We provide an overview of diagnostic stewardship with key concepts that include the diagnostic pathway and the multiple points where interventions can be implemented, strategies for interventions, the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, and key microbiologic diagnostic tests that should be considered for diagnostic stewardship. The document focuses on microbiologic laboratory testing for adult and pediatric patients and is intended for a target audience of healthcare workers involved in diagnostic stewardship interventions and all workers affected by any step of the diagnostic pathway (ie, ordering, collecting, processing, reporting, and interpreting results of a diagnostic test). This document was developed by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Diagnostic Stewardship Taskforce.

Consumers now demand evidence of welfare assurance at all stages of animal production, marketing, transport and slaughter. In response, retailers have increasingly adopted preferred supply chain relationships which preclude sourcing animals via livestock auction markets. One of the criteria dictating this action is a perceived improvement in animal welfare resulting from direct transport from farm to abattoir.

A survey of complete journey structures of 18 393 slaughterweight lambs from farm to abattoir was conducted between April and July 1997. Journeys were characterized in terms of distances travelled, duration and the number of discrete components within a whole journey which comprised: transport; trans-shipping (when animals were transferred from one vehicle to another); multiple pickups from a number of farms; and holding at either assembly points, lairages or auction markets. The results identified that journeys in the livestock distribution system are diverse and range in complexity, irrespective of marketing channel. Journey complexity was found to be positively related to distance travelled.

The study demonstrates that discussions concerning welfare of livestock in transit should consider the journey structure and not just the marketing channel per se. Furthermore, it also shows that changes taking place in the infrastructure of the marketing and meat processing sectors may result in a reduction in animal welfare.

The preferences of broiler and layer strains of fowl for four different intensities of incandescent luminaire (6, 20, 60 and 200 lux; Osram, 60W, pearl) were tested at 2 and 6 weeks of age. With each strain, four replicates of 12 birds were each allowed to move freely between four compartments illuminated continuously at the different intensities for 6 days. The distribution of light intensities among the compartments was changed daily. After 2 days of conditioning, the birds’ location and behaviour were recorded once every 15min over 23h on each of the remaining 4 days. The other hour was devoted to changing light intensities and refilling the feeders and drinkers. Six, mutually exclusive behaviours were defined: resting, perching, feeding, drinking, litter-directed activity and locomotion.

With both strains, most time was spent in the brightest (200 lux) environment at 2 weeks of age. but in the dimmest (6 lux) at 6 weeks. This apparent change in preference was associated only with the two behaviours which took up most time, resting and perching, whereas the highest intensity was consistently preferred for all other behaviours. Older birds thus preferred to be in dim light when they were relatively inactive.

The finding that older birds prefer to spend much of their time in a light environment of < 10 lux intensity, depending on behaviour, is contrary to current recommendations that minimum light intensities for broilers and laying hens should be increased to as much as 20 lux. Some variation in the spatial or temporal distribution of ambient light intensity, to provide both dimly (< 10 lux) and brightly (eg > 50 lux) lit environments, might benefit the welfare of older poultry, although further work is needed to establish their optimal light environment.

As part of surveillance of snail-borne trematodiasis in Knowsley Safari (KS), Prescot, United Kingdom, a collection was made in July 2021 of various planorbid (n = 173) and lymnaeid (n = 218) snails. These were taken from 15 purposely selected freshwater habitats. In the laboratory emergent trematode cercariae, often from single snails, were identified by morphology with a sub-set, of those most accessible, later characterized by cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) DNA barcoding. Two schistosomatid cercariae were of special note in the context of human cercarial dermatitis (HCD), Bilharziella polonica emergent from Planorbarius corneus and Trichobilharzia spp. emergent from Ampullacaena balthica. The former schistosomatid was last reported in the United Kingdom over 50 years ago. From cox1 analyses, the latter likely consisted of two taxa, Trichobilharzia anseri, a first report in the United Kingdom, and a hitherto unnamed genetic lineage having some affiliation with Trichobilharzia longicauda. The chronobiology of emergent cercariae from P. corneus was assessed, with the vertical swimming rate of B. polonica measured. We provide a brief risk appraisal of HCD for public activities typically undertaken within KS educational and recreational programmes.

Decumulation Pathways are proposed to help achieve better retirement outcomes for those with Defined Contribution (DC) pensions. The DC fund is split into two parts, in proportions of the consumer’s choice. Most is allocated to the Pension Fund to provide a lifetime income, while the rest is placed in the Flexible Fund for flexible access and/or to leave as a legacy. The Flexible Fund is invested in flexi-access drawdown. The Pension Fund is invested in a guaranteed annuity, Collective Defined Contribution, or a Pooled Pension Fund which maintains individual DC funds but pools longevity risk between participants. An illustrative standard Decumulation Pathway is intended as a default solution, or can be tailored by the consumer. It uses the Pooled Pension Fund, an automated withdrawal strategy which ensures a lifetime income is provided and one that aims to increase in line with inflation, and a moderate risk investment strategy. The standard approach is evaluated using various metrics, indicating that it has as a strong chance of providing a higher income than could be obtained from an annuity or drawdown, with limited downside risk.

