Characterization of natural cellulosic fiber extracted from Grewia damine flowering plant's stem.

Grewia damine is a flowering plant found in India and Sri Lanka. The fiber taken out from the stem bark of G. damine is found to be novel and selected for characterization study. The G. damine stem bark fiber (GDSF) has rich in cellulose contents (57.78 ± 3.56%). Its lower density (1.378 ± 0.036 g/cm3) makes it fit for use in lightweight applications. The weight percentage values of the chemical constituents confirm the use of GDSF for structural applications. Crystallinity index of GDSF was noted as 30.35%. The mechanical properties of GDSF were predicted as 375.6 ± 16.58 MPa tensile strength and 126.2 ± 11.93 GPa modulus of elasticity. The morphological and atomic force microscopy study results revealed that the fiber has rough surface even in its raw form. Hence it can be used to prepare composite specimens with better bonding strength between fiber and polymer. The thermal stability of GDSF was noted as 326 °C. Weibull distribution plots were drawn for validating the physical and tensile property values of GDSF.

Characterization of surface-modified natural cellulosic fiber extracted from the root of Ficus religiosa tree.

The foremost intention of this work is to test the suitability of the Ficus religiosa Root Fiber (FRRF) as the better reinforcement for the natural fiber-reinforced composite structures. In the current work, the attempts have been made with the view of improving the physical, thermal, chemical, surface, and crystalline properties of FRRF employing 5 wt% of NaOH solution. Five samples of FRRF have been prepared by soaking the raw fiber in the alkali solution under different soaking times. The thermogravimetric analysis results reveal that the alkali-treated FRRF soaked for 60 min holds a maximum range of thermal stability (improved by 9.54%); in turn, the remaining analyses have been carried out with that fiber samples. The increased quantity of cellulose contents was witnessed over the surface of treated FRRF. The improvement in the CI from 42.92-48.64% was noted as the result of X-Ray Diffraction test. The morphology study results ensured that the surface of the treated FRRF became so rough comparably, which confirms the removal of unwanted wax and impurities on the fiber surface. All the above observations validated that the proposed fiber is suitable to prepare the composite structures after the optimal alkali treatment.

A stress-induced early innate response causes multidrug tolerance in melanoma.

Correction to: Oncogene (2015) 34, 4448­4459; doi:10.1038/onc.2014.372; published online 24 November 2014. In this article, published online 24 November 2014, the authors have noticed that the latest supplementary information was not used. The corrected supplementary information (Supplementary Materials) appears online together with this corrigendum. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause