Modern Iron Research Articles

Trying in Many Ways to Persuade: Agency and Local Politics in a Nineteenth-Century Iron Mining Scheme

Abstract: Relying on Chinese county gazetteers and contemporary publications by Western engineers working in China, this article examines the methods used by county officials to secure property needed for the Daye iron mine in Hubei Province. It focuses on a young scholar-turned magistrate, Lin Zuo, who grew up around the market city of Shanghai and the political center in Beijing under the dual clouds of imperialism and the Taiping Rebellion. Upon taking office in a remote but mineral-rich county along the Yangzi river, Lin Zuo was deputed to deterritorialize significant parts of the county’s rice fields and mountain farms to facilitate a modern iron ore mine and adjoining railroad that became part of the powerful Hanyeping Coal and Iron Company. To this end, he hired local gentry to coerce or force various landowners to give up lands that were deemed rich in minerals or suited for a proposed train track that skirted the southern face of Tieshan (Iron Mountain). Conversely, commoners utilized ingenious negotiating methods to fight back against the power of the imperial government, which led the county leaders to look elsewhere for properties and in some cases forced the government to pay much higher prices for the tracts they needed most. This article suggests that this significant modernization scheme was brought about in part utilizing the trappings of patronage-led county government policies but that even as it was designed to strengthen the empire, in fact it actually weakened the local community, leaving many landless if not impoverished. It therefore questions recent scholarship that looks more positively at late nineteenth-century industrialization attempts or critically at policies that undermined them.

Sedimentological and geochemical traces of metallurgical activity in the Świślina River valley (central Poland) at the Doły Biskupie site

Abstract Prehistoric and historic iron metallurgy in the Holy Cross Mountains in central Poland developed along with human Przeworsk Culture activity (during the Roman period) and within the boundaries of the Old-Polish Industrial District (OPID) during the Middle Ages and during recent centuries. At the Świślina catchment, there are many archaeological sites showing intense prehistoric metallurgical activity. The later medieval and modern iron industry was significantly smaller. At the Doły Biskupie site, slags and microscopic iron spherules (hammerscales) were found in alluvia. The microscopic spherules separation method (MSS) enabled analysis of these small artefacts created during iron ore smelting and forging. Iron spherules were detected in floodplain sediments, which are characterized by increased content of trace elements. The presence of these artefacts in shallow sediment layers in the confluence section of the river may be an indicator of archaeologically confirmed prehistoric metallurgical activity in the catchment area. Study of these residues enabled an attempt to reconstruct the river valley environment during the prehistoric and historical period. The MSS method can be used to detect iron spherules in alluvia in other river catchments, confirming the presence of yet-undiscovered bloomery sites.

Концепция «Менеджмент крови пациенток» в практике акушера-гинеколога: на что обратить внимание?

Aim. To present literature and own data on the implementation of the concept of patient blood management (PBM) in obstetrics and gynecology. Key points. PBM involves “the timely, interdisciplinary application of evidence-based, multimodal medical and surgical concepts aimed at screening, diagnosing and appropriately treating anemia, minimizing surgical, procedural, iatrogenic blood loss, and managing coagulopathy bleeding to improve health outcomes through patient-centered care”. As part of the PBM, it is important for the obstetrician-gynecologist to first screen for iron deficiency (ID) and identify iron deficiency anemia (IDA), prescribe treatment with modern iron preparations. A new generation of ferrous iron preparation with prolonged release is proposed, which minimizes the side effects of therapy. The second aspect is to screen and treat identified coagulation disorders using treatment algorithms based on thromboelastometry data, the third is in the postpartum/postoperative period, screen for and treat iron deficiency and anemia, control coagulation, monitor blood loss and rational use of allogeneic blood components. The results of the introduction of PBM into clinical practice of the National Medical Research Center for Obsterics, Gynecology and Perinatology named after Academician V.I. Kulakov, which allows for timely diagnosis of ID and IDA at the “Anemia-STOP!” Center, rational transfusion of allogeneic blood components, which contributed to a reduction in the volume of procured and transfused donor blood components. Conclusion. The implementation of the PBM concept helps to improve the effectiveness and safety of treatment, while promoting the best use of economic resources. Keywords: patient blood management, obstetrics, gynecology, iron deficiency anemia, new generation ferrous sulfate, coagulation control, efficiency, safety.

