Biomechanical evaluation of a novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw applied to the treatment of Kümmel’s disease in porcine vertebrae

Background and objective: Treatment of Kümmel’s Disease (KD) with pure percutaneous kyphoplasty carries a greater likelihood of bone cement displacement due to hardened bone and defect of the peripheral cortex. In this study, we designed a novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of this modified surgical instruments in porcine vertebrae.Methods: 18 mature porcine spine specimens were obtained and soaked in 10% formaldehyde solution for 24 h. 0.5000 mmol/L EDTA-Na2 solution was used to develop in vitro osteoporosis models of porcine vertebrae. They were all made with the bone deficiency at the anterior edge of L1. These specimens were randomly divided into 3 groups for different ways of treatment: Group A: pure percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) group; Group B: unilateral novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw fixation combined with PKP group; Group C: bilateral novel minimally invasive pedicle bone cement screw fixation combined with PKP group. The MTS multi-degree of freedom simulation test system was used for biomechanical tests, including axial loading of 500 N pressure, range of motion (ROM) in flexion, extension, left/right lateral bending, and left/right axial rotation at 5 Nm, and the displacement of bone cement mass at maximum angles of 5° and 10°.Result: The three groups were well filled with bone cement, no leakage or displacement of bone cement was observed, and the height of the vertebrae was higher than pre-operation (p < 0.05). In the left/right axial rotation, the specimens were still significantly different (p < 0.05) from the intact specimens in terms of ROM after PKP. In other directions, ROM of all group had no significant difference (p < 0.05) and was close to the intact vertebrae. Compared with PKP group, the relative displacement of bone cement in groups B and C was smaller (p < 0.05).Conclusion: In the in vitro animal vertebral models, the treatment of KD with the placement of novel pedicle minimally invasive bone cement screw combined with PKP can effectively restore the vertebral height, improve the stability of the affected vertebra and prevent the displacement of bone cement. Biomechanically, there is no significant difference between bilateral and unilateral fixation

Metal Oxide Gas Sensors: Sensitivity and Influencing Factors

Conductometric semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors have been widely used and investigated in the detection of gases. Investigations have indicated that the gas sensing process is strongly related to surface reactions, so one of the important parameters of gas sensors, the sensitivity of the metal oxide based materials, will change with the factors influencing the surface reactions, such as chemical components, surface-modification and microstructures of sensing layers, temperature and humidity. In this brief review, attention will be focused on changes of sensitivity of conductometric semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors due to the five factors mentioned above

Comparison of Terrestrial Water Storage Changes in the Tibetan Plateau and Its Surroundings Derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Solutions of Different Processing Centers

The GRACE twin satellite gravity mission from 2002 to 2017 has considerably improved investigations on global and regional hydrological changes. However, there are different GRACE solutions and products available which may yield different results for certain regions despite applying the same postprocessing and time span. This is especially the case for the Tibetan Plateau (TP) with its special hydrological conditions represented by localized but strong signals that can overlap or merge with signals inside the plateau, which can falsify the determination of terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes in the TP area. To investigate the effect of GRACE solution selection on inverted TWS changes, we analyze quantitatively the secular and monthly changes for 14 glacier areas and 10 water basins in and around the TP area that have been calculated from 16 different available GRACE solutions. Our analysis provides expectable results. While trend results from different spherical harmonic (SH) GRACE solutions match well, there are significant differences to and between mascon GRACE solutions. This is related to the different processing concepts of mascon solutions and their forced handling in our comparisons. SH solution time series match each other when mass changes are strong with a large amplitude and regular periodicity. However, for regions where small TWS changes are associated with small amplitudes, trends, and/or unstable signal periods, SH solutions can also yield different results. Such behavior is known from a time series analysis. Interestingly though, we find that the COST-G and ITSG SH GRACE solutions are closest to the average of all solutions. Therefore, these solutions appear to be preferable for TWS investigations in regions with highly variable hydrological conditions, such as in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. This also indicates that combined solutions such as COST-G provide a promising pathway for an improved TWS analysis, which should be further elaborated

Measuring Terrestrial Water Storage Change Using GRACE, GPS and Absolute Gravity Data in Scandinavia

