Aim Anthropometry is an art and science used extensively for measuring the soft tissue proportions. While it is true that error is found in measurements of this kind, a great many trends of growth and development and therapy changes can be recorded with a significant degree of accuracy. Objective Facial proportion varies among the different ethnic groups and today, most of the available studies are done on western population. Hence an Anthropometric study was conducted in the local population. Materials and Methods The study was carried out with the aim of measuring the facial soft tissue proportion in the local population using anthropometry. Study was done using 100 subjects (50 males and 50 females) with Class I skeletal relationship and pleasing profile. Using standard anthropometric landmarks the various anthropometric measurements and facial proportional indices were determined (both horizontal and vertical) and were compared with that for North American Caucasians. Results The statistical analysis revealed significant differences in the facial proportion between the two populations.

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Addressing the craniofacial anomaly of cleft lip and palate presurgically has been done since more than 50 years now, with a constant improvisation of the treatment protocols from time to time. The present study deals with a modification of the technique devised 16 years ago. The effect of nasal stents attached to a pre-surgical naso-alveolar molding (PNAM) appliance on the nasal morphology achieved prior to primary surgical correction of the cleft lip was to be evaluated. Twenty subjects, infants with cleft lip and palate, less than 2 months of age were selected for presurgical nasoalveolar molding treatment. Impressions were recorded, casts made and PNAM appliance fabricated. Ten infants were given the appliance without nasal stents and to the other ten appliances nasal stents were added. The patients were recalled every 2-3 weeks and a series of 9 measurements were recorded every visit along with adjustments made to the appliance for desirable effects on the lip, alveolus and nose. This was carried out till the patient was taken up for lip repair. The final measurements obtained at the end of the presurgical treatment were recorded. Mann-Whitney test, between study and control group showed that the increase in the columella length was statistically significant (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.033) in the study group as compared to the control group. Also the increase of the nasal tip projection (mean = 1.30 mm) in the study group was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.006) as compared to the control group. We concluded that nasal stents attached to the alveolar molding appliance, yield significant improvement of the nasal morphology and better nasal aesthetics presurgically.

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) is one of the two major superfamilies of transporters present across the evolutionary scale. ABC superfamily members came to prominence due to their ability to extrude broad spectrum of substrates and to confer multi drug resistance (MDR). Overexpression of some ABC transporters in clinical isolates of Candida species was attributed to the development of MDR phenotypes. Among Candida species, Candida glabrata is an emerging drug resistant species in human fungal infections. A comprehensive analysis of such proteins in C. glabrata is required to untangle their role not only in MDR but also in other biological processes. Bioinformatic analysis of proteins encoded by genome of human pathogenic yeast C. glabrata identified 25 putative ABC protein coding genes. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, domain organization and nomenclature adopted by the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) scheme, these proteins were categorized into six subfamilies such as Pleiotropic Drug Resistance (PDR)/ABCG, Multi Drug Resistance (MDR)/ABCB, Multi Drug Resistance associated Protein (MRP)/ABCC, Adrenoleukodystrophy protein (ALDp)/ABCD, RNase L Inhibitor (RLI)/ABCE and Elongation Factor 3 (EF3)/ABCF. Among these, only 18 ABC proteins contained transmembrane domains (TMDs) and were grouped as membrane proteins, predominantly belonging to PDR, MDR, MRP, and ALDp subfamilies. A comparative phylogenetic analysis of these ABC proteins with other yeast species revealed their orthologous relationship and pointed towards their conserved functions. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of putative membrane localized ABC protein encoding genes of C. glabrata confirmed their basal expression and showed variable transcriptional response towards antimycotic drugs. This study presents first comprehensive overview of ABC superfamily proteins of a human fungal pathogen C. glabrata, which is expected to provide an important platform for in depth analysis of their physiological relevance in cellular processes and drug resistance.