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Abstract Background Clavicle fractures account for around 4% of all fractures and up to 44% of fractures of the shoulder girdle. Fractures of the middle third (or mid-shaft) account for approximately 80% of all clavicle fractures. Management of this group of fractures is often challenging and the outcome can be unsatisfactory. In particular it is not clear whether surgery produces better outcomes than non-surgical management. Currently there is much variation in the use of surgery and a lack of good quality evidence to inform our decision. Methods/Design We aim to undertake a multicentre randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness and safety of conservative management versus open reduction and internal fixation for displaced mid-shaft clavicle fractures in adults. Surgical treatment will be performed using the Acumed clavicle fixation system. Conservative management will consist of immobilisation in a sling at the side in internal rotation for 6 weeks or until clinical or radiological union. We aim to recruit 300 patients. These patients will be followed-up for at least 9 months. The primary endpoint will be the rate of non-union at 3 months following treatment. Secondary endpoints will be limb function measured using the Constant-Murley Score and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) Score at 3 and 9 months post-operatively. Discussion This article presents the protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial. It gives extensive details of, and the basis for, the chosen methods, and describes the key measures taken to avoid bias and to ensure validity. Trial Registration United Kingdom Clinical Research Network ID: 8665. The date of registration of the trial is 07/09/2006. The date the first patient was recruited is 18/12/2007.

Time-resolved luminescence lifetime measurements are an important photophysical technique. However, access to this technique at the undergraduate level is limited by the expense of the instrumentation needed to create the well-defined light pulses required to measure the luminescence decay of an excited state molecule. We present here an inexpensive, improved light emitting diode (LED) circuit that is capable of supplying bright light pulses. Our circuit is designed to overdrive the LED resulting in a bright excitation light source with a well-defined square wave pulse shape. This allows for the facile measurement of luminescent molecules with decay lifetimes in the hundreds of nanoseconds to microsecond range. Data are presented for five UV, violet, and blue LEDs as driven by the improved circuit that can be used as a guide for selecting the best excitation light source for a particular molecule of interest. Our students have studied the quenching of aqueous tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride with ferric ion using an overdriven blue LED as an excitation source. While ferric ion is not an efficient quencher compared to molecular oxygen, it is much easier to handle, allowing for the preparation of accurate standard solutions free of dissolved oxygen.

Research has been conducted on the oligothiophenes, quinodimethane and dinitro compounds. The synthesis of these compounds has been carried out and their structure has been investigated via the X-ray crystallography, ESR and UV-vs-NIR-IR spectroscopy.

A three-channel cross-reactive sensor array based on vapoluminescent platinum(II) double salt materials has been characterized. Two arrays were studied, one consisting of [Pt[(CN-cyclododecyl).sub.4]][Pt[(CN).sub.4]] (1), [(phen)Pt[(CN-cyclohexyl).sub.2]][Pt[(CN).sub.4]] (2), and [Pt[(CN-n-tetradecyl).sub.4]][Pt[(CN).sub.4]] (3) materials, where phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, and a second array that has compound 3 replaced by the mixed double salt material [[(phen)Pt[(CN-cyclododecyl)Cl)].sub.2][[(phen)Pt[(CN- cyclododecyl).sub.2]].sub.2][[Pt[(CN).sub.4]].sub.3] (4). Compounds 2, 3 and 4 are characterized here for the first time. Inclusion of solvent vapors into these materials often leads to dramatic shifts in their solid-state absorption and luminescence spectra. In these studies the arrays were exposed to a set of 10 test solvent vapors to determine the ability of each cross-reactive array to give reproducible vapoluminescent spectra characteristic of each solvent vapor. It was discovered that temperature programming between solvent vapor exposures greatly improved the reproducibility of the luminescence spectra obtained. A statistical analysis of three-dimensional resolution factors between pairs of solvent clusters in principal component space supported this assertion. The success of the temperature programming protocol was limited by the thermal stability and the sensitivity to low background water vapor levels of some platinum(II) double salt materials. The ability of the cross-reactive sensor array to differentiate between two different solvent vapors over a large concentration range was also investigated. Acetone and methanol were found to occupy two distinct regions of the three-dimensional principal component space. Detection limits for acetone and methanol were estimated from the principal component analysis as 75 and 6 g/[m.sup.3], respectively.

National Instruments' LabVIEW data acquisition software has an intuitive, graphical programming environment that allows chemistry students to gain understanding of chemical instrumentation. The program is also flexible enough to allow instructors to tailor it to their curricula. The implementation of LabVIEW as a central laboratory software system is described.

Fail-safety is a system attribute that ensures that a program completes execution or signals its failure to work in its operating environment while satisfying post conditions. A scheme for fail-safe concurrent system design was developed by analyzing the techniques in handling the Eiffel and ISO Modula-2 programming languages. Different levels of concurrent process interaction were also investigated using 'atomic actions' as a basis of analogues of sequential exception.

Taxonomy is essential for the classification of exception handling models encountered during the development of new programming paradigm. Exception handling is important since it enhances program robustness, program reliability and comprehensibility, which are necessary for the development of programs for new architectures. Taxonomy can be applied to several models and for developing several new programs.

Research describing thee process of design and the testing of an electronic nose based on an array of salts of vapoluminescent characteristics is presented. Particular attention is given to the construction of the array elements and to the synthesis of salts.

Introduction: Despite the high number of operations and surgical advancement, rehabilitation after rotator cuff repair has not progressed for over 20 years. The traditional cautious approach might be contributing to suboptimal outcomes. Our aim is to assess whether individualised (early) patient-directed rehabilitation results in less shoulder pain and disability at 12 weeks after surgical repair of full-thickness tears of the rotator cuff compared with current standard (delayed) rehabilitation., Methods and Analysis: The rehabilitation after rotator cuff repair (RaCeR 2) study is a pragmatic multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial with internal pilot phase. It has a parallel group design with 1:1 allocation ratio, full health economic evaluation and quintet recruitment intervention. Adults awaiting arthroscopic surgical repair of a full-thickness tear are eligible to participate. On completion of surgery, 638 participants will be randomised. The intervention (individualised early patient-directed rehabilitation) includes advice to the patient to remove their sling as soon as they feel able, gradually begin using their arm as they feel able and a specific exercise programme. Sling removal and movement is progressed by the patient over time according to agreed goals and within their own pain and tolerance. The comparator (standard rehabilitation) includes advice to the patient to wear the sling for at least 4 weeks and only to remove while eating, washing, dressing or performing specific exercises. Progression is according to specific timeframes rather than as the patient feels able. The primary outcome measure is the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index total score at 12-week postrandomisation. The trial timeline is 56 months in total, from September 2022., Trial Registration Number: ISRCTN11499185., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors declare support from the National Institute of Health and Care Research for the present manuscript. AM is non-executive director of the ISPOR. JLR is Past President of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (2021-2023). SD reports education consultancy contracts with Stryker, Smith and Nephew and Arthrex for teaching and training. SD is the president of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (2023–2025)., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)