The importance of dental identification is on the increase year after year. With the passage of time, the role of forensic odontology has increased as very often teeth and dental restorations are the only means of identification. Forensic odontology has played a key role in identification of persons in mass disasters (aviation, earthquakes, Tsunamis), in crime investigations, in ethnic studies, and in identification of decomposed and disfigured bodies like that of drowned persons, fire victims, and victims of motor vehicle accidents. The various methods employed in forensic odontology include tooth prints, radiographs, photographic study, rugoscopy, cheiloscopy and molecular methods. Investigative methods applied in forensic odontology are reasonably reliable, yet the shortcomings must be accounted for to make it a more meaningful and relevant procedure. This paper gives an overview of the various experimental studies to aid in the identification processes, discussing their feasibilities and limitations in day-to-day practice.

This article studies the difference in service quality between public sector banks and new generation private sector banks based on the SERVQUAL dimensions as perceived by Indian customers. It also compares banks within these sectors on the given parameters. The authors also develop a perceptual map considering the SERVQUAL dimensions as attributes. The results suggest that the new generation private sector banks are perceived to provide better quality services as compared to public sector banks. In addition, the perception about the quality of services also varies between banks within the same sector.

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Background and Aims: Studies comparing the effect of propofol and etomidate on hemodynamic parameters during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have shown ambiguous results. Although some studies observed a larger increase in blood pressure and heart rate during the use of etomidate than propofol in ECT, whereas some studies have shown no difference in hemodynamic parameters with the use of etomidate or propofol. Most of the studies done to compare the hemodynamic effects of etomidate and propofol were limited by small sample size or retrospective in nature. Therefore, we conducted a prospective randomized trial to compare the effects of etomidate and propofol on hemodynamics during ECT. Material and Methods: A prospective randomized crossover study was conducted on 30 patients with American Society of Anesthesiologist physical status I and II, between age 18 and 65 years, suffering from a mental disorder as per International Classification of Diseases-10 and requiring bilateral ECT as per clinical decision of consultant psychiatrist. They were randomized to receive both the drugs for their successive ECT sessions and were subjected to evaluation after clubbing together the ECT sessions of propofol or etomidate as anesthetic agent. Results: Duration of motor seizures was significantly more in patients receiving etomidate, whereas patients receiving propofol had more stable hemodynamics. Conclusion: Though propofol maintains stable hemodynamics during MECT, yet clinical applicability of etomidate outstrips it by a reasonable margin due to its better effect on seizure parameters.