Local Wisdom and Laboratory Experiment-Based Extension Booklet Development for Wadi Makers of Elementary-Educated and Dropout Society in Central Kalimantan

Wadi is one of traditionally fermented food types using basic materials of fish, salt, and lumu. As nutritive traditional food, wadi quality needs to be developed and maintained through social education. Wadi production innovation has not been done yet by the wadi makers since their information is limited on production techniques for better quality wadi. To promote local wisdom conservation, non-formal education for low educated-wadi makers is needed using simple media. Laboratory experiment and local wisdom-based booklet development is intended to broad their mind and skill in wadi production in the rural areas of Central Kalimantan. This development followed the model of Peck (1988). It contained non-formal product oriented-education materials for the wadi makers. The booklet has been validated by experts in community education, biotechnology, and learning media, and applied to wadi producing communities. Assessment instruments for booklet validation refer to non-textbook assessment instruments (enrichment books). The results showed that the booklet could be well accepted by the users and possessed very good criteria of understanding and readability value.

Donation of Contraceptive Products through Special Import Permits: A Case Study in Zambia and Nigeria

Introduction: Securing a special import permit for the donation of an unregistered contraceptive product can be a viable option to import the product in an expedited manner. However, this process can be difficult due to varying country requirements and the availability of accurate and timely information. Case description: This paper will explore the process for securing import permits for donated contraceptive products in Zambia and Nigeria, comparing national guidelines to applicant experiences and providing recommendations to future applicants. Discussion and evaluation: In practice, application requirements and timelines for special import permits in Zambia and Nigeria differed from national guidelines. Despite these differences, special import permits can be secured more quickly than formal product registration, which is a slower but more sustainable solution. Conclusion: Due to a lack of comprehensive and up-to-date guidelines online for some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the regulatory community is encouraged to share their experiences with special import permit application processes.

Le Corbusier y la autonomía de la arquitectura

Resumen: Tres han sido los intentos de vincular la obra de Le Corbusier con la “autonomía de la arquitectura”. El primero, aquel formulado por Emil Kaufmann en 1933, reposa en una analogía ética conducida por medio de ciertos mecanismos compositivos. El segundo lo alentó Johnson durante la posguerra e identifica en Le Corbusier un sistema de composición autorreferencial pretendidamente ajeno a todo condicionante exterior que enfatiza el purismo de sus operaciones formales. El tercero fue conducido por un grupo de autores englobados en el “autonomy project” que vio en su obra la posibilidad de entender la arquitectura simultáneamente como hecho social y producto formal. Cada intento ensalzó ciertas características de Le Corbusier y obvió otras en la medida en que se adscribieron a las diversas, y por momentos divergentes, interpretaciones de la autonomía de la arquitectura. En este texto defenderé que la aparente multiplicidad de las interpretaciones de la obra de Le Corbusier que derivan de estos intentos puede superarse atendiendo al sentido filosófico originario de “autonomía” y su incorporación al arte. A la postre, remiten a una paradoja difícilmente superable y que puede identificarse como consustancial a la modernidad arquitectónica: la dialéctica entre la forma y la función. Abstract: There have been three attempts to link Le Corbusier’s work with the "autonomy of architecture". The first one, the one conducted by Emil Kaufmann in 1933, lies in an ethical analogy through some compositional mechanism. Johnson encouraged the second one during the postwar. He identified in Le Corbusier a system of self-referential composition, supposedly alien to all outside constraint, which emphasizes the purity of its formal operations. The third was led by a group of authors, members of the “autonomy project”. They saw in his work the possibility of understanding architecture simultaneously as a social fact and formal product. Each attempt praised certain features of Le Corbusier and others were disregarded, following the pattern of controversial interpretations of the autonomy of architecture. In this paper I will argue that this apparent multiplicity of interpretations of Le Corbusier’s work can be overcome taking the original philosophical sense of "autonomy" and its incorporation into art. In the end, they refer to an insurmountable paradox, which can be identified as integral to modern architecture: the dialectic between form and function. Palabras clave: Le Corbusier, autonomía de la arquitectura, compromiso, formalismo, dialéctica. Keywords: Le Corbusier, autonomy of architecture, commitment, formalism, dialectics. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.682

Simulating Product Invention Using InventSim

This chapter describes a novel simulation model (InventSim) of the process of product invention. Invention is conceptualized as a process of directed search on a landscape of product design possibilities, by a population of profit-seeking inventors. The simulator embeds a number of real-world search heuristics of inventors, including anchoring, election, thought experiments, fitness sharing, imitation, and trial and error. A series of simulation experiments are undertaken to examine the sensitivity of the populational rate of advance in product sophistication to changes in the choice of search heuristics employed by inventors. The key finding of the experiments is that if search heuristics are confined to those that are rooted in past experience, or to heuristics that merely generate variety, limited product advance occurs. Notable advance occurs only when inventors’ expectations of the relative payoffs for potential product inventions are incorporated into the model of invention. The results demonstrate the importance of human direction and expectations in invention. They also support the importance of formal product/project evaluation procedures in organizations, and the importance of market information when inventing new products.