While the existing literature focuses on analyzing individual hedges and comparing their use by native and non-native speakers, little attention has been paid to the teaching of conversational hedges. Research reveals that despite their pervasive nature in spoken discourse, hedges are regarded by teachers as ‘verbal garbage’ (Schiffrin 1987), not worthy of teaching. The aim of this study is to investigate college teachers’ perceptions of hedging devices in spoken discourse as well as their attitudes to the teaching of hedges. A questionnaire was administered to elicit the teachers’ responses. The results indicate that college teachers are aware of the significance and usefulness of hedges in spoken discourse; nevertheless, they have doubts about the value of teaching them. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of these findings.

W perspektywie zmian zachodzących w ciągu ostatnich lat na międzynarodowych rynkach surowców mineralnych, coraz większego znaczenia nabiera konieczność zapewnienia ich trwałych i bezpiecznych dostaw, zarówno w obrębie Unii Europejskiej, jak i w innych krajach wysoko rozwiniętych. W odpowiedzi na to globalne wyzwanie, w lutym 2015 roku, w ramach programu Horyzont 2020, zainaugurowany został projekt INTRAW, mający na celu promowanie międzynarodowej współpracy w zakresie surowców mineralnych pomiędzy UE a krajami zawansowanymi technologicznie. Pierwszym etapem projektu jest przegląd uwarunkowań sprzyjających stabilnej podaży surowców mineralnych ze źródeł pierwotnych i wtórnych w wybranych krajach świata: USA, Kanadzie, Australii, RPA i Japonii. Wynikiem prac są dwie grupy kompleksowych raportów. Pierwsze z nich to szeroka analiza kontekstowa, której przedmiotem były czynniki geologiczno-środowiskowe, polityczne, techniczo- ekonomiczne i społeczne sprzyjające efektywnemu gospodarowaniu surowcami mineralnymi. Druga grupa to tzw. raporty operacyjne, zrealizowane w trzech blokach tematycznych: przemysł i handel, badania i innowacje, edukacja. Jednoznacznie wynika z nich, że podstawą efektywnych działań w omawianym zakresie jest stabilne środowisko polityczne, gospodarcze i instytucjonalne, przyjazne górnictwu i nowym podmiotom chcącym inwestować w nowoczesne technologie, poszukiwanie i eksploatację złóż. Zachętą dla inwestorów są zasady opodatkowania, niekiedy również bezpośrednie wsparcie finansowe rządu i sprawne procedury uzyskiwania pozwoleń. Nie bez znaczenia jest również właściwie zdefiniowana ochrona praw własności, a praw własności złóż w szczególności. Wybrane aspekty szerokiej analizy czynników decydujących o konkurencyjności tych państw w zakresie gospodarki surowcami mineralnymi przedstawione zostały w niniejszym artykule.

Management and Production Engineering Review (MPER) is a peer-refereed, international, multidisciplinary journal covering a broad spectrum of topics in production engineering and management. Production engineering is a currently developing stream of science encompassing planning, design, implementation and management of production systems. Orientation towards human resources factor differentiates production engineering from other technical disciplines. The journal aims to advance the theoretical and applied knowledge of this rapidly evolving field, with a special focus on production management, organisation of production processes, management of production knowledge, computer integrated management of production flow, enterprise effectiveness, maintainability and sustainable manufacturing, productivity and organisation, modelling and simulation, decision making systems, project management, innovation management and technology transfer, quality engineering and safety at work. Management and Production Engineering Review is published under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Production Engineering and Polish Association for Production Management.

The main purpose of Management and Production Engineering Review is to publish the results of cutting-edge research advancing the concepts, theories and implementation of novel solutions in modern manufacturing. Papers presenting original research results related to production engineering and management education are also welcomed.

We welcome original papers written in English. The Journal also publishes technical briefs, discussions of previously published papers, book reviews, and editorials.

Letters to the Editor-in-Chief are highly encouraged.

Mechanical components and tools in modern industry are facing increasing performance requirements leading to the growing need for advanced materials and thus, for modern frictional systems. In the last decades, the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) has emerged as an unique tool to grow high quality mono- as well as multilayers surfaces in metallic/ceramic systems. Building up a knowledge base of tribological properties of industrially-scaled, room temperature deposited PLD hard coatings are the most important step for the application of these coatings in engineering design. Although single-layer coatings find a range of applications, there are an increasing number of applications where the properties of a single material are not sufficient. One way to surmount this problem is to use a multilayer coating. Application of metallic interlayers improves adhesion of nitride hard layer in multilayer systems, which has been used in PVD processes for many years, however, the PLD technique gives new possibilities to produce system comprising many bilayers at room temperature. Tribological coatings consisted of 2, 4 and 16 bilayers of Cr/CrN and Ti/TiN type were fabricated with the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique in the presented work. It is found in transmission electron examinations on thin foils prepared from cross-section that both nitride-based multilayer structures studied are characterized by small columnar crystallite sizes and high defect density, what might rise their hardness but compromise coating adhesion. The intermediate metallic layers contained larger sized and less defective columnar structure compared to the nitride layers, which should improve the coatings toughness. Switching from single layer to multi-layer metal/nitride composition improved resistance to delamination.

Boron nitride thin layers were produced by means of the pulsed laser deposition technique from hexagonal boron nitride target. Two types of laser i.e. Nd:YAG with Q-switch as well as KrF coupled with RF generator were used. Influence of deposition parameters on surface morphology, phase composition as well as mechanical properties is discussed. Results obtained using Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy, Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy are presented. Micromechanical properties measured during microindentation, scratch and wear tests are also shown.

Pulsed laser deposition technique was applied for covering elastic cast-polyurethane membranes with titanium nitride and boron nitride layers. The deposition process was realized using a Nd:YAG laser with Qswitch in stages; firstly the membranes were coated with ultra-thin titanium nitride layer (TixN) by evaporation of a metallic titanium disk in nitrogen gas atmosphere and then a layer of boron nitride (BN) was deposited by ablation of hexagonal h-BN target in argon atmosphere. The surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy. Chemical composition was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. The phase analysis was performed by means of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy. The crystallographic texture was measured. The wear test was performed by pin-on-disk method. Hexagonal boron nitride layers with (0001)[uvtw] texture with flake-like grains were fabricated. The structure and texture of boron nitride was identical irrespectively of substrate roughness or BN thickness. Pin-on-disk wear tests showed that the coatings effectively decreased the friction coefficient from two to even four times comparing to pure polyurethane and polyurethane covered with graphite. This proved that deposited layers can replace graphite as a lubricating material used to protect polymer surfaces.

The present paper describe the issue of tool materials wear in a high temperature conditions. The investigations were performed at the cast steel tool material at the tribological contact to the structural steel. The investigations aim was to determine the role of microstructure in a tribological properties between the structural steel and tool material. The results of such investigation could be referenced to the industry conditions and could answer about the problems of tool materials wear. The observations of the wear mechanisms were referred to the microstructure of the mill rolls. The laboratory tests ware aimed at evaluating the thermal treatment modification effect on the cast steels properties. A significant role of the morphology of ledeburitic cementite and secondary cementite on the tribological properties was exhibited. The investigations assumed the presence of an austenitic matrix with primary and secondary cementite. Influence of varying morphology carbides was described. in the cast steel microstructure. The investigation results make possible to point to a direction of carbide morphology change with the purpose of obtaining the assumed properties of hot operation tools.