The tuberculosis (TB) epidemic is fueled by a parallel Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic, but it remains unclear to what extent the HIV epidemic has been a driver for drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Here we assess the impact of HIV co-infection on the emergence of resistance and transmission of Mtb in the largest outbreak of multidrug-resistant TB in South America to date. By combining Bayesian evolutionary analyses and the reconstruction of transmission networks utilizing a new model optimized for TB, we find that HIV co-infection does not significantly affect the transmissibility or the mutation rate of Mtb within patients and was not associated with increased emergence of resistance within patients. Our results indicate that the HIV epidemic serves as an amplifier of TB outbreaks by providing a reservoir of susceptible hosts, but that HIV co-infection is not a direct driver for the emergence and transmission of resistant strains.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16644.001

This work studies the use of polymeric layers of polyethylenimine (PEI) as an interface modification of electron-selective contacts. A clearly enhanced electrical transport with lower contact resistance and significant surface passivation (about 3 ms) can be achieved with PEI modification. As for other conjugated polyelectrolytes, protonated groups of the polymer with their respective counter anions from the solvent create an intense dipole. In this work, part of the amine groups in PEI are protonated by ethanol that behaves as a weak Brønsted acid during the process. A comprehensive characterization including high-resolution compositional analysis confirms the formation of a dipolar interlayer. The PEI modification is able to eliminate completely Fermi-level pinning at metal/semiconductor junctions and shifts the work function of the metallic electrode by more than 1 eV. Induced charge transport between the metal and the semiconductor allows the formation of an electron accumulation region. Consequently, electron-selective contacts are clearly improved with a significant reduction of the specific contact resistance (less than 100 mΩ·cm2). Proof-of-concept dopant-free solar cells on silicon were fabricated to demonstrate the beneficial effect of PEI dipolar interlayers. Full dopant-free solar cells with conversion efficiencies of about 14% could be fabricated on flat wafers. The PEI modification also improved the performance of classical high-efficiency heterojunction solar cells.

Treating cattle with endectocide is a longstanding veterinary practice to reduce the load of endo and ectoparasites, but has the potential to be added to the malaria control and elimination toolbox, as it also kills malaria mosquitoes feeding on the animals. Here we used openly available data to map the areas of the African continent where high malaria prevalence in 2–10 year old children coincides with a high density of cattle and high density of the partly zoophilic malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis . That is, mapping the areas where treating cattle with endectocide would potentially have the greatest impact on reducing malaria transmission. In regions of Africa that are not dominated by rainforest nor desert, the map shows a scatter of areas in several countries where this intervention shows potential, including central and eastern sub-Saharan Africa. The savanna region underneath the Sahel in West Africa appears as the climatic block that would benefit to the largest extent from this intervention, encompassing several countries. West Africa currently presents the highest under-10 malaria prevalence and elimination within the next twenty years cannot be contemplated there with currently available interventions alone, making the use of endectocide treated cattle as a complementary intervention highly appealing.