Direct Proportion Research Articles

Investigation of the potential teratogenic effects of fructose on the embryo using the rat whole embryo culture model

Excessive consumption of fructose-sweetened foods and beverages is a growing concern worldwide. Studies have demonstrated that fructose consumption before and during pregnancy can result in adverse outcomes such as decreased decidualization, increased fetal losses, and low birth weight. The study investigated the teratogenic effects of fructose on rat embryos during organogenesis using whole embryo culture. Within the scope of the study, 4 groups were formed as control, low, medium, and high-dose fructose (HDF) with 10 embryos in each group. The 9.5-day-old rat embryos were cultured with different concentrations of fructose (1, 5 and 10 mM) for 48 h and the possible effects of fructose were examined using morphological scoring, histochemistry, immunofluorescence, and TUNEL methods. According to the analyses, protein synthesis and proliferation were decreased, vascular formation was suppressed, and apoptosis was increased in embryos exposed to fructose, especially at concentrations of 5 mM and above. According to the morphological scoring results, it was determined that heart, hind limb, and somite development were retarded in all experimental groups compared to the control group, developmental retardation increased in direct proportion to fructose concentration, and also significant malformations were observed in all parameters examined in the HDF group. In addition, analysis of yolk sac diameter, head length, crown rump length and somite numbers showed that these parameters were significantly decreased in all experimental groups. End of the study, it was concluded that fructose at concentrations of 1 mM and above may induce embryonic development retardation and other anomalies by decreasing protein synthesis and cell proliferation, suppressing vascular formation, and increasing apoptosis in embryonic tissues.

Energy, exergy, environment and economic (4E) analysis of PV/T module assisted vapor compression refrigeration system: An experimental study

Despite the rise in the prices of fossil fuels, the increase in their demand, and damaging the environment, a large part of the world's energy needs have been today met by fossil fuels. In this direction, interest in renewable energy sources has increased. Solar energy stands out among renewable energy sources because it is endless and clean. However, today, the use of solar energy is not used alone, but in combination with other thermal energy systems. In building applications, it is mostly used in heating, refrigeration, and HVAC systems, which have a high part in energy consumption. In this study, the solar energy and cooling system were not used separately as in previous studies but were used as a hybrid. The focus was on increasing the performance of both systems by operating them together. In this study, energy, exergy, thermoeconomic, and environmental analyses were applied to the PV/T-assisted vapor compression refrigeration system (PV/T-VCRS) at different storage temperatures (25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C). As a result, an 8.5 % lower surface temperature of the module in PV/T-VCRS 25 °C was measured compared to PV/T-VCRS 30 °C and 35 °C. In direct proportion to the module surface temperatures, 13 % better electrical efficiency was obtained in PV/T-VCRS 25 °C compared to 30 °C and 35 °C. The COP value increased by 15.46 % in PV/T-VCRS 25 °C compared to 30 °C and 35 °C. A 13 % improvement in exergy efficiency was observed in PV/T-VCRS 25 °C compared to 30 °C and 35 °C. The enviroeconomic parameter PV/T-VCRS is calculated as 15.17 ¢/h, 16.52 ¢/h, and 17.6 ¢/h for 25 °C, 30 °C and 35 °C. Another advantage of the system is that hot water is obtained at set temperatures. In PV/T-VCRS, 475 L, 300 L, and 210 L of hot water were obtained at 25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C, respectively. As a result, the performance of the PV/T-VCRS was good, with the added benefit of performing close to the performances when PV/T and VCRS were used separately.

Novel and effective screening system for recombinant protein production in CHO cells

At present, biopharmaceuticals have received extensive attention from the society, among which recombinant proteins have a good growth trend and a large market share. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the preferred mammalian system to produce glycosylated recombinant protein drugs. A highly efficient and stable cell screening method needs to be developed to obtain more and useful recombinant proteins. Limited dilution method, cell sorting, and semi-solid medium screening are currently the commonly used cell cloning methods. These methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and they have the disadvantage of low clone survival rate. Here, a method based on semi-solid medium was developed to screen out high-yielding and stable cell line within 3 weeks to improve the screening efficiency. The semi-solid medium was combined with an expression vector containing red fluorescent protein (RFP) for early cell line development. In accordance with the fluorescence intensity of RFP, the expression of upstream target gene could be indicated, and the fluorescence intensity was in direct proportion to the expression of upstream target gene. In conclusion, semi-solid medium combined with bicistronic expression vector provides an efficient method for screening stable and highly expressed cell lines.

P133 ALTERED P-WAVE DISPERSION IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED YOUNG HYPERTENSIVES

Background and objective: P wave dispersion (Pd) is a useful electrocardiographic marker for predicting the onset of atrial fibrillation. It has been little studied in recent hypertension. The aim was to determine the behavior of maximum P wave duration (Pmax) and Pd in young hypertensive patients with recent onset and its relationship with other variables. Methods: A cross-sectional, prospective, comparative study was performed in 60 young men (30 hypertensive and 30 non-hypertensive). P wave measurements were obtained with 12-lead electrocardiogram. Statistical analysis included applications of simple linear correlation, sample means were compared by Student's t-test. Results: There were no significant differences in the baseline characteristics of both groups. Pmax (78.67 ± 5.71 ms) and Pd (42.33 ± 6.26ms) were found to be significantly prolonged (p<0.001) in the hypertensive group compared to normotensive subjects (Pmax 61.00 ± 7.69 ms; Pd 25.00 ± 8.61 ms). Pd correlated significantly (r = 0.716; p<0.001) with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.696; p<0.001). Conclusions: Pmax and Pd are found to be increased in young patients with recent-onset hypertension, and these values increase in direct proportion to blood pressure figures.

The Effect of Adding the Mishraq Sulfur Ore on the Physical and Chemical Properties of Al-Angor and Al-Nahrawan Clays to Producing Lightweight Bricks

This paper aims to examine the possibility of producing lightweight laboratory clay Bricks by adding sulfur ore powder in different weight ratios ranging from 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, to 50% as supplementary materials to two types of clays taken from two different sites, which is the Al-Angor clay region near the city of Ramadi and the Al-Nahrawan clay region. The bricks burned at temperatures of 950 and 1050 C°٬ and the longitudinal Shrinkage tests, bulk density, water absorption, compression strength, and efflorescence were measured. The X-ray diffraction analysis was executed to determine the formed metal phases. The results of the tests showed a direct proportion between longitudinal contraction and water absorption ratio with the addition of sulfur ore and high burning temperature. While bulk density and compression strength are inversely proportional to the sulfur ratio and high burning temperature. Efflorescence tests showed a decrease in the efflorescence rate with an increase in the proportion of sulfur ore.

Estimating traffic demand of different transportation modes using floating smartphone data

Traffic demand is crucial for traffic planning, helping to understand traffic volume, identify congestion points, and develop strategies for efficient and sustainable transportation. This paper introduces a method to estimate origin-destination (OD) matrices for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians using floating smartphone data (FSD) and the information minimisation (IM) model. The FSD is used in the gravity model (GM) to provide more accurate inputs for the IM model by estimating an a priori matrix and traffic demand at intersections. Additionally, FSD allowed a direct route choice proportions deriviation without needing a traffic assignment model. The proposed estimation model was tested with real data and analyzed in a simulation environment, examining the impact of increasing the penetration rate (PR) of FSD. Results indicate that traffic demand in the study area was accurately estimated with an average Rxy value of 92%, aligning well with simulation results.

LCA- and nZER-based methodology for identifying optimal low environmental impact interventions for existing buildings

Reducing the energy demand in the building sector appears to be the most important aspect to make them energy efficient. Opting for durable minor interventions results in further reduction of embodied carbon. This paper proposes a method which combines the evaluation of the environmental impact of interventions together with the visual preservation of buildings. A new indicator, the Embodied Impact of Intervention (EII), was defined to evaluate the overall environmental impact considering three indicators within the Life Cycle Assessment: Global Warning Potential (GWP), Primary Energy Non-Renewable (PE-NRe), and net-Fresh Water (FW) offering the stakeholders a holistic view for selecting the most sustainable solutions for interventions in existing buildings. The methodology has been tested to a benchmark, (i.e., masonry wall components), considering low, medium, and high visual impact scenarios, and a lifespan of 100 years. A direct proportionality is shown between GWP and PE-NRe, whereas FW does not have a singular relationship with the other indicators as it is mainly influenced by the material production. High GWP values occur in scenarios in which Nature Based Solutions (236.82 kgCO2eq) and Building-Integrated Photovoltaic panels are implemented (798.09 kgCO2eq), being ≈2.7 and ≈9 higher than the same High Visual Impact scenarios without mitigation solutions. It was found that the visual impact of the interventions may not align with the corresponding EII, resulting in dichotomous scenarios with medium visual impact and low EII, or high visual impact and medium EII. In Low-Income Countries, using recycled materials can minimize the production phase, reducing EII, energy efficiency, energy usage and waste, to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goal in the long-term.

