Effect of post-weld heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of arc welded medium carbon steel was investigated. Medium carbon steel samples were butt-welded by using the shielded metal arc welding technique and, thereafter, heat treated by annealing, normalising and quench hardening in water. The microstructure of the as-welded and post-weld heated samples was characterised by means of optical microscopy while the hardness, toughness and tensile properties of the samples were determined by using Indentec universal hardness testing machine, Izod impact testing machine and Denison tensile testing machine respectively. The results of the optical microscopic test show that fine grains of pearlite in ferrite were obtained in normalized samples and martensite was also observed in quenched samples. On the other hand, mechanical property tests indicated that normalized welded specimens gave good combination of mechanical properties.

Virtual poster abstractsMethods: It was a retrospective cohort study that enrolled 105 patients followed over a 12-month period from January 2015 to December 2015. It evaluates the performance of this examination in the diagnosis of intracavitary pathologies and compares it with other uterine exploration techniques (TVS, HSG and hysteroscopy). Our statistical analysis consisted of two parts: first, the study of the diagnostic value of the SIS: taking hysteroscopy as a reference, we calculated the sensitivity and specificity of each examination (TVS, SIS, HSG). Secondly, the study of the concordance of the results of sonohysterography and the results of TVS, HSG, and HSC respectively. This study was conducted by calculating the Kappa coefficient. Results: Sonohysterography was successfully performed in all patients with several uterine pathologies. The sensitivity (94%) and specificity (91%) of the SHG were higher than those of the TVS and then that of HSG. The difference between the results of sonohysterography and hysteroscopy is not significant with a K-ratio greater than 0.8. Conclusions: Sonohysterography is a reliable, well tolerated, reproducible and inexpensive examination that is an important diagnostic supplement in the investigation of intrauterine pathology and avoids other invasive investigation methods.