Early Middle Palaeolithic Occupations Dated to MIS 7 at the Abri du Maras (Ardèche, Southeast France)

The study of the lithic assemblages of two French sites, the Bau de l’Aubesier and Payre, contributes new knowledge of the earliest Neanderthal techno-cultural variability. In this paper we present the results of a detailed technological analysis of Early Middle Palaeolithic lithic assemblages of MIS 8 and 7 age from the two sites, which are located on opposite sides of the Rhône Valley in the south-east of France. The MIS 9–7 period is considered in Europe to be a time of new behaviours, especially concerning lithic strategies. The shift from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Early Middle Palaeolithic is “classically” defined by an increase in the number of core technologies, including standardized ones, which are stabilized in the full Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 5–3), associated with the decline of the “Acheulean” biface. Applying a common technological approach to the analysis of the two assemblages highlights their technological variability with respect to reduction systems and end products. Differences between Payre and the Bau de l’Aubesier concerning raw material procurement and faunal exploitation only partially explain this multifaceted technological variability, which in our opinion also reflects the existence of distinct technological strategies within the same restricted geographic area, which are related to distinct traditions, site uses, and/or as yet unknown parameters.

The work is devoted to solving the scientific and technical problem of increasing the efficiency of transportation of bulk raw materials to industrial enterprises in the winter period under the conditions of changing time and temperature parameters of the transport process. A comprehensive analysis of the technology and conditions of loading, transportation and unloading of bulk raw materials in the winter period revealed the shortcomings of the transport process that lead to increased transportation costs, increased coolant consumption and, as a result, large production losses. It was established that the determining factors of this provision are the uneven shipment of raw materials by shippers, delays in its transportation by mainline rail and the lack of effective interaction between participants in the transport process: shipper, carrier and consignee.To obtain an array of data providing identification of process indicators, experimental studies have been carried out. Based on them, an assessment was made of the technology and conditions of loading, transportation and unloading of bulk raw materials, which made it possible to clarify the method for calculating the intervals of arrival and unloading of block trains with raw materials in the winter. A method for calculating the throughput capacity of defrosting garages has been developed, which, unlike the existing one, allows you to set the number of sections of garages in accordance with the required processing capacity of the transport and cargo complex.Based on the data obtained and the analysis, a method for determining the duration of defrosting of raw materials in cars in the range of ambient temperature fluctuations and the duration of transportation of block trains with raw materials was developed, and the method for calculating the intervals between shipped block trains with freezing raw materials was improved. Organizational measures have been developed to optimize loading, transportation and unloading of frozen raw materials. This work allowed us to systematically solve the problem of increasing the efficiency of transportation of bulk raw materials to industrial enterprises in the winter. The prerequisites have been created for further research to improve the operation of transport - freight complexes for unloading freezing raw materials

Personal ornaments manufactured on marine and fossil shell are a significant element of Upper Palaeolithic symbolic material culture, and are often found at considerable distances from Pleistocene coastlines or relevant fossil deposits. Here, we report on a significant collection of shell objects (n=377) from the Upper Magdalenian site of Rochereil (Dordogne, France). Despite the location of the site at more than 200km from the Pleistocene coast, the majority of the shells recovered here are unmodified, suggesting that transport and accumulation of shell raw material was an important component in the production of symbolic technologies some 16 15,000 years ago. A detailed comparative and microscopic reanalysis of this assemblage explores which species were selected, examines technological and taphonomic modification of the material, and compares this collection with the use of similar shell ornaments in the wider Magdalenian world.

