Integrated gradient tissue-engineered osteochondral scaffolds:Challenges,current efforts and future perspectives

The osteochondral defect repair has been most extensively studied due to the rising demand for new therapies to diseases such as osteoarthritis.Tissue engineering has been proposed as a promising strategy to meet the demand of simultaneous regeneration of both cartilage and subchondral bone by constructing integrated gradient tissue-engineered osteochondral scaffold(IGTEOS).This review brought forward the main challenges of establishing a satisfactory IGTEOS from the perspectives of the complexity of physiology and microenvironment of osteochondral tissue,and the limitations of obtaining the desired and required scaffold.Then,we comprehensively discussed and summarized the current tissue-engineered efforts to resolve the above challenges,including architecture strategies,fabrication techniques and in vitro/in vivo evaluation methods of the IGTEOS.Especially,we highlighted the advantages and limitations of various fabrication techniques of IGTEOS,and common cases of IGTEOS application.Finally,based on the above challenges and current research progress,we analyzed in details the future perspectives of tissue-engineered osteochondral construct,so as to achieve the perfect reconstruction of the cartilaginous and osseous layers of osteochondral tissue simultaneously.This comprehensive and instructive review could provide deep insights into our current understanding of IGTEOS.

Dynamic stability analysis of porous functionally graded beams under hygro-thermal loading using nonlocal strain gradient integral model

We present a study on the dynamic stability of porous functionally graded(PFG)beams under hygro-thermal loading.The variations of the properties of the beams across the beam thicknesses are described by the power-law model.Unlike most studies on this topic,we consider both the bending deformation of the beams and the hygro-thermal load as size-dependent,simultaneously,by adopting the equivalent differential forms of the well-posed nonlocal strain gradient integral theory(NSGIT)which are strictly equipped with a set of constitutive boundary conditions(CBCs),and through which both the stiffness-hardening and stiffness-softening effects of the structures can be observed with the length-scale parameters changed.All the variables presented in the differential problem formulation are discretized.The numerical solution of the dynamic instability region(DIR)of various bounded beams is then developed via the generalized differential quadrature method(GDQM).After verifying the present formulation and results,we examine the effects of different parameters such as the nonlocal/gradient length-scale parameters,the static force factor,the functionally graded(FG)parameter,and the porosity parameter on the DIR.Furthermore,the influence of considering the size-dependent hygro-thermal load is also presented.

Nonlocal stress gradient formulation for damping vibration analysis of viscoelastic microbeam in thermal environment

An integral nonlocal stress gradient viscoelastic model is proposed on the basis of the integral nonlocal stress gradient model and the standard viscoelastic model,and is utilized to investigate the free damping vibration analysis of the viscoelastic BernoulliEuler microbeams in thermal environment.Hamilton's principle is used to derive the differential governing equations and corresponding boundary conditions.The integral relations between the strain and the nonlocal stress are converted into a differential form with constitutive constraints.The size-dependent axial thermal stress due to the variation of the environmental temperature is derived explicitly.The Laplace transformation is utilized to obtain the explicit expression for the bending deflection and moment.Considering the boundary conditions and constitutive constraints,one can get a nonlinear equation with complex coefficients,from which the complex characteristic frequency can be determined.A two-step numerical method is proposed to solve the elastic vibration frequency and the damping ratio.The effects of length scale parameters,viscous coefficient,thermal stress,vibration order on the vibration frequencies,and critical viscous coefficient are investigated numerically for the viscoelastic Bernoulli-Euler microbeams under different boundary conditions.

Interpretable deep learning for roof fall hazard detection in underground mines

Roof falls due to geological conditions are major hazards in the mining industry,causing work time loss,injuries,and fatalities.There are roof fall problems caused by high horizontal stress in several largeopening limestone mines in the eastern and midwestern United States.The typical hazard management approach for this type of roof fall hazards relies heavily on visual inspections and expert knowledge.In this context,we proposed a deep learning system for detection of the roof fall hazards caused by high horizontal stress.We used images depicting hazardous and non-hazardous roof conditions to develop a convolutional neural network(CNN)for autonomous detection of hazardous roof conditions.To compensate for limited input data,we utilized a transfer learning approach.In the transfer learning approach,an already-trained network is used as a starting point for classification in a similar domain.Results show that this approach works well for classifying roof conditions as hazardous or safe,achieving a statistical accuracy of 86.4%.This result is also compared with a random forest classifier,and the deep learning approach is more successful at classification of roof conditions.However,accuracy alone is not enough to ensure a reliable hazard management system.System constraints and reliability are improved when the features used by the network are understood.Therefore,we used a deep learning interpretation technique called integrated gradients to identify the important geological features in each image for prediction.The analysis of integrated gradients shows that the system uses the same roof features as the experts do on roof fall hazards detection.The system developed in this paper demonstrates the potential of deep learning in geotechnical hazard management to complement human experts,and likely to become an essential part of autonomous operations in cases where hazard identification heavily depends on expert knowledge.Moreover,deep learning-based systems reduce expert exposure to hazardous conditions.

PRECONDITIONED CONJUGATE GRADIENT METHODS FOR INTEGRAL EQUATIONS OF THE SECOND KIND DEFINED ON THE HALF-LINE

We consider solving integral equations of the second kind defined on the half-line [0, infinity) by the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Convergence is known to be slow due to the non-compactness of the associated integral operator. In this paper, we construct two different circulant integral operators to be used as preconditioners for the method to speed up its convergence rate. We prove that if the given integral operator is close to a convolution-type integral operator, then the preconditioned systems will have spectrum clustered around 1 and hence the preconditioned conjugate gradient method will converge superlinearly. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the fast convergence.

A DISSIPATION-PRESERVING INTEGRATOR FOR DAMPED OSCILLATORY HAMILTONIAN SYSTEMS

In this paper,based on discrete gradient,a dissipation-preserving integrator for weakly dissipative perturbations of oscillatory Hamiltonian system is established.The solution of this system is a damped nonlinear oscillator.Basically,lots of nonlinear oscillatory mechanical systems including frictional forces lend themselves to this approach.The new integrator gives a discrete analogue of the dissipation property of the original system.Meanwhile,since the integrator is based on the variation-of-constants formula for oscillatory systems,it preserves the oscillatory structure of the system.Some properties of the new integrator are derived.The convergence is analyzed for the implicit iterations based on the discrete gradient integrator,and it turns out that the convergence of the implicit iterations based on the new integrator is independent of k Mk,where M governs the main oscillation of the system and usually k Mk≫1.This significant property shows that a larger stepsize can be chosen for the new schemes than that for the traditional discrete gradient integrators when applied to the oscillatory Hamiltonian system.Numerical experiments are carried out to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the new integrator in comparison with the traditional discrete gradient methods in the scientific literature。