Intelligent control system for gaseous nitriding process

In the present paper, the solutions of the following research issues have been presented:• dependencies between the process parameters and the layer structure have been defined, which serve todevelop software for the control system of the process, with the view of obtaining a complex layerstructure and optimal kinetics of its creation and growth,• assumptions for the control system of the gaseous nitriding process have been developed on the basis ofa complementary cooperation of the mathematical model and the indications of the magnetic sensorregistering the nucleation and growth of the layer.These issues comprise two complementary ways towards the construction of intelligent control systems.The first one of them consists in developing innovative databases, expert systems to aid the operator indecision making regarding the choice of defined changes to the process parameters. This is connectedwith the knowledge of possibly all the factors and mechanisms which have an influence on the result ofthe process and which make it possible to design an algorithm of changes of process parameters thatcould guarantee optimal kinetics of the layer growth and its required structure. The other one additionallymakes use of specially constructed sensors, which having been placed directly in the processes react tothe growth of layers and their structure

Do I Have My Attention? Speed of Processing Advantages for the Self-Face Are Not Driven by Automatic Attention Capture

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally – inside the focus of attention – behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally – outside the focus of attention – in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers’ names. We interpret this as a “social importance” effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture

I Undervalue You but I Need You: The Dissociation of Attitude and Memory Toward In-Group Members

In the present study, the in-group bias or in-group derogation among mainland Chinese was investigated through a rating task and a recognition test. In two experiments,participants from two universities with similar ranks rated novel faces or names and then had a recognition test. Half of the faces or names were labeled as participants' own university and the other half were labeled as their counterpart. Results showed that, for either faces or names, rating scores for out-group members were consistently higher than those for in-group members, whereas the recognition accuracy showed just the opposite. These results indicated that the attitude and memory for group-relevant information might be dissociated among Mainland Chinese

Discovery of serum biomarkers for pancreatic adenocarcinoma using proteomic analysis

Background and aims:The serum/plasma proteome was explored for biomarkers to improve the diagnostic ability of CA19-9 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC).Methods:A Training Set of serum samples from 20 resectable and 18 stage IV PC patients, 54 disease controls (DCs) and 68 healthy volunteers (HVs) were analysed by surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). The resulting protein panel was validated on 40 resectable PC, 21 DC and 19 HV plasma samples (Validation-1 Set) and further by ELISA on 33 resectable PC, 28 DC and 18 HV serum samples (Validation-2 Set). Diagnostic panels were derived using binary logistic regression incorporating internal cross-validation followed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.Results:A seven-protein panel from the training set PC vs DC and from PC vs HV samples gave the ROC area under the curve (AUC) of 0.90 and 0.90 compared with 0.87 and 0.91 for CA19-9. The AUC was greater (0.97 and 0.99, P0.05) when CA19-9 was added to the panels and confirmed on the validation-1 samples. A simplified panel of apolipoprotein C-I (ApoC-I), apolipoprotein A-II (ApoA-II) and CA19-9 was tested on the validation-2 set by ELISA, in which the ROC AUC was greater than that of CA19-9 alone for PC vs DC (0.90 vs 0.84) and for PC vs HV (0.96 vs 0.90).Conclusions:A simplified diagnostic panel of CA19-9, ApoC-I and ApoA-II improves the diagnostic ability of CA19-9 alone and may have clinical utility

Overweight, physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption in a cross-sectional random sample of German adults

BACKGROUND: There is a current paucity of data on the health behaviour of non-selected populations in Central Europe. Data on health behaviour were collected as part of the EMIL study which investigated the prevalence of infection with Echinococcus multilocularis and other medical conditions in an urban German population. METHODS: Participating in the present study were 2,187 adults (1,138 females [52.0%]; 1,049 males [48.0%], age: 18–65 years) taken from a sample of 4,000 persons randomly chosen from an urban population. Data on health behaviour like physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption were obtained by means of a questionnaire, documentation of anthropometric data, abdominal ultrasound and blood specimens for assessment of chemical parameters. RESULTS: The overall rate of participation was 62.8%. Of these, 50.3% of the adults were overweight or obese. The proportion of active tobacco smokers stood at 30.1%. Of those surveyed 38.9% did not participate in any physical activity. Less than 2 hours of leisure time physical activity per week was associated with female sex, higher BMI (Body Mass Index), smoking and no alcohol consumption. Participants consumed on average 12 grams of alcohol per day. Total cholesterol was in 62.0% (>5.2 mmol/l) and triglycerides were elevated in 20.5% (≥ 2.3 mmol/l) of subjects studied. Hepatic steatosis was identified in 27.4% of subjects and showed an association with male sex, higher BMI, higher age, higher total blood cholesterol, lower HDL, higher triglycerides and higher ALT. CONCLUSION: This random sample of German urban adults was characterised by a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. This and the pattern of alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity can be considered to put this group at high risk for associated morbidity and underscore the urgent need for preventive measures aimed at reducing the significantly increased health risk

