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It is a systematic review

Purpose: Pomegranates have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of Punicalagin (Pomegranate extract) on IL-1β and SOD levels in chronic periodontitis patients. Materials and Methods: 30 patients were included in the study. The sites were randomly divided into control site and test site. Control sites were treated with Scaling and Root Planing (SRP) alone and test sites were treated with punicalagin gel along with SRP. Clinical parameters such as probing pocket depth, Clinical Attachment Level (CAL), Gingival Index (GI), Plaque index (PI), Sulcus Bleeding Index (SBI) and biochemical markers such as IL-1β and Superoxide Dismutase levels were compared between baseline and at 21 days post therapy. Results: Test sites showed significant differences when compared to control sites in relation to all clinical and biochemical parameters. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, there is an improvement in the clinical parameters with an increase in the anti-oxidant marker level and a decrease in inflammatory marker level when punicalagin gel was placed along with Scaling and Root Planing in patients with Chronic Periodontitis.

The local ferroelectric domain structure of interconnected PVDF nano-dots with applied DC voltages of ± 10 V to ± 100 V is evaluated using various Piezo force microscopy (PFM) methods such as conventional PFM and Dynamic contact electrostatic force microscopy (DC-EFM). The self-assembled PVDF nano-dots are fabricated by using a spin coater method with 2 wt% of PVDF-DMSO solution. The polar gamma phase is found to be induced by the microstructural confinement of PVDF monomers and also reveals a strong ferroelectric nature after poling at different DC bias voltages. Poling with altered directions of the voltages renders a 180° phase reversal of PVDF domains. The local domain study depicts that each nano-dot is functioning as a single domain and switches as a whole. The single nano-dot switching signifies the potential of using the nano-dots for organic ferroelectric memory devices.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine variations in cortical bone heights and thickness of the hard palate for placing orthodontic mini screws. Additionally it was evaluated whether there are any significant variations between males and females, adolescents and adults, right and left sides of the hard palate in the study population. Materials and methods CBCT images of 50 patients were retrospectively analysed. Patients were divided into sub-groups: 25 males and females, 24 adolescents (age range 10–19 years) and 26 adults (age range 20–27 years). Hard palate heights and thicknesses were analysed from the incisive fossa to the inter-embrasure region between the 1st and 2nd molars were analysed. Results The data revealed that the overall greatest thickness was at the canine-1st premolar embrasure region and the greatest height at the inter-premolar embrasure region. Males showed greater cortical thickness in almost all areas of the palate with significantly greater values in the inter-premolar region. Adolescents showed greater palatal heights than adults in almost all areas with significantly greater values in the inter-molar embrasures. The mid palatal regions showed significantly greater palatal heights in all subgroups. Conclusion Orthodontic Mini screws can be optimally placed in the anterior regions of the hard palate for all the groups studied. Males and adolescents showed greater cortical heights as compared to the female and adult population studied.

Background and Objectives: Skeletal class III is a growth related discrepancy which continues and becomes more severe until active growth is completed. Approximately three percent of Indian population exhibits class III malocclusion. This can be due to a mid face deficiency, a large mandible or their combination. Various treatment modalities are available for correction of class III malocclusion in growing children, one of which is the Tandem Traction Bow Appliance (TTBA). This study was planned and designed to evaluate the dental and skeletal effects of TTBA used for the correction of skeletal Class III malocclusion with maxillary deficiency. Materials and Methods: An in-vivo study designed to study the effects of TTBA on class III malocclusion with maxillary deficiency. The study was carried out on ten patients (age 6-12 years). Pre and post lateral cephalograms were traced and analyzed. Paired t test was used to compare values. Result: The significant changes seen in the dental and skeletal parameters were upper and lower incisor retraction, Increase in ANB angulations and forward and downward movement of the maxillary arch. Conclusion: TTBA is effective in early treatment of Skeletal Class III malocclusion. Being intraoral, patient compliance is improved, thus making TTBA easier to use, both for the clinician as well as for the patient.

A 13 year old growing male reported with a complaint of forwardly placed upper front teeth. The case was diagnosed to be Skeletal Class II due to retrognathic mandible. Since the patient was in the growing phase, two phase treatment was planned. The First phase comprised of mandibular advancement using TWIN BLOCK. The final finishing and detailing was achieved in the Second phase of treatment using 0.022 MBT Prescription (self-legating) to produce well-aligned arches in good function and aesthetics.