Since the advent of direct-acting antiviral therapy, the elimination of hepatitis c virus (HCV) as a public health concern is now possible. However, identification of those who remain undiagnosed, and re-engagement of those who are diagnosed but remain untreated, will be essential to achieve this. We examined the extent of HCV infection among individuals undergoing liver function tests (LFT) in primary care. Residual biochemistry samples for 6007 patients, who had venous blood collected in primary care for LFT between July 2016 and January 2017, were tested for HCV antibody. Through data linkage to national and sentinel HCV surveillance databases, we also examined the extent of diagnosed infection, attendance at specialist service and HCV treatment for those found to be HCV positive. Overall HCV antibody prevalence was 4.0% and highest for males (5.0%), those aged 37–50 years (6.2%), and with an ALT result of 70 or greater (7.1%). Of those testing positive, 68.9% had been diagnosed with HCV in the past, 84.9% before the study period. Most (92.5%) of those diagnosed with chronic infection had attended specialist liver services and while 67.7% had ever been treated only 38% had successfully cleared infection. More than half of HCV-positive people required assessment, and potentially treatment, for their HCV infection but were not engaged with services during the study period. LFT in primary care are a key opportunity to diagnose, re-diagnose and re-engage patients with HCV infection and highlight the importance of GPs in efforts to eliminate HCV as a public health concern.

We present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 photometric and grism observations of the candidate ultra-high-redshift ( $z>7$ ) radio galaxy, GLEAM J0917–0012. This radio source was selected due to the curvature in its 70–230 MHz, low-frequency Murchison Widefield Array radio spectrum and its faintness in K-band. Follow-up spectroscopic observations of this source with the Jansky Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimetre Array were inconclusive as to its redshift. Our F105W and F0986M imaging observations detect the host of GLEAM J0917–0012 and a companion galaxy, $\sim$ one arcsec away. The G102 grism observations reveal a single weak line in each of the spectra of the host and the companion. To help identify these lines we utilised several photometric redshift techniques including template fitting to the grism spectra, fitting the ultraviolet (UV)-to-radio photometry with galaxy templates plus a synchrotron model, fitting of the UV-to-near-infrared photometry with EAZY, and fitting the radio data alone with RAiSERed. For the host of GLEAM J0917–0012 we find a line at $1.12\,\mu$ m and the UV-to-radio spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting favours solutions at $z\sim 2$ or $z\sim 8$ . While this fitting shows a weak preference for the lower redshift solution, the models from the higher redshift solution are more consistent with the strength of the spectral line. The redshift constraint by RAiSERed of $>6.5$ also supports the interpretation that this line could be Lyman $-\alpha$ at $z=8.21$ ; however EAZY favours the $z\sim 2$ solution. We discuss the implications of both solutions. For the companion galaxy we find a line at $0.98\,\mu$ m and the SED fitting favours solutions at $z<3$ implying that the line could be the [OII] $\lambda3727$ doublet at $z=1.63$ (although the EAZY solution is $z\sim 2.6\pm 0.5$ ). Further observations are still required to unambiguously determine the redshift of this intriguing candidate ultra-high-redshift radio galaxy.

Seed retention, and ultimately seed shatter, are extremely important for the efficacy of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) and are likely influenced by various agroecological and environmental factors. Field studies investigated seed-shattering phenology of 22 weed species across three soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]-producing regions in the United States. We further evaluated the potential drivers of seed shatter in terms of weather conditions, growing degree days, and plant biomass. Based on the results, weather conditions had no consistent impact on weed seed shatter. However, there was a positive correlation between individual weed plant biomass and delayed weed seed–shattering rates during harvest. This work demonstrates that HWSC can potentially reduce weed seedbank inputs of plants that have escaped early-season management practices and retained seed through harvest. However, smaller individuals of plants within the same population that shatter seed before harvest pose a risk of escaping early-season management and HWSC.

We present an overview of the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey, a Large Program on the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. MAGPI is designed to study the physical drivers of galaxy transformation at a lookback time of 3–4 Gyr, during which the dynamical, morphological, and chemical properties of galaxies are predicted to evolve significantly. The survey uses new medium-deep adaptive optics aided Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations of fields selected from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, providing a wealth of publicly available ancillary multi-wavelength data. With these data, MAGPI will map the kinematic and chemical properties of stars and ionised gas for a sample of 60 massive ( ${>}7 \times 10^{10} {\mathrm{M}}_\odot$ ) central galaxies at $0.25 < z <0.35$ in a representative range of environments (isolated, groups and clusters). The spatial resolution delivered by MUSE with Ground Layer Adaptive Optics ( $0.6-0.8$ arcsec FWHM) will facilitate a direct comparison with Integral Field Spectroscopy surveys of the nearby Universe, such as SAMI and MaNGA, and at higher redshifts using adaptive optics, for example, SINS. In addition to the primary (central) galaxy sample, MAGPI will deliver resolved and unresolved spectra for as many as 150 satellite galaxies at $0.25 < z <0.35$ , as well as hundreds of emission-line sources at $z < 6$ . This paper outlines the science goals, survey design, and observing strategy of MAGPI. We also present a first look at the MAGPI data, and the theoretical framework to which MAGPI data will be compared using the current generation of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations including EAGLE, Magneticum, HORIZON-AGN, and Illustris-TNG. Our results show that cosmological hydrodynamical simulations make discrepant predictions in the spatially resolved properties of galaxies at $z\approx 0.3$ . MAGPI observations will place new constraints and allow for tangible improvements in galaxy formation theory.

Healthcare personnel with severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection were interviewed to describe activities and practices in and outside the workplace. Among 2,625 healthcare personnel, workplace-related factors that may increase infection risk were more common among nursing-home personnel than hospital personnel, whereas selected factors outside the workplace were more common among hospital personnel.