THE EFFECTS OF A PRAGMATIC SET OF INTERVENTIONS ON THE SHOULDER RANGE OF MOTION IN MALES AND FEMALES WITH SHOULDER PAIN: A CLINICAL TRIAL

Background and Aim: The effects of novel set of interventions are known but their effects with respect to gender are not known. This study aim to determine the effects of novel set of interventions on shoulder range of motion in males and females with shoulder pathology. Methodology: This study was of quasive experimental design. Thirty subjects of mean age (±SD) of 43. 23±10 years with shoulder pathology and restricted ROM were recruited. The major criteria for recruitment were 18-60 years of age. The general contraindications of manual therapy were the exclusion criteria. Shoulder functional movement and range of motion were the outcome measures.  Results: The mean % (SD) change for RUBB was 15.04±11.57for males and  14.49±10.44 for males. The change for RDBN was also significant (<0.00) from baseline and the % change in mean was 14.93±11.0 for males and 12.60±9.06 for females. The changes were well above the highly clinical meaningful difference (>0.8). It is further observed that the differences in gender were non-significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: The pragmatic set of interventions affect both the genders equally and improve shoulder range of motion and functional movements.  However, the results must be interpreted cautiously because of the inadequate sample size.

Application of Chemicals to Break Corm Dormancy and Enhance Production in Gladiolus Gladiolus Grandiflorus

Ornamental bulbous plants have great value in the world floriculture industry and gladiolus possesses prominent position among them. Gladiolus plant is mainly grown for its flower spike but it can be used as an bedding and potting plant. The increase in demand of its spikes needs continuous cultivation to meet the market demands throughout the year but occurrence of dormancy in corms limits its cultivation to only one growing season in a year. Various chemicals were used to break corms dormancy and their effect on corm health was also studied. The effect of important factors which affects the breaking of corm dormancy including corm source, scales and varieties was studied. Among treatments the soaking of dormant corms in different concentrations of methanol in combination with plant growth regulators (gibberellic acid, 6-benzylaminopurine and indole acetic acid) was effective to break corm dormancy rather than individual application of chemicals. The descaled corms responded better to application of chemicals than the scaled ones. In another set of chemical treatments, the combined application of gibberellic acid with benzylaminopurine enhanced their effect to get the maximum germination percentage under controlled conditions of temperature at 26 o C in complete darkness. The combination of gibberellic acid with benzylaminopurine was found the best from the initial experiments and this combination was used to break corm dormancy under field conditions. The germination percentage increased as the concentration of gibberellic acid in combination with benzylaminopurine increased. The chemical analysis of treated and non treated corms revealed that there was maximum increase in total soluble sugars (6.98mg/g), gibberellic acid content (112.80ηg/g) and decrease in starch content (22.25mg/g), total phenolic content (91.57μg/g) and abscisic acid (27.32ηg/g) was recorded in treated corms. In the second part of the study, foliar application of gibberellic acid, 6-benzylaminopurine and salicylic acid was done at three different stages of growth of gladiolus plants. The plants which received foliar application of gibberellic acid showed an improvement in their vegetative characters i.e. the maximum increase in plant height (122.14cm), spike length (58.41cm), number of florets (13.49), corm diameter (4.43 cm), corm weight (25.34g), number of cormels plant-1(75.64), cormel weight plant-1(20.45 g), and also the chemical constituents of leaves including, chlorophyll content (7.72mg/g), total carotenoids (1.61mg/g), total soluble sugars (3.68mg/g), nitrogen (1.52%), phosphorus (0.28%) and potassium (0.64%). Whereas benzylaminopurine application increased the spike diameter (7.23 mm) and salicylic acid application acted to decrease the number of days to flower (64.93) and total phenolic content (0.62mg/g) of leaf compared to control plants. The foliar application of polyamines (putrescine and spermine) and vitamins (ascorbic acid and thiamine) at 0.1, 0.4, 0.7 and 1mM concentrations improved the morphological and physiological parameters. Putrescine application at 1mM concentration resulted in increased morphological parameters, the plant height (107.85cm), spike length (53.19cm), spike diameter (7.53 mm), florets spike-1(13.99), 1st floret diameter (9.66 cm), floret weight (4.90g), corm diameter (4.57cm) corm weight (26.16g), cormels plant-1(80.86), cormel weight (23.03g) and also improved the physiological attributes like chlorophyll content(8.06mg/g), total carotenoids (1.66mg/g), total phenolic content (0.89mg/g), total soluble sugars (4.75mg/g), nitrogen (1.42%), phosphorus (0.27%) and potassium (0.84%). Thus foliar application of gibberellic acid and putrescine is helpful to improve the economically valuable characteristics of gladiolus plant which may helpful for gladiolus growers to fetch more price in the market.