Methods: Pretreatment cephalograph of 209 orthodontic patients comprised of 92 males and 117 females were selected from orthodontic archives. Radiographs were traced for ANB, Wits appraisal, Beta angle, W angle and Yen angle measurements. Patients were divided into three skeletal classes i.e. class I, II and III based on measurements and incisor classification and profile recorded from their files. ANOVA was applied to check the validity of performed analyses and Cramer's correlation was performed to find out the correlation between analyses and skeletal classes.

Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixty endodontically treated maxillary central incisors embedded in acrylic resin with decoronated root portion were taken for the study. The postspaces were prepared according to standard protocol. The samples were divided into two groups according to the post material: glass-fiber post and Quartz fiber post. These groups were further subdivided on the basis of coronal extension of 4 and 6 mm for glass fiber and Quartz fiber posts, respectively. The posts were then luted with dual-polymerizing resin cement followed by core buildup. Samples were subjected to increasing compressive oblique load until fracture occurred in a universal testing machine. Data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA and independent Student's t-test. Analysis was done using SPSS version 15 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) Windows software program.

Results: Glass fiber post with coronal extension of 4 mm (182.8 N) showed better results than with 6-mm length (124.1 N). Similarly, in quartz fiber posts group, 4-mm postlength (314 N) was better when compared with 6 mm (160 N). The 4-mm coronal extension of quartz fiber post displayed superior fracture resistance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixmaster dies were duplicated from the prepared maxillary first premolar tooth using nonprecious metal alloy (Wiron 99). Ten copings of 0.6 mm thickness were fabricated from each type of ceramic, for a total of thirty copings. Two master dies were used for each group, and each of them was used to lute five copings. All groups were cemented with resin luting cement Panavia F according to manufacturer's instructions and received a static load of 5 kg during cementation. After 24 hours of distilled water storage at 37 degrees C, the copings were vertically compressed using a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min.

RESULTS: The results of the present study showed the following mean loads at fracture: Turkom-Cera (2184 +/- 164 N), In-Ceram (2042 +/- 200 N), and Procera AllCeram (1954 +/- 211 N). ANOVA and Scheffe's post hoc test showed that the mean load at fracture of Turkom-Cera was significantly different from Procera AllCeram (p < 0.05). Scheffe's post hoc test showed no significant difference between the mean load at fracture of Turkom-Cera and In-Ceram or between the mean load at fracture of In-Ceram and Procera AllCeram.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive study. We identified 1041 patients (810 Chinese, 139 Malays, 92 Indians) without previous history of cardiovascular disease who underwent cardiac computed tomography for atypical chest pain evaluation. A cardiologist, who was blinded to the patients' clinical demographics, reviewed all scans. We retrospectively analysed all their case records.

RESULTS: Overall, Malays were most likely to be active smokers (P = 0.02), Indians had the highest prevalence of diabetes mellitus (P = 0.01) and Chinese had the highest mean age (P <0.0001). The overall prevalence of patients with non-calcified plaques as the only manifestation of sub-clinical coronary artery disease was 2.1%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of CAC, mean CAC score or prevalence of non-calcified plaques among the 3 ethnic groups. Active smoking, age and hypertension were independent predictors of CAC. Non-calcified plaques were positively associated with male gender, age, dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus.