Rate of force development as an indicator of neuromuscular fatigue: a scoping review

Because rate of force development (RFD) is an emerging outcome measure for the assessment of neuromuscular function in unfatigued conditions, and it represents a valid alternative/complement to the classical evaluation of pure maximal strength, this scoping review aimed to map the available evidence regarding RFD as an indicator of neuromuscular fatigue. Thus, following a general overview of the main studies published on this topic, we arbitrarily compared the amount of neuromuscular fatigue between the "gold standard" measure (maximal voluntary force, MVF) and peak, early (≤100 ms) and late (>100 ms) RFD. Seventy full-text articles were included in the review. The most-common fatiguing exercises were resistance exercises (37% of the studies), endurance exercises/locomotor activities (23%), isokinetic contractions (17%), and simulated/real sport situations (13%). The most widely tested tasks were knee extension (60%) and plantar flexion (10%). The reason (i.e., rationale) for evaluating RFD was lacking in 36% of the studies. On average, the amount of fatigue for MVF (-19%) was comparable to late RFD (-19%) but lower compared to both peak RFD (-25%) and early RFD (-23%). Even if the rationale for evaluating RFD in the fatigued state was often lacking and the specificity between test task and fatiguing exercise characteristics was not always respected in the included studies, RFD seems to be a valid indicator of neuromuscular fatigue. Based on our arbitrary analyses, peak RFD and early phase RFD appear even to be more sensitive to quantify neuromuscular fatigue than MVF and late phase RFD

Carbon Nanotubes in Cancer Therapy and Drug Delivery

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been introduced recently as a novel carrier system for both small and large therapeutic molecules. CNTs can be functionalized (i.e., surface engineered) with certain functional groups in order to manipulate their physical or biological properties. In addition to the ability of CNTs to act as carriers for a wide range of therapeutic molecules, their large surface area and possibility to manipulate their surfaces and physical dimensions have been exploited for use in the photothermal destruction of cancer cells. This paper paper will discuss the therapeutic applications of CNTs with a major focus on their applications for the treatment of cancer

Strength asymmetries are muscle-specific and metric-dependent

We investigated if dominance affected upper limbs muscle function, and we calculated the level of agreement in asymmetry direction across various muscle-function metrics of two heterologous muscle groups. We recorded elbow flexors and extensors isometric strength of the dominant and non-dominant limb of 55 healthy adults. Participants performed a series of explosive contractions of maximal and submaximal amplitudes to record three metrics of muscle performance: maximal voluntary force (MVF), rate of force development (RFDpeak), and RFD-Scaling Factor (RFD-SF). At the population level, the MVF was the only muscle function that showed a difference between the dominant and non-dominant sides, being on average slightly (3-6%) higher on the non-dominant side. At the individual level, the direction agreement among heterologous muscles was poor for all metrics (Kappa values ≤ 0.15). When considering the homologous muscles, the direction agreement was moderate between MVF and RFDpeak (Kappa = 0.37) and low between MVF and RFD-SF (Kappa = 0.01). The asymmetries are muscle-specific and rarely favour the same side across different muscle-performance metrics. At the individual level, no one side is more performative than the other: each limb is favoured depending on muscle group and performance metric. The present findings can be used by practitioners that want to decrease the asymmetry levels as they should prescribe specific exercise training for each muscle

The communications revolution

The Internet has been transformed within the last five years from an academic tool to a resource that promises to revolutionise the way we all communicate and retrieve information. The catalyst for these developments can be traced to the appearance of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the user-friendly graphical interface it presents based on hypertext links. There is already a large database of information available on the Internet on virtually any subject matter. The Internet has been described as the 'human encyclopaedia', and indeed, in the future it will be routinely used to retrieve information. The Internet is still in an embryonic form and there are several issues that need to be resolved, however, it is a communication medium that we will all be using within the next decade. Perhaps a more tangible indication of the importance of this technology is the significant commercial investment being made into both software and hardware. This article will attempt to explain what the Internet is, how it works, and how it can be used, with an emphasis on the resources available for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists