Addressing the Foundation of a Profession for Fostering New Hope - Dentistry in India!

Choosing an institution for pursuing higher education in dentistry has become a hectic job now due to the availability of a hand full of colleges in India; from which the choice of sifting out the best, for an inexperienced person will be confusing & effortful. While investing huge amount of personal endeavors to compete with the hidden curriculums & to maintain a steady financial state, there are going to be plenty of hurdles to deal with under the pressure of course completion, if the choice is not the right one. Once you come out, the chances of getting a job is almost nil at institutional levels & it's not going to be the dream job that once you aspired for, irrespective of the institute, where you completed the graduation ! Keywords: commercialization in health education, ruinous competitions, toxic personalities, hidden curriculums, unacceptable professional behavior, dental education system in India. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-12-03 Publication date: April 30th 201

Significance of Diamond as a Cutting Tool in Ultra-Precision Machining Process

This chapter focuses on the purpose of using diamond as a cutting tool in various ultra-precision machining applications. The complicated structures such as resin and ceramic mold used for making optical lenses are machined by the diamond tool to improve the precision of the finished product. It is difficult to machine hard and brittle materials such as glasses, ceramics, and composites with the assistance of diamond tool due to the complexity in the aspheric surfaces. Moreover, the tool wear is a major problem in machining these hard materials to a fine dimensional accuracy and tolerances. The microscopic defect forms at the cutting edge lead to the damage of the surface finish of the workpiece material. Therefore, the discussions are associated with the achievement of machining hard materials using a diamond tool in ultra-precision applications

Skin Cancer Detection and Classification

Skin cancer is a term given to the uncontrolled growth of strange skin cells. It occurs whenever unrepaired DNA damages to skin cells trigger mutations, or any other genetic defects, that lead the skin cells to multiply readily and form malignant tumors. Image processing is a commonly used method for skin cancer detection from the appearance of the affected area on the skin. The input to the system is that the skin lesion image so by applying novel image process techniques, it analyses it to conclude about the presence of skin cancer. The Lesion Image analysis tools checks for the various Melanoma parameters Like Asymmetry, Border, Colour, Diameter, (ABCD rule), etc. by texture, size and form analysis for image segmentation and have stages. The extracted feature parameters are accustomed classify the image as traditional skin and malignant melanoma cancerlesion. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is one of the important branches of Artificial Intelligence, which has been accepted as a brand-new technology in computer science for image processing. Neural Networks is currently the area of interest in medicine, particularly in the fields of radiology, urology, cardiology, oncology, etc. Neural Network plays a vital role in an exceedingly call network. It has been used to analyze Melanoma parameters Like Asymmetry, Border, Colour, Diameter, etc. which are calculated using MATLAB from skin cancer images intending to developing diagnostic algorithms that might improve triage practices in the emergency department. Using the ABCD rules for melanoma skin cancer, we use ANN in the classification stage. Initially, we train the network with known target values. The network is well trained with 96.9% accuracy, and then the unknown values are tested for the cancer classification. This classification method proves to be more efficient for skin cancer classification

Anthropometric database of hard and soft tissues of facial skeleton in young adults of Sree Mookambika College campus: An In Vivo study

Cephalometric norms are a valuable tool for clinicians during diagnosis and treatment planning. Most classical norms which are presently used for treatment planning are not applicable to diverse racial and ethnic population. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to establish the soft tissue and hard tissue norms for a local population group (students of sree mookambika college campus). SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The study was conducted on 60 adult subjects with esthetically pleasing profiles aged 18-25 years. Standardized lateral cephalograms were taken in a natural head position and analyzed using legan and burstone soft tissue analysis and burstone hard tissue analysis. RESULTS: Students representing the local population were found to have more convex faces, protrusive lips and acute nasolabial angles compared with Caucasians. Males had more convex faces and protrusive lips than females. CONCLUSION: This local population group had significant deviations from the Caucasian standards. Considerable diversity was also found for some of the soft tissue variables in males and females

Analysis of various factors Including Surgical Apgar Score affecting outcome in Trauma Patients undergoing Emergency Laparatomy

AIM OF THE STUDY: 1. To correlate the Surgical Apgar score with the patient’s outcome in the form of complications (morbidity) including death within 30 days of surgery (30 day mortality). 2. To estimate other factors like age, sex, duration of injury, mode of injury, associated injuries, co-morbidities, and inter-relation of these factors in influencing the overall outcome of patient undergoing emergency laparotomy following trauma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 108 randomly selected patients admitted at Madras Medical College & Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital, Chennai undergoing emergency laparotomy procedures following trauma. 108 randomly selected patients admitted at Madras Medical College & Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital, Chennai undergoing emergency laparotomy procedures following trauma RESULTS: Road traffic accident appears to be the most common cause of trauma. Males are more affected than females. Spleen is the most commonly injured organ. Duration of injury was an important prognostic factor in prognosis of patient. Polytrauma patient had high morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSION: In our study, surgical Apgar score has proved to be an important tool in early detection of the complications and also in predicting mortality and morbidity with accuracy. In our study, road traffic accidents was found to be the most common cause of trauma. Men were more affected than females. Incidence of injury was higher in age of 15-55 years. 10 point Apgar scoring system is superior in identifying the patients at risk of complications and 30 day mortality in Emergency surgeries. Thus surgical Apgar score holds promise as both a prognostic measure and a clinical decision support tool based on this study

Usefulness of tranexamic acid in reducing post operative bleeding in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

