Green Additives in Chitosan-based Bioplastic Films: Physical, Mechanical, and Chemical Properties

To switch to alternatives for fossil-fuel-based polymer materials, renewable raw materials from green resources should be utilized. Chitosan is such a material that is a strong, but workable derivative from chitin, obtained from crustaceans. However, various applications ask for specific plastic properties, such as certain flexibility, hardness and transparency. With different additives, also obtainable from green resources, chitosan-based composites in the form of self-supporting films, ranging from very hard and brittle to soft and flexible were successfully produced. The additives turned out to belong to one of three categories, namely linear, non-linear, or crosslinking additives. The non-linear additives could only be taken up to a certain relative amount, whereas the uptake of linear additives was not limited within the range of our experiments. Additives with multiple functional groups tend to crosslink chitosan even at room temperature in an acidic medium. Finally, it was shown that dissolving the chitosan in acetic acid and subsequently drying the matrix as a film results in reacetylation compared to the starting chitosan source, resulting in a harder material. With these findings, it is possible to tune the properties of chitosan-based polymer materials, making a big step towards application of this renewable polymer within consumer goods

LSD1 activation promotes inducible EMT programs and modulates the tumour microenvironment in breast cancer

Complex regulatory networks control epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) but the underlying epigenetic control is poorly understood. Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is a key histone demethylase that alters the epigenetic landscape. Here we explored the role of LSD1 in global epigenetic regulation of EMT, cancer stem cells (CSCs), the tumour microenvironment, and therapeutic resistance in breast cancer. LSD1 induced pan genomic gene expression in networks implicated in EMT and selectively elicits gene expression programs in CSCs whilst repressing non-CSC programs. LSD1 phosphorylation at serine-111 (LSD1-s111p) by chromatin anchored protein kinase C-theta (PKC-θ), is critical for its demethylase and EMT promoting activity and LSD1-s111p is enriched in chemo resistant cells in vivo. LSD1 couples to PKC-θ on the mesenchymal gene epigenetic template promotes LSD1-mediated gene induction. In vivo, chemotherapy reduced tumour volume, and when combined with an LSD1 inhibitor, abrogated the mesenchymal signature and promoted an innate, M1 macrophage-like tumouricidal immune response. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients were enriched with LSD1 and pharmacological blockade of LSD1 suppressed the mesenchymal and stem-like signature in these patient derived CTCs. Overall, LSD1 inhibition may serve as a promising epigenetic adjuvant therapy to subvert its pleiotropic roles in breast cancer progression and treatment resistanc

ETM 520 Student Project - Desmond

Critique of the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management article, The Effect of Acceleration Techniques on Product Development Time

Critique of the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management article, The Effect of Acceleration Techniques on Product Development Time

Critique of the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management article, The Effect of Acceleration Techniques on Product Development Time

Exploring Factors that Improve the Probability of New ProductSuccess

This report reviews factors that may influence the success or failure of new products in the high technology field. The failure rate for new products is high, what things could be done to improve the new product success rate

Ten Ways to Create More Productive Cross-cultural Teams

This report reviews current academic literature on team building. Cross-cultural communications and international culture and business. IT presents ten recommendations to assist cross-cultural teams perform to their level of possibilities

Great Historical Events and Management Behaviors

Addresses the question of what relationships there might be between various management behaviors and great historical events

Ten Ways to Create More Productive Cross-cultural Teams

This report reviews current academic literature on team building. Cross-cultural communications and international culture and business. IT presents ten recommendations to assist cross-cultural teams perform to their level of possibilities