Gravity satellite GRACE-derived terrestrial water storage change would be seriously affected by glacial isostatic adjustment(GIA) in Scandinavia. To solve this problem, it is calculated that the measured linear ratio of GIA gravity rates and vertical displacement rates according to the data from collocation stations for absolute gravity and GPS. Using the linear ratio and uplift field derived from GPS observation network, the gravity signal of GIA is got. Gravity change rates from GRACE RL05 data can be corrected for GIA using independent gravity rates derived from GPS vertical velocities, and then it is calculated that corresponding equivalent water thickness in Scandinavia and the uncertainties are evaluated by considering the uncertainties from data. The proposed method utilizes observational data only and can avoid the enormous uncertainty from GIA models.The results are compared with that of two hydrological models. The ratio of gravity versus uplift obtained by ground-based measurements in Scandinavia is 0.148&#177;0.020 <i>μ</i>Gal/mm(1 Gal=10^-2 m/s²), which validates Wahr's approximate theoretical ratio and is very close to the result from North America. From January 2003 to March 2011, terrestrial water storage shows obvious increase in Scandinavia. The main signal locates at the V&#228;nern lake which is in the southern tip of the peninsula. The rate of total water storage is 4.6&#177;2.1 km³/a and the corresponding cumulative quantity is 38&#177;17 km³ for the period 2003 to 2011. Results from hydrological models are consistent with the result very well. The correlation coefficient between GRACE and WGHM hydrological model can reach 0.69, while for GLDAS model the correlation coefficient is slightly smaller

Comparison and Analysis of Crustal Vertical Deformation in Mainland China Observed by GPS from CMONOC and GRACE

Based on continuous GPS data from crustal movement observation network of China (CMONOC), the vertical deformations on Earth's surface observed by 234 GPS stations and GRACE in mainland China are compared with each other.GPS-observed and GRACE-derived vertical deformations are in good agreements in general, which indicates that mass loading is an important factor to GPS nonlinear variations, but there are some differences between GPS and GRACE.For further analyzing the difference between GPS and GRACE vertical deformations, we take into account the thermal expansion effects to GPS vertical deformations and the effect of regional crustal structure on vertical loading deformations derived from GRACE.It is found that the annual amplitudes of vertical deformations induced by thermal expansion are not less than 1 mm at more than 50% of GPS stations.After considering thermal deformations, the vertical deformations of GPS and GRACE are with higher consistency in mainland China.The ratio of annual amplitudes from GPS and GRACE vertical deformations changes from 1.07&#177;0.06 to 1.01&#177;0.05, which is closer to the ideal value of 1.Thermal expansion can explain 6.2% of the difference between GPS and GRACE vertical deformations.And it can increase the consistency of vertical deformations between GPS and GRACE by 11.2% relatively after thermal expansion correction.The regional crustal structure has little effect on GRARE-derived vertical loading deformations in mainland China and the relative difference is 2.5%

Spatial Difference of Terrestrial Water Storage Change and Lake Water Storage Change in the Inner Tibetan Plateau

Water resources are rich on the Tibetan Plateau, with large amounts of glaciers, lakes, and permafrost. Terrestrial water storage (TWS) on the Tibetan Plateau has experienced a significant change in recent decades. However, there is a lack of research about the spatial difference between TWSC and lake water storage change (LWSC), which is helpful to understand the response of water storage to climate change. In this study, we estimate the change in TWS, lake water storage (LWS), soil moisture, and permafrost, respectively, according to satellite and model data during 2005−2013 in the inner Tibetan Plateau and glacial meltwater from previous literature. The results indicate a sizeable spatial difference between TWSC and LWSC. LWSC was mainly concentrated in the northeastern part (18.71 ± 1.35 Gt, 37.7% of the total) and southeastern part (22.68 ± 1.63 Gt, 45.6% of the total), but the increased TWS was mainly in the northeastern region (region B, 18.96 ± 1.26 Gt, 57%). Based on mass balance, LWSC was the primary cause of TWSC for the entire inner Tibetan Plateau. However, the TWS of the southeastern part increased by 3.97 ± 2.5 Gt, but LWS had increased by 22.68 ± 1.63 Gt, and groundwater had lost 16.91 ± 7.26 Gt. The increased TWS in the northeastern region was equivalent to the increased LWS, and groundwater had increased by 4.47 ± 4.87 Gt. Still, LWS only increased by 2.89 ± 0.21 Gt in the central part, and the increase in groundwater was the primary cause of TWSC. These results suggest that the primary cause of increased TWS shows a sizeable spatial difference. According to the water balance, an increase in precipitation was the primary cause of lake expansion for the entire inner Tibetan Plateau, which contributed 73% (36.28 Gt) to lake expansion (49.69 ± 3.58 Gt), and both glacial meltwater and permafrost degradation was 13.5%