Aims: To assess the changes in the oropharyngeal airway (OAW) dimensions in individuals with retrognathic mandible treated with Forsus FRD and Twin Block appliance to correct the skeletal Class II mal relationship. Methodology: 40 individuals, with Class II skeletal pattern were selected as per inclusion criteria. Pre-treatment lateral cephalograms and hand wrist radiographs were obtained and analyzed. Group 1 with 20 individuals were treated with Forsus FRD and Group 2 with 20 individuals were treated with conventional Twin Block Appliance. Post treatment records were taken after the Class I molar relationship had been obtained. Pre and post treatment cephalograms were compared and analyzed. The data obtained was statistically evaluated using paired t test and unpaired t test. Results: On comparison of pre-treatment and post-treatment cephalograms, increase in Oropharyngeal Airway (OAW) measurements, such as Superior posterior airway space (SPAS), Middle airway space (MAS) and Inferior airway space (IAS) was very highly significant. Conclusion: Our results suggest the existence of a relationship between functional-orthopaedic treatment and increases in OAW dimensions in skeletal Class II growing subjects.

Aims and Objectives: To assess the posed and dynamic smile and to compare the various attributes of smile in frontal, oblique and sagittal dimensions, in two different age groups (10- 15years and 18-25 years). Materials and Methods: The posed and dynamic smile parameters were measured using digital video clips in 80 subjects of two different age groups (10-15years and 18-25 years). Total of 15 parameters were studied in 3 planes of space. The data was analysed using student`s t-test to compare smile parameters across the age groups, paired t-test was used to analyse the parameters of posed and unposed smile within the same age group and chi-square test was performed for the discrete data. Results: The present study revealed significant differences in dynamic smile parameters between the two age groups. The parameters like Philtrum height and Smile index are more in older age group whereas the buccal corridor was more in younger age group. Significant differences were also recorded in various parameters in both the groups when the posted smile is compared with that of the dynamic smile. Conclusion: In both the age groups, the dynamic and posed smile attributes are significantly different, except for buccal corridor and interlabial gap.

Background: The role and involvement of mandibular third molars on mandibular incisor crowding, post retention, in orthodontically treated patients has long been debated. The correlations between lower anterior crowding and lower third molar angulation and space are not completely understood. Aim: To assess the lower third molar space and its angulation in individuals with lower anterior crowding and to compare it with that of individuals without lower anterior crowding. Settings and design: Hospital based Prospective, cross-sectional study on randomly selected individuals. Materials and Methods: Lower third molar space and angulations were measured and compared using orthopantomograph tracings of 80 subjects in the age group of 20-30 years with skeletal Class I malocclusion individuals without lower anterior crowding(Group A) and individuals with lower anterior crowding (Group B). Statistical Analysis: Both the space and angulations of lower third molar were correlated with the lower anterior crowding using Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Results: Significant differences were found in third molar space between the study group and the control group. But there was no significant difference in third molar angulation between the groups. Conclusion: the lower anterior crowding has a significant influence on third molar space but did not have any effect on third molar angulation.

Endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) is a progressive type of restrictive cardiomyopathy. It affects inflow portion of right and/or left ventricle and apex. It is a neglected tropical disease (1) Here we report a rare case of right ventricular endomyocardial fibrosis .A 48 -year-old female presented to us with history suggestive of right-sided heart failure of two months duration. There was no eosinophilia. Chest X-ray showed cardiomegaly. Echocardiogram showed dilated right atrium and obliteration of the apex of the right ventricle. A diagnosis of Right ventricular Endomyocardial fibrosis was made. She was treated with diuretics and anticoagulants and she improved.

Orthognathic surgery in reference to the maxilla attempts to correct underlying skeletal deformities and improve function. Consequently, it has the potential to significantly alter the central esthetic unit of the face, the nasolabial region. In order to evaluate the nasal morphological changes which would result following anterior maxillary segmental osteotomy (superior and posterior repositioning), four angles, namely nasolabial, nasal tip projection, columellar labial and supra tip break angle, were evaluated. In ten selected subjects who have undergone anterior maxillary segmental osteotomy with superior and posterior repositioning, preoperative (T1) and postoperative (T2) lateral cephalometric parameters pertaining to the four angles were analyzed using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test. A significant increase in nasolabial angle and mild changes in nasal tip projection, columellar labial angle and supratip break angle were observed. The results of this study emphasize the need for the presurgical evaluation of nasal morphology in every individual planned for anterior maxillary segmental osteotomy.