Plant-wide byproduct gas distribution under uncertainty in iron and steel industry via quantile forecasting and robust optimization

In the modern iron and steel industry, the efficient distribution of byproduct gases faces significant challenges due to quantity- and quality-related uncertainties of gases. This study presents an optimal approach to gas distribution that addresses this issue by incorporating the energy flow network and the uncertain surplus gases from the manufacturing system. The uncertain optimization problem is formulated as a two-stage robust optimization (TSRO) model, including “here-and-now” decisions aimed at minimizing the start-stop cost of energy conversion units, as well as “wait-and-see” decisions aimed at minimizing the operating cost of gasholders and the penalties resulting from energy excess or shortage. To facilitate practical implementation, we propose a “first quantify, then optimize” approach: (1) quantifying the uncertainty of surplus gases via a conditional quantile regression (CDQ)-based T-step time series model, and (2) finding the optimal solution through a column-and-constraint generation algorithm. Furthermore, a case study is conducted on an industrial energy system to validate the proposed methodology. Computational results, using evaluation indicators, such as MAPE, RMSE, PICP, and PINAW, confirm the effectiveness of the data-driven time series model in accurately quantifying uncertainties in each period. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the proposed TSRO model achieves a favorable balance between robustness and flexibility by selecting the combination of “budget and quantile” and the parameters of storage and conversion units. Comparative results reveal: (1) the optimal objective of the TSRO closely aligns with that of stochastic programming (SP) and is 2.717 times higher than that of deterministic optimization (DO); and (2) the computation time of TSRO is 2.388 times longer than that of DO, yet significantly smaller than that of SP, being only 0.07 times longer. Consequently, TSRO can efficiently find a robust gas distribution solution with the desired level of conservativeness for integrated iron and steel plants.

Problems of Iron Deficiency in Children and Adolescents: Diagnosis, Quality of Life, Treatment (Literature review)

About 3 billion people of various age groups in all countries of the world suffer from iron deficiency (ID) in recent years. Iron is an important component of many biochemical reactions, and its deficiency causes a number of negative outcomes. The review summarizes literature data on diagnosis, assessment of quality of life, and treatment of ID, which is one of the urgent problems of adolescence, because major changes in the body occur during puberty. A number of factors are involved in the genesis of iron deficiency: rapid growth of the organism, chronic diseases of the digestive tract, menstrual blood loss in teenage girls. The reason of iron deficiency is also insufficient intake of it into the organism. To diagnose anemia is not difficult on the base of a decrease of hemoglobin, blood color index and hematocrit, and the presence of characteristic symptoms. Timely detection of iron deficiency in the organism makes possible to correct it and improve the child’s condition. The review includes the data of many clinical studies of ID in children and adolescents, the main laboratory criteria for diagnosis are defined. Special emphasis is placed on the effectiveness of using modern iron preparations with high clinical effectiveness and minimal side effects.

Acoustic Material Monitoring in Harsh Steelplant Environments

This paper provides novel insights into the robustness of machine learning and signal-processing-based acoustic material classification for material transport in modern iron- and steelmaking. The proposed method is designed to deal with the specific harsh and challenging environmental conditions encountered in steel plants. Robust classification depends on the dataset and its contamination with noise. The present work investigates the application of noise detection together with classification algorithms and shows the impact on classification performance. Four contributions are addressed: (i) an evaluation of an outlier detection method for time series, which is based on the short-term enhanced root mean square value RMS (RMSe), (ii) a comparison of different artificial neural network (ANN) structures applied for acoustic classification of material classes, (iii) results on the test dataset splits and (iv) evaluation of the robustness of proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture against environmental disturbances such as the adversarial dropping sound of contaminants. With the combination of preprocessing and CNN on a material transport process dataset, we show an improvement of the overall classification accuracy. It proves the significance of preprocessing a contaminated dataset and the applicability of CNN for real-world acoustic sensoring systems.