Effects of Temperature and Precursor Concentration on the Morphological and Optical Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Iron oxide nanoparticles are inexpensive materials that are environmentally friendly and have properties that render them suitable for wide range of applications. A facile and time-effective coprecipitation method was used to prepare iron oxide nanoparticles in a 1:1 molar ratio of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in solution. Iron oxide nanoparticles obtained at 18 and 60 °C yielded spherical magnetite nanoparticles with particle sizes of 7.63 and 8.5 nm respectively while comprising a mixture of magnetite and hematite nanorods, with a mean width of 9.5 nm and a mean length of 75 nm were obtained at 90 °C. Iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized at 18 °C have energy band gap of 4.16 eV while those synthesized at 60 and 90 °C have the same band gap of 4.66 eV. Precursor concentrations of 0.042, 0.08 and 0.0126 M yielded spherical magnetite nanoparticles with particle sizes of 7.94, 8.5 and 8.5 nm respectively and the particle size range increased with increasing concentration. Magnetite nanoparticles synthesized with concentrations of 0.042, 0.08 and 0.126 M have optical band gaps of 4.65, 4.88 and 5.19 eV respectively. The magnetite crystalline phase was produced regardless of concentration at temperatures of 18 and 60 °C while a temperature of 90 °C yielded a mixture of magnetite and hematite phases. The band optical band gap showed direct proportionality with temperature and concentration in an inert environment.

Examination of the transport characteristics of pediatric trauma patients.

Injury is an important public health problem in the pediatric age group and one of the leading global causes of morbidity and mortality. The fact that pediatric trauma has a significant impact on patients, families, and countries shows the need for a better understanding of this phenomenon. This study investigates the demographic characteristics, reasons for admission to the hospital, and diagnoses of pediatric trauma patients who received prehospital emergency health services. This study was designed as a retrospective observational study and included all patients under the age of 18 who received emergency healthcare due to trauma and were registered in the Emergency Health Automation System after a call was placed to the emergency call center between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022. Information such as the reason for calling an ambulance, ICD-10 diagnosis codes, mechanism of injury, time of arrival at the scene, transport duration from the scene to the hospital, and reasons for interfacility transfers were collected for all patients. A total of 37,420 patients were included in the analysis. Seventeen patients were found dead at the scene of the trauma and 35 patients experienced cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital from the scene. The difference between age groups in terms of time from arrival at the scene to arrival at the hospital was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Falls were the most common cause of trauma in all age groups, followed by traffic accidents. Patients requiring a specialist and transferred primarily for fall-related injuries were in direct proportion to the total number of cases (65.0%, n = 1838), followed by cases of traffic accidents and sports injuries. Most of the secondary transports were made to a training and research hospital or state hospital. Targeted preventive measures and community education should address the specific causes of trauma that are more prevalent in certain age groups. Early identification of special patient groups that typically require secondary transport can reduce mortality and morbidity related to trauma by facilitating direct transfers to appropriate hospitals.

A complex-valued encoding golden jackal optimization for multilevel thresholding image segmentation

Multilevel thresholding image segmentation is not only an indispensable component of image computation and machine vision but also a fundamental element of image analysis and feature extraction, which has received extensive attention from many domestic and international academics in recent years. However, the threshold level rises in direct proportion to the computational complexity. Therefore, this paper presents a complex-valued encoding golden jackal optimization (CGJO) established on Kapur’s entropy to accomplish this issue, and the intention is to split the available image into a multitude of conspicuous salient portions that illustrate concepts and procedures of the pertinent object. The golden jackal optimization (GJO) employs the cooperated foraging of the jackals to imitate prey searching, enclosing and pouncing to generate the optimum solution. The complex-valued encoding employs the diploid’s notion to alter the real and imaginary of the search agent, which amplifies the information multiplicity and reinforces the inherent parallelism to motivate productive search and inhibit voracious convergence. The functionality and viability of the CGJO are confirmed by comparison with BWOA, DOA, COA, LCA, OOA, SABO, GJO and CRWOA. The experimental results reveal that the CGJO explores and exploits to acquire a superior convergence speed, greater numerical precision and stronger segmentation quality. Additionally, the CGJO offers excellent practicability and stability to address image segmentation successfully.

