Revolutionizing Denture Excellence: An Invigorating In-Vitro Exploration of Organic Products in Prosthetic Rehabilitation

The denture base comes into contact with diverse substances in the oral cavity, acting as a reservoir for microorganisms like corynebacterium, streptococcus, lactobacillus, and candida. This colonization elevates the risk of complications such as denture stomatitis and candidiasis. Commercial denture cleaners have explored the use of natural ingredients, less commonly employed but offering various advantages. These ingredients aim to mitigate the potential issues associated with microbial colonization on denture surfaces, contributing to improved oral hygiene for denture wearers. The exploration of natural elements reflects a nuanced approach to denture care, considering both efficacy and less conventional alternatives

A Review of Alternative Proteins For Vegan Diets: Sources, Physico-Chemical Properties, Nutritional Equivalency, and Consumer Acceptance

Alternate proteins are gaining popularity as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to animal-based proteins. These proteins are often considered healthier and are suitable for people following a vegetarian or vegan diet. Alternative proteins can be recovered from natural sources like legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds, while single cell proteins (mycoproteins), and algal proteins are being developed using cutting-edge technology to grow fungus, yeast and algal cells in a controlled environment, creating a more sustainable source of protein. Although, the demand for alternative protein products is increasing, there still happens to be a large gap in use among the general consumers mainly stemming from its lower bioavailability, lack of nutritional equivalency and reduced digestibility compared to animal proteins. The focus of the review is to emphasize on various sources and technologies for recovering alternative proteins for vegan diets. The review discusses physicochemical properties of alternative proteins and emphasise on the role of various processing technologies that can change the digestibility and bioavailability of these proteins. It further accentuates the nutritional equivalency and environmental sustainability of alternative protein against the conventional proteins from animals. The food laws surrounding alternative proteins as well as the commercial potential and consumer acceptance of alternative protein products are also highlighted. Finally, key challenges to improve the consumer acceptability and market value of plant-based proteins would be in achieving nutrient equivalency and enhance bioavailability and digestibility while maintaining the same physicochemical properties, taste, texture, as animal proteins, has also been highlighted

Antiferroelectric negative capacitance from a structural phase transition in zirconia

Crystalline materials with broken inversion symmetry can exhibit a spontaneous electric polarization, which originates from a microscopic electric dipole moment. Long-range polar or anti-polar order of such permanent dipoles gives rise to ferroelectricity or antiferroelectricity, respectively. However, the recently discovered antiferroelectrics of fluorite structure (HfO$_2$ and ZrO$_2$) are different: A non-polar phase transforms into a polar phase by spontaneous inversion symmetry breaking upon the application of an electric field. Here, we show that this structural transition in antiferroelectric ZrO$_2$ gives rise to a negative capacitance, which is promising for overcoming the fundamental limits of energy efficiency in electronics. Our findings provide insight into the thermodynamically 'forbidden' region of the antiferroelectric transition in ZrO$_2$ and extend the concept of negative capacitance beyond ferroelectricity. This shows that negative capacitance is a more general phenomenon than previously thought and can be expected in a much broader range of materials exhibiting structural phase transitions

Phototherapy in vitiligo: Assessing the compliance, response and patient′s perception about disease and treatment

Context: Vitiligo is a chronic, benign, but emotionally frustrating autoimmune disorder of depigmentation, with an incidence of 0.25-2.5% in India, the treatment of which is equally frustrating to the patient, as well as the doctor. Phototherapy is the first line treatment in many cases, which needs to be given at frequent sittings for long periods of time. As there is no satisfactory, short term treatment, many vitiligo patients, though enthusiastic in the beginning, become defaulters after a few weeks or months. Aims: This study was conducted to assess the compliance to phototherapy (PUVA and NB-UVB), determine the reasons for non-compliance, to calculate the overall response to phototherapy and to know about the patients′ perception about improvement of lesions. Materials and Methods: All files of the patients who attended phototherapy for Vitiligo in the department for a period of 4 years from January 2007 were analyzed and the patients were contacted via mail or telephone and were made to answer questionnaire regarding their disease. Conclusions: At the end of this retrospective questionnaire based study we concluded that only a quarter of the patients underwent regular phototherapy, among which the younger patients and those with widespread disease and facial lesions were more compliant. Educational status and sex had no impact on default status

Detection of anti-basement membrane zone antibodies in the blister fluid in subepidermal autoimmune bullous diseases

Background: Subepidermal autoimmune bullous diseases (sAIBD) are diverse of conditions with clinicopathological overlap. Circulating autoantibodies in the serum can be demonstrated using indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) microscopy. Artificially split normal human skin is considered as an optimum substrate for the demonstration of anti-basement membrane zone (BMZ) antibodies using IIF in sAIBD; it not only helps to detect the presence of circulating antibodies in the serum but also helps to subclassify these conditions into “roof” and “floor” binding disorders. Aim: In this study, we evaluated the utility of IIF to detect anti-BMZ antibodies in the blister fluid of patients with sAIBD. Materials and Methods: Twenty-two patients with a clinical diagnosis of sAIBD were enrolled in the study. IIF of serum and blister fluid were done simultaneously using salt-split skin as a substrate. Results: Anti-BMZ antibodies could be detected in the blister fluid using IIF in all patients in the study group. Limitation: We could not do enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of blister fluid. This would have given us the quantitative data of circulating antibodies in the blister fluid. Conclusion: Blister fluid offers an alternate source for the detection of autoantibodies in patients with sAIBD. It may be of particular help in children and in elderly with poor venous access