Purpose: To report the results of a series of 10 patients who underwent an arthroscopic excision of the sternoclavicular joint ( SCJ) for osteoarthritis refractory to conservative treatment. Methods: We undertook an arthroscopic excision of the SCJ in 10 patients with osteoarthritis. There were 7 female and 3 male patients with a mean age at surgery of 53 years ( range, 42 to 62 years). Patients were assessed preoperatively and at follow-up with the Constant score and the Rockwood SCJ scoring system. The mean follow-up was 28 months ( range, 17 to 41 months; SD, 8.1 months). Surgery was undertaken as a day case with no shoulder immobilization. Results: All of the patients had regained their preoperative or full range of movement within 2 weeks of surgery. At most recent follow-up, 7 patients had no pain and 3 had slight pain with activity. The median Constant score had increased from 64.5 ( range, 41 to 77) to 83 ( range, 61 to 95), and the median Rockwood score had increased from 6 ( range, 4 to 7) to 13.5 ( range, 9 to 15) ( maximum, 15). On the basis of these findings, the clinical results were rated as excellent ( 13 to 15) in 7 patients, good ( 10 to 12) in 2, and fair ( 7 to 9) in 1. There were no complications and, specifically, no problems with joint stability. Conclusions: The results of this study show that arthroscopic SCJ excision is a satisfactory treatment for SCJ osteoarthritis refractory to conservative measures. Level of Evidence: Level IV, therapeutic case series.

Quantum many-body physics is important in understanding a range of physical phenomena. Lattice spin models, such as the Ising model, can successfully capture much of the complex behaviour of strongly interacting many-body systems. Recently, there has been considerable interest in such models in the context of quantum computation, in particular, experiments in ion traps have motivated the study of the Ising model on a triangular lattice. Recently numerical approximation techniques have been developed to allow for polynomial time simulation of certain spin lattice systems. We implemented the infinite Time Evolution Block Decimation algorithm and numerical results relating to the ground state behaviour of the frustrated Ising model on triangular ladders are presented. We studied spin ladders in quasi-1D structures to gain insight into the 2D Ising model on a triangular lattice. Our results indicate that we have competing terms in the Hamiltonian of our frustrated triangular Ising systems which leads to a rich phase diagram, consisting of three distinct phases. We present some accurate quantitative results for spin ladders as well as qualitative predictions relating to the 2D Ising model on a triangular lattice. These results have the potential to give us some understanding of this as yet unsolved problem.

Compound management faces the daily challenge of providing high-quality samples to drug discovery. The advent of new screening technologies has seen demand for liquid samples move toward nanoliter ranges, dispensed by contactless acoustic droplet ejection. Within AstraZeneca, a totally integrated assay-ready plate production platform has been created to fully exploit the advantages of this technology. This enables compound management to efficiently deliver large throughputs demanded by high-throughput screening while maintaining regular delivery of smaller numbers of compounds in varying plate formats for cellular or biochemical concentration-response curves in support of hit and lead optimization (structure-activity relationship screening). The automation solution, CODA, has the capability to deliver compounds on demand for single- and multiple-concentration ranges, in batch sizes ranging from 1 sample to 2 million samples, integrating seamlessly into local compound and test management systems. The software handles compound orders intelligently, grouping test requests together dependent on output plate type and serial dilution ranges so that source compound vessels are shared among numerous tests, ensuring conservation of sample, reduced labware and costs, and efficiency of work cell logistics. We describe the development of CODA to address the customer demand, challenges experienced, learning made, and subsequent enhancements.