Detoxification and comprehensive recovery of stainless steel dust and chromium containing slag: Synergistic reduction mechanism and process parameter optimization

Stainless steel dust and chromium containing slag are representative harmful solid wastes produced in modern iron and steel metallurgy industry. Based on the study of stainless steel dust reduction, the direct reduction process with low energy consumption and high efficiency was obtained by changing the addition amount of chromium containing slag and the conditions of reduction process system. The results show that with the addition of chromium containing slag, the basicity of raw materials decreases, the recovery of metal is improved, and the self-pulverization effect of reducing slag is improved. The optimum process conditions are as follows: the mixing ratio of stainless steel dust to chromium containing slag is 94%: 6%, the reduction temperature is 1400 °C, the reduction time is 25 min, the FC/O is 0.9, the recoveries of Fe, Cr and Ni in the reduction products are 90.5%, 90.6% and 91.2%, respectively, the grades of Fe, Cr and Ni in Fe-Cr-Ni-C alloy are 61.3%, 19.9% and 3.7%, respectively, and the contents of harmful components such as S and P are very low. The self-pulverization rate of reduction slag can reach 92.8%, and the residues of metal Fe, Cr and Ni in reduction slag are 134 ppm, 96 ppm and 129 ppm, respectively.

A Short Review of the Effect of Iron Ore Selection on Mineral Phases of Iron Ore Sinter

The sintering process is a thermal agglomeration process, and it is accompanied by chemical reactions. In this process, a mixture of iron ore fines, flux, and coal particles is heated to about 1300 °C–1480 °C in a sinter bed. The strength and reducibility properties of iron ore sinter are obtained by liquid phase sintering. The silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminum (SFCA) is the main bonding phase found in modern iron ore sinters. Since the physicochemical and crystallographic properties of the SFCA are affected by the chemical composition and mineral phases of iron ores, a crystallographic understanding of iron ores and sintered ore is important to enhance the quality of iron ore sinter. Scrap and by-products from steel mills are expected to be used in the iron ore sintering process as recyclable resources, and in such a case, the crystallographic properties of iron ore sinter will be affected using these materials. The objective of this paper is to present a short review on research related to mineral phases and structural properties of iron ore and sintered ore.

Two-stage robust optimization approach for flexible oxygen distribution under uncertainty in integrated iron and steel plants

Optimal oxygen distribution is one of the most important energy management problems in the modern iron and steel industry. Normally, the supply of the energy generation system is determined by the energy demand of manufacturing processes. However, the balance between supply and demand fluctuates frequently, owing to the uncertainty arising in manufacturing processes. In this study, we developed an optimal oxygen distribution strategy considering uncertain demands and proposed a two-stage robust optimization (TSRO) model with a budget-based uncertainty set that protects the initial distribution decisions with low conservativeness. The main goal of the TSRO model is to make “wait-and-see” decisions, maximizing energy profits, and make “here-and-now” decisions, minimizing operational stability and surplus/shortage penalty. To represent the uncertainty set of energy demands, we developed (1) a Gaussian process-based time-series model to forecast the demand intervals for continuous processes, and (2) a capacity-constrained scheduling model to generate multi-scenario demands for discrete processes. We performed extensive computational studies on TSRO and its components using well-synthesized instances from historical data. The results of model validation and analysis are promising and demonstrate that our approach is well adapted to solving industrial cases under uncertainty.

On the Basis of Computer Analysis of the Current Situation of Energy Conservation and Consumption Reduction in China’s Iron and Steel Industry and Research Measures

Adhering to the strategy of energy conservation and emission reduction is one of the important principles of China’s industrial development. As one of the indispensable pillar industries of the national economy with high energy consumption and emissions. at the same time because of the restriction of the natural environment conditions, the high-speed development of behind to face the problem of the shortage of resources, ecological destruction, in order to improve people’s quality of life and life experience, improve the level of energy conservation and emissions reduction iron and steel industry is imperative. Steel smelting industry, comprehensive considering the steel utilization, energy conservation and emissions reduction targets, etc., have noticed that the costs in smelting system energy-saving, the importance of the question is, society for steel utilization, can’t bring enough money for the iron and steel smelting industry benefit, and hindered the development of new energy saving technology, increased the energy saving of iron and steel smelting system pressure. Thus it can be seen that cost capital is the main problem of energy saving in modern iron and steel smelting system. Only with financial support can the level of energy saving be improved.