This work aims at understanding the solvent influence upon the throughput and structure of poly vinyledene fluoride (PVDF)nano-patterned films. The PVDF thin films are deposited by spin coating method using Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), Tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 2-butanone solvents. The nano-patterns are realized by imprinting SONY 700 MB CD aluminum constructions on PVDF thin filmsusing imprint lithography technique under ambient annealing temperature and pressure. Surface morphology &imprint pattern transfer quality is evaluated with Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Raman spectroscopy is used for evaluating the structural evolutions with respect to solvent & patterning.

Amelogenesis Imperfecta has been defined as a group of hereditary enamel defects not associated with evidence of systemic disease. Restoration for patients with this condition should be oriented toward the functional and esthetic rehabilitation and the protection of these teeth. The specific objectives of the treatment were to enhance esthetics, eliminate tooth sensitivity and restore masticatory function. Management of a patient with skeletal class III malocclusion and Amleogenesis Imperfecta is a challenge for the clinician. Surgical correction of the skeletal class III malocclusion, orthodontic therapy followed by full mouth rehabilitation as a multidisciplinary approach is vital for the functional rehabilitation of the patient.

Introduction: Cleft lip and palate anomaly being the common congenital defect having significant effects on the facial morphology, function and growth and development of the individual, requires a detailed study of the Dental and craniofacial characteristics. Design and setting: The study is conducted in a hospital set up and the subjects were selected at random as per the inclusion criterion. Objectiveof study was to evaluate the craniofacial and Dental morphology in untreated unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) individuals. Materials and Methods: A total of 64 individuals in the age group of 15-28 yrs were selected and grouped in to two groups; Cleft group consisting of 13 males and 19 females having untreated UCLP and another group of 16 male and 16female non cleft individuals. Study cast, lateral cephalogram and frontal cephalogram analysis were carried out .The obtained data were analyzed using ANOVA to compare the values between the groups. Result: Significant differences in cranio- facial characteristics were noted between the cleft and non cleft individuals. These differences were more pronounced in sagittal plane and less in transverse plane. Conclusion: Significant differences exist in the cranio- facial morphology between the untreated UCLP individuals and non cleft individuals.

Characterizing the strength of weakly cemented and sensitive soils in the laboratory is difficult because of the difficulty in obtaining high-quality replicate samples necessary for defining the failure envelope. Multistage triaxial tests have long been used to reduce the variability caused by testing multiple samples; however, traditional criteria used for transitioning from one loading stage to another often lead to destructuring or failure in sensitive or structured soils. The objective of this paper is to present a methodology for conducting multistage drained triaxial tests on weakly cemented sands and estimating the resulting shear strength parameters. Both multistage and single-stage drained triaxial tests were performed on artificially cemented samples of a silty sand at two levels of densities and cementation. The use of dev/dea=0 as a termination criterion to move on to the next stage of loading and ev=0 as the failure criterion for the final stage of the shear resulted in an average error of 6%...

A 12-year-old female patient presented with proclined upper anteriors on a class II skeletal base, a retrognathic mandible and high maxillary- mandibular plane angle. Lower first molars were mesially tipped and lower second premolars were impacted. Treatment plan included uprighting and distalising the lower molars followed by growth modulation with Jasper Jumper to correct the mandibular retrognathism. Final finishing and detailing of occlusion was carried out through 0.022" MBT prescription preadjusted edgewise appliance therapy.

There is considerable uncertainty in the determination of effective stress strength parameters of cemented soils from undrained triaxial tests. Large negative excess pore pressures are generated at relatively large strains (typically 4–5% for cemented silty sand) in isotropically consolidated undrained (CIU) tests, which results in gas coming out of solution during shear and significant variability in the measured peak deviator stress. In this study, different failure criteria for weakly cemented sands were evaluated based on the results of CIU and isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression tests conducted on samples of artificially cemented sand. The use of A¯ =0 as a failure criterion eliminates the variability between the undrained tests and also ensures that the mobilized failure strength is not based on the highly variable negative excess pore pressures. In addition, the resulting strains to failure are comparable to the strains to failure for the drained tests. Mohr-Coulomb strength par...

Seagrass in optically shallow water can generate optical signals that can be tracked remotely. Unfortunately the signals from the bottom are relatively weak and can be affected by the water column when concentrations of suspended particles, chlorophyll and coloured dissolved organic matter are high. An optical model simulating the propagation of light for retrieving the bottom reflectance was developed. Implementation of the method was found to be effective for improving the accuracy of coastal habitat maps, and essential for deriving empirical relationships between remotely sensed data and interesting features in the marine environment. The appropriate wavebands for seagrass mapping, which generally lay between 500 and 630 nm and 680 and 710 nm, were obtained by means of full visual inspection and analysis of the correct spectra. Additionally, a strong relationship between the reflectance value at 715 nm and Leaf Area Index was found, with a correlation coefficient of 0.99.

