Fibres from banana’s stem are abundantly available in Malaysia. This study focused on the production
of woven fabric from banana pseudo-stem fibres. Yarn made of 100% banana stem and 100% cotton
yarn were produced. Two types of retting techniques were conducted, which are water retting and
retting using softening agent. The fibres were spun and weaved into plain weave fabric. All specimens
were evaluated for yarn twist, yarn evenness, yarn linear density and selected fabric physical
properties. The results obtained showed that banana stem fabric treated with softening agent has lower
area density and higher thickness. Weft sample retted in softening agent has higher bending length and
flexural rigidity than sample retted in water. This might be due to the decrement of yarn’s stiffness,
which eases the insertion of yarn during shedding process. Weft sample retted in water has lower
bending length due to coarser yarn and tends to break easily. It is found that retting banana stem fibres
with softening agent affect the yarn linear density, area density, fabric stiffness properties and flexural
rigidity of the fabric.
Designing environmentally friendly materials from natural resources represents a great challenge in the last decade. However, the lack of fundamental knowledge in the processing of the raw materials to fabricate the composites structure is still a major challenge for potential applications. Natural fibers extracted from plants are receiving more attention from researchers, scientists and academics due to their use in polymer composites and also their environmentally friendly nature and sustainability. The natural fiber features depend on the preparation and processing of the fibers. Natural plant fibers are extracted either by mechanical retting, dew retting and/or water retting processes. The natural fibers characteristics could be improved by suitable chemicals and surface treatments. This survey proposes a detailed review of the different types of retting processes, chemical and surface treatments and characterization techniques for natural fibers. We summarize major findings from the literature and the treatment effects on the properties of the natural fibers are being highlighted.
The susceptibility gene for hereditary Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC) is the RET proto-oncogene. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of common germline RET mutations in exons 10 and 11 among Iranian MTC patients. Fifty-seven non-related MTC patients were examined in this study (Females: Males =1.2:1.0, Mean age = 40.0 +/- 11.5 years) and the existence of mutations was assessed through the PCR-RFLP technique. The only Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A) patient displayed a C634W mutation in exon 11. Among 53 apparently sporadic MTC patients, one patient showed a C620R mutation in exon 10 and two other patients displayed C624Y mutations in exon 11 of RET proto-oncogene. Neither the only Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2B (MEN2B) patient nor two Familial MTC patients was found to carry germline mutations in exons 10 and 11. This study reports, for the first time, the prevalence of common RET mutations among Iranian, apparently sporadic MTC patients, underlining the critical importance of screening for RET mutations in such patients.
Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most prevalent form of malignancy among all cancers of the thyroid. It is also one of the few cancers with a rapidly increasing incidence. PTC is usually contained within the thyroid gland and generally biologically indolent. Prognosis of the cancer is excellent, with less than 2% mortality at 5 years. However, more than 25% of patients with PTC developed a recurrence during a long term follow-up. The present article provides an updated condensed overview of PTC, which focuses mainly on the molecular alterations involved and recent biomarker investigations.
To investigate RET and p53 expression in local thyroid lesions, in order to shed light on the pathogenesis of papillary carcinoma and explain the high prevalence of this condition among the nodular hyperplasia (multi-nodular goitre) cases.