Search

Increasingly, countries in the Global South—notably South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia—are introducing material transfer agreements (MTAs) into their domestic laws for the exchange of scientific material. The MTA is a contract securing the legal transfer of tangible research material between organizations such as laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, or universities. Critical commentators argue that these agreements in the Global North have come to fulfill an important role in the expansion of dominant intellectual property regimes. Taking Indonesia as a case, this article examines how MTAs are enacted and implemented differently in the context of research involving the Global South. Against the conventionally understood forms of contract that commodify and commercialize materials and knowledge, the MTA in the South can be understood as a legal technology appropriated to translate a formerly relational economy of the scientific gift to a market system of science. As a way of gaining leverage in the uneven space of the global bioeconomy, the MTA functions as a technology for 'reverse appropriation', a reworking of its usage and meaning as a way of countering some of the global power inequalities experienced by Global South countries. The operation of this reverse appropriation, however, is hybrid, and reveals a complex reconfiguration of scientific exchange amidst a growing push for 'open science'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although briquetting is an appropriate technology for the production of renewable energy, its widespreadness in Southeast Asia is limited. Especially due to the high initial investments and energy consumption of a high-pressure briquetting press. However, manual low-pressure briquetting presses (operating pressure <5 MPa) can represent a relevant alternative, regarding to their ease of use and modest energy consumption. The aim of the present research was to develop and verify a manual wooden low pressure briquetting press with a square-shaped pressing chamber, piston and a single lever as a pressing unit. In practice, press was designed, manufactured, and verified by successful bio-briquette samples production. Four different feedstock mixtures were prepared from coconut mesocarp fibre (CF), bamboo skin (BS), pineapple leaves (PL), sugarcane bagasse (SB); each mixed with external binding agent (wastepaper) in biomass:binder ratios of 1:1 and 2:1. The achieved bulk density ρ ranged from 204.30 ± 15.73 kg m−3 for 1:1 feedstock mixtures and 199.31 ± 23.13 kg m−3 for 2:1 feedstock mixtures. The press efficiency, feasibility and practicability were positively evaluated within their possible utilisation in rural areas of developing countries. The importance of research increases constantly due to the worldwide need for a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, proper waste management, and reduction of environmental and health risks related to improper treatment of waste materials. The final idea of the article contributes to the development of the sector of clean green energy production, simultaneously with raising awareness about sustainable technologies for proper waste management within the wide public. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacity Factor Analysis is a decision support system for selection of appropriate technologies for municipal sanitation services in developing communities. Developing communities are those that lack the capability to provide adequate access to one or more essential services, such as water and sanitation, to their residents. This research developed two elements of Capacity Factor Analysis: a capacity factor based classification for technologies using requirements analysis, and a matching policy for choosing technology options. First, requirements analysis is used to develop a ranking for drinking water supply and greywater reuse technologies. Second, using the Capacity Factor Analysis approach, a matching policy is developed to guide decision makers in selecting the appropriate drinking water supply or greywater reuse technology option for their community. Finally, a scenario-based informal hypothesis test is developed to assist in qualitative model validation through case study. Capacity Factor Analysis is then applied in Cimahi Indonesia as a form of validation. The completed Capacity Factor Analysis model will allow developing communities to select drinking water supply and greywater reuse systems that are safe, affordable, able to be built and managed by the community using local resources, and are amenable to expansion as the community’s management capacity increases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]