Engagement of a community advisory group to shape and build up participation in TB research.

It is essential that communities at risk from TB are involved in TB research. Community advisory groups (CAGs) are one mechanism for involving communities in research and creating platforms for discussions between researchers and community members. We organised a CAG meeting with community members and people with lived experience in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to explore the community's knowledge about TB and their perspectives on different diagnostic tests in Vietnam, a low-middle-income country with a high TB burden. Researchers shared basic information and addressed questions about TB. CAG members commented on preference of TB screening tests, and suggested that chest X-rays and blood tests were more acceptable than sputum tests because of the difficulty in sputum expectoration. In addition, clinical studies that required fewer visits to the hospitals would be preferred, even if this meant a greater reliance on blood sampling.

Il est essentiel que les communautés exposées au risque de TB soient impliquées dans la recherche sur la TB. Les groupes consultatifs communautaires (CAG, pour l'anglais « community advisory groups ¼) constituent un mécanisme permettant d'impliquer les communautés dans la recherche et de créer des plateformes de discussion entre les chercheurs et les membres de la communauté. Nous avons organisé une réunion du CAG avec des membres de la communauté et des personnes ayant une expérience vécue à Ho Chi Minh Ville, au Viêt Nam, afin d'explorer les connaissances de la communauté sur la TB et leurs perspectives sur les différents tests de diagnostic au Viêt Nam, un pays à revenu faible et moyen où la charge de la TB est élevée. Les chercheurs ont partagé des informations de base et répondu à des questions sur la TB. Les membres du CAG ont fait part de leur préférence pour les tests de dépistage de la TB et ont suggéré que les radiographies pulmonaires et les analyses de sang étaient plus acceptables que les tests d'expectoration en raison de la difficulté d'expectoration des crachats. En outre, les études cliniques qui nécessitent moins de visites dans les hôpitaux seraient préférées, même si cela implique une plus grande dépendance à l'égard des prélèvements sanguins.

Ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors through defect engineering: Li-doped ZnO.

We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that cation vacancy can be the origin of ferromagnetism in intrinsic dilute magnetic semiconductors. The vacancies can be controlled to tune the ferromagnetism. Using Li-doped ZnO as an example, we found that while Li itself is nonmagnetic, it generates holes in ZnO, and its presence reduces the formation energy of Zn vacancy, and thereby stabilizes the zinc vacancy. Room temperature ferromagnetism with p type conduction was observed in pulsed laser deposited ZnO:Li films with certain doping concentration and oxygen partial pressure.

Room-temperature ferromagnetism in carbon-doped ZnO.

We report ferromagnetism in carbon-doped ZnO. Our first-principles calculations based on density functional theory predicted a magnetic moment of 2.02 mu(B) per carbon when carbon substitutes oxygen in ZnO, and an ferromagnetic coupling among magnetic moments of the carbon dopants. The theoretical prediction was confirmed experimentally. C-doped ZnO films deposited by pulsed-laser deposition showed ferromagnetism with Curie temperatures higher than 400 K. The measured magnetic moment based on the content of carbide in the films [(1.5-3.0) mu(B) per carbon] was in agreement with the theoretical prediction. The magnetism is due to the Zn-C system in the ZnO environment.