Mapping CRISPR-Cas9 public and commercial innovation using The Lens institutional toolkit

CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary technology because it is precise, fast and easy to implement, cheap and components are readily accessible. This versatility means that the technology can deliver a timely end product and can be used by many stakeholders. In plant cells, the technology can be applied to knockout genes by using CRISPR–Cas nucleases that can alter coding gene regions or regulatory elements, alter precisely a genome by base editing to delete or regulate gene expression, edit precisely a genome by homology-directed repair mechanism (cellular DNA), or regulate transcriptional machinery by using dead Cas proteins to recruit regulators to the promoter region of a gene. All these applications can be for: 1) Research use (Non commercial), 2) Uses related product components for the technology itself (reagents, equipment, toolkits, vectors etc), and 3) Uses related to the development and sale of derived end products based on this technology. In this contribution, we present a prototype report that can engage the community in open, inclusive and collaborative innovation mapping. Using the open data at the Lens.org platform and other relevant sources, we tracked, analyzed, organized, and assembled contextual and bridged patent and scholarly knowledge about CRISPR-Cas9 and with the assistance of a new Lens institutional capability, The Lens Report Builder, currently in beta release, mapped the public and commercial innovation pathways of the technology. When scaled, this capability will also enable coordinated editing and curation by credentialed experts to inform policy makers, businesses and private or public investment.

South African infrastructure condition - an opinion survey for the sAICE Infrastructure Report Card

ABSTRACT The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) Infrastructure Report Cards of 2006, 2011 and 2017 reported that much of the South African infrastructure is in a poor condition. To augment the recent 2017 Report Card, a survey was, for the first time, conducted amongst SAICE members to obtain their opinion on the condition of infrastructure (in terms of a grading), the trend of the condition over time, as well as the reasons for the individual's grading. The 669 respondents indicated that, apart from a few exceptions such as national airports and the Gautrain, much of the infrastructure is in a poor state, which is very similar to the results obtained from the SAICE Report Card process. The results were also analysed per province and indicated that, in the opinion of respondents, specific provinces in particular are struggling with poor infrastructure. The main reasons given for the poor infrastructure were a lack of maintenance, lack of institutional capability, lack of sufficient funding and over-loading of infrastructure. Keywords: infrastructure condition, SAICE Infrastructure Report Card, Infrastructure grading system

IT Application Maturity in China

In order to investigate the relationship between IT application maturity and management capabilities, the authors conducted a survey study to collect related company information for analysis. Data processing was conducted to obtain valid and reliable variables representing IT application maturity, management institutional capability, and process management capability. Then, they adopted a partial differential equation approach to capture the time dynamics of these variables. The equations were solved analytically, and further empirically estimated through our processed survey data. The validated model demonstrates that both management capabilities have direct enhancement effects on IT application maturity. In addition, process management capability has a greater influence on IT application maturity in comparison with management institutional capability. Furthermore, it is found that there exist local maximums for both enhancement effects, provided that the two management capabilities are well balanced. The findings not only offer practical implications, but also supplement the literature of factors for IS success in light of the dynamic relationship between IT application maturity and management capabilities.

The Smoking Economic Burden in the National Institute on Oncology and Radiology from Cuba

Background: Cancer is one of the main mortality causes in Cuba. Close all cancer types are related with smoking as risk factor, especially pulmonary cancer. The National Institute on Oncology and Radiology is the Cuban health more specialized institution researching cancer. The real available from economic resources limit the institutional capability to cover all demanded services. The determination of the smoking economic burden in specialized health institution as this will contribute to a better valuation of smoking impact over health services management. Objective: Determine the smoking economic burden in the National Institute on Oncology and Radiology. Materials and methods: Theorical methods: historic – logic, inductive – deductive and systematization. Empiric methods: bibliographic and documental research and an algorithm to calculate the smoking economic burden attributable to smoking. Results: The smoking economic burden in active smokers by mortality in 2015 in the National Institute on Oncology and Radiology was 30.9% and including passive smokers was 46.4%. Conclusions: In 2015 the smoking economic burden at the National Institute on Oncology and Radiology from Cuba was very high. This result is according to the high specialization from the health services covered and cancer behavior in Cuba

Mapping differential vulnerabilities and rights: ‘opening’ access to social protection for forcibly displaced populations

In recent years, forcibly displaced populations have attracted enormous media attention as an increasing number of disasters and political conflicts push more and more people to move away from their homes and seek refuge and opportunities in other places. At the same time, political nervousness about the financial and institutional capability of ‘receiving’ locations to adequately respond to the needs of these large-scale population movements contributes to the shrinking space for thinking about the rights and needs of people on the move. It is precisely because of these global trends that the plight of forcibly displaced populations is becoming more precarious and vulnerable, yet standard social protection provision rarely attends to the plight of these people. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the remit and implications for including a consideration of forcibly displaced populations (including internally displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers) within social protection policy and programming. Drawing on a limited number of recent initiatives, we suggest some ways in which social protection can be ‘opened’ for these groups.

The Norwegian Petroleum Fund as Institutionalized Self-Restraint

In economies abundant with natural resources, public leadership tends to lessen public value, diminishing assets that could benefit the population at large. The Norwegian macro-economic regime, balancing current spending with long-term interests, compares favourably to most other cases of large resource-driven income streams. While Norway had the institutional capability to reform, this policy is also an example of successful public leadership creating large public and social value. This chapter explores the role of public leadership in establishing the Petroleum Fund, and the relationship between political and administrative leadership. It finds that deft political leadership was vital in the three main government decisions that shaped Norwegian economic policy. In fact, the role of heroic leadership in the Fund’s history was larger than expected, although the key factor was a series of constructive interactions between political leaders and astute public managers.

Local Governance and Rural Development Practices in Nepal

Local governance particularly means democratic participation of the stakeholders in local development. In this process, rural development creates productive environment for market-led and environment friendly development that enrich quality of life of the people. The landscapes of local governance and rural development have been changing with new way of understanding. International communities are now realizing the transformative role of local governance and education. Nepalese government also has been facing many challenges while implementing local governance and rural development efforts. In this context, this paper reflectively appraised local governance and rural development practices of Nepal from decentralization theory and capability approach. However, subsequent discussions are presented based on secondary data, information and literatures. My discussions show that government of Nepal implemented local self-governance act-1999 for proper decentralization of power/jurisdiction in grassroots. Even though, since two decades local governance mechanisms are working with less capable staff and without elected bodies. For implementation of new constitution-2015, federal government restructured 753 local governance units. In that situation this paper came up with the argument that government mechanism need to foster institutional capability by mobilizing skilled manpower for implementing devolved 22 power/jurisdictions in local levels.