Developing Energy Plants for Biofuels Production may Comply to Organic Principles

Biofuels are the only source of renewable environmentally friendly fuel currently suitable for road transport without any negative traits associated with traditional biodiesel or other green energy alternatives. The combustion of petrol and diesel produces many different types of local air pollutants, but the use of biofuels may result in the reductions in emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide up to 70%. Impacts on land use require careful planning to maximise the gains and minimise the losses. The role of biofuels in organic farming will solve three significant problems: 1) waste will become valuable resources; 2) low quality forage products can be utilized for biofuels and thus get value-added; and 3) the trafficable damage on soil fertilities will be reduced by the minimized recirculation rate of bulky watery waste products

Australia's service sector: a study in diversity

This paper seeks to dispel some of the myths commonly harboured about service jobs, service trade and the contribution services make to productivity improvements and living standards. Services account for more than three-quarters of national output and for four out of every five jobs.services - employment - international service trade - productivity

The characteristics of Titanium-nickel alloys produced by powder technology

A range of titanium-nickel alloys near the equiatomic composition have been processed by cold compaction and vacuum sintering. The effects of compaction pressure, sintering temperature and powder particle size on dimensional changes and densities of sintered compacts are presented. The influence of composition and heat treatment on micro hardness and transformation temperature (Ms) is described.During sintering, anisotropy of dimensional change occurs, with expansion in the radial and contraction in the axial direction of cylindrical compacts. Greater porosity is found in the sintered samples compared to that in the as-pressed condition. It is proposed that these observations are connected with the dissimilar interdiffusion rates of Ti and Ni, the segregation of powder particles in the green compacts and the occurrence of a transient liquid phase during sintering above 955°C. Subsequent hot isostatic pressing of the sintered material allows densification to near full density.The transformation temperatures and hardness of TiNi alloys containing excess amounts of nickel (> 51 at -% Ni) are sensitive to cooling rate after solid state heat treatment, which is in contrast with samples of the exact equiatomic composition. This phenomenon has been related to the decrease in the homogeneity range of TiNi compound with temperature, resulting in either the formation of second phase precipitates in the slow cooled samples or the production of a supersaturated structure in water quenched material.The pressed and sintered specimens display a well defined shape memory behaviour. The extent of shape recovery observed, following deformation and heating through the reverse transformation range, is explained in terms of the volume of pores in the sintered compacts.Ribbons of equiatomic TiNi alloy have been rapidly solidified by the chill block melt spinning technique under an argon atmosphere.The effects of rapid solidification processing and subsequent heat treatments on the transformation behaviour are presented. The crystal structures at room temperature have been analysed by X-ray powder diffraction and thin foil transmission electron microscopy. Some of the ribbons have been chopped and ball milled to produce prealloyed particulate from which compacts have been prepared by cold compaction followed by vacuum sintering. The consolidation response of the prealloyed powder is compared with that of elemental blends.The grain size of the rapidly solidified material is found to beat least an order of magnitude smaller than those observed in wrought specimens. The s temperature of TiNi alloy is depressed by rapid solidification processing, thus allowing the R-phase to be observed in addition to the high temperature parent phase. This depression has been correlated with the fine grain structure of the spun ribbon.Sintering temperatures in excess of those employed for elemental blends are required for the prealloyed particles. This is related to the dominant effect of the alloy formation energy in elemental powders sample. However, while the volume of porosity increases with sintering temperature in elemental mixture compacts, densification takes place in the case of RS prealloyed specimens. In spite of the need for a higher sintering temperature for RS prealloyed compacts,the resulting grain size is smaller

LABOUR MOVEMENTS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND THE STRUGGLES AGAINST NEOLIBERAL GLOBALISATION: THE CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS (COSATU) EXAMPLE

The paper examines the possibilities of labour movements in the Global South playing a strategic and significant role in the struggle against the onslaught of neoliberal globalisation on labour and labour movements, drawing experiences from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).The paper is basically descriptive and analytical and employs data obtained mainly from secondary sources. The paper contends that labour is core to the sustenance of the neoliberal capitalist system, especially its unending quest for profit maximisation, primitive accumulation and expansion of capital globally. Yet, complexities and contradictions inherent in the current neoliberal globalisation process have partly caused the structural deconstruction and dislocation of labour globally. In the Global South, the disorganisation of labour movements, job causalisation and informalisation, low wages, poor working conditions, mass retrenchment, erosion of workers’ rights, among others are obvious outcome of the attack of corporate capital on labour. Given the entrenched power of capital, the poverty conditions, and seeming failure of governments in the Global South to check the excesses of neoliberalism, there is the tendency to conclude that the prospect for organised labour movements to resist the current attack of neoliberal globalisation and corporate capital is hopelessly lost. However, the paper argues that given the seeming success of the COSATU experience, what is required is an organised programme that engages and mobilises the diverse societal movements and forces opposed to the threat corporate capital pose to society into one formidable block and the inclusion of the unorganised informal sector in the struggle