Emerging Themes and Future Directions of Multi-Sector Nexus Research and Implementation

Water, energy, and food are all essential components of human societies. Collectively, their respective resource systems are interconnected in what is called the “nexus”. There is growing consensus that a holistic understanding of the interdependencies and trade-offs between these sectors and other related systems is critical to solving many of the global challenges they present. While nexus research has grown exponentially since 2011, there is no unified, overarching approach, and the implementation of concepts remains hampered by the lack of clear case studies. Here, we present the results of a collaborative thought exercise involving 75 scientists and summarize them into 10 key recommendations covering: the most critical nexus issues of today, emerging themes, and where future efforts should be directed. We conclude that a nexus community of practice to promote open communication among researchers, to maintain and share standardized datasets, and to develop applied case studies will facilitate transparent comparisons of models and encourage the adoption of nexus approaches in practice

Chlamydia screening in general practice: views of professionals on the key elements of a successful programme.

OBJECTIVES: Chlamydia trachomatis is a common sexually transmitted infection with serious consequences if not treated. Chlamydia screening pilots in England have established feasibility in primary care but there are currently no examples of good practice in general practice. The objectives of the study were to understand issues of using general practice as a setting for chlamydia screening and to explore ways of implementing a successful screening strategy. METHODS: Based on findings of a literature review, a semi-structured schedule was constructed to interview a purposive sample of policymakers, consultants in sexual and reproductive health and primary care professionals. A thematic framework was used for qualitative analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-two themes were identified and were ranked in order of word count. The topic that generated most discussion was heterogeneity of knowledge, attitudes and skills in general practice. When broken down by professional group, this topic ranked the highest for practice nurses and consultants in sexual health; general practitioners (GPs) and the chlamydia screening coordinator spoke most about financial incentives while the public health consultant spoke most about access. CONCLUSIONS: Most believed screening can and should be done and general practice can offer better population coverage. It needs to have little impact on clinicians' workload, for example, by using urine tests and self-taken vaginal swabs. Financial recognition needs to reflect the administrative costs and the impact on reception staff, but this and the innovative tests might add to the cost of the screening programme. Incentives have to be handled sensitively to reduce inequity among GPs and other services offering screening

Silicon subwavelength photonics : from fundamentals to applications in optical interconnects, spectroscopy and biological sensing

Recent advances in silicon photonics research at the National Research Council of Canada will be reviewed. A new type of microphotonic waveguides will be presented, exploiting the subwavelength grating (SWG) effect. The SWG technique [1] allows for engineering of the refractive index of a waveguide core over a range as broad as 1.5–3.5 simply by lithographic patterning using only two materials, for example Si and SiO2. Several examples of subwavelength grating waveguides and components implemented in silicon-on-insulator and operating at telecom wavelengths will be presented. These include waveguide crossings with minimal loss (<0.03 dB) and negligible crosstalk, fibre-chip edge couplers with a loss <1 dB, apodised surface grating couplers, high-performance MMI couplers, polarization rotators, athermal waveguides and planar waveguide multiplexers. Emerging applications in spectroscopy and biological sensing will be discussed

Interference of natural mouse hepatitis virus infection with cytokine production and susceptibility to Trypanosoma cruzi

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infection can have a pronounced impact on several investigation areas. Reports on natural MHV outbreaks are rare and most studies have been conducted by deliberately infecting mice with MHV laboratory strains that cause moderate to severe disturbances to the immune system. We have investigated the effects of a natural acute outbreak of MHV in our otherwise specific-pathogen-free (SPF) inbred mouse colonies, and of enzootic chronic MHV infection on cytokine production and resistance to the intracellular pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi. We found that BALB/c and/or C57BL/6 SPF mice that had been injected with T. cruzi blood trypomastigotes from recently MHV-contaminated (MHV+) mice developed significantly higher parasite blood counts, accelerated death, and showed higher IL-10 production by spleen cells than their counterparts whose T. cruzi inoculum was derived from MHV-negative (MHV−) donors. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production by MHV+ and MHV− mice was not significantly different. In contrast, T. cruzi infection of chronically MHV-infected mice did not result in major changes in the course of infection when compared with that observed in mice from MHV− colonies, although a trend to higher parasitaemia levels was observed in BALB/c MHV+ mice. Nevertheless, both BALB/c and C57BL/6 T. cruzi-infected MHV+ mice had diminished IFN-γ production to parasite-antigen stimulation in comparison with similarly infected MHV− mice. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) production levels by spleen cells did not differ between chronic MHV+ and MHV− mice, but IFN-γ neutralization by monoclonal antibody treatment of anti-CD3-stimulated spleen cell cultures showed higher levels of IL-10 synthesis in MHV+ BALB/c mice