Integration of Open Slag Bath Furnace with Direct Reduction Reactors for New-Generation Steelmaking

The present paper illustrates an innovative steel processing route developed by employing hydrogen direct reduced pellets and an open slag bath furnace. The paper illustrates the direct reduction reactor employing hydrogen as reductant on an industrial scale. The solution allows for the production of steel from blast furnace pellets transformed in the direct reduction reactor. The reduced pellets are then melted in open slag bath furnaces, allowing carburization for further refining. The proposed solution is clean for the decarbonization of the steel industry. The kinetic, chemical and thermodynamic issues are detailed with particular attention paid to the slag conditions. The proposed solution is also supported by the economic evaluation compared to traditional routes

Photon-Photon and Photon-Hadron Physics at Relativistic Heavy Ion Colliders

Due to the coherence of all the protons in a nucleus, there are very strong electromagnetic fields of short duration in relativistic heavy ion collisions. They give rise to quasireal photon-photon and photon-nucleus collisions with a large flux. RHIC will begin its experimental program this year and such types of collisions will be studied experimentally at the STAR detector. RHIC will have the highest flux of (quasireal) photons up to now in the GeV region. At the LHC the invariant mass range available in gamma-gamma-interactions will be of the order of 100 GeV, i.e., in the range currently available at LEP2, but with a higher gamma-gamma-luminosity. Therefore one has there also the potential to study new physics. (Quasireal) photon-hadron (i.e., photon-nucleus) interactions can be studied as well, similar to HERA, at higher invariant masses. Vector mesons can be produced coherently through photon-Pomeron and photon-meson interactions in exclusive reactions such as A+A -> A+A+V, where A is the heavy ion and V=rho,omega,phi or J/Psi.Comment: 6 pages, to be published in the proceedings of the Photon'99 conferenc

Clonal mast cell disorders limited to bone marrow: not a negligible disease.

Background. The diagnosis of mastocytosis in absence of the typical skin lesions is often difficult. It should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a number of unexplained clinical conditions, such as severe anaphylaxis, osteoporosis, neurological or constitutional symptoms, and chronic diarrhoea. Isolated bone marrow mastocytosis (BMM) is considered a rare subcategory of indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM), characterized by low burden of mast cells (MC), absence of skin, lymph node or multiorgan involvement, slightly elevated serum tryptase (sT) levels, and a good prognosis. The term Monoclonal Mast cell Activation Syndrome (MMAS) is used to define those patients with mediator-related symptoms and absence of skin lesions in which bone marrow (BM) biopsy fails to demonstrate multifocal MC aggregates (i.e. the major criterion for diagnosing mastocytosis), but there is a proof of MC clonality (abnormal MC immunophenotype or detection of a KIT mutation). Data about these conditions are scanty. Aims. To define the frequency and characteristics of clonal MC disorders limited to BM in a cooperative multidisciplinary setting. Methods. From January 2006 to December 2009 144 adult patients with a clinical suspect of mastocytosis were referred to our multidisciplinary ambulatory for Mastocytosis, based on close collaboration between Hematologists, Allergists, Dermatologists and Rheumatologists. All patients underwent BM evaluation that included histology/citology, flow cytometry, and detection of KIT mutations, performed as described (Bonadonna et al., JACI 2009).Results. According to the current WHO guidelines, we made 111 diagnoses of clonal MC disorders: ISM with skin involvement were 48 (43.2%), BMM 40 (36%), MMAS 13 (11.7%). The remaining patients had Cutaneous Mastocytosis (9) and Mast Cell Leukemia (1). Among the 53 patients with clonal MC disorders limited to BM, the large majority of them (96%) had experienced one or more episodes of severe ana- phylaxis after hymenoptera sting, drug or food or showed unexplained anaphylaxis. Two patients were referred to our Ambulatory because of unexplained osteoporosis. Compared to cases of ISM with skin involvement, patients with BMM or MMAS were predominantly males and, as expected, they had an inferior burden of MC, as suggested by the lower sT levels and the inferior percentage of BM abnormal MC at flow cytometry. Moreover, mediator-related symptoms other than anaphylaxis, such as pruritus, flushing, diarrhoea, hypotension,were less frequent in patients with MC disease limited to BM. Densitometric examination revealed 22/76 cases (29%) of osteoporosis or osteopenia, according to WHO definitions, without differences between subgroups. After a median follow-up of 22 months (range 1-48) all patients are alive and have stable disease. Conclusions. Clonal MC disorders limited to BM are a challenge for the physician. A close collaboration between different specialists may allow that more patients with clinical suspicion of mastocytosis could be referred to the opportune diagnostic procedures. In our experience this led to individuate 53 cases of isolated BMM or MMAS, the largest series reported to date. Besides making a correct diagnosis, this approach revealed a significant proportion of patients with loss of bone mineral density, so improving the management of this disease