Suchergebnisse

Governments need to be accountable and transparent for their public spending decisions in order to prevent losses through fraud and corruption as well as to build healthy and sustainable economies. Open data act as a major instrument in this respect by enabling public administrations, service providers, data journalists, transparency activists, and regular citizens to identify fraud or uncompetitive markets through connecting related, heterogeneous, and originally unconnected data sources. To this end, in this article, we present our experience in the case of Slovenia, where we successfully applied a number of anomaly detection techniques over a set of open disparate data sets integrated into a Knowledge Graph, including procurement, company, and spending data, through a linked data-based platform called TheyBuyForYou. We then report a set of guidelines for publishing high quality procurement data for better procurement analytics, since our experience has shown us that there are significant shortcomings in the quality of data being published. This article contributes to enhanced policy making by guiding public administrations at local, regional, and national levels on how to improve the way they publish and use procurement-related data; developing technologies and solutions that buyers in the public and private sectors can use and adapt to become more transparent, make markets more competitive, and reduce waste and fraud; and providing a Knowledge Graph, which is a data resource that is designed to facilitate integration across multiple data silos by showing how it adds context and domain knowledge to machine-learning-based procurement analytic. ; This research was funded by European Commission Horizon 2020, grant number 78024 ; publishedVersion

Olea pollen concentrations have been studied in relation to the typology of air masses, pollen grain sources and marine nature during advections in a coastal enclave in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Since Spain is the world's leading olive producer, and olive growing extends throughout the Mediterranean basin, this location is ideal for the study of long-distance transport events (LTD) during the main pollen season (MPS). The air masses were classified using the calculation of 48-h back trajectories at 250, 500 and 750 m above ground level using the HYSPLIT model. After that, the frequency of LDT events from Africa and Europe was found to be 8.7% of the MPS days. In contrast, regional air masses were found in 38.6% of the MPS days. This was reflected in pollen concentrations, with significantly higher concentrations (p-value <0.05) on days with regional air masses compared to days with European air masses. Regarding the source areas, the importance of nearby sources with intense olive cultivation was confirmed (i.e., Andalusia). This proximity was relevant beyond the attenuations observed when the advections acquired a marine nature as the air mass back trajectories moved over the sea (p-value <0.001). The review of air mass typologies, source areas and pollen concentrations resulted in establishing peak dates and the detection of LDT associated with these peak dates. Distortions in the typical path of each air mass explained alterations in pollen concentrations on consecutive days. The recirculation and loops of the air mass back trajectories varied the pollen load that every type of air mass could originally contain. ; Funding: This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government through the projects SICAAP-CPI RTI2018-096392-B-C21 and SICAAP-CPI RTI2018-096392-B-C22. The Interministerial Committee of Science and Technology, which financed the projects BOS2000-0563-C02-02, BOS2003-06329-C02-02, BOS 2006-15103; the Seneca Foundation of the Region of Murcia, which financed the project 08849/PI/08. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Ms. Paula García López, technician at the Aerobiological Network of the Region of Murcia, funded by the Spanish State Research Agency, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (code: PTA2017-13571-I).

In order to develop a validated model to teach key conceptsand values on the right to information and transparency to young people, the "IRIS" program was designed during the 2017-2018 academic year, which was applied as part of the "Philosophy" course of the First Year of High School students of six Secondary Education Institutes of five municipalities of the Region of Murcia. Its objectives were: a) Prepare and teach a Learning Unit on Transparency and Right to Information, in accordance with the standards of the Philosophy curriculum of the Region of Murcia. b) Identify initial perceptions of the students of the Region regarding concepts as Transparency and Open Government. c) Design a Contest on dissertations and videos on transparency and good governance, aimed at the students participating in the project. e) Evaluate results and identify recommendations to improve the program. After the evaluation we concluded that objectives had been achieved, and have proposed some recommendations to generalize and consolidate the acquisition of this citizen competence: a specific training plan for teachers, the inclusion of this standard on transparency in the autonomic curriculum, and that is necessary to develop a set of materials, texts and practical tasks to make easier the application to the teaching staff.

El alcaudón dorsirrojo presenta un progresivo declive en la península Ibérica por lo que es interesante conocer las causas de este proceso. Analizamos en este estudio los factores determinantes de su distribución, abundancia y éxito reproductor en Bizkaia (Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco). Para ello, muestreamos entre 1 y 4 veces 675 cuadrículas de 1x1 km en la primavera de 2021. Además, cuantificamos la presencia de ganado en las cuadrículas muestreadas, la densidad local de ganado y de explotaciones ganaderas, la cobertura de campiña (prados y setos), la huella humana y la altitud, que utilizamos como un subrogado del clima. Los análisis preliminares (modelos lineales generalizados, GLM) sugirieron que la presencia de ganado, la densidad de explotaciones y la cobertura de campiña se asociaban positivamente con la aparición de los alcaudones. Se observó también un fuerte efecto del número de visitas por lo que se estudió la probabilidad de detección de la especie mediante una modelización jerárquica de la ocupación. Este nuevo análisis desveló una probabilidad de detección de 0,68 por visita (error estándar= 0,134), además del fuerte efecto de la cobertura de campiña, presencia de ganado y densidad de explotaciones en la probabilidad de ocupación del alcaudón dorsirrojo. Estos resultados nos permitieron calcular la presencia real de la especie en 236 cuadrículas (rango=169-311) de las 675 muestreadas. Considerando que se prospectó el 46,4% del hábitat potencialmente adecuado para la especie en el área de estudio, se estimó que la población del alcaudón dorsirrojo en Bizkaia rondaba las 517 parejas reproductoras (rango=373-679), una población mucho menor que la predicha por otras aproximaciones previas. El número de pollos volantones observados en 128 parejas reproductoras osciló entre 0 y 4 (media 1,6 pollos por pareja), con un 73 % de las parejas con uno o más pollos (un porcentaje similar al éxito reproductivo de otras poblaciones ibéricas). En este caso, el número de pollos solo se asoció significativamente a la cobertura de campiña. Los resultados de este estudio sugieren que la distribución de la especie parece estar fuertemente constreñida por la disponibilidad de campiña y la actividad del ganado, responsable de la creación de pastizales y prados heterogéneos en los que puede encontrar sustratos de caza.

