Financing Digital Public Infrastructure Approaches to Sustain Digital Transformation

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) can support better people-centered outcomes, but for the emerging field to live up to its promise, there must be a clear path to sustainable financing. Mounting evidence shows that DPI systems can transform the delivery of services across the public and private sectors by enabling identity verification, digital payments, data sharing, and other essential, society-wide functions. Global leaders across many sectors are assessing how to pursue DPI collaboratively, safely, and effectively, given the long-term implications for the health and vibrancy of societies. This report maps existing DPI funding models and examines the challenges underlying sustainable financing approaches. It concludes with recommendations for improved collaboration across the ecosystem to develop and scale open DPI. Most importantly, financing architecture that aligns the resources and incentives of key governmental, private-sector, philanthropic, and multilateral organizations can be a driving force for inclusive digital transformation

The use of straw mulch as a strategy to prevent extreme soil erosion rates in citrus orchard. A Rainfall simulation approach

Not only the Sahel (Haregeweyn et al., 2013), the deforested land (Borelli et al., 2013) the chinese Plateau are affected by intense soil erosion rates (Zhao et al., 2013). Soil erosion affect agriculture land (Cerdà et al., 2009), and citrus orchards are being seeing as one of the crops with the highest erosion rates due to the managements that avoid the catch crops, weeds or litter. Example of the research carried out on citrus orchards is found in the Mediterranean (Cerdà and Jurgensen, 2008; 2009; Cerdà et al., 2009a; 2009b; Cerdà et al., 2011; 2012) and in China (Wu et al., 1997; Xu et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2011; Lü et al., 2011; Xu et al., 2012), and they confirm the non sustainable soil losses measured. The land management in citrus plantations results in soil degradation too (Lu et al., 1997; Lü et al., 2012; Xu et al., 2012). The use of cover crops to reduce the soil losses (Lavigne et al., 2012; Le Bellec et al., 2012) and the use of residues such as dried citrus peel has been found successful. There is a need to find new plants or residues to protect the soils on citrus orchards. Agriculture produces a high amount of residues. The pruning can contribute with a valuable source of nutrients and a good soil protection. The leaves of the trees, and some parts of the plants, once harvest can contribute to reduce the soil losses. Due to the mechanization of the agriculture, and the reduction of the draft animals (mainly horses, mules, donkeys and oxen) the straw is being a residue instead of a resource. The Valencia region is the largest producer of citrus in Europe, and the largest exporter in the world. This citrus production region is located in the eastern cost of Spain where we can find the rice production area of the l’Albufera Lagoon paddy fields, the third largest production region in Spain. This means, a rice production region surrounded by the huge citrus production region. There, the rice straw is not used in the paddy fields after harvesting and the straw is being as a residue that damages the air quality when burnt, the water quality due to the decomposition and the methane production, and is not accepted in the field by the farmers. This is a new problem as few years ago the rice straw was use for animal feeding. Many attempts were developed in the last decade to remove and use the straw to avoid fires and water pollution (Iranzo et al., 2004; Silvestre et al., 2013). Our goal is to test if a residue such as the rice straw can be transformed as a resource: soil erosion control. Straw has been seen as a very efficient to reduce the water losses in agriculture land (García Moreno et al., 2013), the soil losses in fire affected land (Robichaud et al., 2013a; 2013b; Fernandez and Vega, 2014), and soil properties (García Orenes et al., 2009; 2010; Jordán et al., 2010; García Orenes 2012). Rainfall simulations under 55 mm h-1 rainfall intensity during one hour on 0,25 m2 plots were carried out on plots paired plots: bare and covered with straw. The plots covered with straw had different straw mulch cover: from 10 to 100 % cover and from 0,005 g m2 to 300 g m2. The results show a positive effect of the straw cover that show an exponential relation between the straw cover and weight with the sediment yield. Acknowledgements The research projects GL2008-02879/BTE, LEDDRA 243857 and RECARE supported this research

SETD7 regulates the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells

The successful use of specialized cells in regenerative medicine requires an optimization in the differentiation protocols that are currently used. Understanding the molecular events that take place during the differentiation of human pluripotent cells is essential for the improvement of these protocols and the generation of high quality differentiated cells. In an effort to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern differentiation we identify the methyltransferase SETD7 as highly induced during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and differentially expressed between induced pluripotent cells and somatic cells. Knock-down of SETD7 causes differentiation defects in human embryonic stem cell including delay in both the silencing of pluripotency-related genes and the induction of differentiation genes. We show that SETD7 methylates linker histone H1 in vitro causing conformational changes in H1. These effects correlate with a decrease in the recruitment of H1 to the pluripotency genes OCT4 and NANOG during differentiation in the SETD7 knockdown that might affect the proper silencing of these genes during differentiation.M.J.B. was partially supported by the Ramón y Cajal program of MEC (RYC-2007-01510). B.S. was a recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from MEC (BES-2008-009567). C.M. was supported by PT13/0001/0041 PRB2-ISCIII-SGEFI- FEDER-PE I+D+i 2013-2016. J.C. was partially supported by Fundación CELLEX. This work was partially supported by grant RD12/0019/0034 TERCEL-RETICS-ISCIII-MINECO-FEDER, grant SAF2009-08588 from MICINN to M.J.B and grant BFU2014-52237 to A.J.Peer Reviewe

