Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a group of bacteria that causes gastrointestinal illness and occasionally causes large foodborne outbreaks. It represents a major public health concern due to its ability to cause severe illness which can sometimes be fatal. This study was undertaken as part of a rapid investigation into a national foodborne outbreak of STEC O145. On 22 May 2024, United Kingdom (UK) public health agencies and laboratories identified an increase in stool specimens submissions and patients testing positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Whole genome sequencing (WGS) identified serotype O145:H28 stx2a/eae belonging to the same five single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) single linkage cluster as the causative agent. By 3 July 2024, 288 cases had been linked to the cluster. Most cases were adults (87%) and females (57%), 49% were hospitalized with a further 10% attending emergency care. Descriptive epidemiology and analytical studies were conducted which identified consumption of nationally distributed pre-packed sandwiches as a common food exposure. The implicated food business operators voluntarily recalled ready-to-eat sandwiches and wraps containing lettuce on 14 June 2024.

In this paper, we conduct an in-depth review of and commentary on two frameworks for international comparative work focused on education systems and skill formation – specifically, welfare regime and production regime approaches. We focus on how tertiary education is understood to function relationally within a national policy repertoire and explore the interplay between education and economic systems. Whereas the welfare regime literature illuminates why some regimes are conducive to human capital production and create more equitable educational and labour market opportunities, the production regime literature focuses on the ways that actors such as government, educational institutions, and unions optimise skill formation. These two theoretical perspectives offer both rival and complementary explanations of varying patterns in public investment, differentiation in education systems, and participation rates in tertiary education across countries. Our analytical account provides useful insights for understanding different national education policies and framing future research, including informing these perspectives with the more recent theoretical contributions of the social investment approach. In relation to changing conceptions of the knowledge economy, education, skill development, and the nature of employment, these two theoretical perspectives continue to provide useful conceptual lenses to examine the education/skill /employment nexus.

Based on a sample of 89 aggressive clinic-referred children, aged between 9 and 11 years, a longitudinal study of 1-year duration was conducted to examine (a) whether the children's perception of control and support of their mothers' to them predicted their hostile attribution of intent and hostile response selection, and (b) whether these hostile biased social cognitions mediated the relationships between their perceived maternal behaviours and their aggression. Participants completed a questionnaire covering both the perceived maternal control and support. One year later, their hostile attribution of intent and response selection, and aggression, were measured. Results showed that perceived maternal control and perceived maternal support were associated positively and negatively, respectively, with both the social cognition measures. Also, the social cognition measures mediated the relationships of the perceived maternal measures with aggression. The findings are discussed in terms of how children's hostile biased relational schemas and scripts, developed from negative parenting and insecure attachment, favour more hostile social cognitions, and how these in turn mediate children's current hostile biased social behaviours.