## 3 Results and Discussion
### Response Surface Experimental Design and Result Analysis  
Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to examine the impact of plasma treatment voltage (A), treatment time (B), and working gas flow rate (C) on potato sprouting and weight loss rates. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and statistical significance were employed to assess the impact of each factor and their interactions on potatoes' sprouting rate and weight loss rate. This analysis provides insights into the ideal conditions for plasma treatment, considering both the effectiveness of sprouting inhibition and the minimization of weight loss. The response surface experimental design and results are shown in Table 2. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Experiment Number**} & **Treatment** & **Gas Flow** & **Treatment** & **Germination** & **Weight** \\  & **Voltage** & **Rate** & **Time** & **Rate** & **Loss Rate** \\  & **(kV)** & **(L/min)** & **(s)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** \\ \hline  
\hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Response Surface Experimental Design. As shown in Tables 3 and 4, the \(p\)-values for the quadratic regression models of the sprouting rate and weight loss rate are below 0.01, indicating a highly significant fit of the models to the actual data. The \(p\)-values of the residuals exceed 0.05, suggesting their insignificance, which further supports the quadratic regression models' reasonableness and ability to fit the actual data adequately. After performing quadratic regression analysis on the experimental data and removing the insignificant terms, the quadratic regression equations for the sprouting rate and weight loss rate are as follows:  
\[ \begin{split} X_{1}=32.64-13.21\text{A}-4.58\text{B}-5.04\text{C} +2.73\text{AB}+1.01\text{AC}-2.08\text{BC}+11.45\text{A}^{2}\\ +7.29\text{B}^{2}+9.55\text{C}^{2}\end{split}  \tag{4}\]  
\[ \begin{split} X_{1}=32.64-13.21\text{A}-4.58\text{B}-5.04\text{C} +2.73\text{AB}+1.01\text{AC}-2.08\text{BC}\\ +11.45\text{A}^{2}++0.3027\text{B}^{2}-0.027\text{2C}^{2}\end{split}  \tag{5}\]  
where X\({}_{1}\) represents the germination rate, X\({}_{2}\) denotes the weight loss rate, A, B, and C refer to the treatment voltage, gas flow rate, and treatment time, respectively. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Source** & **Sum of Squares** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Degree of** \\ **Freedom** \\ \end{tabular} & **F-Value** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline Model & 2.45 & 9 & 10.46 & 0.0027 \\ A- Treatment Voltage & 0.3445 & 1 & 13.24 & 0.0083 \\ B- Gas Flow Rate & 0.5778 & 1 & 22.20 & 0.0022 \\ C- Treatment Time & 0.1596 & 1 & 6.13 & 0.0424 \\ AB & 0.1296 & 1 & 4.98 & 0.0608 \\ AC & 0.0081 & 1 & 0.3113 & 0.5943 \\ BC & 0.0020 & 1 & 0.0778 & 0.7883 \\ A\({}^{2}\) & 0.7794 & 1 & 29.95 & 0.0009 \\ B\({}^{2}\) & 0.3859 & 1 & 14.83 & 0.0063 \\ C\({}^{2}\) & 0.0031 & 1 & 0.1202 & 0.7391 \\ Residual & 0.1822 & 7 & & \\ Lack of Fit & 0.1143 & 3 & 2.24 & 0.2254 \\ Pure Error & 0.0679 & 4 & & \\ Cor total & 2.63 & 16 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: ANOVA for the Regression Model of Weight Loss Rate. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Source** & **Sum of Squares** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Degree of** \\ **Freedom** \\ \end{tabular} & **F-Value** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline Model & 3106.56 & 9 & 65.92 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ A- Treatment Voltage & 1395.24 & 1 & 266.45 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ B- Gas Flow Rate & 167.45 & 1 & 31.98 & 0.0008 \\ C- Treatment Time & 203.52 & 1 & 38.87 & 0.0004 \\ AB & 29.70 & 1 & 5.67 & 0.0488 \\ AC & 4.10 & 1 & 0.7831 & 0.4056 \\ BC & 17.22 & 1 & 3.29 & 0.1126 \\ A\({}^{2}\) & 551.79 & 1 & 105.38 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ B\({}^{2}\) & 223.47 & 1 & 42.68 & 0.0003 \\ C\({}^{2}\) & 383.83 & 1 & 73.30 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ Residual & 36.65 & 7 & & \\ Lack of Fit & 11.18 & 3 & 0.5848 & 0.6561 \\ Pure Error & 25.48 & 4 & & \\ Cor total & 3143.21 & 16 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: ANOVA for the regression model assessing the sprouting rate.