Effects of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer in health care quality improvements. A second systematic review

Ana Leonor Rivera Chavarría es docente en la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Costa RicaBackground: Traditionally, EB-CPGs have been believed to mainly improve the quality and consistency of health care, but this claim must be conclusively proven. We used the Donabedian three-dimensional model (structure, process, and patient outcomes) to assess improvements in the quality of medical care derived from implementing EB-CPGs. This study corresponds to the second systematic review carried out as a series of studies on different clinical issues that aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the EB-CPG for improving the quality of care. Methods: We followed the methods described by the Cochrane Handbook and presented a descriptive analysis because of the high heterogeneity found across the included studies. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, and EBSCO Host databases, as well as the grey literature, between 1990 and April 2021. No language restrictions were applied. Only randomised clinical trials (RCTs) were selected. Results: Of the total of 364 interventions included in the eleven RCTs evaluated, 11 (3%) were related to healthcare structure, 51 (14%) to the healthcare delivery process and 302 (83%) to patient outcomes. Regarding the impact of using the EB-CPGs, in 303 interventions (83%), there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups. In 4 interventions (1%), the result favoured the control and intervention groups in 57 of the interventions (16%). Conclusions: Our study showed that EB-CPGs slightly enhanced the quality of health care in the three dimensions described by Donabedian. Future RCTs should improve their design and methodological rigour by considering the certainty of the evidence supporting the EB-CPGs recommendations. In that context, broader analyses could be performed, having more concise hypotheses for further research. Registration: PROSPERO CRD42020205594UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Medicina::Escuela de Medicin

The shrubland as soil and water conservation agent in mediterranean-type ecosystems : The Sierra Enguera study contribution

John Thornes found that shrubland was a key factor in the control of soil erosion on Mediterranean hillsides. His research inspired many scientists to investigate the impact of shrubland changes and management in semi-arid ecosystems. An example of Professor Thornes’ scientific influence is the experiment carried out on the El Teularet–Sierra de Enguera experimental station since 2003 which showed erosion rates on a 30-year-old abandoned orchard with dense vegetation cover of Ulex parviflorus and Cistus albidus and a 20-year-old fire-affected maquia with Quercus coccifera, Pistacia lentiscus and Juniperus oxycedrus. The measurements demonstrated that the shrubs help create more stable soil temperature and to lower soil moisture content, whilst soil properties under the shrub cover showed a higher organic matter content, lower bulk density and higher soil water repellency. The two plots created have subplots of 1, 2, 4 and 16 m2, in which soil and water losses were measured. Those plots produced negligible runoff and sediment transportation during the very wet year of 2004 (715 mm rainfall). Rainfall simulation experiments at 55 mm h−1 during 1 h showed that even under 10-year return period thunderstorms, the patchy distribution of the shrubs is a key factor in controlling soil and water losses as they reduce the connectivity of the surface wash. These measurements confirm John Thornes’ idea that shrubland is an effective vegetation cover to control soil and water losses in Mediterranean ecosystems

Residues modified by SETD7 in H1.0 and H1.4 found by mass spectrometry.

<p>Residues modified by SETD7 in H1.0 and H1.4 found by mass spectrometry.</p

The SETD7 knock-down causes defects in the silencing of pluripotency genes.

<p>(A) Western blot showing the levels of OCT4 at different days during the in vitro differentiation of ES[4] transduced with a non target shRNA (shSCR) and a shRNA that targets SETD7 (shSETD7) (B) Immunolocalization of SOX2 (green) and OCT4 (red) expression at day 4 and day 15 of in vitro differentiation of ES[4] transduced with a non target shRNA (shSCR) and a shRNA that targets SETD7 (shSETD7) (C) Quantification of the percentage of embryoid bodies negative or positive for OCT4 staining at day 4 and day 7 of differentiation of cells treated with vehicle (DMSO), 1μM or 5μM PFI-2. (D) Immunolocalization of OCT4 (red) in embryoid bodies at day 4 and day 7 of in vitro differentiation of ES[4] treated with vehicle (DMSO) or 5μM PFI-2.</p

The SETD7 knock-down affects the cell cycle profile of differentiating cells.

<p>(A) Cell cycle profile of undifferentiated and after 15 days of <i>in vitro</i> differentiation of ES[4] transduced with a non target shRNA (shSCR) and a shRNA that targets SETD7 (shSETD7). (B) Mean of the percentage of cells in each phase of the cell cycle in three independent differentiation experiments. *Differences in the percentage of cells in S-phase between shSETD7 and shSCR in differentiated cells was found significant at a p-value<0.05.</p