108 research outputs found
RTB Innovation Catalog - Method and Work Plan
This document describes the method for building RTB’s Innovation Catalog. We start by defining the
objectives of this research, the problems and the challenges we are addressing.
Most CGIAR innovations are documented in a way that does not favor their wider use. This has limited
the contribution of CGIAR innovations to the developmental challenges that CGIAR investors demand.
The goal of this research is to contribute to the CGIAR innovation management system that will enable
the deployment of innovations faster, at a larger scale, and a reduced cost, having a more significant
impact where they are needed the most.
The purpose of the Innovation Catalog is to document RTB innovations, in a way that is easily
accessible, and understandable. The Catalog will be user-friendly (see definition in Section 6.2).
Technical terms, indicators, and categories will be standardized. The type of language and depth of
information will be tailored to different types of users.
The RTB Innovation Catalog will be developed using a tailor-made Scaling Readiness framework.
Individual RTB innovations are the building blocks of the Innovation Catalog. Contextual information
and connection to innovation packages will be documented for a few of the innovations
The emergence of gravity as a retro-causal post-inflation macro-quantum-coherent holographic vacuum Higgs-Goldstone field
We present a model for the origin of gravity, dark energy and dark matter:
Dark energy and dark matter are residual pre-inflation false vacuum random zero
point energy (w=-1) of large-scale negative, and short-scale positive pressure,
respectively, corresponding to the "zero point" (incoherent) component of a
superfluid (supersolid) ground state. Gravity, in contrast, arises from the 2nd
order topological defects in the post-inflation virtual "condensate" (coherent)
component. We predict, as a consequence, that the LHC will never detect exotic
real on-mass-shell particles that can explain dark matter. We also point out
that the future holographic dark energy de Sitter horizon is a total absorber
(in the sense of retro-causal Wheeler-Feynman action-at-a-distance
electrodynamics) because it is an infinite redshift surface for static
detectors. Therefore, the advanced Hawking-Unruh thermal radiation from the
future de Sitter horizon is a candidate for the negative pressure dark vacuum
energy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. To appear in Proc. DICE2008 From Quantum
Mechanics through Complexity to Spacetime: the role of emergent dynamical
structures. Castello Pasquini/Castiglioncello (Tuscany), September 22-26,
200
A Review of Digital Data Resources on Innovation and Impact
The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB) has commissioned a study to develop
an innovation catalog to present its innovation portfolio to the international scientific and
development community and to support ongoing efforts to establish an innovation management
architecture in CGIAR. The study team has been tasked with designing an application model that can
inform the innovation and impact management architecture of CGIAR and test it within the RTB
innovation portfolio leading to an RTB Innovation Catalog that can be used as an example for future
work.
Guided by the recently finalized work methodology, the interdisciplinary research and technical team
members have reviewed existing digital resources, i.e. web portals and databases that present the
social innovations across multiple sectors such as agriculture, food, environment, health, and energy
to the international research-for-development and impact investment communities. This document
describes the methods and the findings of this review. It shows the profiles, features, and data
provided by the digital resources; compares and contrasts them by assessing their relevance,
effectiveness, efficiency, functionality, and formats. It shows that, although there are a few features
that most existing digital resourcesshare, i.e. being hosted by international organizations, having easy to-navigate interfaces, and providing limited filtering and search options, there are significant
differences between them. The digital resources focus on different subsets of innovation-related
information and provide different levels of granularity. The review concludes that to present its
innovations across the broad spectrum of digital resources, the RTB Program and CGIAR need to use
rich metadata sets with a few different interface and export options to be customized based on the
profile of individual, essential digital resources of interest
Recommended from our members
Descriptors for Documenting Innovations and their Contributions to Impact
The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB) has been one of the leading CGIAR
research programs in designing, developing, and using complexity-sensitive tools and practices that
inform innovation management decisions in CGIAR. In addition to Scaling Readiness1
, which has been
adopted by One CGIAR2
, several CGIAR centers3
, and CGIAR research programs4
, RTB has developed
Scaling Fund5 as an instrument to nurture the innovations that have a significant potential for Scaling.
RTB has also developed many other innovations that address innovation portfolio management, such
as research impact forecasts6
and gender7
.
