oscillation code, we investigate the oscillation spectrum of α Ophiuchi, for which observations by the MOST satellite found 57 oscillations frequencies. Results do not show a clear identification of the modes and highlight the difficulties of asteroseismology for such stars with a very complex oscillation spectrum.

Recently, Reese et al. (2008), Lignières & Georgeot (2008) and Lignières & Georgeot (2009) showed that the frequencies of low-degree acoustic modes in rapidly rotating stars, also known as “island modes”, follow an asymptotic formula, the coefficients of which can be deduced from ray dynamics. We investigate how this asymptotic behaviour is affected by μ gradients by comparing pulsation spectra from models with and without such a discontinuity.