IntroductionOral melanoacanthoma is a rare, benign pigmented lesion characterized clinically by the sudden appearance and rapid growth of a macular brown-black lesion and histologically by acanthosis of the superficial epithelium and proliferation of dendritic melanocytes.Case presentationWe present a case report of oral melanoacanthoma in a 24-year-old Asian Indian man. He presented with an intra-oral brown macular lesion on the left buccal mucosa with a duration of one and a half months. Microscopic examination revealed acanthosis of stratified squamous surface epithelium and dendritic melanocytes diffusely distributed in the epithelium; the Masson-Fontana silver impregnation technique was used to demonstrate the dendritic melanocytes. Based on the history, clinical features and histological presentation, the lesion was diagnosed as melanoacanthoma.ConclusionThis is the first reported instance of oral melanoacanthoma in the Indian sub-continent. This report details the course of the lesion from diagnosis to its resolution. Melanoacanthoma must be differentiated from other intra-oral pigmented lesions and biopsy may be required to rule out melanoma.

Stem cells of the dental pulp are a population of postnatal stem cells with multilineage differentiation potential. These cells are derived from the neural ectomesenchyme, similar to most craniofacial tissues, and specific niches in the pulp have been identified. Since the isolation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) and stem cells from exfoliating deciduous teeth (SHED), numerous studies have attempted to define and characterize these cells, and embryonic stem cell features have been reported in both DPSC and SHED. These cells have a vast repertoire of differentiation - osteogenic, odontogenic, myogenic, adipogenic, neurogenic, and melanocytic, and have even demonstrated transdifferentiation to corneal cells and islet cells of pancreas. The combined advantages of multipotency/pluripotency and the relative ease of access of pulp tissue for autologous use render DPSC/ SHED attractive options in regenerative dentistry and medicine. This review gives a bird's eye view of current knowledge with respect to stem cells from the dental pulp.

There was increased expression of hTERT protein in OSCC and leukoplakia samples when compared to normal oral mucosa. The cellular localization, LI and LS in OSF were significantly different from OSCC and leukoplakia.

We present the results of a multiple case study of how architects view and address the issues in transforming requirements into architectures in practice. Specifically we report how they view and address issues of requirements, architecture, and the transformation of requirements into architecture. We then summarize the important lessons learned from these practicing architects about this critically important step in creating and evolving software systems.

Active research is being done in how to go from requirements to architecture. However, no studies have been attempted in this area despite a long history of empirical research in software engineering (SE). Our goal is to establish a framework for the transformation from requirements to architecture on the basis of a series of empirical studies. The first step is to collect evidence about practice in industry before designing relevant techniques, methods and tools. As part of this step, we use an interview-based multiple-case study with a carefully designed process of conducting the interviews and of preparing the data collected for analysis while preserving its integrity. In this paper, we describe the design of this multiple-case study, delineate the evidence trail, discuss validity issues, outline the data analysis focus, discuss meta issues on evidence-based SE particularly on combining and using evidence, describe triangulation approaches, and present two methods for accumulating evidence.