No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes is a notorious human pathogen responsible for a wide array of infections. The ability of S. pyogenes to form biofilms is an innate property during the pathogenesis of invasive infections. From the eleven M serotypes tested: M56, M74, M100, M65, M89 and st38 formed dense biofilms in 48 h. The present study is the first of its kind to report about the biofilm formation in the serotypes M56, M65 M74 M100 and st38. XTT reduction assay of the biofilms showed decreased metabolic activity with increase in incubation time. The surface architecture of the biofilms when observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the microcolony formation. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to compare the surface topography and thickness of biofilms between the biofilm formers with and without the addition of glucose. Interestingly a non-biofilm former (st2147) was induced to form biofilms with the addition of glucose. On correlating the drug (erythromycin) resistance of the various M serotypes with their biofilm forming ability we noticed that erythromycin sensitive strains were found to be good biofilm formers. We also noticed that biofilm formation in S. pyogenes is independent of sil gene.

In this article, molecular dynamics based simulations were carried out to study the tensile behaviour of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs). Four different sets of Tersoff potential parameters were used in the simulations for estimating the interatomic interactions between boron and nitrogen atoms. Modifications were incorporated in the Tersoff cut-off function to improve the accuracy of results with respect to fracture stress, fracture strain and Young's modulus. In this study, the original cut-off function was optimised in such a way that small and large cut-off distances were made equal, and hence a single cut-off distance was used with all sets of Tersoff potential parameters. The single value of cut-off distance for the Tersoff potential was chosen after analysing the potential energy and bond forces experienced by boron and nitrogen atoms subjected to bond stretching. The simulations performed with the optimised cut-off function help in identifying the Tersoff potential parameters that reproduce the experimentally evaluated mechanical behaviour of BNNSs.

The objective of this investigation was to elaborate on the influence of grain boundaries on the interfacial thermal conductance between bi-crystalline graphene and polyethylene in a nanocomposite.

No abstract