Ahead of the Curve: Insights for the International NGO of the Future

International NGOs have a unique and important role to play in addressing today's complex global challenges. But few of them are living up to their full potential. With support from the Hewlett Foundation, FSG researched how the most innovative INGOs are adapting to the disruptions in the global development sector and embracing four approaches to create greater impact

Public & Private Spillovers, Location and the Productivity of Pharmaceutical Research

While there is widespread agreement among economists and management scholars that knowledge spillovers exist and have important economic consequences, researchers know substantially less about the "micro mechanisms" of spillovers -- about the degree to which they are geographically localized, for example, or about the degree to which spillovers from public institutions are qualitatively different from those from privately owned firms (Jaffe, 1986; Krugman, 1991; Jaffe et al., 1993; Porter, 1990). In this paper we make use of the geographic distribution of the research activities of major global pharmaceutical firms to explore the extent to which knowledge spills over from proximate private and public institutions. Our data and empirical approach allow us to make advances on two dimensions. First, by focusing on spillovers in research productivity (as opposed to manufacturing productivity), we build closely on the theoretical literature on spillovers that suggests that knowledge externalities are likely to have the most immediate impact on the production of ideas (Romer, 1986; Aghion & Howitt, 1997). Second, our data allow us to distinguish spillovers from public research from spillovers from private, or competitively funded research, and to more deeply explore the role that institutions and geographic proximity play in driving knowledge spillovers.

Understanding China's Currency Manipulation

Since 2005, China’s monetary regime has set the value of the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) rather than market forces. In this issue of The Takeaway three Bush School students use research from one of their classes to enter the debate about whether China can be labeled a currency manipulator. Their analysis examines real exchange rates looking for evidence that China is undervaluing its currency to artificially inflate its net exports—to the benefit of US consumers but at the expense of the US trade deficit

The ISCIP Analyst, Volume X, Issue 7

This repository item contains a single issue of The ISCIP Analyst, an analytical review journal published from 1996 to 2010 by the Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy

Isoacceptor Specific Characterization of tRNA Aminoacylation and Misacylation \u3cem\u3ein vivo\u3c/em\u3e

Amino acid misincorporation during protein synthesis occurs due to misacylation of tRNAs or defects in decoding at the ribosome. While misincorporation of amino acids has been observed in a variety of contexts, less work has been done to directly assess the extent to which specific tRNAs are misacylated in vivo, and the identity of the misacylated amino acid moiety. Here we describe tRNA isoacceptor specific aminoacylation profiling (ISAP), a method to identify and quantify the amino acids attached to a tRNA species in vivo. ISAP allows compilation of aminoacylation profiles for specific isoacceptors tRNAs. To demonstrate the efficacy and broad applicability of ISAP, tRNAPhe and tRNATyr species were isolated from total aminoacyl-tRNA extracted from both yeast and Escherichia coli. Isolated aminoacyl-tRNAs were washed until free of detectable unbound amino acid and subsequently deacylated. Free amino acids from the deacylated fraction were then identified and quantified by mass spectrometry. Using ISAP allowed quantification of the effects of quality control on the accumulation of misacylated tRNA species under different growth conditions

Micro Wild Initiative: An Education Through the Rejuvenation and Reclamation of Malden’s Forgotten Urban Spaces

A city’s ability to sustain a flourishing population is linked to multilayered subjective understandings of its cultural identities (Fincher and Jacobs 1998). As we understand it, Malden, Massachusetts is a rapidly densifying urban area distinguished by a near-majority immigrant population and a landscape fractured by vacated spaces (U.S. Census Bureau 2021). It has a rich socioeconomic footing but lacks public resources for its growing family population. Because current green space is inaccessible or otherwise compromised, our project explores ways that the community can transform idle lots, backyards, and urban poché into wilding spaces, agricultural learning spaces, pollinator connectivity corridors, and spaces for other forms of prefigurative activism (Kato 2020). Using an existing residential yard as a case study, we will investigate the limits of a confined urban space’s ability to host this variety of programs and test access for the growing population. We will collaborate with local schools and foundations to develop a curriculum that best complements the current Malden population through a flexible set of identifying factors specific to the community ecology, such as native food production practices, local artist initiatives, and cultural traditions (Rose 2016, 223–249). Our goal for the Micro Urban Discovery Lab, or MUD Lab, is to develop this methodology in the hopes that it could be replicated for the ongoing reactivation of other post-industrialized cities (Drake & Lawson 2014)

The ISCIP Analyst, Volume X, Issue 1

This repository item contains a single issue of The ISCIP Analyst, an analytical review journal published from 1996 to 2010 by the Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy