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The current research aimed to explore application of social network theory toward sustainable aquaculture system through Institutional Scientific Collaboration Network study conducted by interviews with key informants and follow-up organizational surveys at Alborz Watershed scale. The study was descriptive and explanatory, using social network analysis as a most analytical tool to systematically describe certain aspects of the social diversity and complexity of institutional scientific collaboration network. The needed data for social network analysis related to scientific collaborations in the form of research and scientific consulting, technical support, and implementation of joint project networks and was collected through a questionnaire. Research results revealed that the number of central actors in research and scientific consulting network was less than the other two networks. In this study, some powerful organizations such as the Institute of Ecology of the Caspian Sea and Shahid Rajai and Shahid Bahonar Reproduction Center had satisfactory research and scientific consultancy cooperation, as well as technical support for joint projects with other organizations, such as the Provincial Department of Fisheries, and Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources, which reflected dynamics of the organizations in the network. These three organizations can play a key role in the distribution of information, knowledge, and inter-sectoral cooperation among different institutions and can take responsibility of this process. If so, these organizations can develop a sustainable aquaculture in the basin of the Alborz Dam, based on scientific principles and in an interactive and dynamic path and, consequently, activate the implementation of projects and conducting scientific and executive studies by these organizations within the network. Although the approach is developed and tested using empirical social network data in the basin of Alborz watershed, the results can generally be useful for other regions and scales as well. Also, research finding could help in improving sustainable management through strengthening of intuitional scientific collaboration network and providing better understanding of the scientific needs and real interactions of diverse actors.
 

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In the present research, the health belief model was used as a framework for understanding the factors affecting farmers’ intentions to engage in the on-farm food safety practices in Iran. The suggested model was empirically tested using the data collected from a survey of 230 lettuce producers of Alborz Province in northern Iran. The structural equation modeling technique was utilized to test the hypothesized relationships in the research model and confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the validity and reliability of the measurement model. The results revealed that the perceived barrier was the most reliable predictor of the farmers’ intentions to engage in the on-farm food safety practices. Further, the variables including perceived benefit, self-efficacy, and cues to action were among the main predictors of the intention. Most notably, the threat perception variables, i.e. perceived susceptibility and severity, had no significant effects on the farmers’ intentions to engage in the on-farm food safety practices. Overall, the main components of the health belief model explained about 45.6% of the variance of intention. The findings gave preliminary support for the health belief model as a powerful framework for scrutinizing the intention to engage in food safety behaviors, offering a reasonable explanation for the farmers’ engagement intention in on-farm food safety practices, and providing practical information that can be incorporated into the development of more effective on-farm food safety interventions in Iran.
 

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is well known as a pro-environmental technology in agriculture. Therefore, investigating adoption of IPM mechanisms is crucial for agricultural products such as pistachio in Iran. The main purpose of this study was to assess the role of factors affecting IPM adoption by pistachio growers in Kerman Province. Survey was the research method and it was executed using researchers-designed questionnaire. Totally, 225 pistachio growers were selected as sample size, using two-stages random cluster sampling method. Validity of the questionnaire items was entirely approved by a panel of experts. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used for reliability approval. Findings revealed that individual factors including age, education, farming experience, motivations, participation and innovative spirit in conjunction with economic factors such as income, and technological costs affect IPM adoption procedure. In addition, educational services along with IPM technical knowledge and environmental attitude positively changed IPM adoption. The result of structural equation modeling illustrated that education, innovative spirit, life motivation, welfare motivation, income, technological costs, educational services and IPM technical challenges can significantly predicte IPM technical knowledge by direct effects. Indeed, IPM technical knowledge promotes environmental attitude and directly improves IPM adoption. Some practical recommendations are presented based on the research findings.

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 In this study, the first symptom appearance of wheat leaf rust disease was monitored in Khuzestan Province every ten days from early December 2014, for three years. Also, the climate changes and their influence on the development of the disease were studied. During 2014-2015, the first symptoms, with the severity of 5 MS (Moderately Susceptible), appeared in the south and west parts in early and mid-March, respectively. In northern areas, the symptoms appeared with 10 MS severity in early May. In 2015-2016, the first symptoms appeared with the severity of 5 MS in February in the southern areas. In the west, symptoms appeared and reached 20 S (susceptible) on March 10. In the north, the disease started in late February with the severity of 10 MS and developed to 30 S. In 2016-2017, the first symptoms appeared around the Karun River with the severity of 5 MS on March 10 and eventually reached 10 MS in late March. In the western areas, the disease started in early March with the severity of 5 MS and then stopped. Symptoms appeared one week later in the north, with the severity of 5 MS, and reached 15 MS until the end of March. Based on the previous studies, the first symptoms of wheat leaf rust usually start from the west. However, now, the regional pattern of the symptom has changed dramatically, and it appears in the south near Karun River and the Sugar Cane Crop Industry. This might be due to implementation of preventive measures and dryness of a big part of Hoveyzeh Marshland.
 

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The flow forming process is widely used in the production of axisymmetric industrial parts. The advantage of the flow forming process over other manufacturing methods is the use of simple tooling, reduced forming loads due to localized deformation, and enhanced mechanical properties and surface quality of finished parts. In this research, the warm flow forming process of AA6061-O aluminum alloy has been investigated for the first time. For this purpose, laboratory equipment and samples were designed and fabricated. In this study, the effect of temperature, thickness reduction, and number of passes (number of forming steps) on dimensional accuracy (thickness variation) and mechanical properties of warm flow formed AA6061-O alloys pipes have been experimentally investigated. The experimental results show that flow forming increases the strength and decreases the ductility of the formed pipe at all process levels compared to the initial non-flow forming pipe. However, the ductility of the pipe increases and its strength and microhardness decrease by increasing the forming temperature from 20 to 300 ° C. While with increasing the percentage of thickness reduction from 20% to 60% at a constant forming temperature, the strength and micro-hardness of the warm flow-formed pipe increases and its ductility decreases.

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With the increasing number of road accidents and driver assistance systems development, the automated vehicles importance has increased more than ever. As the issue of automated vehicles comes up, attending to their safety, and the impact of the other vehicles in traffic flow on their performance dramatically increased. One of the most important problems for automated vehicles is designing and controlling the trajectory regarding the surrounding vehicles in transient dynamic traffic conditions during complicated maneuvers. Although various studies have been performed in the field of lane change in dynamic traffic conditions and even in critical high speed, considering the transient dynamic conditions has been limited to the beginning of the maneuver and no solution has been provided for the surrounding vehicles’ immediate changes during the maneuver. The algorithm presented in this paper is able to design new safe optimized trajectories according to the sudden decisions of the surrounding vehicles during the lane change maneuver, also ensures collision avoidance in the whole maneuver via vehicle’s simultaneous longitudinal and lateral control. After evaluating the decision-making unit’s performance by real driving tests, the presented algorithm is simulated with different scenarios in complicated transient dynamic traffic conditions by using MATLAB software and its desired performance has been proven in the dynamic environment of IPG CarMaker, in the presence of surrounding vehicles.

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The effects of drought and salinity stresses on morpho-physiological characteristics of three Iris (Iris spp.) cultivars (‘Purple Blue Magic’, ‘White Madonna’ and ‘Blue Deep River’) were investigated. Drought stress experiment included three drought levels (60, 75, and 90% of field capacity), and the salinity stress experiment included four concentration of NaCl (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM). Different drought and salt treatments had significant effects on the morphological characteristics (leaf surface, main root diameter, number of branched roots and corm dry weight) and the physiological characteristics (Relative Water Content= RWC, Carotenoid, Lipid Peroxidation= MDA, and Electrolyte Leakage= EL) of the three iris cultivars. The best vegetative growth characteristics and physiological conditions were recorded under the control treatments [most favorable moisture conditions (90% FC) and without using salt in irrigation water] and the poorest were under the most severe stress conditions (60% FC and 150 mM NaCl in irrigation water). With increasing drought stress in 60% FC level and increasing NaCl salt treatments in 100 and 150 mM, no flower appeared in the ‘Madonna’ and ‘Blue Magic’ cultivar, respectively. In this aspect, only ‘Deep River’ cultivar could reach flowering phase and complete life cycle in both drought and salinity stresses. We concluded that the process of flowering in some iris cultivars were sensitive to drought stress and salinity. However, by selection, resistant or tolerant cultivars or genotypes could be identified and promoted under these abiotic stress conditions.
 

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Incremental sheet forming is a flexible forming technology in which the sheet metal is gradually formed by the movement of tools in specified path. Due to the progressively localized deformation of the sheet and concentration of the forces on contact area of tool and sheet metal, the formability of the sheet increases compared with other common forming methods. In this study, numerical simulation of the incremental forming of AA3105-St12 two-layer sheet has been performed to calculate forming force and final thicknesses of the layers. The validity of the simulation results is evaluated by comparing them with those obtained from experiments. Numerical models for estimating the vertical force applied on the tool and the final thicknesses of the layers in terms of the process variables have been obtained using artificial neural network. Multi-objective optimization has been conducted to achieve the minimum force and the minimum thickness reduction of layers using obtained numerical models based on genetic algorithm method. Optimum thickness of the two-layer sheet and the thickness ratio the layers in different states of contact of the aluminum or the steel layers with the forming tool have been determined.

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Human well-being is one of the main goals of sustainable rural development. Indeed, human well-being demonstrates rural societies’ quality of life. This concept consists of objective and subjective well-being dimensions. Although it is assumed that objective well-being is rationally related to subjective well-being, this relationship has not been fully confirmed in past studies. Three main reasons including the geographical level of assessment, the type of data used, and different epistemological perspectives have separated objective well-being assessment from the subjective one. We used the same geographical level, type of data used, as well as epistemological perspective in order to evaluate the relationship between objective well-being and subjective well-being among rice farmers. Using a questionnaire, a survey was carried out among 384 rice farmers (Response rate= 92.3%) in the main rice cultivation areas in Iran. The study sample was chosen by a two-stages cluster random sampling technique. Face to face personal interview was also used as the form of data collection. The results of structural equation modeling illustrated that farmers’ perception of economic, social, and environmental well-being as objective well-being domains significantly explained their subjective well-being constructs including happiness as well as life satisfaction. In fact, life satisfaction and happiness would be changed once farmers mentally perceive objective well-being domains. Therefore, objective well-being indicators can affect subjective well-being constructs, including life satisfaction and happiness, if they are assessed based on farmers’ self-evaluation.

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The present study aimed to analyze sugar beet farmers’ intention towards the acceptance of drip irrigation based on an extended version of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The main objectives of this study were introduction of the existing acceptance behavior models, comparison of these theories with a critical point of view, presentation of a theoretical framework based on TAM, and testing the possible relationships among variables. This descriptive-correlational research was conducted through a cross-sectional survey. The statistical population of the study was sugar beet growers of Miandoab District, Iran, of which 346 farmers were selected as the sample of the study using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method (N= 3326). The research instrument was a structured questionnaire, whose face, convergent, and discriminant validity were confirmed. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability coefficients were employed to examine the reliability of research tool (0.74< α< 0.93). The results revealed that the variables of attitude, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness have significant positive effects on behavioral intention towards accepting drip irrigation technology. Innovation features also have an indirect effect on behavioral intention. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that independent variables of extended version of TAM could account for 59.3% of variance of behavioral intention towards drip irrigation acceptance. The significant effect of attitude towards acceptance of drip irrigation in explaining farmers' intention towards acceptance of drip irrigation technologies implies that reinforcing farmers' attitudes will increase the likelihood of activating behavioral intention towards these new irrigation methods. In general, the results of this study contribute to the development of more integrated and comprehensive models in the field of farmers' acceptance behaviors. It also provides practitioners and policy makers of agriculture and water sectors with some useful insights regarding determinants and strategies of behavioral changes.

