Inhaled beclomethasone (BDP) with non-CFC propellant (HFA 134a) is equivalent to BDP-CFC for the treatment of asthma

AbstractAs part of a development programme for a range of new CFC-free beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) inhalers, two multicentre double-blind studies have been conducted to compare the therapeutic equivalence of a new HFA-134a propellant-formulated BDP metered-dose inhaler (Norton Healthcare Ltd, London, U.K.) with a CFC counterpart for the management of adult patients with all grades of asthma. Doses of 100 μg qds for 6 weeks were administered in a low dose study and in a high dose study 500 μg qds doses were given for 12 weeks.Efficacy assessments included lung function (FEV1) in the clinic and asthma symptoms, peak flow rates and bronchodilator use by patients on diary cards. Safety parameters measured included routine haematology and biochemistry (including serum cortisols), clinical adverse events and throat swabs for Candida spp.Both CFC and HFA-formulations of inhaled BDP produced similar and significant improvements in lung function and asthma symptoms. In the low dose study, baseline to endpoint FEV1 increased from 2·2 ± 0·51 to 2·5 ± 0·81 (P=0·0001) with BDP-CFC and from 2·2 ± 0·51 to 2·6 ± 0·81 with BDP-HFA (P=0·0001), with no significant differences between treatments. In the high dose study, corresponding increases were 2·1 ± 0·71 to 2·4 ± 0·91 (P=0·0002) for BDP-CFC and 2·1 ± 0·71 to 2·3 ± 0·71 (P=0·017) for BDP-HFA. PEF also improved similarly on both treatments in both studies. Both formulations were well tolerated with no difference in the pattern of adverse events, effect on serum cortisol or Candida colonization.These studies showed that, in the management of asthma, the new HFA-formulated BDP metered dose inhaler is equivalent to, and directly substitutable for, the older CFC-formulated product at the same dose, making change-over for patients straightforward

Languages vs. ω-Languages in Regular Infinite Games

Infinite games are studied in a format where two players, called Player 1 and Player 2, generate a play by building up an ω-word as they choose letters in turn. A game is specified by the ω-language which contains the plays won by Player 2. We analyze ω-languages generated from certain classes K of regular languages of finite words (called ∗-languages), using natural transformations of ∗-languages into ω-languages. Winning strategies for infinite games can be represented again in terms of ∗-languages. Continuing work of Rabinovich et al. and of Selivanov (2007), we analyze how these “strategy ∗-languages” are related to the original language class K. In contrast to that work, we exhibit classes K where the strategy representations strictly exceed K

Influence of the structural characteristics of epitaxial TiO2 thin films on their photocatalytic properties

International audienceThis paper describes the photocatalytic behavior of epitaxial anatase TiO2 thin films, using the azodye golden yellow remazol RNL 150% as a probe molecule. The films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition on various single crystal substrates as well as on amorphous SiO2 for comparison. It was observed that the nature of film-substrate interaction and the stress provoked by the substrate play important roles in photocatalytic properties. Indeed, the film grown on (100) SrTiO3 presented a very poor photocatalytic activity (33% of discoloration), which can be related to the charge distribution in the SrTiO3/TiO2 interface. The film deposited on (100) LaAlO3 showed a low activity (50% of discoloration) attributed to a highly stressed structure. The best photocatalytic performance (80% of discoloration) was achieved with a film grown on C-sapphire presenting a large amount of (001) anatase with a low amount of (100) rutile. High photocatalytic activities were also obtained with (100) anatase (with two in-plane orientations) on (100) MgO and with randomly oriented films on silica (61% and 70% of discoloration, respectively). Copyright © 2017 American Scientific Publishers