Analogical Reasoning of Sensing and Intuition Personality Student in Solving Proportion Problem: Two-Variable into Three-Variable Direct Proportion Word Problem

Analogical Reasoning of Sensing and Intuition Personality Student in Solving Proportion Problem: Two-Variable into Three-Variable Direct Proportion Word Problem

Chronic kidney disease and chronic heart failure: impact on prognosis and choice of pathogenetic therapy

To evaluate the impact of a decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) on the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), to analyze real clinical practice regarding the frequency of prescribing pathogenetic therapy for CHF, achieving target dosages depending on the gradation of GFR in patients included in the CHF Register of the Tyumen region. The analysis included medical data of 4077 patients (1662 men and 2415 women) with NYHA class I-IV CHF who underwent examination and treatment in medical organizations of the Tyumen region for the period from January 2020 to May 2023. Criteria for inclusion in the register: proven heart failure. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was assessed by GFR calculated using the CKD-EPI formula (ml/min/1.73 m2). The primary end point was defined as death from all causes. GFR<60 ml/min/1.73 m2 was recorded in 34.6% of patients, more common in women (40.2 and 26.6%, respectively; p<0.001). When dividing patients into phenotypes according to LVEF, no statistically significant differences were found in the distribution of patients according to GFR. In patients with HFrEF and HFpEF GFR<45 ml/min/1.73 m2 was associated with an increased risk of meeting the endpoint. Analysis of prescribed pathogenetic therapy showed that in patients with HFrEF, the frequency of prescription of ACE inhibitors, â-blockers and MRA decreased (p=0.023, 006 and 0.01, respectively), and ARNI, on the contrary, increased with a decrease in GFR (p=0.026). In patients with HFpEF, a similar trend towards a decrease in the frequency of prescription of ACEIs and MCBs with a decrease in GFR (p<0.001) remained, but it was compensated by an inversely proportional increase in the frequency of prescription of ARBs (p<0.001). 100% of the target dosage is achieved in more than 90% of patients taking MRA across the entire LVEF range. While for â-blockers and ARNI/ACE/ARB the percentage of patients receiving the full therapeutic dosage of drugs is significantly lower. When analyzing target dosages of pathogenetic drugs, gradations of achieved doses were distributed evenly throughout the entire range of GFR. GFR<60 ml/min/1.73 m2 occurs in every 3 patients with CHF across the entire range of LVEF. A decrease in GFR worsens the prognosis of patients with both HFrEF and HFpEF, increasing in direct proportion with the severity of the stage of CKD. Inclusion of patients in the monitoring program within the framework of the CHF service allows the treatment to be significantly brought closer to optimal drug therapy, at the same time, certain efforts are required to overcome difficulties with titration to target dosages.

Dynamic Power Saving for CMOS Circuits

With more functionalities being integrated into a microchip today, higher processing power is drawn. As a result of this, clock and logic power consumption has turned out to be a critical issue to be coped with by chip designers. In this paper, we present various power-saving approaches employed in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit designs. The approaches involve restructuring the logic circuits, performing clock gating, and selecting the appropriate circuits for counters and frequency divisions. In order to show their efficacies in power optimization, the approaches were applied to a phase-locked loop (PLL), clock divider (CD), full adder (FA), counter, arithmetic logic unit (ALU), and microprocessor without interlocked pipelined stages (MIPS) circuits and validated using Intel Quartus Prime Lite and Mentor Graphics Modelsim. The following conclusions can be drawn from the results: Firstly, the efficacy of minimizing power dissipation using logic restructuring is found to be in direct proportion with the rate of the switching activity (SA); secondly, a maximum of 3.5% of thermal power dissipation can be saved using clock gating; thirdly, gray counters give the lowest power consumption; and, finally, the thermal power estimation for the phase-locked loop (PLL) is relatively higher than that for the clock divider (CD) when both of them are implemented for dividing frequencies.

