Objective: To investigate the effect of small needle-knife therapy in people with painful knee osteoarthritis. Design: Pilot randomised, controlled trial. Setting: Rehabilitation hospital. Subjects: In-patients with osteo-arthritis of the knee. Interventions: Either 1 to 3 small needle-knife treatments over seven days or oral Celecoxib. All patients stayed in hospital three weeks, receiving the same mobility-focused rehabilitation. Measures: Oxford Knee Score (OKS), gait speed and kinematics were recorded at baseline, at three weeks (discharge) and at three-months (OKS only). Withdrawal from the study, and adverse events associated with the small needle knife therapy were recorded. Results: 83 patients were randomized: 44 into the control group, of whom 10 were lost by three weeks and 12 at 3 months; 39 into the experimental group of whom eight were lost at three weeks and three months. The mean (SE) OKS scores at baseline were Control 35.86 (1.05), Exp 38.38 (0.99); at three weeks 26.64 (0.97) and 21.94 (1.23); and at three months 25.83 (0.91) and 20.48 (1.14) The mean (SE) gait speed at baseline was 1.07 (0.03) m/sec (Control) and 0.98 (0.03), and at three weeks was 1.14 (0.03) and 1.12 (0.03) ( P < 0.05). Linear mixed model statistical analysis showed that the improvements in the experimental group were statistically significant for total OKS score at discharge and three months Conclusions: Small needle-knife therapy added to standard therapy for patients with knee osteoarthritis, was acceptable, safe and reduced pain and improved global function on the Oxford Knee Score. Further research is warranted.

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A ring locally resonant phononic crystal with an effective optimization scheme is proposed. In order to obtain low-frequency broadband properties, three loops of 2-factor (the two key geometric parameters, i.e., the thickness of elastic beam and the radius of scatterer) and 7-level numerical experiments are designed to perform the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis. The low-frequency band gaps (BGs) of the present structures are calculated using finite element method to obtain enough simulation data for RSM analysis. After calculations, the two relationships can be obtained, i.e., the relationship of the starting frequency of the first BG and the two factors; and the relationship of the total bandwidth of the first two BGs and the two factors. Aiming at the lower starting frequency of the first BG and the wider total bandwidth of the first two BGs, the two key geometric parameters are optimized using interior point method.

In this paper, a comb-like locally resonant phononic crystal (LRPC) with optimal structural parameters, which has good low frequency and broadband band gaps (BGs) between 20–250 Hz, is investigated numerically. With the intention of obtaining the optimal structural parameters, based on the structures with different number of the short elastic beams, 2-factor (the two key structural parameters, i.e. the width of the scatterer and the thickness of elastic beams) and 7-level numerical experiments are designed to obtain simulations data using finite element method (FEM). The functional relationships are further constructed using the response surface method (RSM) analysis, i.e. the relationship of the starting frequency of the first BG and the two factors, the terminating frequency of the second BG and the two factors, and the relationship of the total bandwidth of the first two BG and the two factors. After calculation using interior point method, the BGs of LRPC with optimal structural parameters are determined with lower and wider BGs below 250 Hz.