The paper considers approaches to providing the enterprise with the required raw materials or semi-finished products. The general scheme of the milk raw material transportation cycle was analyzed. According to one approach, the supply system of raw materials can be represented by three constants, based on which several of their relations can be established, allowing us to describe the supply system much better. It is emphasized that the total duration of the cycle for each supplier is individual and depends on the demand indicator and the volume of the batch of the product or raw material. However, each product or raw material supplier's different cycle times do not allow them to be consolidated to build a stable delivery route. It is essential to achieve the required delivery frequency with maximum vehicle loading. The need to use the " heijunka board" to organize the efficient operation of routes for the transportation of dairy raw materials by the enterprise's employees was analyzed. Such a tool allows one to visualize dairy raw materials' transportation routes and ensure explicit control. For this, a heijunka board and supplier kanban cards are used, which form a graphic representation of transport routes in the corresponding time interval. Policy directions for determining the frequency of transportation of raw materials or semi-finished products are highlighted. It is proved that the optimal order policy must satisfy the zero-order property, and the time between orders can be calculated based on the amount of stock in the warehouse and the speed of their use, which will correspond to the demand indicator d and will reach zero after f orders. The kanban system allows optimal results in combination with the heizunk method, which balances the delivery time of raw materials or products as much as possible. Several models for the analysis of the heizunk system are considered. The common feature of these methods is the search for the optimal size of the buffer stock to ensure the maximum efficiency of production facilities while minimizing losses. The total number of kanbans for the system is decisive because this indicator determines the effectiveness of their adaptation to changes in production conditions. Keywords: kanban, system, heizunk method, loss minimization, order.

The key process of industrial and civil building construction aim at good engineering quality management. Excellent construction project cannot be separated from the efficient quality management control. The construction environment become more complex and difficult because of the requirement of improved construction quality from people. Therefore, thequality management of construction site appear to be particularly important, and we should actively take effective measures to solve the arisenproblems during the whole process. the selection of related personnel, professions, personnel education and training. After winning the bid for the project, the selection of personnel should be implemented according to the realistic status, then set up the relevant departments and perform reasonable job assignments according to the individual's professional skills. Management of construction materials.We must make sure the quality of construction materials is good so that the quality of the project can be toassured.We must control the quality of construction materials throughout the entire project process. We need to control the purchase of raw materials,select the most appropriate supply of raw materials manufacturers by a series of contrast,so that the purchase effect canreach the best and cheapest one. At the same time, the transportation and management of raw materials should be further strengthened in the delivery and management,avoiding the damage. Management of construction equipment.From now on, large machinery and equipment are widely used in the building operations because of the improvedmechanization level. Therefore, we need to focus on the construction quality management of construction equipment management site. We need to implement the actual situation of the project constructionto schedule, construction machinery allocation, in order to ensure the construction at the same time pay attention to saving the project cost. The state of construction machinery and equipment in this process need to be good mastered, in order to avoid safety hazard in the whole construction process.

Animal bones and antler of cervidae are some of the most important raw materials for producing artefacts during the pre- and early metal (copper) ages. While during the Palaeolithic only few wetland sites with typical wet soil conservation are known, in the Neolithic, wetland sites are increasingly common, especially in Europe. One of the best-known regions of Neolithic and Bronze Age lake-dwellings is the Circum–Alpine foreland in central Europe. This chapter discusses the important interactions between available raw materials, technologies, and produced forms and types of artefacts, focusing on the Neolithic finds from the Swiss Circum–Alpine foreland, dating between 4300 and 2400 cal BC. It covers raw material and raw-material management, and types and forms of artefact.

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site in South Africa is renowned for its karstic cave systems, which have yielded extensive fossil and stone tool assemblages dating to the Plio-Pleistocene period. The archaeological record from these caves has provided significant evidence for the evolution of lithic technology in southern Africa. Open-air sites have also been documented in this region, although they rarely receive scientific attention due to their lack of spatial and stratigraphic contexts. However, archaeological research has demonstrated that lithic production strategies were organized through landscape-scale constraints including the availability of raw materials and the energetic costs of their transport. As such, the study of open-air Stone Age sites in the Cradle of Humankind can potentially offer insight into the relationships between raw material procurement and reduction processes in this region. Here, we present a case study from the open-air locality of Elandsdrift Farm, which preserves a palimpsest of Earlier and Middle Stone Age lithic materials. While the chronological and spatial contexts of this locality present significant interpretative challenges, the Elandsdrift Farm lithic materials are not without scientific value. A landscape archaeological approach is employed to explore the influence of raw material transport on tool-making. Trends in core reduction intensity and flaking efficiency suggest that landform ruggedness and distances traveled to procure raw materials significantly influenced lithic production strategies throughout the Early to Middle Pleistocene. Despite the contextual challenges presented by open-air localities, landscape archaeological methods can inform the economic aspects of lithic scatters in this region, which cannot be easily inferred from archaeological assemblages in cave contexts.

Processing shallots into fried onions is one of the agro-industry businesses with the main raw material of shallots. The fried onion home industry is a downstreaming of agricultural commodities by providing added value from the raw materials of shallots, in the process of production competition the industry must conduct management that will produce raw materials to ensure obtaining products. The purpose of this study was to determine the operating income of fried onions and determine the management of raw materials in the "Uda Saprudin" fried onion industry in Bengkulu City. The method used in this study is the calculation of income, R / C ratio, and management of raw materials using EOQ, Safety Stock, Reorder Points, lead time and total inventory costs. This research is a case study conducted in February 2019 with the data used is the data of the past year (2018). From the research results obtained R / C value of 1.36 and the management of raw material requirements recognized EOQ value: 6.546 Kg, Reorder Point value: 6.329 Kg / Month, lead time: 0.5 months and Total inventory costs: Rp. 163,676,047 per year.

Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera Formation

In order to optimize the performance of transportation works for the transportation of raw materials for the production of biodiesel fuel, the article examines the technology when oil from oilseeds is obtained at the processing points where they are grown. The resulting oil is transported to a biodiesel production plant. The methodological bases for calculating the optimum distance from oilseed grain storage sites to a mechanized oil production point are presented. Possible ways of the efficiency improving of production of biofuel at the stage of the planning are presented. Methodical bases of calculation of distance to mechanized points for biofuel production are given. A formula for determining the optimum capacity of an item for the processing of oil seeds and for obtaining raw materials for the production of biofuels has been derived. It is established that optimum transportation distance of rape is 14,4 km, productivity of the rapeseed oil processing plant is 21280 tons/year and for 25% of the oil yield 5320 tons of biofuel raw materials can be obtained, when the total overhead costs are Zv = 360000 UAH / year; specific costs of transportation of raw materials сp = 2,6 UAH/ (тkm); yield of oilseed rape = 1 t / ha (100 t / km2); the density of the placement of fields a = 0.4. The developed method can be used to calculate the location, performance of points for the manufacture of briquettes or pellets. The direction of increasing the efficiency of biodiesel production at plants at the stage of their planning is to determine the optimal annual productivity of the plant, taking into account transport costs for the transportation of raw materials - oil. The optimum distance of transportation of oil and productivity of the plant for biodiesel production is established for the cost of transportation - 2.6 UAH / t • km, overhead costs 13000000 UAH, direct costs for the production of 1 ton of biodiesel fuel - 25000 UAH Therefore, the optimal distance of transportation of oil for the production of biofuels - 101 km, the capacity of the plant - 58923 tons. The dependence of the cost of production of biodiesel fuel on the distance of transportation of oil is calculated: for distance to plant 40 km – the cost of biofuel production – 25596 UAH/t, for 60 km – 25496 UAH /t, for 80 km – 25462 UAH /t, for 100 km – 25459 UAH /t, for 120 km – 25471 UAH /t, for 140 km – 25493 UAH /t. The proposed method provides an opportunity to determine the optimum productivity of the plant for the processing of organic raw materials into biofuels, taking into account the distance of its transportation at the design stage. Key words: biodiesel, economic efficiency, production optimization, direct costs, overhead costs.

The economy of the Murmansk region retains its raw material orientation, as it is justified by the region’s natural resources and industrial potential. Economic activity of mineral-resource enterprises and those mining ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals is going to remain the dominant sector of the regional economy for a long time due to the geological and economic characteristics and natural and climatic features peculiar to this area. The region is endowed with various natural resources. On the Kola Peninsula there are more than sixty major deposits of various types of mineral raw materials with more than three dozen extractable resources, the most valuable of which include copper-nickel, iron, apatite-nepheline ores and ores of rare metals. Production management and transportation of raw materials require well-developed infrastructure, creating an integrated transport system, that is why it plays a strategic role in the economy of the Murmansk region. It is connected with the fact that the region is predominated by industries focused on producing and delivering considerable volumes of raw materials and metals outside the region. In these circumstances, every enterprise plans and arranges transportation of cargo by various means of transport. Railway transportation plays a significant role as it provides round-the-clock cargo transportation from senders to recipients fulfilling clients transportation requests regardless of weather conditions.Therefore, the important scientific task is analyzing the cargo base and finding solutions for improving the existing and creating new designs of wagons and containers for railroad transportation of cargo, taking into account spatial directions of cargo flows, which is the purpose of this article. The authors have proposed options for modernization of wagons and designs of composite containers that possess scientific novelty, as the current state of the railroad transport system requires modernization.It is impossible to achieve effective economic performance of an enterprise that works in the sphere of mining and processing of mineral raw materials without creating a proper transport component that requires its own development. The implementation of the given proposals will allow the enterprises to increase the volume of cargo transportation which in its turn is going to have a significant impact on socio-economic development of the region.