Is That Me or My Twin? Lack of Self-Face Recognition Advantage in Identical Twins

Despite the increasing interest in twin studies and the stunning amount of research on face recognition, the ability of adult identical twins to discriminate their own faces from those of their co-twins has been scarcely investigated. One’s own face is the most distinctive feature of the bodily self, and people typically show a clear advantage in recognizing their own face even more than other very familiar identities. Given the very high level of resemblance of their faces, monozygotic twins represent a unique model for exploring self-face processing. Herein we examined the ability of monozygotic twins to distinguish their own face from the face of their co-twin and of a highly familiar individual. Results show that twins equally recognize their own face and their twin’s face. This lack of self-face advantage was negatively predicted by how much they felt physically similar to their co-twin and by their anxious or avoidant attachment style. We speculate that in monozygotic twins, the visual representation of the self-face overlaps with that of the co-twin. Thus, to distinguish the self from the co-twin, monozygotic twins have to rely much more than control participants on the multisensory integration processes upon which the sense of bodily self is based. Moreover, in keeping with the notion that attachment style influences perception of self and significant others, we propose that the observed self/co-twin confusion may depend upon insecure attachment

The influence of thickness of CrN coating on the durability of hot forging dies covered WITH hybrid layer "nitrided layer / CrN coating

W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań, które pozwoliły określić rolę powłoki CrN oraz wpływ jej grubości na skuteczność warstwy hybrydowej "warstwa azotowana / CrN" w procesie zwiększania trwałości matryc kuźniczych. Matryce pokryte warstwami hybrydowymi "warstwa azotowana / CrN" o różnej grubości powłoki CrN, po różnym czasie eksploatacji, poddano badaniom metalograficznym, badaniom kształtu 3D, analizie SEM oraz wyznaczono rozkłady twardości. Uzyskane wyniki badań wykazały, że dla wszystkich badanych matryc, niezależnie od grubości powłoki CrN, głównymi mechanizmami ich niszczenia było zmęczenie cieplno-mechaniczne oraz odkształcenie plastyczne. Wykazano, że główną rolą powłoki CrN w warstwie hybrydowej "warstwa azotowana/powłoka PVD" jest przeciwdziałanie wpływowi wysokiej temperatury, której źródłem jest odkuwka, na materiał matrycy. W tym celu powłoka CrN powinna charakteryzować się znacznie niższym współczynnikiem przewodności cieplnej w stosunku do stali oraz małą kruchością, aby skutecznie przeciwstawiać się procesom zmęczeniowym w procesie kucia. Na podstawie badań przeprowadzonych metodą sin2[psi] wykazano istotne znaczenie naprężeń własnych w powłoce CrN na odporność zmęczeniową warstwy hybrydowej "warstwa azotowana / CrN" w procesie kucia.The article presents the results which enabled to determine the role of CrN coating and the influence of its thickness on the effectiveness of hybrid layer "nitrided layer / CrN coating" in the process of increasing the durability of forging dies. Dies coated with hybrid layers, "nitrided layer / CrN coating," with various CrN coating thickness were studied, in relation to different maintenance periods. The obtained results revealed that, for all tested dies, independent of CrN coating thickness, the main mechanisms of their destruction were mechanical and thermal fatigue and plastic deformation. It has been proven that the main role of the CrN coating in the hybrid layer, "nitrided layer / PVD coating" is to counteract a high temperature influence, the source of which is forging on die material. Based on testing conducted by means of the sin2[psi] method, a vital importance of stresses in the CrN coating for fatigue resistance of hybrid layer, "nitrided layer / CrN coating" in the forging process was revealed

Comparative research of wear resistance by friction of nitriding and carburized constructional steels

W pracy przedstawiono wyniki badań właściwości tribologicznych azotowanych i nawęglanych stali konstrukcyjnych 18HGT i 20MnCr5. Zauważono wprost proporcjonalną zależność ich odporności na zużycie od wartości nacisków powierzchniowych. Jednakże właściwości tarciowo-zużyciowe warstw nawęglanych i azotowanych nie wykazały znaczących różnic.This work presents the research results of tribological properties of constructional steels of grades 18HGT and 20MnCr5 after nitriding or carburizing. A directly proportional dependence of their wear resistance on the value of their surface pressures was stated. However, wear–friction properties of carburized and nitrided layers did not show any significant differences