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Given the current demand for surfaces with non-polished morphology like structured surface that enhance its tribological properties, providing a method with minimal production cost and high performance has attracted attention. The present study focuses on presenting a new method for producing structured surfaces with hydrophobic performance. In this method, using the grinding process with a special grinding wheel, an attempt has been made to produce these widely used surfaces. By modifying the topography of the wheel surface and changing the arrangement of abrasive particles from random to arranged distribution with the diamond particles in predefined locations, an attempt was made to design and manufacture a special grinding wheel for the production of structured surfaces. A segment with 1*1 cm2 including diamond particles with mesh size of 40/50 were manufactured during the electroplating process in a nickel bath medium and by installing the segment on the wheel hub and performing the grinding process with this developed wheel, surfaces containing continuous and discontinuous scratches with the same geometry were produced. Static contact angle test for the unstructured surface was about 37 degrees that improved to 141 degrees with the structured surface, which is an impressive improvement.

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The new coronavirus was firstly identified in the late December 2019 that causes severe respiratory and other organ complications in Covid-19 patients. Although many attempts have been employed to introduce and provide effective medications against this infection, there is still no definitive treatment for the infection. However some agents have shown promising effects in patients and some others are in preliminary or clinical studies. Monoclonal antibodies are of great interest in the treatment of Covid-19, but despite the fact that more than 120 clinical trials have been performed or are being completed; only tocilizumab has shown promising results and is sometimes used in therapeutic protocols. In this review, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies against Covid-19 that are currently in phase 3 or higher clinical trial have been discussed.

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The main purpose of this study is to provide a simple and efficient method for calculating the capacity of fillet welds subjected to in-plane eccentric loads. Various methods have been proposed to determine the capacity of fillet welds under such circumstances over time. The existing design methods, such as the conventional elastic method, are very conservative and do not match the test results well due to neglecting of ductility and strain compatibility of the weld group. On the other hand, the instantaneous center of rotation method (IC) considers the above parameters but requires complex calculations. Therefore, in the present study, a method for the design of the fillet welds is introduced which considers the inelastic properties of the welds in a simple manner, while provides a very good prediction of the weld group capacity. The proposed method is much more accurate than the conventional elastic method in the design of fillet welds and is much simpler than the IC method which has limitations in use and complexity in calculations. In this method, considering the ductility for welds, it is assumed that the stress distribution in welds is uniform when the weld reaches its maximum bearable deformation.
The performance of the proposed method which is called Plastic Design Method has been compared and evaluated in comparison with the prequalified IC method. To this end, 8 different configurations of weld groups from the AISC Manual were selected and their capacities were calculated for different amount of load eccentricity. Accordingly, despite the fact that the new method has almost the same computational cost of the elastic design method, it offers more accurate strength predictions of the weld groups. For all considered cases, the ultimate loads obtained from the proposed plastic method are just slightly different from those of the IC method and they are mainly on the safe side. To be more precise, the accuracy of the results calculated by the proposed method is within 90% of those of the IC method.
In accordance with the authors’ parametric studies on the factors affecting the results of the plastic design method (e.g., the angle of loading (θ), the weld length (l), the weld throat thickness (d), the secondary parameter (k) and the tensile strength of the welded metal), it was found that the angle of loading has the most profound effect. Therefore, the influence of loading angle on the predicted results was included. Accordingly, three different loading angles (i.e., zero, 45 and 75 degrees) were chosen and the weld groups capacities were calculated in each case. The corresponding results showed that as the loading angle increases, the accuracy of the results decreases and the most accurate predictions are obtained for the case of zero angle loading as compared with those of the IC method. Nevertheless, the predictions are still in an acceptable range for non-zero angles. It is also worth mentioning that irrespective of the loading angle, the new plastic method strength predictions are always far better than those of the conventional elastic design method.

