Proliferation and Apoptosis Pathways and Factors in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral cancer is the most common form of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and most frequently presents as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which is associated with an alarmingly high mortality rate. Internationally, a plethora of research to further our understanding of the molecular pathways related to oral cancer is performed. This research is of value for early diagnosis, prognosis, and the investigation of new drugs that can ameliorate the harmful effects of oral cancer and provide optimal patient outcomes with minimal long-term complications. Two pathways on which the progression of OSCC depends on are those of proliferation and apoptosis, which overlap at many junctions. Herein, we aim to review these pathways and factors related to OSCC progression. Publicly available search engines, PubMed and Google Scholar, were used with the following keywords to identify relevant literature: oral cancer, proliferation, proliferation factors, genes, mutations, and tumor suppressor. We anticipate that the use of information provided through this review will further progress translational cancer research work in the field of oral cancer.     

Self-Assembly and Neurotoxicity of β-Amyloid (21–40) Peptide Fragment: The Regulatory Role of GxxxG Motifs

The three GxxxG repeating motifs from the C-terminal region of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide play a significant role in regulating the aggregation kinetics of the peptide. Mutation of these glycine residues to leucine greatly accelerates the fibrillation process but generates a varied toxicity profile. Using an array of biophysical techniques, we demonstrated the uniqueness of the composite glycine residues in these structural repeats. We used solvent relaxation NMR spectroscopy to investigate the role played by the surrounding water molecules in determining the corresponding aggregation pathway. Notably, the conformational changes induced by Gly³³ and Gly³⁷ mutations result in significantly decreased toxicity in a neuronal cell line. Our results indicate that G³³xxxG³⁷ is the primary motif responsible for Aβ neurotoxicity, hence providing a direct structure–function correlation. Targeting this motif, therefore, can be a promising strategy to prevent neuronal cell death associated with Alzheimer's and other related diseases, such as type II diabetes and Parkinson's.     

The effect of alkalization and fiber loading on the mechanical properties of bamboo fiber composites,Part 1: — Polyester resin matrix

Bamboo strips [10 cm × 1.5 cm × (1?1.5) mm] were treated with caustic solutions for 1 h at different concentrations e.g., 0, 10, 15, 20, and 25%. Bamboo strips reinforced polyester resin composites were fabricated by hand‐lay‐up technique using both alkali‐treated and untreated bamboo strips, using a room temperature curing system for the polyester resin. This study aims at the evaluation of the influence of caustic concentration on the mechanical properties of bamboo strips reinforced polyester resin composites at a constant 50% loading of reinforcement. Maximum improvement in property was achieved possibly with 20% of caustic treated strip reinforcements. Beyond 20%, there was degradation in all the strength properties because of failure in mechanical properties of the reinforcements itself. The effect of fiber loading variation upon mechanical properties was also studied. It was observed that superior mechanical properties were obtained with 60% filler loading. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Biomolecular Template-Induced Biomimetic Coating of Hydroxyapatite on an SS 316 L Substrate

Bone, a natural composite, comprises non-stoichiometric calcium hydroxyapatite (HAp) precipitated in a controlled reaction environment of a highly aligned, anisotropic organic template (type I collagen) that leads to its exotic tensile and compressive strength. It differs from stoichiometric hydroxyapatite in composition, crystallinity, and other physical and mechanical properties. In the present study, functionalized biomolecular template-induced precipitation of HAp on an SS 316 L substrate following biomimetic route exhibits distinct alterations in crystal growth and geometry, which in turn indicates the potential of the process to develop a non-stoichiometric HAp coating on metal implants.     

Poly(ethylene oxide)/clay nanocomposite: Thermomechanical properties and morphology

Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/clay nanocomposites were prepared by a solution intercalation method using chloroform as a solvent. The nanocomposites were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), hot-stage polarized optical microscopy (POM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), tensile analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) characterisation techniques. Formation of nanocomposite was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. A decrease in PEO crystallinity in case of nanocomposite, was confirmed by a decrease in the heat of melting and spherulite size as indicated by DSC and POM studies, respectively. Improvement in tensile properties in all respect was observed for nanocomposites with optimum clay content (12.5 wt%). DMA studies indicate an increase in loss peak temperature and broadening of loss peak as a result of clay intercalation.     

Concurrent optimisation of a computer vision system’s multiple responses

A number of recent research works have focused on how to improve the performance of production systems. This paper examines the system based on a simulation model with two manufacturing cells under a re-entrant environment. With the model a set of experiments has been carried out to study how the factors influence the system performance. Different release times and lot sizes have been compared, and scheduling heuristics for both bottleneck and non-bottleneck have been discussed to capture the essence of the production system. We used ANOVA to analyze the experimental results and achieved the conclusions that: interval releasing is better than beginning releasing; lot size can improve one of the performance indicators, but deteriorate the other under interval releasing; NC policy can obtain both good due-date performance and high throughput.     

Validity of modified Gompertz and Logistic models in predicting cell growth of Pediococcus acidilactici H during the production of bacteriocin pediocin AcH

Data for the cell growth of Pediococcus acidilactici H during the fermentative production of bacteriocin, pediocin AcH (taken from a previous study) was modeled by two sigmoidal functions, modified Gompertz and Logistic. Results showed that the models could adequately account for the cell growth up to the growth phase, but failed to account for the stationary and death phase.     

Landcover classification in MRF context using Dempster-Shafer fusion for multisensor imagery.

This work deals with multisensor data fusion to obtain landcover classification. The role of feature-level fusion using the Dempster-Shafer rule and that of data-level fusion in the MRF context is studied in this paper to obtain an optimally segmented image. Subsequently, segments are validated and classification accuracy for the test data is evaluated. Two examples of data fusion of optical images and a synthetic aperture radar image are presented, each set having been acquired on different dates. Classification accuracies of the technique proposed are compared with those of some recent techniques in literature for the same image data.     

High-power polarization-engineered GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMTs without surface passivation

In this paper, a high-power GaN/AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) has been demonstrated. A thick cap layer has been used to screen surface states and reduce dispersion. A deep gate recess was used to achieve the desired transconductance. A thin SiO/sub 2/ layer was deposited on the drain side of the gate recess in order to reduce gate leakage current and improve breakdown voltage. No surface passivation layer was used. A breakdown voltage of 90 V was achieved. A record output power density of 12 W/mm with an associated power-added efficiency (PAE) of 40.5% was measured at 10 GHz. These results demonstrate the potential of the technique as a controllable and repeatable solution to decrease dispersion and produce power from GaN-based HEMTs without surface passivation.