Introduction: new directions in energy demand research

Meeting the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels demands rapid reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing energy demand has a central role in achieving this goal, but existing policy initiatives have been largely incremental in terms of the technological and behavioural changes they encourage. Against this background, this book develops a sociotechnical approach to the challenge of reducing energy demand and illustrates this with a number of empirical case studies from the United Kingdom. In doing so, it explores the emergence, diffusion and impact of low-energy innovations. This chapter introduces the main themes of the book, including explorations of the processes and mechanisms through which different types of innovations become (or fail to become) established, the identification of the role of different groups, assessments of the resulting impacts on energy demand and other social goals, and the development of recommendations for both encouraging the diffusion of such innovations and maximising their long-term impact

The birth and life of the Pan African Thoracic Society Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical and Operations Research (PATS MECOR) program: celebrating 15 years

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Imagining sustainable energy and mobility transitions: valence, temporality, and radicalism in 38 visions of a low-carbon future

Based on an extensive synthesis of semi-structured interviews, media content analysis, and reviews, this article conducts a qualitative meta-analysis of more than 560 sources of evidence to identify 38 visions associated with seven different low-carbon innovations – automated mobility, electric vehicles, smart meters, nuclear power, shale gas, hydrogen, and the fossil fuel divestment movement – playing a key role in current deliberations about mobility or low-carbon energy supply and use. From this material, it analyzes such visions based on rhetorical features such as common problems and functions, storylines, discursive struggles, and rhetorical effectiveness. It also analyzes visions based on typologies or degrees of valence (utopian vs. dystopian), temporality (proximal vs. distant), and radicalism (incremental vs. transformative). The article is motivated by the premise that tackling climate change via low-carbon energy systems (and practices) is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century, and that effective decarbonization will require not only new energy technologies, but also new ways of understanding language, visions, and discursive politics surrounding emerging innovations and transitions

Eating, heating or taking the bus? Lived experiences at the intersection of energy and transport poverty

Experiences of poverty can manifest in multiple aspects of everyday life, often in interlinking ways. One example is ‘double energy vulnerability’, where a household faces both energy poverty and transport poverty simultaneously. This can result in trade-offs, where prioritising one essential need (e.g., transport) makes accessing another impossible (e.g., heating). Such decisions are not easily made, and they can have distinct spatio-temporal characteristics. They can vary between space and time and across different household members, and result in stark inter- as well as intra-household differences. People with socio-demographic and contextual vulnerabilities are particularly at risk of experiencing double energy vulnerability. Based on 59 household interviews across the four nations of the United Kingdom, we provide novel, multi-nation empirical evidence on the lived experiences of double energy vulnerability, drawing on our themes; ‘being locked into infrastructure’, ‘facing high costs and low incomes’, ‘choosing between energy and transport’, and ‘missing out’. A cross-national lived-experiences approach sheds light on double energy vulnerability as a relational, contingent and ongoing phenomena, attending to everyday experiences and capacities. We provide suggestions for further research, such as further study of double energy vulnerability amongst refugees and migrants. We also highlight that the study of lived experiences can aid the recognition of how different forms of poverty intersect and how they need to be taken into account in the design of Net Zero policies

The birth and life of the Pan African Thoracic Society Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical and Operations Research (PATS MECOR) program: celebrating 15 years

ORIGINS OF PAN AFRICAN THORACIC SOCIETY (PATS) The PATS began at the prompting of several past presidents of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) who pointed out that Africa had a huge burden of respiratory disease, mostly undescribed, with few respiratory physicians and no representation at the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS). PATS began as a virtual society at a time when that was unusual, with a website and a journal – the African Journal of Respiratory Medicine which has now been replaced by the Journal of the PATS. It was evident very early that this was not enough – the engine rooms of Africa, namely, the bright talented young physicians in each country, had to be mobilized to describe the burden of disease, find research solutions, and advocate for change and implementation. All African regions needed to come together to make a difference, by studying and working together

Passive immunisation of convalescent human anti-Zika plasma protects against challenge with New World Zika virus in cynomolgus macaques.

Zika virus (ZIKV) causes neurological complications in susceptible individuals, highlighted in the recent South American epidemic. Natural ZIKV infection elicits host responses capable of preventing subsequent re-infection, raising expectations for effective vaccination. Defining protective immune correlates will inform viral intervention strategies, particularly vaccine development. Non-human primate (NHP) species are susceptible to ZIKV and represent models for vaccine development. The protective efficacy of a human anti-ZIKV convalescent plasma pool (16/320-14) developed as a candidate reference material for a WHO International Standard was evaluated in macaques. Convalescent plasma administered to four cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) intra-peritoneally 24 hrs prior to sub-cutaneous challenge with 103 pfu ZIKVPRVABC59 protected against detectable infection, with absence of detectable ZIKV RNA in blood and lymphoid tissues. Passively immunised anti-ZIKV immunoglobulin administered prior to time of challenge remained present only at very low levels 42 days post-challenge. Absence of de novo antibody responses in passively immunised macaques indicate sterilising immunity compared with naïve challenge controls that exhibited active ZIKV-specific IgM and IgG responses post-challenge. Demonstration that the presence of convalescent anti-ZIKV at levels of 400 IU/mL neutralising antibody protects against virus challenge provides a scientific framework for development of anti-ZIKV vaccines and facilitates regulatory approval