Estimation of strength profiles in a reservoir, particularly in weakly cemented formations, is important for completion design and predicting the onset of sanding in oil and gas wells. These strength profiles are often calculated using empirical relationships that relate measured log parameters (e.g. bulk density, compression wave velocity) to Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS). A review of six published models developed specifically for weakly cemented formations showed that they significantly over-predicted measured strength values from four wells by up to 700%. Possible causes for this over-prediction include relating strength to only bulk density and compression wave velocity, using laboratory measurements on cores instead of log-derived values, and neglecting the significant effect that shale content has on measured velocities. In this study, a multiple regression analysis was performed to develop a model that relates geophysical data to UCS for four oil wells where wireline logging data and measured strength profiles were available. The emphasis in this study was to evaluate the potential to develop a single regression model that could be applied to logging data collected from different geographic locations. To achieve this, the use of synthetic velocities calculated from velocity–porosity transform models was evaluated to remove the effects of varying pore fluids on the regression. Velocities calculated from the Xu and White (1995) model yielded better results when compared to regression analyses that incorporated measured velocities directly. A relationship was established between bulk density, synthetic velocities, volume of shale and UCS that predicted strength values within an error range of 100%. This is a significant improvement over published relationships and illustrates the benefits of using both synthetic velocities and multiple parameters in developing empirical strength predictions from logging data in weakly cemented formations.

The treatment of individuals with Class II div 1 malocclusions is of interest to the practicing orthodontist because such malocclusions constitute a significant percentage of cases 1. Successful correction of these cases depends on knowledge of its morphologic features as well as response of mandible to the orthodontic force system2.So, the purpose of the present study is to compare the skeletal& dentalpatterns of class II division 1 malocclusions with steep cant in the posterior occlusal plane & normal occlusion. Lateral cephalograms of 40 individuals with class II division 1 malocclusion & 40 individuals with class I occlusion were taken. Anterior angle between the anterior occlusalplane,posterior occlusal plane & F-H plane was noted.Skeletal & dentalpattern were dictated by various linear & angular measurements. Statistical analysis was performed by Pearson product - moment correlation & student′s unpaired t- test. This study led us to the conclusion that while treating skeletalclass II division 1 malocclusion with a steep cant in the posterior occlusal plane,control of the vertical dimension of the posterior teeth is extremely important & it is recommended that class II elastics should be used as sparingly as possible.

Metagenomics is a powerful tool for mining the genetic repositories from environmental microorganisms. Bacteria associated with marine sponges (phylum Porifera) are rich sources of biologically active natural products. However, to date, few compounds are discovered from the sponge metagenomic libraries, and the main reason might be the difficulties in recovery of high molecular weight (HMW) DNA from sponge symbionts to construct large insert libraries. Here, we describe a method to recover HMW bacterial DNA from diverse sponges with high quality for bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library construction. Microorganisms concentrated from sponges by differential centrifugation were embedded in agarose plugs to lyse out the HMW DNA for recovery. DNA fragments over 436 kb size were recovered from three different types of sponges, Halichondria sp., Haliclona sp., and Xestospongia sp. To evaluate the recovered DNA quality, the diversity of bacterial DNA comprised in the HMW DNA derived from sponge Halichondria sp. was analyzed, and this HMW DNA sample was also cloned into a shuttle BAC vector between Escherichia coli and Streptomyces sp. The results showed that more than five types of bacterial DNA, i.e., Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae, Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and unidentified bacteria, had been recovered by this method, and an average 100 kb size insert DNA in a constructed BAC library demonstrated that the recovered HMW DNA is suitable for metagenomic library construction.

Geotechnical engineers worldwide practice variety of in-situ techniques to obtain the physical and engineering properties of soil. Electric piezocone, which is an advanced version of cone penetrometer, is capable of measuring cone resistance, sleeve friction and penetration pore pressure. The piezocone test data not only provide valuable information on soil types but are also useful in deriving correlations with the engineering properties of soil for the purpose of analysis and design of foundations. In a view to establish a region-specific correlation between piezocone penetration resistance and soil properties, piezocone tests (CPTu), marine borings, and SPT tests were carried out at seven locations off Chennai, on the east coast of India. CPTu data was used for classifying soil; henceforth expounded that a reasonable classification of soil can be done using cone resistance, sleeve friction, and penetration pore pressure. The available charts to find out the drained shear strength from CPTu data was also verified for the region-specific use. Correlation between cone resistance (qc), and N-value was established and compared with existing recommendations.