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At the end of the 1890s, the SPD tried to establish a lasting foothold in Prussian Lithuania. In this multi-ethnic region, which is an integral part of East Prussia, the Social Democratic Party had to compete with many rivals (conservatives, liberals, national liberals and Lithuanian nationalists). However, while the SPD publicly professes an internationalism, it does not, paradoxically, assume a very real Germanic bias. This contradiction is particularly evident in Prussian Lithuania, where, despite encouraging results, the SPD did not succeed in getting one of its candidates elected. The national factor, assimilated by the rival parties, is certainly one of the causes. This article aims to understand the internal contradictions and hesitations of the SPD in the face of a multinational space, both theoretically and practically.

The small federal state Thuringia has been politically unique over the last two legislative terms in two respects: It is the only German state in which a minister president belonging to the Left Party is leading a left of center coalition government; in other states where the Left Party is participating in governmental coalitions it is always the SPD that is leading the government. And, at least since 2019, Thuringia is unique because it is ruled by a minority government of the Left Party, SPD, and Greens. This article argues that the first uniqueness is a historically contingent deviance from national patterns that can be explained by the electoral development of the Thuringian SPD. The unique type of minority government has been caused primarily by the electoral success of the AfD in Thuringia, and it might serve as a model for other federal states if coalition building becomes equally difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of archaeological proxy records representative of population dynamics is paramount for a richer understanding of prehistoric cultural change, but its use require a dialectic assessment between proximate climatic drivers and ultimate cultural responses. Focusing on the Stone Age archaeological record of Western Norway (11,500–4300 cal. BP), this paper presents an exhaustive empirical curation and statistical testing between changing climates and demographic responses among coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. The results connect long-term demographic fluctuations with changes in annual mean temperatures and seasonality and the results are discussed in relation changes in technology, subsistence and mobility. The paper also highlights the process of population decline and cultural loss towards the end of the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000–6000 cal. BP) and emerging cultural novelties and population re-growth during the Early and Middle Neolithic (ca. 6000–4300 cal. BP). However, despite its strong correlation, the archaeological record of Western Norway lacks sufficient detail to ascribe an exclusive explanatory role to climate change, especially in episodes of significant population decline. This helps to emphasise that changing climates, while evidently central, form but a part of a larger system of interactions leading to demographic fluctuations and cultural change, the substantiation of which requires significant empirical improvements to the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2 and TiO2:Cu films were deposited by spray pyrolysis (SP). X-ray diffraction reveals that deposited films have a polycrystalline structural. The AFM image of the surface reveals that roughness and root mean square affected by doping. Optical transmission of films was found to decrease from 94 % to 84 % with the as the doping percentage increase to 3. Optical bandgap (Eg) of TiO2 thin film was 3.947eV. The bandgap is shifted to lower energies upon doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle identification is an important feature of the future SPD (Spin Physics Detector) experiment at the NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) collider. In particular, the identification of particles with momenta up to a few GeV/c (with c the speed of light) by their time-of-flight facilitates the reconstruction of events of interest. The high time resolution of modern TOF (Time-Of-Flight) detectors demands the need to obtain the event collision time, t0, with comparable accuracy. While the determination of the collision time is feasible through the use of TOF signals supplemented by track reconstruction, it proves to be computationally expensive. In the presented study, a dedicated Genetic Algorithm is developed as a fast and accurate method to determine the proton–proton collision time by the measurements of the TOF detector at the SPD experiment. By using this reliable method for the t0 determination we compare different approaches for the particle identification procedure based on TOF signals.

