EFFECTS OF KINESIO-TAPING VS DRY NEEDLING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MECHANICAL LOW BACK PAIN

Background of the study: Mechanical pain of musculoskeletal origin, known as nonspecific LBP (NSLBP), has symptoms that change depending on the type of physical activity [1]. About 85% of her LBP patients present in primary care settings are NSLBP patients. Methodology: Randomized control trial (RCT) conducted between between January 2020 and October, 2021, Rawal General and Dental Hospital and Al-Nafees, the hospital in Islamabad. Thirty patients were included in the study. Two participants were discontinued. There were two groups of patients i.e., 15 patients in the KT group and 13 patients in the DN group diagnosed of NSCLBP by orthopedic surgeon and referral to outpatient physiotherapy clinic. The Sample size was calculated using the OpenEpi scale. The Consent form was filled out by the participants before the initiation of the study. Pain Rating Scale, Roland-Morris Disability Index Questionnaire (RMDQ) and Global patient rating scale (PGR) were assessed at baseline, two weeks post-intervention and four weeks post-treatment. Results: Before treatment, there were no differences between the groups for PNRS, RMDQ and PGR. Both DN and KT produced significant improvements in all baseline measures (PNRS, RMDQ and PGR) after two weeks and four weeks of treatment (p<0.05). Considerable improvements were observed in all variables in both groups after treatment. However, Statistical analysis ANOVA showed no significant differences in almost all measures between groups. (p>0.05). Conclusion: Kinesio-taping is as effective as DN in managing back pain. When treating back pain, adding DN or KT to your exercise program can make a significant contribution to your treatment.

Analysis of Unsteady Squeezing Flows

The squeezing flow occurs due to the action of normal stresses that originate from different configurations of the plates movement. This context may resound to be profoundly simple from the onset, but has important applications in the areas of engineering, physics, biology, and material sciences. In the past few years, the study of rheometric properties of fluids has garnered profound attention due to its vast industrial applications. Examples include modeling of lubrication systems involved in squeezing of fluids, compression and injection molding processes of metals and polymers, hydrodynamical tools and machines, modeling of chewing and eating, and modeling of the functions of heart valves and blood vessels. As a result, it is a major focus of researchers working in fluid mechanics. This thesis presents the theoretical analysis of unsteady squeezing flow of Newtonian and nonNewtonian fluids between two parallel plates under various boundary conditions. Observation of the squeezing behavior and associated rheological properties of the fluid can be interpreted using various analytical and numerical techniques. Due to the simplicity of the geometry involved, these can also be realized experimentally, while obtaining measurements from sensors or feedback control loops. For the analytical and numerical approach, the squeeze behavior is based on various models like Newtonain, Casson, Power law etc which leads to various differential equations. For this purpose, the thesis goes into a detailed investigation of the rheological properties of fluid flow with various boundary conditions and fluid types. These properties include velocity profiles, pressure distribution, and skin-friction. This investigation starts initially with the analysis of an unsteady flow of Newtonian fluid squeezed between two circular plates with slip and no-slip at the boundaries. It then gradually extends to higher order problems and different boundary conditions. This includes firstly a case involving squeezing of an incompressible Newtonian fluid passing through porous medium, followed by another case involving squeezing of non-Newtonian Casson fluid having magnetohydrodynamical effect, and passing through porous medium. The Casson fluid model is further extended to analyze the slip effect at fluid-solid interface. All these cases are dealt in separate chapters. In all cases, similarity transformations are used for the conversion of PDEs to highly nonlinear ODEs. Various analytical techniques like Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method (OHAM), Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM), Homotopy Perturbation Laplace Method (HPLM), and numerical schemes like Explict and Implicit Runge Kutta Method of order 4 (ERK4 & IRK4) and NDSolve (Mathematica Solver) are applied for the solution and analysis of the modeled problems. Convergence and validity of the obtained analytical solutions are checked by finding various order solutions along with residual errors, and comparing it with numerical results. In addition, the thesis also proposes a novel adaptation to a scheme that combines tradiiii tional perturbation techniques with Homotopy using a Laplace transform. This scheme is applied to a problem of squeezing flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid through porous medium, and tested against various analytical and numerical schemes.