In the current complex economic situation, production enterprises are facing manyuncertainties. Reasonable planning of the ordering and transportation of raw materials to ensure the stable operation of the production supply chain is the key to the sustainable development of enterprises. In this paper, a TOPSIS model based on entropy weight and a raw material ordering and transportation model for production enterprises based on multi-objective programming are proposed to provide reference for raw material ordering and transportation selection of production enterprises. In this model, the supply characteristics of suppliers are quantitatively analyzed, and on the basis of the demand of production enterprises, the supplier is determined based on the principle of minimum number of suppliers. Then, the future transshipment loss rate of the transporter is predicted based on the time series, and then the corresponding transporter and transshipment scheme are determined with the lowest loss rate as the target. The research on the model of suppliers and transporter has a good guiding significance for the ordering and transportation of raw materials in manufacturing enterprises.

Raw materials play a vitally important role in the manufacturing of advanced therapy medicinal products. The ability of raw materials to directly impact the safety, purity and efficacy of the final product has led to the requirement that advanced therapy medicinal product manufacturers control the quality of raw materials in their manufacturing processes. However, some challenges exist in the raw material qualification process specific to the management of biological-derived materials, raw material grades and labels, qualifying suppliers and establishing robust supply chains. Therefore, a risk-based strategy is commonly employed to address these challenges in the management of raw materials for advanced therapymedicinal products.

The beginnings and diversity of Levallois methods in the early Middle Palaeolithic of Central Europe

Neanderthals had complex land use patterns, adapting to diversified landscapes and climates. Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in reconstructing the chronology, land use and subsistence patterns, and occupation types of sites in the Rhône Valley, southeast France. In this study, Neanderthal mobility at the site of Payre is investigated by combining information from lithic procurement analysis (“chaîne evolutive” and “chaîne opératoire” concepts) and strontium isotope analysis of teeth (childhood foraging area), from two units (F and G). Both units date to the transition from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 to MIS 7, and show similar environmental conditions, but represent contrasting occupation durations. Level Gb (unit G) represents a long-term year-round use, in contrast to short-term seasonal use of the cave in level Fb (unit F). For both levels, lithic material and food were generally collected from a local to semi-local region. However, in level Gb, lithic materials were mainly collected from colluviums and food collected in the valley, whereas in level Fb, lithic procurement focused primarily on alluvial deposits and food was collected from higher elevation plateaus. These procurement or exchange patterns might be related to flint availability, knapping advantages of alluvial flint or occupation duration. The site of Payre is located in a flint rich circulation corridor and the movement of groups or exchanges between groups were organized along a north-south axis on the plateaus or towards the east following the river. The ridges were widely used as they are rich in flint, whereas the Rhône Valley is not an important source of lithic raw materials. Compared to other western European Middle Palaeolithic sites, these results indicate that procurement strategies have a moderate link with occupation types and duration, and with lithic technology. The Sr isotope ratios broadly match the proposed foraging areas, with the Rhône Valley being predominantly used in unit G and the ridges and limestone plateaus in unit F. While lithic reconstructions and childhood foraging are not directly related this suggests that the three analysed Neanderthals spend their childhood in the same general area and supports the idea of mobile Neanderthals in the Rhône Valley and neighbouring higher elevation plateaus. The combination of reconstructing lithic raw material sources, provisioning strategies, and strontium isotope analyses provides new details on how Neanderthals at Payre practised land use and mobility in the Early Middle Palaeolithic.