SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the efficacy of kinesiology taping application in premature infants with dysphagia. METHODS: A total of 60 premature newborns (born ≤37weeks’ gestational age who reached the age ≥34 weeks of postmenstrual age) with sucking and swallowing problems were randomly assigned to the kinesiology taping group [n=31; 18 males, 13 females; mean postmenstrual age 35.4 weeks (SD 0.9 weeks, range 34–38 weeks)] or control group without kinesiology taping application [n=29; 16 males, 13 females; mean postmenstrual age age 35.6 weeks (SD 1.4 weeks, range 34–40 weeks)]. RESULTS: Kinesiology taping group yielded significant improvement in the oral reflexes (p<0.001) and in the sucking functions including tongue movement, sucking power, number of sucks and sucking pause, maintenance of alertness, jaw movement, tongue cupping, and maintenance of rhythm (p<0.001, p=0.011, p=0.002, and p=0.001, respectively). There was a significant difference in favor of the taping group with respect to the number of neonates whose feeding improved (26 (84%) vs. 7 (24%), p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that kinesiology taping can be applied as a safe and effective method to improve feeding functions in premature infants with sucking and swallowing difficulties.

In this study, new 1,3,4-thiadiazole compounds were synthesised and characterised by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, UV-vis spectroscopy and elemental analysis, Furthermore, the relationship between the electronic and spectral data of the 16 conformers of each compound was investigated by theoretical calculations; the theoretical data were compared with the experimental results. The B3LYP hybrid functional level with a 6-311++g(2d,2p) basis set was used to obtain the ground state geometries, frontier molecular orbital energies, band gap energies and chemical reactivity parameters and to perform a spectral analysis of the compounds. Significant correlations were calculated between the minimum molecular energy and the N-H and C=O vibrational frequencies and the NH proton chemical shifts of the conformers. The charge density on the nitrogen atom and the delocalisation index of the highly polar N-H covalent bond were investigated by quantum theory of atoms in molecules. The effect of conformer structure on the theoretical results and its role in interpreting the experimental data were presented, and it was theoretically shown that the activity degree of the non-aromatic electronegative atoms or groups of atoms in the intramolecular interaction was a very important factor in determining the electronic and spectral properties of each compound.