Compounds with specific cytotoxic activity in senescent cells, or senolytics, support the causal involvement of senescence in aging and offer therapeutic interventions. Here we report the identification of Cardiac Glycosides (CGs) as a family of compounds with senolytic activity. CGs, by targeting the Na+/K+ATPase pump, cause a disbalanced electrochemical gradient within the cell causing depolarization and acidification. Senescent cells present a slightly depolarized plasma membrane and higher concentrations of H+, making them more susceptible to the action of CGs. These vulnerabilities can be exploited for therapeutic purposes as evidenced by the in vivo eradication of tumors xenografted in mice after treatment with the combination of a senogenic and a senolytic drug. The senolytic effect of CGs is also effective in the elimination of senescence-induced lung fibrosis. This experimental approach allows the identification of compounds with senolytic activity that could potentially be used to develop effective treatments against age-related diseases. ; We thank Matthias Drosten, Alejo Efeyan and Sean Morrison for plasmids. F.T-M. is a postdoctoral fellow from CONACYT (cvu 268632); P.P. is a predoctoral fellow from Xunta de Galicia; M.C. is a "Miguel Servet II" investigator (CPII16/00015). P.P.-R. receives support from a program by the Deputacion de Coruna (BINV-CS/2019). Work in the laboratory of M.C. is funded by grant RTI2018-095818-B-100 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). P.J.F.-M. is funded by the IMDEA Food Institute, the Ramon Areces Foundation, (CIVP18A3891), and a Ramon y Cajal Award (MICINN) (RYC-2017-22335). M.P.I. is funded by Talento Modalidad-1 Program Grant, Madrid Regional Government (#2018-T1/BIO-11262). F.P. was funded by a Long Term EMBO Fellowship (ALTF-358-2017) and F.H-G. was funded by the PhD4MD Programme of the IRB, Hospital Clinic and IDIBAPS. Work in the laboratory of M.S. was funded by the IRB and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (SAF2013-48256-R), the European Research Council (ERC-2014-AdG/669622), and "laCaixa" Foundation. ; Sí

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was first reported in March 2020. Over the subsequent months, the potential for wastewater surveillance to contribute to COVID-19 mitigation programmes has been the focus of intense national and international research activities, gaining the attention of policy makers and the public. As a new application of an established methodology, focused collaboration between public health practitioners and wastewater researchers is essential to developing a common understanding on how, when and where the outputs of this non-invasive community-level approach can deliver actionable outcomes for public health authorities. Within this context, the NORMAN SCORE "SARS-CoV-2 in sewage" database provides a platform for rapid, open access data sharing, validated by the uploading of 276 data sets from nine countries to-date. Through offering direct access to underpinning meta-data sets (and describing its use in data interpretation), the NORMAN SCORE database is a resource for the development of recommendations on minimum data requirements for wastewater pathogen surveillance. It is also a tool to engage public health practitioners in discussions on use of the approach, providing an opportunity to build mutual understanding of the demand and supply for data and facilitate the translation of this promising research application into public health practice. ; All authors wish to thank the WWTP operators for providing samples. LL, AH and MV would like to acknowledge the VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) DRIZZLE – Centre for Stormwater Management (Grant no. 2016-05176) and the technical expertise provided by the Stormwater&Sewers network, Nireas-International Water Research Center of the University of Cyprus would like to thank the Sewerage Board of Limassol-Amathus (SBLA), the Sewerage Board of Nicosia (SBN) and the Paralimni Sewerage Board (PSB) for the provision of influent samples, for the purpose of performing this work. MPD wishes to thank COVIDBENS Inv04020 financed by EDAR Bens S.A, A Coruña, FYL wishes to thank Z Cetecioglu Gurol (KTH) and P Haglund (Umeå University) and TM would like to acknowledge financial support from APVV-19-0250, PP-COVID-20-0019, ASS8 and VIR-SCAN. Authors from the Univ Jaume LB, FH, MB and RdL acknowledge the financial support from Dirección General del Agua, Generalitat Valenciana, to develop the project "Covid_Wastewater", as well as the help E. Santateresa and N. Zamorano from FACSA, for the invaluable support in performing this work. RdL. was funded through a Beatriz Galindo Fellowship of the Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, Spanish Government (BEAGAL18/00042). TM wishes to thank the generous support of the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure for the project "Strategic research in the field of SMART monitoring, treatment and preventive protection against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) ", Project no. 313011ASS8 (co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund) and the project VIR-SCAN - Wastewater monitoring data as an early warning tool to alert COVID-19 in the population (EOSCsecretariat.eu has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Program call H2020-INFRAEOSC- 05-2018-2019, grant Agreement number 831644). SK (IBISS) acknowledges the financial support from Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia grant No 451-03-9/2021-14/ 200007.