In the Direction of an Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Monitoring Platform for Concrete Structures

In a seismic context, it is fundamental to deploy distributed sensor networks for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). Indeed, regularly gathering data from a structure/infrastructure gives insight on the structural health status, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can help in exploiting this information to generate early warnings useful for decision-making purposes. With a perspective of developing a remote monitoring platform for the built environment in a seismic context, the authors tested self-sensing concrete beams in loading tests, focusing on the measured electrical impedance. The formed cracks were objectively assessed through a vision-based system. Also, a comparative analysis of AI-based and statistical prediction methods, including Prophet, ARIMA, and SARIMAX, was conducted for predicting electrical impedance. Results show that the real part of electrical impedance is highly correlated with the applied load (Pearson's correlation coefficient > 0.9); hence, the piezoresistive ability of the manufactured specimens has been confirmed. Concerning prediction methods, the superiority of the Prophet model over statistical techniques was demonstrated (Mean Absolute Percentage Error, MAPE < 1.00%). Thus, the exploitation of electrical impedance sensors, vision-based systems, and AI technologies can be significant to enhance SHM and maintenance needs prediction in the built environment.

Synthesis of a new series of 4-aryl-1,4-dihydropyridines with calcium channel blocking and vasodilatory activity

Synthesis of a new series of 4-aryl-1,4-dihydropyridines possessing potential calcium channel blocking activity along with good vasodilatory profile is reported. The compounds were synthesized using modified Hantzsch condensation of various aldehydes with methyl 3-aminocrotonate in the presence of a catalytic amount of trifluoroacetic acid and subsequent alkylation with various hydrochlorides of dialkylaminoalkyl chlorides. In vitro calcium channel blocking activity has been evaluated in cultures of neonatal rat cortical neurons by measuring the inhibitory response at L-type calcium channels activated by veratridine. Many compounds exhibited moderate to significant calcium channel blockade around 1 microM. The vasodilatory activity was assessed on isolated rat thoracic aortic rings precontracted by phenylephrine/KCl (30 mM). Most of the compounds produced a concentration-dependent inhibition of the contractile response.