Correction of iron deficiency in the clinical picture of internal medicine

Background. The purpose was to theoretically and practically substantiate the existing approaches to the problem of prevalence, causes, clinical manifestations, as well as diagnosis and use of the latest methods of treatment of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) based on studying scientific ideas. Materials and methods. We used systematic analysis, synthesis, and generalization of scientific and medical literature to make it possible to consider modern views on the problem of IDA among different populations in terms of its epidemiology, etiology, presentation of iron metabolism in the body, and pathogenetic mechanisms of clinical and laboratory symptoms as well as modern methods of laboratory diagnosis of anemia and conclusions on a comprehensive approach to the treatment and prevention. Results. The most common blood disease is iron deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency occurs as a result of a mismatch between the body’s needs for iron and its intake or loss. According to the WHO, more than half of the population in different countries suffers from iron deficiency anemia. It covers all age groups but is most common in children, adolescents, and pregnant women. The symptoms of anemia are pale skin, fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, dysfunction of many organs. The most common causes of iron deficiency anemia are bleeding from wounds or peptic ulcers, hemorrhoidal bleeding, excessive blood loss during menstruation, uterine fibroids, ulcerative colitis, malignant tumors, gastrectomy, and others. In this disease, the iron depot in the body decreases. According to data from domestic and foreign scientists, as well as the WHO, IDA of varying severity is observed in 20 % of the population. The treatment of IDA should first eliminate the cause of bleeding, prescribe a protein-enriched diet, vitamins, and trace elements. In many countries, the prevention and treatment of anemia are becoming a social challenge. The presence of iron deficiency reduces the quality of life of patients, disrupts their ability to work, causes functional disorders of many organs and systems. To prevent and eliminate iron deficiency, a whole group of iron-containing drugs is successfully used, the range of which is constantly replenishing and updating, as well as a comprehensive approach to treatment with modern iron drugs is discussing. Conclusions. The main pathological and physiological conditions that lead to the development of iron deficiency in different population groups are analyzed. Therefore, the treatment of IDA is aimed not only at eliminating anemia as a symptom, but also at eliminating iron deficiency and replenishing its reserves in the body, which can be achieved by taking a liposomal form of iron.

Problems of hematological toxicity during the treatment of blood system malignancies