Vermicompost Effects on Soil Chemistry and Biology: Correlations with Basil's (Ocimum basilicum L.) Total Phenolic Content and Phenological Traits

This study explores the effects of vermicompost on the chemical and biological properties of soils, their nutrient content, and the impact on the growth and phenolic content of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). Using a controlled experimental setup, we tested five dosages of vermicompost (0%, 4%, 12%, 20%, and 24%) to evaluate their influence on soil biological activity by measuring basal respiration (CO2-C), microbial biomass C (MBC-C), and dehydrogenase enzyme activity (DHA) as well as on basil's growth parameters and total phenolic content (TPC). The results show that vermicompost addition to soil enhanced soil microbial activity in direct proportion to the dose of vermicompost. The application of lower dosages of vermicompost (4% and 12%) significantly enhanced both fresh and dry weights, suggesting an improvement in nutrient uptake and soil structure, which likely facilitated better root growth and nutrient absorption. However, higher dosages (20% and 24%) were associated with reduced growth metrics, likely due to nutrient overload or salt stress. Notably, the highest vermicompost concentration (24%) led to a substantial increase in total phenolic content (TPC) in basil leaves, correlating with decreased growth metrics. This response indicates the plant's defensive mechanism against oxidative stress caused by excess nutrients or salinity from the vermicompost. A multiple regression analysis following a correlation analysis also revealed an inversely proportional relationship between phosphorus content in the soil and total phenolic content in basil leaves. Our findings illustrate that while moderate vermicompost dosages optimize plant growth and health, higher concentrations can strategically enhance phenolic content due to nutrient overload or salt-induced stress. These results offer critical insights for tailoring organic amendment applications to balance plant growth and biochemical properties in agricultural practices.

Effect of pressure and H2 content on global consumption-based turbulent flame speed at gas turbine relevant conditions

This study focuses on the effect of pressure level and H2 content in the CH4–H2 fuel mixture on the global consumption-based turbulent flame speed (ST). The data considered in the analysis are collected for a variety of CH4–H2 fuel compositions (from 50% to 100% H2 vol.), pressure levels ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 MPa, and preheating temperatures up to 623.15 K. Different trends of ST/SL0 (SL0 is the adiabatic unstretched laminar flame speed) are observed as a function of the normalized turbulence intensity (u’/SL0), depending on the H2 content in CH4–H2 fuel blends. Yet, for all the CH4–H2 fuel mixtures considered, ST/SL0 consistently increases with H2 content. Rising pressure levels are responsible for larger ST/SL0, in direct proportion with the H2 content. These trends are mostly caused by the decrease in SL0, which causes changes to the characteristics of the flamelet that becomes more sensitive to hydrodynamic wrinkling through the high molecular diffusivity of H2.

Max Porter’s ruderalism, or what nature is now

ABSTRACT This article draws attention to Max Porter’s portrayal of the ruderal margins of our human lifeworld as the dominant landscape of the Anthropocene. My analysis reaches beyond conceptions of the ruderal as a liminal terrain vague, or ‘edgelands’, that constitutes a hybrid ‘third space’ between the cultural zone of urban or suburban settlements, on the one hand, and nature as incorporated by the countryside, or ‘the wilderness’, on the other. The article seeks to advance Environmental Humanities research by reading the ruderal as emblematic of the contemporary zeitgeist in a time of escalating environmental despoliation. In the Anthropocene the ruderal usurps ‘nature’ and emerges as culture’s only enduring exteriority, an exteriority that grows in unpredictability and formidableness in direct proportion to the manifold anthropogenic disturbances inflicted upon it. The article traces Porter’s progressively ruderalist aesthetics from Lanny (2019) to Shy (2023) as he lets go of traditional 'nature' in order to find new ways of relating to what nature has become in the Anthropocene, what nature is now. What this means for the novel is that it must cease as a humans-only monologue and recalibrate its aesthetic orientation from exclusive anthropocentric representation to more-than-human resonance and a ruderalist ecosemiotic rapport.

Experimental study on CO2 sequestration capacity and mechanical characteristics evolution of solid wastes based carbon-negative backfill materials

The employment of solid waste, notably coal gangue, in carbon-negative backfill mining technology for mineralization and filling in coal mine gobs, is recognized as a productive method for carbon sequestration and waste management, with research primarily dedicated to engineering advanced mineralized backfill materials. Under this background, four variables, including the ratio of gangue to solids (RG-S), water-cement ratio (RW-C), ratio of fly ash to solid wastes providing calcium (Ca) (RA-Ca), and ratio of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum to carbide slag (RF-CS) were defined to formulate gangue-based mineralized backfill materials, with orthogonal experiments assessing their effects on CO2 sequestration and mechanical characteristics. The results indicate that RW-C consistently emerges as the primary factor influencing both the amount of sequestered CO2 and the mechanical properties of gangue-based solid waste mineralized backfill materials. The amount of sequestered CO2 demonstrates a direct proportionality to RW-C and mechanical strength demonstrates an inverse relationship with RW-C. After 45 minutes of stirring and carbon sequestration, samples in various groups exhibited an maximum sequestered CO2 amount of 18.96 g·kg−1, with a maximum sequestration rate of 0.20 g·kg−1·min−1. The process of CO2 sequestration enhances the compressive properties of mineralized backfill materials derived from gangue based solid wastes.