In the process of inspecting the self-exploding defects of power line insulators, traditional algorithms suffer from various issues such as long detection time, insufficient accuracy, and difficulties in effective detection under complex environments. To address these problems, we introduce an advanced one-stage object detection algorithm called YOLOv5s, which offers fast training and excellent detection performance. In this paper, we applied the YOLOv5s algorithm to improve the detection precision and classification accuracy of insulator self-explosions. To further enhance the YOLOv5s algorithm, we introduced a BiFPN (Bidirectional Feature Pyramid Network) module for feature fusion. This module improved the feature fusion process by learning the importance weights of different input features, considering their contributions. To tackle the challenge of detecting small objects in the self-exploding insulator dataset, we incorporated an SPD (spatial-to-depth convolution) module that focuses on capturing features in small regions and utilizes one-step convolution layers to avoid losing fine-grained information. To address the issue of high similarity between self-exploding insulator regions and intact insulator regions, we introduced an attention mechanism that concentrates attention on the defective insulator regions to gather more information about insulator defects. Experimental results validate that all three improvement methods significantly enhance detection precision. The final model achieves improvements of 2.0% in precision, 0.9% in recall, and 1.5% in average detection accuracy. Through target detection of the test dataset, insulators with self-explosion cases can be effectively detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the detection and recognition of specific types of an aircraft in remote sensing images, this paper proposes an algorithm called Fine-grained S2ANet (FS2ANet) based on the improved Single-shot Alignment Network (S2ANet) for remote sensing aircraft object detection and fine-grained recognition. Firstly, to address the imbalanced number of instances of various aircrafts in the dataset, we perform data augmentation on some remote sensing images using flip and color space transformation methods. Secondly, this paper selects ResNet101 as the backbone, combines space-to-depth (SPD) to improve the FPN structure, constructs the FPN-SPD module, and builds the aircraft fine feature focusing module (AF3M) in the detection head of the network, which reduces the loss of fine-grained information in the process of feature extraction, enhances the extraction capability of the network for fine aircraft features, and improves the detection accuracy of remote sensing micro aircraft objects. Finally, we use the SkewIoU based on Kalman filtering (KFIoU) as the algorithm's regression loss function, improving the algorithm's convergence speed and the object boxes' regression accuracy. The experimental results of the detection and fine-grained recognition of 11 types of remote sensing aircraft objects such as Boeing 737, A321, and C919 using the FS2ANet algorithm show that the mAP0.5 of FS2ANet is 46.82%, which is 3.87% higher than S2ANet, and it can apply to the field of remote sensing aircraft object detection and fine-grained recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a special disconnector for surge protector (SPD) with the ability to pass large pulse currents under multiple pulses, which has been verified to solve the problem of SPD fire and combustion under multiple pulses in engineering applications. The safety problem caused by the lightning strike failure of SPD has always been a difficult research point in low-voltage power distribution systems, especially the failure mechanism under multi-pulse lightning strike is still unclear. In this paper, the multi-pulse lightning generator is used to simulate the multi-pulse lightning current to carry out the SPD lightning impulse test. The results show that the SPD will have short-circuit breakdown and fire and combustion under multi-pulse lightning strikes, mainly because the continuous pulses will generate energy superposition, and the built-in disconnector and external disconnector fuses and circuit breakers cannot effectively cooperate with the SPD, and there is a protection blind spot. As a result, the SPD cannot be quickly detached at the moment of a short circuit. Based on the thermal effect of multi-pulse lightning strikes, a multi-pulse SPD special disconnector is designed, which can effectively solve the problem of lightning strike ignition of SPD under multi-pulse lightning strikes, and is of great significance to the lightning protection safety of low-voltage power distribution systems.