Influences of crustal thickening in the Tibetan Plateau on loading modeling and inversion associated with water storage variation

We use the average crustal structure of the CRUST1.0 model for the Tibetan Plateau to establish a realistic earth model termed as TC1P, and data from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) hydrology model and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, to generate the hydrology signals assumed in this study. Modeling of surface radial displacements and gravity variation is performed using both TC1P and the global Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM). Furthermore, inversions of the hydrology signals based on simulated Global Positioning System (GPS) and GRACE data are performed using PREM. Results show that crust in TC1P is harder and softer than that in PREM above and below a depth of 15 km, respectively, causing larger differences in the computed load Love numbers and loading Green's functions. When annual hydrology signals are assumed, the differences of the radial displacements are found to be as large as approximately 0.6 mm for the truncated degree of 180; while for hydrology-trend signals the differences are very small. When annual hydrology signals and the trends are assumed, the differences in the surface gravity variation are very small. It is considered that TC1P can be used to efficiently remove the hydrological effects on the monitoring of crustal movement. It was also found that when PREM is used inappropriately, the inversion of the hydrology signals from simulated annual GPS signals can only recover approximately 88.0% of the annual hydrology signals for the truncated degree of 180, and the inversion of hydrology signals from the simulated trend GPS signals can recover approximately 92.5% for the truncated degree of 90. However, when using the simulated GRACE data, it is possible to recover almost 100%. Therefore, in future, the TC1P model can be used in the inversions of hydrology signals based on GPS network data. PREM is also valid for use with inversions of hydrology signals from GRACE data at resolutions of approximately 220 km and larger

Determination of Weak Terrestrial Water Storage Changes from GRACE in the Interior of the Tibetan Plateau

Time series of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission have been successfully used to reveal changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) in many parts of the world. This has been hindered in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau since the derived TWS changes there are very sensitive to the selections of different available GRACE solutions, and filters to remove north-south-oriented (N-S) stripe features in the observations. This has resulted in controversial distributions of the TWS changes in previous studies. In this paper, we produce aggregated hydrology signals (AHS) of TWS changes from 2003 to 2009 in the Tibetan Plateau and test a large set of GRACE solution-filter combinations and mascon models to identify the best combination or mascon model whose filtered results match our AHS. We find that the application of a destriping filter is indispensable to remove correlated errors shown as N-S stripes. Three best-performing destriping filters are identified and, combined with two best-performing solutions, they represent the most reliable solution-filter combinations for determination of weak terrestrial water storage changes in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau from GRACE. In turn, more than 100 other tested solution-filter combinations and mascon solutions lead to very different distributions of the TWS changes inside and outside the plateau that partly disagree largely with the AHS. This is mainly attributed to less effective suppression of N-S stripe noises. Our results also show that the most effective destriping is performed within a maximum degree and order of 60 for GRACE spherical harmonic solutions. The results inside the plateau show one single anomaly in the TWS trend when additional smoothing with a 340-km-radius Gaussian filter is applied. We suggest using our identified best solution-filter combinations for the determination of TWS changes in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas during the whole GRACE operation time span from 2002 to 2017 as well as the succeeding GRACE-FO mission

Uniform Carbon Layer Coated Mn₃O₄ Nanorod Anodes with Improved Reversible Capacity and Cyclic Stability for Lithium Ion Batteries

A facile one-step solvothermal reaction route to large-scale synthesis of carbon homogeneously wrapped manganese oxide (Mn₃O₄@C) nanocomposites for anode materials of lithium ion batteries was developed using manganese acetate monohydrate and polyvinylpyrrolidone as precursors and reactants. The synthesized Mn₃O₄@C nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The synthesized tetragonal structured Mn₃O₄ (space group <i>I</i>41/<i>amd</i>) samples display nanorodlike morphology, with a width of about 200–300 nm and a thickness of about 15–20 nm. It is shown that the carbon layers with a thickness of 5 nm are homogeneously coated on the Mn₃O₄ nanorods. It is indicated from lithium storage capacity estimation that the Mn₃O₄@C samples display enhanced capacity retention on charge/discharge cycling. Even after 50 cycles, the products remains stable capacity of 473 mA h g^–1, which is as much 3.05 times as that of pure Mn₃O₄ samples. Because of the low-cost, nonpollution, and stable capacity, the carbon homogeneously coated Mn₃O₄@C nanocomposites are promising anode material for lithium ion batteries