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• Provides information on dependency of urban cities on external water resources to alert the governments. • Helps to monitor consumption WF of urban dwellers based on economic status and consumption quantity to plan VW trade policies for water intensive products. • Helps to frame water policies and strategies to reduce WFs, based on consumption of water intensive goods. • Assists policy makers to make foreign trade policies for highly consuming and water intensive products by affluent and non-affluent population. • Resolves transboundary water conflicts and releases pressure on water resources by sharing water virtually or in the form of VW trades. Sustainable conservation of natural resources has become a primary concern for urban cities, globally as they are centers of consumption and economy. Due to population growth, cities depend more on imports of food, energy, water, and services from all over the globe, and consume more virtual water than direct water, because of their food habits and lifestyle. Most of the imported goods are water intensive and pose challenges in tracing the source of virtual water. The goal of this research is to develop a general framework to assess the water footprint (WF) of a typical city in India using existing databases. A consumer-centric approach has been adopted for assessing WF in Hyderabad Metro Development Area (HMDA). The variation of the WF across economic classes of consumers is also analyzed. The WF is estimated based on four broad categories: 1) food consumption, 2) fossil fuels based energy, 3) electric power, and 4) direct water. Average WF of HMDA region is 1041 m3/cap/year (2852 LPCD), in which 70% (1986 LPCD) of WF was consumed by food, 25% (744 LPCD) by electric power, only 4% (121 LPCD) is from direct water consumption and surprisingly the contribution from fossil fuel WF to total per capita WF of HMDA area is less than 1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Adherence and colonization of candida on denture soft liners is the most important contributing factor in development of denture stomatitis. This invitro study is undertaken to investigate whether the incorporation of tea tree oil into denture soft liners would inhibit the growth of candida albicans. Materials and Methods: Each 10 specimen disks incorporated with tea tree oil into soft liners (St) and without tea tree oil (S) were prepared. Both the tea tree oil daily. These disks were inoculated with candida albicans suspension for assessment of fungal growth and were rinsed with sterile water to remove loosely attached surface organisms. The attached yeasts were measured by inoculating them on saboraud’s agar. Treated and control disks were stored in distilled water for 1, 30, 60 days and washed daily with wet cotton. Data between treated and control disks were compared by applying t-test. Results: The mean colony forming units (CFU) per mm2 for specimens without tea tree oil after water storage and wash with wet cotton for 1, 30 and 60 days was 7.1 × 106 , 6.5 × 106 , 6.8 × 106 , respectively and for specimens with tea tree oil CFU decreased significantly to 2.1 × 106 , 2.8 × 106 , 3.1 × 106 after 1, 30 and 60 days. Treated disks were effective in controlling the growth of C.albicans for two months following water storage. Conclusion: Addition of tea tree oil to denture soft liner significantly reduced growth of C.albicans suggesting a new form of intra oral effective antifungal management for denture stomatitis.

Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a frequently encountered chronic inflammatory disease of oral mucosa and skin, where the patients often relate the onset and aggravation of oral symptoms to increased levels of stress. Cortisol, also called as “stress hormone” has been used as an indicator in various stress evaluation studies. Aim: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine any association between anxiety and salivary cortisol levels in OLP patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 OLP patients along with same number of age and sex matched healthy controls were included in the study. Saliva was collected from all the subjects between 9.00 to 9.15 am to avoid diurnal variations of cortisol levels. The saliva samples were analysed for cortisol levels by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Anxiety levels of 40 patients were measured by using Hamilton’s anxiety scale. Student’s t-test was used to compare the anxiety and salivary cortisol levels between both groups. Results: The mean salivary cortisol level of the OLP group showed highly significant difference (p

Discusses a study on the use of live/real time three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (3DTTE) in the assessment of a vegetation on a pacemaker/defibrillator lead. Procedures for the study; Usefulness of 3DTTE in the assessment method; Details of how to initiate the echocardiography.