About SPS CommerceSPS Commerce is the leading provider of hosted supply chain integration services. The company specializes in managing trading partner enablement and management programs to increase the depth and/or breadth of integration with trading partners -- especially small and mid-sized partners. Our solution has helped many large retailers and distributors, electronically enable and integrate over 52,000 trading partners into their e-supply chain. For more information, visit www.spscommerce.com or call (651) 603-4400. SPS Commerce is a registered trademark of SPS Commerce Inc., spscommerce.net and the SPS Commerce logo are the property of SPS Commerce, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders. In 1996 my wife and I purchased a house on 15 acres in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The land, which had been neglected for many years, consisted of about two acres of lawn, another two acres of badly overgrown pasture and the remainder was wild woods. We knew we needed a tractor to help us take care of it all, but what kind, how big, what features and how much were all questions we hadn''t a clue how to answer. Since then we''ve learned a lot about tractors from friends, neighbors, tractor dealers and, of course, the Internet. We also learned we weren''t alone: Lots of other people moving from a city environment to a rural one had many of the same questions about tractors. This article is condensed from the information we''ve learned about tractors over the past several years. I decided to gather the common questions and answers we''d discovered into a Web site called "The Small Tractor FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)." You are welcome to visit the Web site (www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/kb13/TF_home.htm), which contains links to tractor manufacturers, implement suppliers, tractor discussion groups and lots of other information and resources for and about small tractors.

This article is the story of our experiences developing and running the iWRS AI control system.The Early YearsBy 1995, the AI controls team had been working with several groups in the Crew and Thermal Systems Division (CTSD), building Al control systems in support of CTSD''s investigations in advanced life support (ALS). In 1995, they put a man in an airlock linked to a 10-foot-diameter chamber full of wheat (Laifook and Ambrose 1997). For 15 days, the man lived, worked, and exercised in the chamber as the wheat crop took in his carbon dioxide and produced oxygen for him. The control system--our first for ALS--monitored and provided caution and warnings for the climate and nutrient environment of the wheat crop.

Although this article started with a general overview of the iron and steel industry, we will refer only to one process for the rest of this feature, a gray iron foundry using an electric arc furnace. We will see how important brick and refractory are and why everyone should pay attention to their brick and refractory designs and installations.History and Background of the Electric Arc FurnaceThe electric arc furnace (EAF) has been around since the early 1900s and is primarily used to produce high quality alloy steels. EAFs have refractory-lined steel shells and vary ill size from only a few feet in diameter to twenty feet or more. The bottom, or hearth, of the furnace is dished to hold the metal charge. The vertical side walls include one or more doors and a tapping spout for removing the melted charge. The roof over the furnace is dome-shaped, and incorporates two or three openings near its center for the admission of electrodes into the furnace. The roof is usually detachable and is lifted off or turned aside for charging. The whole furnace structure is tilted forward and backward for slag skimming or tapping. The furnace capacity will depend upon the size of the furnace and can be less then one ton per charge to up to eighty-five tons per charge.

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