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Armed conflicts in each and every place of this planet have different consequences, one of the most important of which is the destruction and damage to the environment. In order to protect the environment in international armed conflicts, the rules for environmental protection in the areas of international law has been conducted and the principles and rules of international responsibility of governments have been explained the destruction of the environment in the conflict and their obligation to compensate for the damage. These areas are currently subject to the general rules of international responsibility in international public law, due to the significant progress made by international environmental law and international criminal law, in recent decades, the elaboration of specific international rules for protecting the environment in international armed conflicts is necessary.
This article attempts to examine the limits and effects of the responsibility of States resulting from these violations by analyzing the rules governing international environmental law and international criminal law. Identifying the challenges and complexities associated with determining the international responsibility of governments in this regard is another achievement of this study.
 

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Core testing is the most direct method to assess the in-situ concrete compressive strength in an existing structure, generally related to suspected construction malpractice or deficiency of concrete supply, to carry out the condition assessment of buildings before taking up repair and upgrading work. Although this test is quite simple to conduct, the results obtained may sometimes contain considerable errors because of the great variety of parameters involved. The general problems of core testing are well known. The factors including core diameter, length-to-diameter ratio (L/D), concrete age, aggregate characteristics, direction of coring and the moisture condition at the time of testing are known which affect the relationship between core strength and the corresponding standard cube or cylinder strength are fully reported by researchers. Another potential factor influencing the testing of cores is the presence of reinforcing bars within the core. The effects of the presence of steel bars on the strength of cores have been investigated by only a few researchers. Reinforcement bars passing through a core will increase the uncertainty of results and should be avoided wherever possible. Regression analysis and generalized GMDH network, whose structure is investigated using genetic algorithm and single-particle number optimization method for predicting the compressive strength of concrete using the results of coring tests with and without fittings. The form and ability of the multivariate linear regression models and the importance of regression coefficients based on the experimental data obtained for samples in two different processing conditions, in order to predict the cubic compressive strength of the concrete and using the input parameters including (1) the length to diameter ratio Core, (2) core diameter, (3) diameter, (4) number and (5) axial axial axis of the rebar in the core, (6) reinforcement of the rebar, and (7) core compressive strength as independent and input variables, as well as resistance Concrete pressure is evaluated as the response variable (or output of the models). This method is used for the GMDH neural network. The objective of the GMDH neural network method is to obtain a polynomial function that can be used to retrieve the output parameter by the input of the considered variables. The GMDH neural network can, after training, estimate the relationship between inputs and outputs in a polynomial, which depends on the accuracy of this polynomial on the data and structure of the network. The single-particle decomposition (SVD) method in the GMDH structure for the case where the number of equations is greater than that of unknowns, uses the least squares error method to solve such devices. The results showed that the models used have high ability to express the problem, since more than 95% of variations of response variables with fitted models in regression models and about 99% of changes in the response variable values ​​in the GMDH model can be expressed. But in a comparative position, GMDH model with a general structure optimized with Genetic Algorithm and SVD has shown the best performance, with this superiority becoming noticeable, considering that about 75% of the data is involved in training the neural model. Subsequently, nonlinear regression models show a certain advantage over linear models.
 

