A comparison between three approaches for modelling deterioration of five pavement surfaces

Reported in this paper are the process and outcomes of deterioration modelling for five types of pavement bituminous surfacing for use in identifying and prioritising resurfacing needs. Surface condition data is collected using subjective assessment surveys and the condition ratings of distresses are combined into a single measure referred to as surface inspection rating (SIR). Deterioration models of SIR as a function of surface age are developed for the five networks using three modelling approaches. They include regression analysis, logistic regression analysis and Markov chains. A comparison between the output models of the three approaches is presented and assessed in terms of predictions reasonableness and accuracy considering their closeness to actual data and practical local experience and engineering judgement. Overall the findings indicate that the three modelling approaches provide similar predictions and deterioration rates for most surfacing types. A comparison of performance between the five networks is also presented.     

Non-Canonical Helical Structure of Nucleic Acids Containing Base-Modified Nucleotides

Chemically modified nucleobases are thought to be important for therapeutic purposes as well as diagnosing genetic diseases and have been widely involved in research fields such as molecular biology and biochemical studies. Many artificially modified nucleobases, such as methyl, halogen, and aryl modifications of purines at the C8 position and pyrimidines at the C5 position, are widely studied for their biological functions. DNA containing these modified nucleobases can form non-canonical helical structures such as Z-DNA, G-quadruplex, i-motif, and triplex. This review summarizes the synthesis of chemically modified nucleotides: (i) methylation, bromination, and arylation of purine at the C8 position and (ii) methylation, bromination, and arylation of pyrimidine at the C5 position. Additionally, we introduce the non-canonical structures of nucleic acids containing these modifications.     

Probabilistic modelling of flexible pavement distresses for network management

Deterioration models for pavement surface distresses have been developed using probabilistic modelling approaches. The condition data is collected using visual inspection surveys. Distress data used in the modelling include cracking, texture loss and stone loss of different pavement surfacing types. The latter includes dense graded asphalt, open graded asphalt, ultra-thin asphalt, sprayed/chip seal and geotextile seal (chip seal with geotextile underlay). Probabilistic modelling approaches used include logistic regression and Markov chains (MC). The two variables used in the modelling are distress rating and surface age. These models are to be used for network level management. For the network modelled herein, logistic models are found to provide predictions that are comparable with actual average condition data at different age values. It is also observed that predictions of most MC models are higher than predictions of logistic models and actual average data.     

MADCR:Mobility Aware Dynamic Clustering-Based Routing Protocol in Internet of Vehicles

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the capabil-ities of vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) in in-telligence t...