Assessing Recent Technologies for Addressing Microplastic Pollution and Pushing the Case of Bioremediation as an Attractive Approach.

Microplastics are emerging sources of environmental pollutants that are increasingly of concern because of their harmful impacts on aquatic life and thereby humans. Their accumulation in the environment is in direct proportion to global plastic production; their being nondegradable, recalcitrant and of a persistent nature creates an urgent need to address this issue on a global scale. Recent reports have demonstrated the presence of microplastics in marine life, and directly becoming a part of the food chain when seafood is ingested by humans. The repercussions of these studies point to an even larger scale presence of microplastics across varied habitats, which are yet to be sampled. Bioremediation, using various microorganisms such as bacteria, algae and fungi, alone or as consortia or in biofilm form can be used as an effective remediation tool. Genetically modified microorganisms for focused removal of microplastics and metagenomics studies, providing taxonomic details of uncultured organisms, are also expected to provide an additional catalogue of technologies in this field. This review offers a comprehensive overview of microplastic sources, existing technologies for treating microplastics and an in-depth analysis of bioremediation mechanisms, its components, and the results from various studies which provide sufficient clues as to the directions to be chosen to address microplastics pollution and can facilitate and instruct researchers to further investigate the more practical approaches and create new and innovative strategies for advanced remediation of microplastic in the future.

Element-wise parallel deep learning for structural distributed damage diagnosis by leveraging physical properties of long-gauge static strain transmissibility under moving loads

The Transmissibility Function (TF) has gained considerable interest in structural damage detection because of its relatively high sensitivity to damage and robustness to excitation. This study proposed a distributed damage diagnosis method for beam-like structures based on a long-gauge static strain TF defined as the ratio of the Fourier transform of static strain response under moving loads from a target long-gauge sensor to that from the reference sensor. It has been discovered that each long-gauge static strain TF is independent of moving loads, making it an ideal damage indicator. It exhibits direct proportionality to the ratio of bending stiffness between the two measured zones covered by the target and reference long-gauge strain sensors while being unaffected by the stiffness of any other zones not covered by these two sensors. Moreover, the TF at zero frequency was proved to be equivalent to the ratio of static strain time history areas, relying solely on the stiffness of the covered zones. Leveraged by the physical properties of long-gauge static strain TF, an element-wise parallel deep neural network architecture was developed to decompose damage diagnosis into independent sub-tasks on the element level, utilizing a variational autoencoder (VAE) in the Bayesian inference framework for extracting features from the long-gauge strain TF and a regressor for mapping the features to elemental stiffness reduction. The divide-and-conquer strategy and element-wise parallel learning architecture allow for a significant reduction in the number of labeled training samples generated based on the updated numerical baseline model as it only requires simulated scenarios involving a single damage element. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed method were demonstrated through a numerical simply supported beam and a laboratory experiment on a two-span bridge.

Comparison of the performances of Statistical and Artificial Neural Network models in the prediction of geometry and density of PLA/wood biocomposite cubes manufactured by FDM

The present study investigates the impact of scanning speed, printing temperature, and layer height on the density, dimensions, errors of parallelism, and surface finish of cubical specimens made of PLA/wood biocomposite and manufactured by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). The study examined 64 specimens, each produced with a unique set of process parameters. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to evaluate the effects of process parameters on the examined properties of the manufactured cubes. RSM analysis revealed the statistical significance of direct proportion between the layer height, printing temperature, and x-and y-dimensions of the manufactured specimens (with P-values of 0, 0, 0.002, and 0, respectively). Also, the scanning speed and error of parallelism in z-oriented faces were statistically correlated (with a P-value of 0.035). For layer height and cube density, an indirect proportion was observed (with a P-value of 0). Compared to the regression model, ANN exhibited better performance at process parameters effect evaluation. The worse performance of regression models can be attributed to their limited capacity to represent non-linear relationships, while ANN models can capture the complex non-linear nature of the process, leading to better performances (R2 close to 100%). An evaluation of the defects in the specimens was carried out using the go/no-go diagram.