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AimsTo determine the relationship between articular cartilage status and clinical outcomes after medial opening-wedge high tibial osteotomy (MOHTO) for medial compartmental knee osteoarthritis at intermediate follow-up.MethodsWe reviewed 155 patients (155 knees) who underwent MOHTO from January 2008 to December 2016 followed by second-look arthroscopy with a mean 5.3-year follow-up (2.0 to 11.7). Arthroscopic findings were assessed according to the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) Cartilage Repair Assessment (CRA) grading system. Patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of normal or nearly normal quality cartilage in the medial femoral condyle: good (second-look arthroscopic) status (ICRS grade I or II; n = 70), and poor (second-look arthroscopic) status (ICRS grade III or IV; n = 85) groups at the time of second-look arthroscopy. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), and 36-Item Short Form survey.ResultsSignificant improvements in all clinical outcome categories were found between the preoperative and second-look arthroscopic assessments in both groups (p < 0.001). At the latest follow-up, the mean IKDC and WOMAC scores in the good status group further improved compared with those at the time of second-look arthroscopic surgery (p < 0.001), which was not shown in the poor status group. The mean IKDC (good status, 72.8 (SD 12.5); poor status, 64.7 (SD 12.1); p = 0.002) and mean WOMAC scores (good status, 15.7 (SD 10.8); poor status, 21.8 (SD 13.6); p = 0.004) significantly differed between both groups at the latest follow-up. Moreover, significant correlations were observed between ICRS CRA grades and IKDC scores (negative correlation; p < 0.001) and WOMAC scores (positive correlation; p < 0.001) at the latest follow-up. Good cartilage status was found more frequently in knees with the desired range of 2° to 6° valgus correction than in those with corrections outside this range (p = 0.019).ConclusionSecond-look arthroscopic cartilage status correlated with clinical outcomes after MOHTO at intermediate-term follow-up, despite the relatively small clinical differences between groups.Cite this article: Bone Joint J2021;103-B(11):1686–1694.

Numerical algorithms and computer programs have been developed to determine optimal cure steps in a tire curing process. A dynamic constrained optimization problem was formulated with the following ingredients: (1) an objective function that measures product quality in terms of final state of cure and temperature history at selected points in a tire; (2) constraints that consist of a process model and temperature limits imposed on cure media; (3) B-splines representation of a time-varying profile of cure media temperature. The optimization problem was solved using the complex algorithm along with a finite element model solver. Numerical simulations were carried out to demonstrate the procedure of determining optimal cure steps for a truck/bus radial tire. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 74: 2063–2071, 1999

In this study, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of polar GaN were compared to those of semipolar GaN. GaN samples were grown on sapphire by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Various electrolytes, namely, aqueous solutions of H2SO4(pH 0.2), Na2SO4(pH 6.0), and NaOH (pH 14.0), were used for investigating the effect of pH. The band-edge potentials of polar and semipolar GaN calculated from the Mott–Schottky plots indicates that these potentials can split water and followed the Nernst equation for each electrolyte. Further, the PEC properties of GaN with different polarities were investigated under 100 mW illumination. The photocurrent density of polar GaN was found to be higher than that of semipolar GaN. This result was attributed to the polarization effect of polar GaN. Interestingly, all GaN samples showed a divergent trend in the two-electrode method, similar to a real device.