In order to improve the efficiency of small target detection of steel surface defects, an improved Yolov7- tiny steel surface defect detection algorithm is proposed. The activation function of the feature extraction network is changed to SiLU to improve the feature extraction capability. The tensor splicing operation of the feature fusion network is combined with the weighted bidirectional feature pyramid BiFPN, and the nearest interpolation of the upper sampling part is replaced with the lightweight operator CARAFE to improve the feature fusion ability. Finally, the multi-head self-attention mechanism MHSA and SPD convolution building blocks are introduced at the output end to improve the detection performance of the output end for small targets of steel surface defects. The ablation and contrast experiments are carried out on the NEU-DET dataset. Compared with the original Yolov7-tiny algorithm, the improved algorithm has increased the mAP by 11.7 percentage points, the precision by 3.3 percentage points, and the FPS value reaches 192. The results show that the improved algorithm can effectively improve the detection efficiency of small targets of steel surface defects. Comparative experiments on the VOC2012 dataset show that the improved algorithm is universal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle identification is an important feature of the future SPD (Spin Physics Detector) experiment at the NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) collider. In particular, the identification of particles with momenta up to a few GeV / c (with c the speed of light) by their time-of-flight facilitates the reconstruction of events of interest. The high time resolution of modern TOF (Time-Of-Flight) detectors demands the need to obtain the event collision time, t 0 , with comparable accuracy. While the determination of the collision time is feasible through the use of TOF signals supplemented by track reconstruction, it proves to be computationally expensive. In the presented study, a dedicated Genetic Algorithm is developed as a fast and accurate method to determine the proton–proton collision time by the measurements of the TOF detector at the SPD experiment. By using this reliable method for the t 0 determination we compare different approaches for the particle identification procedure based on TOF signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politische Vierteljahresschrift is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After a long malaise, social democracy is making a muted revival. What is the place of social democracy in the political and economic order that is emerging from the Covid‐19 pandemic, and the economic crisis that has followed in its wake? Patterns have begun to emerge across the party family that are indicative of how social democracy is defining itself for the period to come. This article briefly surveys the revival of social democracy in three countries that have been historic bastions of the creed: Germany, Britain and Australia. It considers three particularly potent trends in this social democratic moment that reveal the movement's current character and the challenges it faces: building an ongoing coalition amid changing electorates; seeking transformation in an era of constraint; and a lack of ideological coherence. It considers what this muted resurgence suggests about the prospects for the centre‐left. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AA5083 bars processed by four pass ambient Equal Channel Angular Pressing were subjected to intersection annealing, where time and temperature were varied after each pass. The microstructures, texturing and compressive characteristics of the samples were meticulously examined. Due to the high annealing temperatures, both ultimate tensile strength and compressive stresses decreased with increasing grain size. However, intersection annealing at room temperature resulted in the best compressive yield strength. The deformation behavior of AA5083 billets was investigated using finite element analysis. Electron back scatter diffraction was employed to examine the texture of the Equal Channel Angular Pressed billet crystals. Extensive research was conducted on the tensile properties and Vickers microhardness. The finite element simulations revealed that the 900 die exhibited a significantly more uniform dispersion of plastic strain compared to the 1200 die. The renewal of additional slip mechanisms during the four Pass process was attributed to the grain refining that occurred after the 1-Pass and 2-Pass stages. Equal Channel Angular Pressing successfully produced a homogeneously ultra-fine grained microstructure. The increase in strength was attributed to grain refining and dislocation strengthening. Molecular dynamics simulations were employed to study the ECAPed approach of AA5083 providing insights into the deformation behavior and polycrystal formation.

Los sistemas personalizados de dosificación (SPD) constituyen un recurso primordial para mejorar la adherencia farmacoterapéutica desde la farmacia comunitaria. El farmacéutico comunitario (FC), al ofrecer el SPD como servicio profesional farmacéutico asistencial, debe aprovechar todo su potencial para alcanzar objetivos terapéuticos, además del acondicionamiento de la medicación en el blíster desechable, e incorporar Revisiones del Uso de los Medicamentos (RUM), seguimiento farmacoterapéutico y un contacto frecuente con familia y demás equipo de salud que atienden al paciente. En este caso, conscientes de la importancia de un seguimiento cercano, especialmente durante el confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19 y en una paciente con enfermedad de Alzheimer, se consigue mejorar la adherencia terapéutica gracias a un servicio farmacéutico que, más allá del blíster, incluye entrevistas con cuidadora y familia, revisiones del uso de medicación semanales, indicación farmacéutica y contacto directo con el médico de atención primaria (MAP) en situaciones complejas como, por ejemplo: aparición de nuevos problemas de salud y reacciones adversas a los medicamentos (RAM), provocados por medicamentos o dificultad para tragar sólidos. En este caso, debido al aislamiento provocado por el confinamiento, se incluyen además servicios de Atención Farmacéutica Domiciliaria (AFD) y dispensación a domicilio. Protocolizar y realizar una revisión de mediación semanal en el servicio de SPD mejora la adherencia y la consecución de objetivos terapéuticos. La colaboración entre médico, farmacéutico y familia facilita el seguimiento de los pacientes adheridos al servicio para conseguir resultados en salud.