Background. Treatment of blood malignancies is often accompanied by the hematological toxicity. Thrombocytopenia is one of the most common phenomena, which can be caused by pseudothrombocytopenia, production deficiency or increased destruction of platelets, their pathological distribution or aggregation.
 Objective. To determine the features of hematological toxicity in the treatment of malignant blood diseases.
 Materials and methods. Analysis of literature data and recommendations on this topic.
 Results and discussion. Diagnosis of thrombocytopenia involves a detailed study of a peripheral blood smear to assess the morphology of all cells, as well as additional studies (determination of lactate dehydrogenase, D-dimer, fibrinogen, etc.; aspiration and bone marrow biopsy; virological and bacteriological studies; clinical examination). The main causes of thrombocytopenia in cancer patients are chemotherapy (ChT) and radiation therapy (RT), however, the diagnosis should take into account all possible nosological options. The assessment should be performed if the platelet count is <100,000/μl. The normal lifespan of platelets is 8-10 days, so after many types of ChT thrombocytopenia develops about 7th days after treatment, reaches a maximum of 14th days and ends in 28-35th days. After RT thrombocytopenia usually starts in 7-10th days after its termination and is present during 30-60 days. Before treating thrombocytopenia, the need for ChT should be re-evaluated and the risk of bleeding assessed, and the ChT regimen should be changed if possible. If the risk of bleeding is high or the platelet count is critically low, platelet transfusion is prescribed, however, it has recently been found that absolute platelet count is not a predictor of bleeding risk in this patient population (PLADO study). In addition, platelet transfusion is limited in resources and costly, and is accompanied by the risk of side effects (acute lung damage due to transfusion, fever, bacterial sepsis, development of transfusion intolerance). This became the basis for the search for alternative treatment options. Recombinant interleukin-11 (oprelvekin) reduces the need for platelet transfusion from 96 to 70 % of patients on ChT. However, although this drug is FDA-approved, it is characterized by a large number of side effects. In turn, thrombopoietin receptor agonists (subcutaneous romiplostin, oral eltrombopag) bind to the corresponding receptors and increase the number of platelets in the blood. The effectiveness of treatment is within 70 %. Emaplag (“Yuria-Pharm”) is the first and only eltrombopag in Ukraine. Emaplag is indicated for the treatment of thrombocytopenia caused by ChT in patients with solid tumors, patients with platelet counts <50×109/L, and in cases where the physician decides to increase platelet count. With regard to anemias, their main causes in cancer patients are the factors of the underlying disease (bone marrow infiltration, infectious processes), the impact of ChT or RT, other causes (malnutrition, bleeding, renal dysfunction). Examination of patients with anemia should include history taking, evaluation of blood smear and iron metabolism, exclusion of occult gastrointestinal bleeding and renal failure, Coombs’ test, determination of endogenous erythropoietin. Treatment options for ChT-induced anemia include blood transfusions and the use of erythropoietins (epoetins α and β, darbepoetin) with or without iron supplements (oral or intravenous). The advantages of using erythropoietin include reducing the need for transfusion of erythrocyte mass, a gradual increase in hemoglobin, increasing quality of life. However, erythropoietins are not recommended for use in cancer patients who do not receive ChT or receive RT, because in these cases, their use is associated with an increased mortality risk. Because in some patient groups erythropoietins accelerate tumor growth or reduce survival, the patient must give a written informed consent for their use. Given these data, it is advisable to prescribe intravenous iron, as it allows not only to quickly increase hemoglobin and improve quality of life, but also to reduce the dosage of erythropoietins. Iron carboxymaltose if the most modern parenteral iron preparation. It is characterized by low toxicity and high stability.
 Conclusions. 1. Thromboconcentrate transfusion is a fast and effective way to correct thrombocytopenia, which has a number of disadvantages. 2. Thrombopoietin receptor agonists (eltrombopag) make it possible to increase the effectiveness of treatment without interrupting the planned therapy. 3. In the presence of anemia, all possible causes should be corrected before prescribing erythropoietins. 4. If the anemia is caused by ChT, the patient needs to take erythropoietins. 5. Addition of intravenous iron preparations to erythropoietin therapy significantly increases the effectiveness of treatment.

Fault identification for quality monitoring of molten iron in blast furnace ironmaking based on KPLS with improved contribution rate

Blast furnace (BF) ironmaking is one of the most important production links in modern iron–steel making. The operation conditions of BF and the molten iron quality (MIQ) should be monitored and analyzed in real-time to realize high quality with low energy consumption. Aiming at the problems of strong nonlinearity and few fault samples in BF processes, a novel fault identification method for MIQ monitoring based on kernel partial least squares (KPLS) with improved contribution rate is proposed in this paper. First of all, a KPLS model is established with the actual historical data in order to detect the quality-related faults accurately. The T2 and SPE statistics are used to monitor the operation conditions of process from different aspects. Second, in view of the unclear physical meaning and complex computation of the existing fault identification methods based on KPLS with contribution rate, a scale factor vector is introduced into the new samples to calculate the T2 and SPE statistics, so as to construct the monitoring indicators functions. By performing Taylor approximation on these constructed functions near the scale factor with the value of 1, two new statistics are obtained from the absolute value of the first-order partial derivative representing the contribution rate of each variable. Finally, in order to further improve the effect of fault identification, the relative contribution rate of each variable is used to identify the final faulty variables. The tests of MIQ monitoring in BF ironmaking process using actual industrial data verify the validity and practicability of the proposed method.

