Improvement of Hamstring Flexibility: A Comparison between Two PNF Stretching Techniques

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of two PNF stretching techniques for improving hamstring flexibility and to compare the effectiveness of two PNF stretching techniques (Hold Relax and Contract Relax-Antagonist Contract) for improving hamstring flexibility. Subjects: 45 normal healthy male subjects. Design: A randomised pre-test post-test control group design. Method: The subjects were randomly assigned into three groups each consisting of 15 subjects. Hamstring flexibility for each group was measured using the active knee extension (AKE) test. Subjects of group A were treated with PNF hold relax stretching, whereas the subjects of group B were treated with PNF CRAC technique. The subjects of group C served as control group and were not subjected to any type of stretching. For each experimental group, stretch was performed three times a week for a total training period of three weeks. Results: A repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a Post HOC analysis using Bonferroni comparisons was used to determine and compare the effectiveness of two PNF stretching techniques at the end of 3 weeks of training protocol. The results demonstrated significant improvement in hamstring flexibility for subjects of group B when compared with those of group A (P = 0.03) at the end of three weeks, with improvement ranging from 0.50 to 15.66 degrees of active knee extension ROM at 95 % confidence interval. Conclusion: Both the techniques viz. PNF Hold Relax and PNF-CRAC are almost equal in their clinical effectiveness for improving hamstring flexibility and that either of the techniques may be used in clinical practice for improving hamstring flexibility

Functionalization of Carbon Nanomaterial Surface by Doxorubicin and Antibodies to Tumor Markers

The actual task of oncology is effective treatment of cancer while causing a minimum harm to the patient. The appearance of polymer nanomaterials and technologies launched new applications and approaches of delivery and release of anticancer drugs. The goal of work was to test ultra dispersed diamonds (UDDs) and onion-like carbon (OLCs) as new vehicles for delivery of antitumor drug (doxorubicin (DOX)) and specific antibodies to tumor receptors. Stable compounds of UDDs and OLCs with DOX were obtained. As results of work, an effectiveness of functionalization was 2.94 % w/w for OLC-DOX and 2.98 % w/w for UDD-DOX. Also, there was demonstrated that UDD-DOX and OLC-DOX constructs had dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on tumor cells in the presence of trypsin. The survival of adenocarcinoma cells reduced from 52 to 28 % in case of incubation with the UDD-DOX in concentrations from 8.4–2.5 to 670–20 μg/ml and from 72 to 30 % after incubation with OLC-DOX. Simultaneously, antibodies to epidermal growth factor maintained 75 % of the functional activity and specificity after matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation deposition. Thus, the conclusion has been made about the prospects of selected new methods and approaches for creating an antitumor agent with capabilities targeted delivery of drugs

Generation of Nanoparticles of Controlled Size using Ultrasonic Piezoelectric Oscillators in Solution

We demonstrate the operation of a device that can produce chitosan nanoparticles in a tunable size range from 50−300 nm with small size dispersion. A piezoelectric oscillator operated at megahertz frequencies is used to aerosolize a solution containing dissolved chitosan. The solvent is then evaporated from the aerosolized droplets in a heat pipe, leaving monodisperse nanoparticles to be collected. The nanoparticle size is controlled both by the concentration of the dissolved polymer and by the size of the aerosol droplets that are created. Our device can be used with any polymer or polymer/therapeutic combination that can be prepared in a homogeneous solution and vaporized