Subcorneal pustular dermatosis (SPD), also called Sneddon-Wilkinson disease, is a rare, relapsing pustular dermatosis. SPD has been associated with multiple myeloma, IgA Gammopathy, pyoderma gangrenosum and certain autoimmune diseases.2 However, SPD occurrence following SARS-COV-2 has not yet been reported. Herein, we report a case of SPD occurring after SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 52-year-old male. We hypothesize that the occurrence of SPD shortly following SARS-CoV-2 infection suggests the viral illness may have precipitated onset of SPD, and the patient may remain at risk for future flares of disease despite appropriate treatment and current remission status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) and splenectomy with periesophagogastric devascularization (SPD) are widely used to treat cirrhotic portal hypertension (PH) and prevent variceal rebleeding. However, direct comparisons between these two approaches are rare. This study was designed to compare the long-term outcomes of TIPS and SPD in patients with cirrhotic PH and variceal rebleeding. Methods: The study included cirrhotic PH patients with a history of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding between 18 and 80 years of age who were admitted to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from January 2012 to January 2022. Patients were enrolled into two groups according to TIPS or SPD was performed. Baseline characteristics were matched using propensity score matching (PSM). Results: A total of 230 patients underwent TIPS, while 184 underwent SPD. PSM was carried out to balance available covariates, resulting in a total of 83 patients in the TIPS group and 83 patients in the SPD group. Patients in SPD group had better liver function during 60 months follow-up. Five-year overall survival rates in SPD group and TIPS group were 72 and 27%, respectively, at 2 years were 88 and 86%, respectively. The 2- and 5-year freedom from variceal rebleeding rates were 95 and 80% in SPD group and 80 and 54% in TIPS group. Conclusions: SPD is clearly superior to TIPS in terms of OS and freedom from variceal rebleeding in patients with cirrhotic PH. In addition, SPD improved liver function in patients with cirrhotic PH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Copper-Nickel alloy, C70600, was subjected to severe plastic deformation by the equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) technique. The material was pressed at room temperature along route BC for eight passes. Microstructural analysis and mechanical characterization of the material were done for each of the ECAP pass samples. The initial homogenized material having equiaxial grains of average grain size 75 µm was reduced to 20 µm after eight ECAP passes. Electron backscatter diffraction data presented an increase in low angle grain boundaries with an increase in the number of ECAP passes. Initially, the ultimate tensile strength and the hardness increased by 56% and 94% respectively. After the fifth ECAP pass, a drastic reduction in ultimate tensile strength and ductility was witnessed. Hardness value remained constant after the fifth ECAP pass. Fractography analysis indicate the ductile mode of fracture with reduced dimple size at higher ECAP passes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlSi11 matrix composites reinforced with SiC particles have been fabricated by high pressure die casting assisted by ultrasonic mixing. Severe plastic deformation process was performed on the as cast AlSi/2wt.%SiC composite using the modified channel with the twisted output (TCAP) at three temperatures of 350, 400 and 450 °C. The TCAP tool consists of helical part in the horizontal area of the channel allowing for simulation of back pressure and thus resulted in the increase of extrusion force and local plastic deformation. The most important issue of the presented investigations was to refine dendritic cast microstructure of the prepared composite during one pass of TCAP. As a result, a composite with a matrix containing equiaxed α(Al) grains of few microns depending on TCAP temperature and β(Si) particles of about 1 μm in size with twinned structure was produced. The dynamic recrystallization process during TCAP at 450 °C manifested by the grain growth of α(Al) and decrease of dislocation density was observed to affect the sample hardness causing its decrease. The mechanical properties of the composite extruded by TCAP were measured by compression testes and the maximum plastic deformation of about 35% and the compressive strength near 300 MPa were observed. These values were similar for all samples extruded at temperatures between 350 and 450 °C and generally are better comparing with AK11 alloy subjected to different plastic deformation processes.

