Modeling Decentralized Organizational Change in Honeybee Societies

Multi-agent organizations in dynamic environments, need to have the ability to adapt to environmental changes to ensure a continuation of proper functioning. Such adaptations can be made through a centralized decision process or come from the individuals within the organization. In the domain of social insects, such as honeybees and wasps, organizations are known to adapt in a decentralized fashion to environmental changes. An organizational model for decentralized organizational change is presented that can aid in analyzing and designing such organizations. The model is specified by dynamic properties at different aggregation levels. At the lowest level such properties characterize the behavior of individual roles, which can be related to higher level properties that express important elements such as survival of an organization. A honeybee colony is used as a case study

Application of Raman Microspectroscopic and Raman imaging techniques for cell biological studies

Raman spectroscopy is being used to study biological molecules for some three decades now. Thanks to continuing advances in instrumentation more and more applications have become feasible in which molecules are studied in situ, and this has enabled Raman spectroscopy to enter the realms of biomedicine and cell biology [1-5].\ud Here we will describe some of the recent work carried out in our laboratory, concerning studies of human white blood cells and further instrumentational developments

Analysis of Meeting Protocols by Formalisation, Simulation and Verification

Organizations depend on regular meetings to carry out their everyday tasks. When carried out successfully, meetings offer a common medium for participants to exchange ideas and make decisions. However, many meetings suffer from unfocused discussions or irrelevant dialogues. To study meetings in detail, we first formalize general properties of meetings and a generic meeting protocol to specify how roles in a meeting should interact to realize these properties. This generic protocol is used as a starting point to study real-life meetings. Next, an example meeting is simulated using the generic meeting protocol. The general properties are formally verified in the simulation trace. Next, these properties are also verified formally against empirical data of a real meeting in the same context. A comparison of the two traces reveals that a real meeting is more robust since when exceptions happen and the rules of the protocol are violated, these exceptions are handled effectively. Given this observation, a more refined protocol is specified that includes exception-handling strategies. Based on this refined protocol a meeting is simulated that closely resembles the real meeting. This protocol is then validated against another set of data from another real meeting. By iteratively adding exception handling rules, the protocol is enhanced to handle a variety of situations successfully. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006

Do mature innovation platforms make a difference in agricultural research for development? a meta-analysis of case studies

Innovation Platforms (IPs) have become a popular vehicle in agricultural research for development (AR4D). The IP promise is that integrating scientific and local knowledge results in innovations that can have impact at scale. Many studies have uncovered how IPs work in various countries, value chains and themes. The conclusion is clear: IPs generate enthusiasm and can bring together stakeholders to effectively address specific problems and achieve ‘local’ impact. However, few studies focus on ‘mature’ IPs and whether or not these achieve impact at a ‘higher’ scale: address systems trade-offs to guide decision making, focus on integration of multiple commodities, reach a large number of beneficiaries and learn from their failures. This study evaluates the impact of mature IPs in AR4D by analysing the success factors of eight case studies across three continents. Although we found pockets of IP success and impact, these were rarely achieved at scale. We therefore critically question the use of IPs as a technology dissemination and scaling mechanism in AR4D programs that aim to benefit the livelihoods of many farmers in developing countries. Nevertheless, we do find that IPs can fulfil an important role in AR4D. If the IP processes are truly demand-driven, participatory and based on collective investment and action, they have the ability to bring together committed stakeholders, and result in innovations that are technically sound, locally adapted, economically feasible for farmers, and socially, culturally and politically acceptable. Several of our cases show that if these IPs are firmly embedded in other public and private extension mechanisms and networks, they can allow the technologies or other types of innovations to scale out beyond the original IP scope, geographical focus or target audience. We see a need for more rigorous, accurate and continuous measurement of IP performance which can contribute to adaptive management of IPs, better understanding of ‘what works’ in terms of process design and facilitation, as well as to cost-benefit analysis of IPs as compared to other approaches that aim to contribute to agricultural development