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The accurate prediction of forest road pavement performance is important for efficient management of surface transportation infrastructure and achieves significant savings through timely intervention and accurate planning. The aim of this paper was to introduce a methodology for developing accurate pavement deterioration models to be used primarily for the management of the forest road infrastructure. For this purpose, 19 explanatory and three corresponding response variables were measured in 185 segments of 50 km forest roads. Logistic regression (LR) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to predict forest road pavement deterioration, Pothole, rutting and protrusion, as a function of pavement condition, environmental factors, traffic and road qualify. The results showed ANNs and LR models could classify from 82% to 89% of the current pavement condition correctly. According to the results, LR model and ANNs predicted rutting, pothole and protrusion with 83.5%, 83.00% and 81.75%, 88.65% and 85.20%, 80.00% accuracy. Equivalent single axle load (ESAL), date of repair, thickness of pavement and slope were identified as most significant explanatory variables. Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) showed that the results obtained by ANNs and logistic regression are close to each other.

We present a novel approach to modeling cell spreading, and use it to reveal a potentially central mechanism regulating focal adhesion maturation in various cell phenotypes. Actin bundles that span neighboring focal complexes at the lamellipodium-lamellum interface were assumed to be loaded by intracellular forces in proportion to bundle length. We hypothesized that the length of an actin bundle (with the corresponding accumulated force at its adhesions) may thus regulate adhesion maturation to ensure cell mechanical stability and morphological integrity. We developed a model to test this hypothesis, implementing a "top-down" approach to simplify certain cellular processes while explicitly incorporating complexity of other key subcellular mechanisms. Filopodial and lamellipodial activities were treated as modular processes with functional spatiotemporal interactions coordinated by rules regarding focal adhesion turnover and actin bundle dynamics. This theoretical framework was able to robustly predict temporal evolution of cell area and cytoskeletal organization as reported from a wide range of cell spreading experiments using micropatterned substrates. We conclude that a geometric/temporal modeling framework can capture the key functional aspects of the rapid spreading phase and resultant cytoskeletal complexity. Hence the model is used to reveal mechanistic insight into basic cell behavior essential for spreading. It demonstrates that actin bundles spanning nascent focal adhesions such that they are aligned to the leading edge may accumulate centripetal endogenous forces along their length, and could thus trigger focal adhesion maturation in a force-length dependent fashion. We suggest that this mechanism could be a central "integrating" factor that effectively coordinates force-mediated adhesion maturation at the lamellipodium-lamellum interface.

Although pubic ramus fractures are common, they usually heal without surgical intervention and result in little long-term disability. We herein present two cases of symptomatic malunion of pubic rami fracture, which was successfully treated with a simple and safe surgical technique. The patients' local symptoms resolved afterwards.