This study aims to determine the basic physical properties of varistor, which is a protective element in a surge protection device (SPD) used to prevent damage to electric and electronic equipment due to lightning. To do this, we conducted tests of insulation resistance, leakage current, heating characteristics, accelerated aging, impulse current, and operating duty according to temperature. To measure insulation resistance and leakage current, an S1-1568 insulation resistance tester was used. To measure the temperature rise according to a change in the external environment, a convection oven was employed. For the impulse current test, a surge current generator of a direct lightning strike, which was designed and manufactured according to the IEEE and UL standards, was used. We verified that the leakage current increased and the insulation resistance decreased as the voltage and outside temperature were applied to the varistor. This meant that heating and deterioration accelerated due to the leakage current, depending on the place where the SPD was applied. Heat accumulation due to constant heating could cause a change in the physical properties of a varistor and degradation of performance, leading to failure. The impulse current test results of the varistor through the operating duty test showed that changes in insulation resistance and leakage current did not occur significantly with an increase in the number of impulse applications when the less than the maximum surge currents. On the other hand, the maximum surge current was exceeded, the insulation resistance rapidly decreased, which also rapidly increased the leakage current.

The production of nanostructure materials or ultrafine grain (UFG) has been noticed by most of research society due to high strength, wear resistance, formability and high plastic strain rate. These features result from microstructure materials (100-300 nm) and unique defect (grain boundary-dislocation) make these material ideal for medical implant and structured components of aerospace and energy systems. The ways of producing UFG for these advanced engineering projects have not been considered yet. Due to the fact that nanostructured materials can show a good mechanical strength, researchers are using different ways to change pure copper into nanostructure one. One of these methods is applying process in equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), which coarse grain copper changed to nanostructure one. In this study, machinability of UFG as well as coarse grain (CG) copper is really considered in turning. To evaluate the machinability, cutting force, tool wear, chip morphology and surface roughness have been studied. Experimental results confirmed that UFG copper can be machined more efficiently than CG copper. In other words, the amount of BUE is reduced during turning ECAP copper due to the hardening of the pure sample. In comparison to CG copper, cutting force and surface roughness for UFG copper were less. As a result, machining performance can be improved partly by cold-work applying ECAP process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual rolls equal channel extrusion (DRECE) is an unconventional severe plastic deformation (SPD) process that can effectively produce the ultrafine-grained microstructure in metals and alloys. Previously, the DRECE process carried out on non-ferrous alloys and low-carbon steels were mostly focused on the influence of process parameters on the mechanical properties. The aim of this study was the evolution of the microstructure and texture in the DC01 low-carbon steel strip after the subsequent passes of the DRECE process. The scanning transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with an electron backscattering diffraction detector were used for microstructure investigations. Observations after selected DRECE passes revealed defected microstructure, characteristic for the materials after SPD processes, in the form of numerous dislocation tangles, systems with dense dislocation walls and dislocation cell blocks. The texture analysis showed that with the increase of strain, the rolling texture has weakened in the tested material. These changes were accompanied by the microhardness rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let D be an integral domain with quotient field K , throughout. Call two elements x , y ∈ D ∖ { 0 } v -coprime if x D ∩ y D = x y D. Call a nonzero non-unit r of an integral domain D rigid if for all x , y | r we have x | y or y | x. Also, call D semirigid if every nonzero non-unit of D is expressible as a finite product of rigid elements. We show that a semirigid domain D is a GCD domain if and only if D satisfies ∗ : product of every pair of non- v -coprime rigid elements is again rigid. Next, call a ∈ D a valuation element if a V ∩ D = a D for some valuation ring V with D ⊆ V ⊆ K and call D a VFD if every nonzero non-unit of D is a finite product of valuation elements. It turns out that a valuation element is what we call a packed element: a rigid element r all of whose powers are rigid and r D is a prime ideal. Calling D a semi-packed domain (SPD) if every nonzero non-unit of D is a finite product of packed elements, we study SPDs and explore situations in which a variant of an SPD is a semirigid GCD domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Przegląd Elektrotechniczny is the property of Przeglad Elektrotechniczny and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Farmacéuticos Comunitarios is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Farmacia Familiar y Comunitaria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) techniques have been used by researchers for last three decades in order to obtain Ultra-Fine Grained (UFG) materials. Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is preferred more than other SPD techniques thanks to its high performance and practicability. Hexa Equal Channel Angular Pressing (Hexa-ECAP) – modified ECAP technique which enables to apply ECAP routes for cylindrical samples properly – was preferred in this study. Within the objective of this study, the effects of coefficient and ram velocity on the mean effective strain and strain inhomogeneity of Hexa-ECAP processed Al7075 aluminium alloy were investigated. Also, the effects of ram velocity and friction coefficient on hardness homogeneity were investigated benefitting from the similarity between the hardness distribution and the strain distribution.

BackgroundCurrent studies on the protective effects of dietary spermidine (SPD) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) are mainly limited to animal studies, and the relationship between dietary SPD and CVD mortality remains inconclusive.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the association between dietary SPD intake and CVD and all-cause mortality.MethodsA total of 23,894 people enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 to 2014 were recruited for this study. The dietary intake of SPD from 11 specific food origins and total SPD was categorized into tertiles or quartiles. Cox proportional hazard regression models were developed to evaluate the association of SPD intake with CVD and all-cause mortalities.ResultsAmong the 23,894 participants, 2,365 deaths, including 736 deaths due to CVD, were documented. After adjustment for potential confounders, compared with participants in the lowest quartile, participants in the highest quartile of total SPD had a significantly lower risk of CVD mortality (HR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.51–0.91) and all-cause mortality (HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.60–0.82); participants in the highest tertiles or quartiles of vegetable-derived SPD, cereal-derived SPD, legume-derived SPD, nut-derived SPD, and cheese-derived SPD had a lower risk of CVD mortality (HR vegetable − derivedSPD = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.54–0.86; HR cereal − derivedSPD = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.57–0.97; HR legume − derivedSPD = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88; HR nut − derivedSPD = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.53–0.80; HR cheese − derivedSPD = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88) and all-cause mortality (HR vegetable − derivedSPD = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.64–0.84; HR cereal − derivedSPD = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.69–0.93; HR legume − derivedSPD = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.60–0.80;HR nut − derivedSPD = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.64–0.81; HR cheese − derivedSPD = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.61–0.81) than those in the lowest tertiles or quartiles. Moreover, subgroup analysis showed consistent associations among the people with hypertension and hyperlipidemia.ConclusionHigher intake of dietary SPD is associated with decreased risk of CVD and all-cause mortality, and among specific food origin SPD, SPD derived from vegetables, cereals, legumes, nuts, and cheese was associated with reduced CVD and all-cause mortality.