Building on its experience in developing innovation management tools and practices, RTB has recently
commissioned an interdisciplinary team, the RTB Catalog Team, to develop prototypes of a novel,
systematic, innovation documentation framework and an online portal featuring key innovations
generated by the program since 2015. The prototypes will be essential tools for establishing a new
innovation management architecture that better serves the needs of One CGIAR by systematizing the
existing CGIAR digital resources such as CLARISA, MEL, MARLO, and complementing them with an
application tested using the diverse innovations in the RTB portfolio.
In June 2021, two milestones were completed for developing the prototypes: the Methodology that
describes the conceptual model and design principles and the Review of Digital Data Resources on
Innovation and Impact. This document presents the third major milestone for developing the
prototypes: Descriptors for Documenting Innovations and their Contributions to Impact. Following an
introduction and description of the method, this paper presents the profiles and descriptions of each
of the shortlisted innovation and impact-related descriptors, selected from a longer list of 255
identified by the RTB Innovation Catalog Team from 19 global digital resources
Star Architecture as Socio-Material Assemblage
Taking inspiration from new materialism and assemblage, the chapter deals with star architects and iconic buildings as socio-material network effects that do not pre-exist action, but are enacted in practice, in the materiality of design crafting and city building. Star architects are here conceptualized as part of broader assemblages of actors and practices ‘making star architecture’ a reality, and the buildings they design are considered not just as unique and iconic objects, but dis-articulated as complex crafts mobilizing skills, technologies, materials, and forms of knowledge not necessarily ascribable to architecture. Overcoming narrow criticism focusing on the symbolic order of icons as unique creations and alienated repetitions of capitalist development, the chapter’s main aim is to widen the scope of critique by bridging culture and economy, symbolism and practicality, making star architecture available to a broad, fragmented arena of (potential) critics, unevenly equipped with critical tools and differentiated experiences
Suppression of Plant Resistance Gene-Based Immunity by a Fungal Effector
The innate immune system of plants consists of two layers. The first layer, called basal resistance, governs recognition of conserved microbial molecules and fends off most attempted invasions. The second layer is based on Resistance (R) genes that mediate recognition of effectors, proteins secreted by pathogens to suppress or evade basal resistance. Here, we show that a plant-pathogenic fungus secretes an effector that can both trigger and suppress R gene-based immunity. This effector, Avr1, is secreted by the xylem-invading fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici (Fol) and triggers disease resistance when the host plant, tomato, carries a matching R gene (I or I-1). At the same time, Avr1 suppresses the protective effect of two other R genes, I-2 and I-3. Based on these observations, we tentatively reconstruct the evolutionary arms race that has taken place between tomato R genes and effectors of Fol. This molecular analysis has revealed a hitherto unpredicted strategy for durable disease control based on resistance gene combinations
Differences in access to Emergency Paediatric Intensive Care and care during Transport (DEPICT): study protocol for a mixed methods study
Introduction Following centralisation of UK paediatric intensive care, specialist retrieval teams were established who travel to general hospitals to stabilise and transport sick children to regional paediatric intensive care units (PICUs). There is national variation among these PICU retrieval teams (PICRTs) in terms of how quickly they reach the patient’s bedside and in the care provided during transport. The impact of these variations on clinical outcomes and the experience of stakeholders (patients, families and healthcare staff) is however unknown. The primary objective of this study is to address this evidence gap. Methods and analysis This mixed-methods project involves the following: (1) retrospective analysis of linked data from routine clinical audits (2014–2016) to assess the impact of service variations on 30-day mortality and other secondary clinical outcomes; (2) a prospective questionnaire study conducted at 24 PICUs and 9 associated PICRTs in England and Wales over a 12-month period in 2018 to collect experience data from parents of transported children as well as qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of patients, parents and staff to assess the impact of service variations on patient/family experience; (3) health economic evaluation analysing transport service costs (and other associated costs) against lives saved and longer term measurements of quality of life at 12 months in transported children and (4) mathematical modelling evaluating the costs and potential impact of different service configurations. A final work stream involves a series of stakeholder workshops to synthesise study findings and generate recommendations. Ethics and dissemination The study has been reviewed and approved by the Health Research Authority, ref: 2 18 569. Study results will be actively disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, social media, print and broadcast media, the internet and stakeholder workshops
Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial
Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome
- …