INTRODUCTION : Cardiac surgery has grown up with regard to technical advances..and major cardiac anomalies are repaired ,majorly aided and eased with the advent of cardio pulmonary by pass… Extra corporeal circulation has made it extremely safe, in providing perfusion to the heart, rendering the heart more accessible and amenable for complicated procedures. But the use of cardio pulmonary by pass has not been free from adverse effects …there is a hoard of changes that happen at the bio molecular lever which triggers off, a whole body inflammatory response… The commonest function to be hampered is easily the physiology of circulation. There is significant amount of disruption in the normal coagulation system ,leading to trivial to significant blood loss.. The reason for this altercation would be in multitude, and to name a few… • Fall in the quantity of platelets. • Decrease in the factors that aid in clotting. AIM OF THE STUDY : The study was designed with the primary AIM of evaluating the effect of tranexamic acid in reducing the bleeding tendency in immediate post operative period for patients who have undergone cardiac sugery . To evaluate whether tranexamic acid reduces the need for red cell transfusions. To understand the occurrence of post operative thrombo embolic events. MATERIAL AND METHODS ; This study, designed to be prospective and randomized was undertaken as an observational evaluation on the topic of usefulness of tranexamic acid in reducing post operative bleed in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. This study was conducted in the department of cardio thoracic surgery at Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital, Chennai. This study design was for a year , 2013, and we used a descriptive analytical method. Inclusion Criteria : All patients undergoing open cardiac surgery procedures involving cardiopulmonary by pass. Exclusion Criteria : • Patients with pre existing evidence of of coagulopathy. • Patients with hepatic dysfunction. • Patients with renal dysfunction. • Off pump cardiac sugery cases. METHODOLOGY : Relevant information were documented in a specially designed proforma. Meticulous clinical examination preceded by detailed history, using pre framed questions. Sixty patients undergoing cardiac surgeries were randomized into a group of two, thirty each. One group of thirty patients would receive tranexamic acid , loading dose of 15 milligram per kilogram of body weight , five minutes before skin incision and one more similar dose after weaning from CPB. The other group would not receive tranexamic acid. Assessment of efficacy obtained by evaluating post operative data. Patients were received in post operative room and monitored. Routine blood investigations sent on arrival..chest drains were documented one hourly.clinical evidence for generalized medical bleed looked out for.red cell transfusion decided on appropriate indications only.all this data was recorded and analysis drawn and conclusions made. The patients were followed up during their hospital stay to record any events of thrombo embolism. Ethical committee clearance was obtained and all procedures were performed without any ethical breach. The patient and their relatives were kept well informed about the procedure. RESULTS The observation and the analytical data from this prospective ,randomized study yielded the following results. • In this study, either groups had a preponderance of young adult population. The age group of 25 to 36 were about 50% and 45% in tranexamic and neutral group. • Mitral valve replacement was among the highest in both groups with close to 50 and 42% in tranexamic and neutral group. • The mean post operative drain at six hours were 120 ml and 250 ml in tranexamic acid and neutral group, higher drain tendencies were reported in the neutral group.th p value was 0.27 not very significant, yet the trend reflects in favour of tranexamic acid. • The need for red cell transfusion or packed cells were, only 45% required one unit of packed cell, in tranexamic acid group. • The need for packed cell transfusion in neutral group was like, 40% required one unit, 35% required two units, and 20% required three and more, with 5% not requiring transfusion.. • The clotting time tests were almost similar with not much of disparity, but a smaller trend of benefit in tranexamic acid group, which had 20% of prolonged clotting time, six percent lesser than the tranexamic acid group. • The platelet counts too, showed a benefit trend towards tranexamic acid group.th p value was not significant though, with 0.587 • There were three mortality in each group, totaling six..and all the mortality were not related to the drug..the cause of death was low cardiac out put syndrome. • There were no incidence of re operation due to bleeding in either groups. CONCLUSION : In this study , we come to the conclusion that using tranexamic acid reduces immediate post operative bleeding and significantly reduces the morbitity of the patient. However there is not much benefit in post operative period beyond twenty four hours. The need for packed cell transfusion also is significantly lesser with the tranexamic acid group. The abnormalities in clotting time and and platelets were almost similar with no statistical significance in either group,but showing marginal beneficial trend in tranexamic acid group. Tranexamic acid has been an efficient , cost effective and simple way in controlling post operative bleed in patients undergoing cardiac surgery

Improvement of alignment accuracy utilizing sequentially conserved motifs

Background: Multiple sequence alignment algorithms are very important tools in molecular biology today. Accurate alignment of proteins is central to several areas such as homology modelling, docking studies, understanding evolutionary trends and study of structure-function relationships. In recent times, improvement of existing progressing programs and implementation of new iterative algorithms have made a significant change in this field. Results: We report an alignment algorithm that combines progressive dynamic algorithm, local substructure alignment and iterative refinement to achieve an improved, user-interactive tool. Large-scale benchmarking studies show that this FMALIGN server produces alignments that, aside from preservation of functional and structural conservation, have accuracy comparable to other popular multiple alignment programs. Conclusions: The FMALIGN server allows the user to fix conserved regions in equivalent position in the alignment thereby reducing the chance of global misalignment to a great extent. FMALIGN is available at http://caps.ncbs.res.in/FMALIGN/Home.html

SCANMOT: searching for similar sequences using a simultaneous scan of multiple sequence motifs

Establishment of similarities between proteins is very important for the study of the relationship between sequence, structure and function and for the analysis of evolutionary relationships. Motif-based search methods play a crucial role in establishing the connections between proteins that are particularly useful for distant relationships. This paper reports SCANMOT, a web-based server that searches for similarities between proteins by simultaneous matching of multiple motifs. SCANMOT searches for similar sequences in entire sequence databases using multiple conserved regions and utilizes inter-motif spacing as restraints. The SCANMOT server is available via