The effects of severe plastic deformation (SPD) with a forward-backward rotating die (KOBO extrusion) on pure magnesium, in the form of cold-compacted powder, sintered powder, or cast ingots as reference, were examined. This method is known to reinforce metals, but the role of the initial form of magnesium applied in the fabrication of metal-based rods, as well as related phenomena, has not been characterized until now. The problem is important in the potential processing of commercial metal powders, the recycling of metal shavings, and the fabrication of metal matrix composites with discontinuous reinforcing phases. In the presented experiments, rods of 8 mm in diameter and 400 mm in length were obtained, and the structural effects induced by KOBO that occurred on a macro- and microscale on the surface and cross sections were characterized. Changes in the size and orientation of α-Mg crystallites were determined by XRD. The porosity, hardness, tensile strength, and compressive strength were measured, and the mechanisms of decohesion dependent on starting metal form were analyzed. After KOBO extrusion, significant differences were observed in the microstructure and properties between the materials derived from cold-compacted powder, sintered powder, and reference cast magnesium. Due to the application of KOBO, apart from α-Mg grain refinement, the MgO derived from the initial powder's surface was refined to fine regular particles surrounded by magnesium. Their bands curved in the perpendicular plane and were oriented with the extrusion direction of the formed network, which augmented some mechanical properties and changed the decohesion mechanism. The conducted experiments revealed that before extrusion by KOBO, the magnesium powder required sintering under pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to using bio-metals, the chemical and biocompatibility properties of titanium led to its widespread use in biomedical implants. However, pure titanium possesses lower mechanical properties than Ti alloys containing cytotoxic elements. Severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques were able to cause a significant strength increase, corrosion behavior improvement, and the release of the alloying elements. In this study, the ECAP process was performed on commercially pure titanium with a square cross-section at two and four passes, which resulted in a finer grain size and a more uniform microstructure. In order to improve cell behaviors, etch treatment was performed to produce nano-rough and nano-texture surfaces for all Ti samples. The effect of surface etching on corrosion, surface roughness, and cell behaviors on ECAP and untreated samples was also investigated. Optical/Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, and X-Ray Diffraction were used to study the microstructural characterizations of samples. In addition, the impact of grain structure on the contact angle, electrochemical corrosion behavior, osteoblast response, and cell viability was investigated. The titanium that was ECAPed four times provided finer grains (200 nm) than the unprocessed sample (25 µm). The potentiodynamic polarization test revealed that corrosion resistance of ECAPed samples was enhanced, which was associated with grain refinement, affecting the passive film formation. Corrosion resistance and wettability experienced an apparent increase after each ECAP pass. In conclusion, improvement of grain size and surface roughness was due to the simultaneous effect of ECAP and etching treatment that led to the osteoblast response and cellular activity of samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is one of the most effective techniques for the formation of ultra-fine grained bulk material. The material is passed through the channel in the specially designed die in the ECAP process. The die design parameters like corner angle, channel angle and other parameters play an important role in the formation of ultra-fine grains. The die with optimum design parameters, with channel angle 90° and corner angle 20°, was designed and fabricated in the laboratory and commercial Aluminium AA6063 was used as sample material to investigate the mechanical behaviour/properties before and after the ECAP process. In the present work, the mechanical behaviour of commercially pure Aluminium processed by ECAP die with an optimum die design parameter is studied and examined. The path adopted was BC and pressing was done from 0 to 3 numbers of times. The results revealed that the grain size reduced from 530 to 220 nm and tensile strength increases from 275.8 to 368.4 MPa after three numbers of ECAP passes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of SPD techniques are applicable and have been studied by various researchers. All of them have several advantages and disadvantages. Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is one of the most popular SPD techniques and is still being developed. The aim of this paper is to improve the efficiency of ECAP process by putting forward a novel design (Twisted Variable Channel Angular Pressing (TV-CAP)) and also to achieve higher mechanical properties when compared to conventional ECAP processes. For this purpose, a new TV-CAP die was designed by combining three different methods: ECAP, Twist Extrusion, and Direct Extrusion. The new design was able to integrate the advantages of each method to the workpiece material. In this context, the design parameters of the TV-CAP die were first identified by finite element analysis (FEA) in Deform-3D. The TV-CAP die was produced according to the determined parameters and AA5083 alloy was pressed with this novel die. Hardness and tensile tests were carried out to compare mechanical properties. In addition, Optical Microscope, SEM, TEM images were taken, and XRD and EBSD analyses were carried out to examine the changes in grain structure. As a result of this experimental study, an increase of 197.3% was observed in the hardness value and an increase of 144.7% was achieved in the tensile strength value by using the novel TV-CAP die. These results also agreed with the effective strain values obtained from the FEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]