Efficacy and safety of inhaled budesonide delivered once or twice daily via HFA-134a in mild to moderate persistent asthma in adult patients. Comparison with budesonide CFC

AbstractThis study was undertaken to investigate whether budesonide 400μg twice daily (Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.) given with the HFA-134a propellant is equivalent in efficacy and safety to the same dose regimen delivered with the marketed CFC product in adult asthmatics with mild to moderate persistent asthma; the effects of budesonide HFA 800μg once daily were also studied. After a 2-week run-in, a total number of 98, 103 and 97 patients were assigned to the 12-week treatment with budesonide given with HFA or CFC twice daily (morning and evening), or HFA once daily (morning), respectively. The main outcome variable morning PEFR, as well as evening PEFR and clinical symptoms (day-time and night-time asthma attacks, number of asthma-induced night-time awakenings and overall symptoms’ scores) were measured daily by patients. Other standard pulmonary function testing were measured at clinic visits. A blood sample for morning serum dosing (8.00–10.00 AM) was taken at baseline and at endpoint. Adverse events and vital signs were also recorded.Significant improvements at endpoint in morning and evening PEFR, as well as in clinic PEFR and MEF50, were observed in both the twice daily groups only. An exact proof of equivalence between HFA and CFC given twice daily was demonstrated for the primary parameters, morning PEFR (equivalence pre-defined limits were ±40.27l/min, difference between means=4.0l/min and 95% CI −6.9–14.9) and secondary parameters as evening PEFR: (limits ±40.19l/min, difference between means=2.1l/min and 95% Confidence interval (CI) −9.4–13.5) and FEV1 (limits ±0.27l, difference between means=0.0l and 95% CI −0.11–0.10). Less evident (but within limits) proofs of equivalence were shown in the comparisons with the once daily group. No substantial differences between the three groups were observed for the other efficacy variables, including symptoms and use of rescue salbutamol, which significantly improved over the run-in values in all groups.Minimal and non-significant decreases over pre-treatment values were observed in the three groups for morning serum cortisol levels: the analysis of individual data has shown a better outcome in the HFA twice daily regimen, compared with the other two groups. Again, a similar amount of patients in both the twice daily groups reported drug-related adverse events, which were more frequent in the once daily HFA group.Therefore, the results of this study have shown that inhaled budesonide given with new HFA-134a propellant can replace microgram-equivalent doses of the corresponding marketed CFC product when given twice daily. An overall maintainment and an unchanged risk-benefit ratio has emerged for budesonide HFA given once daily, which was however slightly inferior compared with the standard twice daily regimens

On the solvability of the periodically forced relativistic pendulum equation on time scales

We study some properties of the range of the relativistic pendulum operator P, that is, the set of possible continuous T-periodic forcing terms p for which the equation Px = p admits a T-periodic solution over a T-periodic time scale T. Writing p(t) = p0(t) + p, we prove the existence of a nonempty compact interval I(p0), depending continuously on p0, such that the problem has a solution if and only if p ∈ I(p0) and at least two different solutions when p is an interior point. Furthermore, we give sufficient conditions for nondegeneracy; specifically, we prove that if T is small then I(p0) is a neighbourhood of 0 for arbitrary p0. The results in the present paper improve the smallness condition obtained in previous works for the continuous case T = R

STUDY OF URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL EMPHASIZING ON BACTERIOLOGICAL PROFILE WITH ANTIBIOGRAM.

The present study was carried out to analyse the culture reports 470 urine samples collected from symptomatic patients between 18 to 80 years from department of medicine, surgery and gynaecology from May 2017 to 0ctober 2017. All the samples collected during the above period were subjected for culture sensitivity as per standard methods. The most common infection encountered in clinical practice is urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infection can be caused by different microorganisms including bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses which are the major causative organisms. Among these, bacteria account for more than 95% of Urinary tract infection cases. Escherichia coli is the commonest urinary pathogen accounting for over 80% of community acquired infection. In this study the most common pathogenic organism isolated was Escherichia coli 44(55.69%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus 20(25.31%) and Klebsiella species 11(13.92%) in both males and females. Escherichia coli were sensitive to nitrofurantoin, amikacin and piperacillin tazobactam in 35 (79.4%), 25(56.81%) and 18(40.95%) respectively. Similarly 16(80%) of Staphylococcal isolates were sensitive to nitrofurantoin 11(55%) to amikacin and 5(25%) to piperacillin tazobactam. Klebsiella isolates also showed highest sensitivity to nitrofurantoin and piperacillin tazobactam 7(63%) followed by ceftriaxone 6 ( 54%.) This study will help clinicians to choose the right empirical antibiotics, and they should take into account the local sensitivity and resistance patterns while prescribing empirical oral or intravenous antibiotics

Signal reconstruction in the EM end-cap calorimeter and check with cosmic data in the region 0< eta <3.2

In 2007, the electromagnetic end-cap calorimeter joined the ATLAS commissioning effort. Since then, calibration and cosmic muon runs are taken regularly, allowing to set-up, debug and test in situ the signal reconstruction. These are the first data in the 1.4500 MeV) have been used to perform a systematic and quantitative comparison between data and predicted physics pulse shapes in a coherent way over the entire calorimeter coverage, 0< eta <3.2. This represents the first attempt to unify barrel and end-cap in situ data in a common analysis. Results are similar in the barrel and the end-cap, only slightly worse for the latter as expected from its more complex geometry. This is the first proof of the quality of an ATLAS-like signal reconstruction in the end-caps, despite its challenging aspect, and gives confidence that the energy reconstruction is in good control over the complete electromagnetic calorimeter coverage 0< eta <3.2

Parametrizations of density matrices

This article gives a brief overview of some recent progress in the characterization and parametrization of density matrices of finite dimensional systems. We discuss in some detail the Bloch-vector and Jarlskog parametrizations and mention briefly the coset parametrization. As applications of the Bloch parametrization we discuss the trace invariants for the case of time dependent Hamiltonians and in some detail the dynamics of three-level systems. Furthermore, the Bloch vector of two-qubit systems as well as the use of the polarization operator basis is indicated. As the main application of the Jarlskog parametrization we construct density matrices for composite systems. In addition, some recent related articles are mentioned without further discussion.Comment: 31 pages. v2: 32 pages, Abstract and Introduction rewritten and Conclusion section added, references adde

Covariance systems

We introduce new definitions of states and of representations of covariance systems. The GNS-construction is generalized to this context. It associates a representation with each state of the covariance system. Next, states are extended to states of an appropriate covariance algebra. Two applications are given. We describe a nonrelativistic quantum particle, and we give a simple description of the quantum spacetime model introduced by Doplicher et al.Comment: latex with ams-latex, 23 page

Von Neumann equations with time-dependent Hamiltonians and supersymmetric quantum mechanics

Starting with a time-independent Hamiltonian $h$ and an appropriately chosen solution of the von Neumann equation $i\dot\rho(t)=[ h,\rho(t)]$ we construct its binary-Darboux partner $h_1(t)$ and an exact scattering solution of $i\dot\rho_1(t)=[h_1(t),\rho_1(t)]$ where $h_1(t)$ is time-dependent and not isospectral to $h$. The method is analogous to supersymmetric quantum mechanics but is based on a different version of a Darboux transformation. We illustrate the technique by the example where $h$ corresponds to a 1-D harmonic oscillator. The resulting $h_1(t)$ represents a scattering of a soliton-like pulse on a three-level system.Comment: revtex, 3 eps file