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Continuous Biological Control (BC) of pests can reduce unnecessary pesticide applications in rice production, thus promoting occupational safety and health in farming. In this study, the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change was examined for its applicability in explaining adoption and maintenance of BC use among 344 rice farmers of Simorgh County, Mazandaran Province in northern Iran, to better understand how farmers change their pest management behavior for incorporating BC. The stages of behavior change in BC use were assessed according to the TTM model, i.e. Pre-Contemplation (PC), Contemplation (C), Preparation (PR), Action (A), and Maintenance (M), in the management of rice stem borer [Chilo suppressalis (Walker)]. Almost three quarters (75.1%) of the farmers were in pre-action stages (43.1% in PC stage, 16.3% in C stage, and 15.7% in PR stage), 15.1% were changing their behavior (A stage), and while few farmers (9.8%) reported continuous use of BC agents for more than two cropping seasons (M stage). Farmers in the early stages of TTM model showed lower education levels, higher income, lower self-consumption of rice, higher grain yields, higher damage by rice stem borer, and lower knowledge levels about natural enemies than those who were in the later stages of change. Moreover, self-efficacy in BC use and perceived advantages of BC use increased through the stages of change, whereas the perceived disadvantages of BC use decreased. This is the first report supporting the appropriateness of the TTM in explaining farmers’ behavior change in BC use, which provides novel evidence on farmers’ adoption process of BC. Extension measures should focus on usual obstacles related to BC use, such as perceived advantages and disadvantages of BC as well as self-efficacy in BC use, targeting to match the stage of change with various intervention strategies.

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Objective: Despite many advances in cancer treatment and control, significant deficiencies remain and the rate of cancer growth is increasing. Due to the side effects of using chemicals and radiation, the use of herbs can have fewer side effects for the patient. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential anticancer effects of alcoholic extract of Lavender on inhibition and growth of HepG2 cell lines.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the effect of alcoholic extract of lavender (10,100,1000 and 1 μg / ml) on HepG2 liver cancer cell line was studied. MTT assay was used to evaluate the toxicity of lavender extract and cell viability. Cell cycle changes were assessed using a flow cytometer.
Oxygen-free species production and membrane lipid peroxidation were also measured.

Results: Results showed that alcoholic extract of Lavender has anti-cancer effect on HepG2 cell line. After confirming the effect of lavender extract on cell cycle, the results obtained from the evaluation of membrane lipid peroxidation and production of free reactive species were also significant.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the alcoholic extract of Lavender was reported as a potential anticancer agent and is one of the therapeutic strategies in liver cancer.

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Pneumatic Soft bending actuators as safe and highly adaptable robots are being considered by researchers, such that they become an ideal choice for making devices that interact more with humans. These advantages come along with several disadvantages. Their great adaptability is provided by their high degrees of freedom, and consequently, it makes the modeling a significant challenge for researchers. In this paper, the modeling of a soft fiber-reinforced bending actuator that is in contact with the environment has been conducted by utilizing the finite rigid element method. This method provides a context within which the modeling theories of traditional rigid robots, such as the Denavit-Hartenberg method, become usable for a soft continuum actuator. Therefore, in the following, resorting to this theory, the static and dynamic behavior of a soft actuator under the effect of the external load has been investigated and compared with the empirical results derived from a fabricated actuator. The results show a minimum accuracy of 9 percent, although being as simple as can be used for other purposes like implementing control systems based on that.
 

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The type and material of the core piece of sandwich panels are important parameters in the mechanical behavior of these sandwich samples. In this study, the mechanical behavior of sandwich panels with two types of aluminum alloy foam core was investigated. Also, the effect of the method used to stabilize aluminum foam investigates and compares during the bending and compressive tests, for this purpose, the properties of the core of sandwich panels made with LM13 alloy aluminum foam were fabricated with calcium stabilizer and silicon carbide powder separately. The results of the X-ray diffraction test showed the presence of Al₄Ca intermetallic compounds in aluminum foams containing calcium metal, and silicon carbide particles for aluminum foams containing silicon carbide powder in the cell wall. The yield strength of sandwich panels with aluminum foam core and calcium metal stabilizer was higher than that of cores with silicon carbide particle stabilizer. Also, sandwich panels with aluminum foam cores containing silicon carbide powder showed more energy absorption. In contrast, foams with silicon carbide powder stabilizer absorbed more energy under the uniaxial pressure test. Also, the results of the macrostructure analysis of how the shape of the sandwich panel changed in the three-point bending test were indicative of a reduction in force due to the weakness in the connection between the sandwich panel shell and the aluminum foam core.