University of Madras

About: University of Madras is a education organization based out in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Ring (chemistry) & Lipid peroxidation. The organization has 8496 authors who have published 11369 publications receiving 211152 citations. The organization is also known as: Madras University & University of Chennai.

Strontium-Substituted Calcium Deficient Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Antibacterial Properties

Abstract: Strontium-substituted apatites have provoked increased interest in recent years for their beneficial effects on osteoporotic bone treatment and replacement. In this study, rod- and acicular-shaped, strontium-substituted calcium deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA) nanoparticles with (Ca + Sr)/P ratio of 1.61 were synthesized via accelerated microwave processing. The X-ray powder diffraction analysis indicates the synthesized nanoparticles as apatite phase with diffraction patterns similar to those of hydroxyapatite. The hydrodynamic diameter of the particles were observed to be ~200–500 nm and found to increase with strontium substitution along with an increase in the negative zeta potential by dynamic light scattering method, suggesting the particles to be agglomerates in water. The morphology of the nanoparticles was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), where, pure CDHA showed globular and strontium substituted CDHAs showed rod and acicular shape for 5% and 10% Sr substitution, respectively. The average size of the particles in TEM was measured to be 33 nm × 5 nm, 40 nm × 6 nm, and 55 nm × 8 nm (L × W) for pure and strontium-substituted CDHAs, respectively. Inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy further confirm the substitution of strontium and deficiency of calcium in the synthesized nanoparticles. Thermal stability and in vitro solubility of CDHA nanoparticles were observed to increase with strontium substitution. The MTT [3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay indicate that the substituted nanoparticles are non-toxic to human periodontal ligament fibroblast (HPDLF) cells. Cell uptake study by fluorescence microscopy using rhodamine-123 and actin/DAPI stained HPDLF cells show cellular localization of the nCDHA, nSr5CDHA, nSr10CDHA nanoparticles without any adverse effects. The strontium-substituted CDHAs showed significant antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria by colony count method. The 10% Sr substituted CDHA show the maximum microbial reduction of around 56% for E. coli and 35% for S. aureus with 1 × 105 cells/mL of respective bacterial culture.

Activation of prophenoloxidase in the plasma and haemocytes of the marine mussel Perna viridis Linnaeus.

Abstract: Phenoloxidase activity was detected in plasma and haemocytes of the marine mussel Perna viridis. This enzyme exists as a proenzyme, prophenoloxidase (proPO), in both these haemolymph fractions and could be activated in vitro by exogenous proteases (trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin) and a detergent (sodium dodecyl sulphate). In addition, laminarin (a polymer of beta-1,3 glucan) and bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSa) effectively triggered proPO activation in these haemolymph fractions. The activation of proPO by non-self molecules was dependent upon calcium ions at a low concentration. This activation process appeared to involve a limited proteolysis, since serine protease inhibitors (soybean trypsin inhibitor, benzamidine or p-nitrophenyl-p'-guanidinobenzoate) suppressed conversion of proPO to the active enzyme. This study demonstrates the selective response of plasma and haemocytic proPO to activation by different types of bacterial LPS tested and suggests that proPO system in both plasma and haemocytes of P. viridis serves an important function in non-self recognition and host immune reactions.

Significance of steganography on data security

Abstract: With the ever increasing amount and variety of data to be stored and transmitted in various mediums, the specification of security which has to be established at various levels of medium access and the accompanying issues of authentication and authorization has become a critical factor. Various steganographic, watermarking and data-embedding algorithms have usually manipulated the actual data in order to either hide any coveted information or to provide some level of access control over the medium. The mediums are usually images, video, audio etc., wherein specific portions or the overall space is usually 'corrupted' with 'significant' data. We attempt to bring out the significance of the steganographic techniques that are employed in information processing algorithms for data security. It deals with the problem of data security, focusing mainly on images, and tries to state the various properties and characteristics that the steganographic algorithms should possess. We also highlight the technique of masking used in the conventional steganographic LSB algorithms and in its variants.