Osteotomy for treating knee osteoarthritis from 2012 to 2023: Bibliometric analysis and global trends.

BACKGROUND: Numerous surgical interventions are available for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). In recent years, knee-preserving surgery, specifically osteotomy, has gained significant attention from patients, particularly those who are young and physically active, as it not only effectively alleviates pain but also preserves bone integrity, thereby allowing for potential future joint replacement. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the global application trends of osteotomy for KOA and identify the current research hotspots. METHODS: We conducted a literature search encompassing English-language studies on osteotomy for KOA published from 2012 to 2023 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Bibliometric analysis tools, including VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R Studio, were employed to analyze global trends and research hotspots. RESULTS: We analyzed 1520 eligible publications, comprising 1350 articles and 170 reviews. The number of articles on osteotomy for KOA has exhibited a consistent upward trend over the past decade. The top 3 contributing countries (South Korea, United States, and China) accounted for 45.98% of all published articles. U.S. scholars exhibited high productivity, prominence, and academic impact in this field. Seoul National University published the most papers on the relationship between osteotomy and KOA, while Sungkyunkwan University had the highest average citation rate. Among authors, Yong Seuk Lee from Korea and Steffen Schroeter from Germany had the highest number of publications and average citation values, respectively. Research interests were clustered into 5 categories: "High tibial osteotomy," "Biomechanics of osteotomy," "Osteotomy combined with cartilage repair techniques," "Postoperative prognosis and outcomes," and "Improvement of surgical techniques." CONCLUSION: Recent years have witnessed notable rapid progress in the research on osteotomy for KOA. The field is poised for continued growth in terms of academic literature. The United States has emerged as a global leader in knee osteotomy research, while Korea demonstrates considerable potential in this domain. Future research hotspots may encompass high tibial osteotomies, osteotomies combined with cartilage repair techniques, and advancements in surgical techniques for KOA.

Theoretical Investigation of Thermodynamic Properties of the Al-Si-Fe Ternary Alloy.

Aiming at the current lack of thermodynamic parameters related to the preparation of aluminum-silicon-iron alloys from spent refractory materials in aluminum electrolytic cells, the Miedema model was used to calculate the thermodynamic parameters of Al-Si, Al-Fe, and Si-Fe binary alloys. On this basis, the Toop model was combined to calculate the mixing enthalpy ΔH, excess entropy SE, excess Gibbs free energy GE, and component activity α of Al-Si-Fe ternary alloys. The results show that ΔH, SE, and GE of binary alloys are all negative values. The properties of the Al element and Si element are similar, and they are different from the Fe element. The ternary alloys also have negative values of ΔH, SE, and GE in the alloy composition range, and their values change obviously in the region where the content of Fe is high or low. The activity values of all components decrease dramatically along with the diminishing of the corresponding molar fractions, and the activity values of Al, Si, and Fe are smaller in the central portion of the triangle of ternary components. It indicates that there is a strong interaction between the three elements, which easily forms ternary intermetallic compounds.

Temperature Sensors Integrated with an Electrochromic Readout toward Visual Detection.

Temperature sensors have attracted great attention for personal health care and disease diagnosis in recent years. However, it is still a great challenge to fabricate reliable and highly sensitive temperature sensors that can convert physiological signals into easily readable signals in a convenient way. Herein, an integrated smart temperature sensor system based on a traditional temperature sensor and electrochromic display is proposed for real-time visual detection of temperature. Significantly, a voltage-regulated electrochromic device (ECD) based on tungsten oxide (WO3) and polyaniline (PANI) as the real-time visualization window was integrated into the platform to provide feedback on the temperature change. The ECD would change its color from green to blue based on the electrical signal of the temperature sensor, resulting in a visualized readout that can be monitored through our naked eye. Additionally, the smart temperature sensor system possesses an extremely durable property and cycle stability, remaining around 90% of the initial value even after 15,000 s continuous cycle. Thus, the novel design and low power consumption advantages make it a good candidate to pave the way for developing interactive wearable electronics and intelligent robots as real-time temperature feedback systems.

Associations between smoke exposure and osteoporosis or osteopenia in a US NHANES population of elderly individuals.