Mathematic modelling of reliability, safety and risk indicators related to equipment elements existing at iron and steel enterprise

This article describes mathematical modelling of reliability, safety and risk indicators related to load bearing structural elements. The number of this type of cranes used at a modern iron and steel enterprise constitutes more than half of the total number of cranes. Therefore, the concerned issue and the problems addressed in this case represent current interest. Due to the impossibility of conducting a laboratory or a full-scale experiment, a numerical experiment is conducted using model distribution. Benchmark data used for calculations and based on previous studies performed by the author and available statistical data about incidents and damages are systematized and proposed. Hypotheses about addition and multiplication of damages related to elements of the equipment under study are made. Modelling adequacy is observed when the experiment findings match with available data. Classification of incidents arising when metallurgical cranes are operated beyond the expiry of their warranty period is identified. These calculations and procedure develop the theory of structural risk analysis of complex technical systems and allow making correct engineering-related managerial decisions.

Залізодефіцитна анемія

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common group of blood diseases in the population (80–95% of all anemias), characterized by a decrease in the number of circulating red blood cells and / or hemoglobin per unit volume of blood below normal for a given age and sex. The article deals with the role of iron in the human body, the conditions associated with its deficiency, causes, clinical symptoms, diagnosis of this pathology. Recommendations are given for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia by modern iron preparations, the advantages of using in the complex correction of heme iron deficiency, ie in hemoglobin composition, iron, which is most easily absorbed by the body, have high efficiency and no side effects. Key words: iron deficiency anemia, hemoglobin, ferritin, anemic syndrome, sideropenic syndrome, pregnancy, treatment, heme iron, non-heme iron Richter FerroBio.

On improvement of corporate relations in the mining and metallurgical complex of Russia

The article emphasizes the need to improve the mechanisms of corporate interaction of companies of the domestic mining and metallurgical complex (MMC). A brief description of the modern iron ore base of Russia is given, rational industrial operation of which implies further innovative development of iron ore raw materials processing industries, strengthening of the position of Russian metallurgical and mining companies in domestic and world markets. The main typological forms of integration interaction between metallurgical and mining segments of MMC are considered. A brief analysis of the content of the corporate governance codes used by MMC companies has been provided. Key principles of improvement of integration interaction of mining-enrichment and metallurgical in the framework of industry corporate associations are proposed. Among them — factors (conditions) of strategic planning of development of MMC business groups. Recommendations are given to improve the practice of strategic planning of supply and investment activities of mining and processing mills.

Armoured sponge spicules from Panarea Island (Italy): Implications for their fossil preservation

A variety of calcareous and siliceous skeletal components are associated with exceptional, still active deposits of modern iron ooids off Panarea, one of the volcanic islands of the Aeolian Arc (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Both ooids and skeletal components occur as loose sediments influenced by submarine hydrothermal fluid vents. Whereas iron ooids are exclusively made of goethite laminae primarily nucleated on volcaniclastic material, sponge spicules – that represent most of the siliceous skeletal component – develop laminated coatings (concretions) of varying sizes. This partial or total coating consists of regularly banded Fe‒rich layers exhibiting the same textural features and mineralogical composition (goethite) of the ooid cortex developed around inorganic cores. Spicules did not reveal any obvious attaching structure or interfingering with the surrounding coating and did not undergo bioerosion or any other evidence of biological intervention during their development. A hydrothermal origin, compatible with the general setting, is therefore proposed for these armoured sponge spicules. We believe that this unique modern case of iron concretions produced on siliceous spicules can contribute to explain other known fossil cases as well as to understand the taphonomy of this type of biogenic silica that seems rarely to have been preserved in such an extreme habitat.

Archiving Indigenous Knowledge on Pottery Making Among Macca Oromo: West Shoa Zone in Focus

Indigenous knowledge is a wisdom born in the community by the community. These knowledge and wisdom play a remarkable role in socio economic development of a certain country. Pottery making is an indigenous knowledge in which made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln which removes all the water from the clay , which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape. There may be occasions when potteries no longer have any use due to plastic and related object replacement among the many possible reasons, at least in everyday’s use. This may result in the extinction (distinction) of the pottery. Furthermore some indigenous knowledge dies away with some potteries in the community. Therefore, this research will be a good beginning for the pottery making as economic empowerment among Macca Oromo, Ethiopia. The study area, west Shoa Zone; Tokkee Kuttayee, Iluu Galaan and Bakkoo Tibbee districts. For difficult to cover the whole Zone, the researchers were selected two villages from each district as study site in the region. Basically this research was created a baseline for researchers those interested on Oromo indigenous knowledge in general and Macca Oromo pottery making in particular. To mention some of the specific objectives: To revitalize the wisdom of pottery making among Macca Oromo, to indicate the role of IK for economic empowerment, and to indicate how artisan transfer their knowledge for the next generation. The major data collection instrument was questionnaire, focus group discussion, observation and interview. For such quanqualitative research, Systematic observation was assisted the researchers to master the scenario. To mention some of the findings, being asked whether they prefer pottery than modern iron products. 50 (24.9%) informants strongly agree, 71(35.3%) informants responded that agree and the rest 79 (39.3%) informants strongly disagree. There is statistical relationship between prefer pottery than modern iron products and use of equipments made from pottery at home (p-0.04). In addition, whether potteries are accessable from the market. Accordingly, 121 (60.2%) informants are strongly agree that potteires are easily accessable from market and the rest 79 (39.3%) responded strongly disagree that pottery products are not accessable from the market. As the table reveals, there is statistical relationship between accessibilities pottery and use of equipments made from pottery at home (p-0.03). The study proved that, among to Macca Oromo pottery making has three phases: Preparatory phase, Actual phase and Post phase. Pottery making is the indigenous knowledge practiced for a longer period of time among Macca Oromo. Keywords: pottery, archive, and indigenous knowledge DOI : 10.7176/JCSD/52-04 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Production Scheduling Optimization Algorithm for the Steel-Making Continuous Casting Processes

This paper investigates steel-making continuous casting (SCC) scheduling problem. SCC is a high temperature and large-scale logistics machining process with batch production at the last stage that was identified as the key process of modern iron and steel enterprises. This paper presents a mathematical model for scheduling SCC process. The model is developed as a Mixed Zero- One Linear programming (MZOLP) based on actual production situations of SCC. The objective is to schedule a set of charges (jobs) to minimize the earliness and tardiness penalty costs as well as the charge waiting time cost. The solution methodology is developed based on a branch-and-bound algorithm. A heuristic method is presented at the beginning of the search in order to compute an initial upper bound. A lower bound and an upper bound are developed and a method for reducing branches is established based on the batch production in the continuous casting (CC) stage. Moreover, branching schemes are proposed. The branch- and- bound algorithm incorporating the initial upper bound, the lower and upper bound, the method for reducing branches, and branching schemes is tested on a set of instances. The analysis shows the efficiency of the proposed features for the algorithm.

Modern Iron Ooids of Hydrothermal Origin as a Proxy for Ancient Deposits

We constrained the origin and genetic environment of modern iron ooids (sand-sized grains with a core and external cortex of concentric laminae) providing new tools for the interpretation of their fossil counterparts as well as the analogous particles discovered on Mars. Here, we report an exceptional, unique finding of a still active deposit of submillimetric iron ooids, under formation at the seabed at a depth of 80 m over an area characterized by intense hydrothermal activity off Panarea, a volcanic island north of Sicily (Italy). An integrated analysis, carried out by X-ray Powder Diffraction, Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy reveals that Panarea ooids are deposited at the seafloor as concentric laminae of primary goethite around existing nuclei. The process is rapid, and driven by hydrothermal fluids as iron source. A sub-spherical, laminated structure resulted from constant agitation and by degassing of CO2-dominated fluids through seafloor sediments. Our investigations point the hydrothermal processes as responsible for the generation of the Panarea ooids, which are neither diagenetic nor reworked. The presence of ooids at the seawater-sediments interface, in fact, highlights how their development and growth is still ongoing. The proposed results show a new process responsible for ooids formation and gain a new insight into the genesis of iron ooids deposits that are distributed at global scale in both modern and past sediments.