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The mechanical property characterization of the cervix has been primarily performed on isolated cervical tissue, with an implied understanding of the contribution from the uterine corpus. Few studies have evaluated the function of the uterine corpus in the absence of myometrial contractions or in relationship to retaining the fetus. Therefore, the cervical-uterine interaction has largely been neglected in the literature. We suggest that a system-level biomechanical approach is needed to understand pregnancy maintenance. To that end, this paper has two main goals. One goal is to highlight the gaps in current knowledge that need to be addressed in order to develop any comprehensive and clinically relevant models of the system. The second goal is to illustrate the utility of finite element models in understanding pregnancy maintenance of the cervical-uterine system. The paper targets an audience that includes the reproductive biologist\/clinician and the engineer\/physical scientist interested in biomechanics and the system level behavior of tissues.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1115\/1.4023486","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,1,29]],"date-time":"2013-01-29T01:08:25Z","timestamp":1359421705000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1115\/crossmarkpolicy-asme","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["System-Level Biomechanical Approach for the Evaluation of Term and Preterm Pregnancy Maintenance"],"prefix":"10.1115","volume":"135","author":[{"given":"Hussam","family":"Mahmoud","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amy","family":"Wagoner Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Edward K.","family":"Chien","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Associate Professor Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Providence RI 02905"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael J.","family":"Poellmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ph.D. Candidate Department of Bioengineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Barbara","family":"McFarlin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Associate Professor Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"33","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,2,8]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"2019100315283721100_B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"348","DOI":"10.1053\/sper.2001.27164","article-title":"The Outcome of Extreme Prematurity","volume":"25","year":"2001","journal-title":"Semin. 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