Background: Tobacco exposure is considered to be a risk factor for reduced bone mineral density (BMD), which may result in osteopenia. Cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, is commonly utilized as a marker of tobacco exposure. Nevertheless, there are limited clinical data on the associations between osteoporosis (OP) or osteopenia and smoking status or serum cotinine level. Methods: We thoroughly examined the NHANES cross-sectional data from 2005 to 2010, 2013 to 2014, and 2017 to 2018. Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to assess the associations among smoking status and serum cotinine levels as well as OP and osteopenia. The relationships between serum cotinine level and OP and osteopenia were also assessed using the restricted cubic spline (RCS) method. Results: A total of 10,564 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. The mean age of the study population was 64.85 ± 9.54 years, and the patients were predominantly male (51.9%). We found that the relationships between higher serum cotinine levels (≥3 ng/ml) and the prevalence of osteoporosis (Model 1: OR=2.27 [1.91-2.69]; Model 2: OR=2.03 [1.70-2.43]; Model 3: OR=2.04 [1.70-2.45]; all p for trend <0.001) remained significant after adjustment for covariates by applying the lowest serum cotinine levels (<0.05 ng/ml) as the reference. Similar results were observed for current smokers, who were more likely to develop OP compared with nonsmokers (Model 1: OR=2.30 [1.90-2.79]; Model 2: OR=2.16 [1.77-2.64]; Model 3: OR=2.16 [1.77-2.65]). Moreover, higher serum cotinine levels were found to be strongly and positively correlated with the prevalence of osteopenia (OR=1.60 [1.42-1.80]). A similar relationship was observed between current smokers and the prevalence of osteopenia compared with nonsmokers (OR=1.70 [1.49-1.94]). RCS regression also showed that serum cotinine levels were nonlinearly and positively correlated with OP and osteopenia, with inflection points of 5.82 ng/ml and 3.26 ng/ml, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that being a smoker was associated with the prevalence of OP or osteopenia compared with being a nonsmoker and that there was a strong nonlinear positive dose-response relationship between serum cotinine levels and OP and osteopenia.

Association of hormone replacement therapy and the risk of knee osteoarthritis: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and osteoarthritis is controversial in epidemiological studies. With the aim of better understanding the effect of HRT use, this first meta-analysis was implemented to explore the association of HRT and knee OA. METHODS: A series of data is retrieved from Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase databases to observe the association of HRT and knee osteoarthritis up to December 2021. Two separated reviewers chose the research, extracted the data, and evaluated the study quality. Pooled estimates of 95% CI and HRs were acquired through a random-effects model. RESULTS: Finally, there existed 13 pieces of research, containing one case-control research, four cross-sectional pieces of research, as well as eight cohort pieces of research, involving 2573,164 participants. The overall results showed that the use of HRT was related to a raised risk of knee OA (HR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.07-1.45). And the pooled analysis showed a statistically significant raised risk of knee joint replacement (HR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.09-1.54) when using HRT. In addition, the outcome exhibits the raised knee OA risk for the present users of HRT (HR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.16-1.68) according to HRT status. In the past users of HRT, the augment of knee OA risk was not statistically evident (HR = 1.16, 95% CI 0.94-1.42). CONCLUSION: We observed that HRT use was related to a raised knee OA risk. Furthermore, future studies might focus on relevant mechanistic to verify our observed associations.

First-Principles Molecular Dynamics Simulation on High Silica Content Na3AlF6-Al2O3-SiO2 Molten Salt.

A new method for the disposal of the spent refractory materials by adding them directly to electrolytic cells requires our better knowledge of the Na3AlF6-Al2O3-SiO2 melt system. The development of computational materials science offers us a new way to avoid the limitation of the experiment under a strong corrosive environment at high temperatures. First-principles simulation is applied to study the structure information, electronic properties, and transport properties of the system. The study reveals that the main Si and Al ions in the melt are complex ion groups such as [SiF2O2]2-, [SiFO3]3-, [SiF3O2]3-, [AlF2O2]3-, [AlF3O]2-, and [AlF4O]3-. Tangled structures like [SiAlO3F5]4- also exist in the melt. The average coordination number of Al-F and Si-F is 3.21 and 2.45, respectively. O ions mainly act as bridge ions in the melt. The bonding ability of Al with O ions is stronger than that of Si with O ions. Moreover, the Al-O bond is mainly covalent, while the Al-F bond is basically ionic characters. The order of diffusion ability of ions from large to small is Na, F, Al, Si, and O. Addition of SiO2 into the Na3AlF6-Al2O3 molten salt causes an increase of the viscosity and a decrease of ionic conductivity.