University of Lorraine

About: University of Lorraine is a education organization based out in Nancy, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 11942 authors who have published 25010 publications receiving 425227 citations. The organization is also known as: Lorraine University.

Initial dual oral combination therapy in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Abstract: Treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) has been underpinned by single-agent therapy to which concomitant drugs are added sequentially when pre-defined treatment goals are not met. This retrospective analysis of real-world clinical data in 97 patients with newly diagnosed PAH (86% in New York Heart Association functional class III−IV) explored initial dual oral combination treatment with bosentan plus sildenafil (n=61), bosentan plus tadalafil (n=17), ambrisentan plus tadalafil (n=11) or ambrisentan plus sildenafil (n=8). All regimens were associated with significant improvements in functional class, exercise capacity, dyspnoea and haemodynamic indices after 4 months of therapy. Over a median follow-up period of 30 months, 75 (82%) patients were still alive, 53 (71%) of whom received only dual oral combination therapy. Overall survival rates were 97%, 94% and 83% at 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively, and 96%, 94% and 84%, respectively, for the patients with idiopathic PAH, heritable PAH and anorexigen-induced PAH. Expected survival rates calculated from the French equation for the latter were 86%, 75% and 66% at 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively. Initial combination of oral PAH-targeted medications may offer clinical benefits, especially in PAH patients with severe haemodynamic impairment.

PLA with Intumescent System Containing Lignin and Ammonium Polyphosphate for Flame Retardant Textile

Abstract: Using bio-based polymers to replace of polymers from petrochemicals in the manufacture of textile fibers is a possible way to improve sustainable development for the textile industry. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the available bio-based polymers. One way to improve the fire behavior of this bio-based polymer is to add an intumescent formulation mainly composed of acid and carbon sources. In order to optimize the amount of bio-based product in the final material composition, lignin from wood waste was selected as the carbon source. Different formulations of and/or ammonium polyphosphate (AP) were prepared by melt extrusion and then hot-pressed into sheets. The thermal properties (thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)) and fire properties (UL-94) were measured. The spinnability of the various composites was evaluated. The mechanical properties and physical aspect (microscopy) of PLA multifilaments with lignin (LK) were checked. A PLA multifilament with up to 10 wt % of intumescent formulation was processed, and the fire behavior of PLA fabrics with lignin/AP formulation was studied by cone calorimeter.

Many-body dispersion corrections for periodic systems: an efficient reciprocal space implementation

Abstract: The energy and gradient expressions for the many-body dispersion scheme (MBD@rsSCS) of Ambrosetti et al (2014 J. Chem. Phys. 140 18A508) needed for an efficient implementation of the method for systems under periodic boundary conditions are reported. The energy is expressed as a sum of contributions from points sampled in the first Brillouin zone, in close analogy with planewave implementations of the RPA method for electrons in the dielectric matrix formulation. By avoiding the handling of large supercells, considerable computational savings can be achieved for materials with small and medium sized unit cells. The new implementation has been tested and used for geometry optimization and energy calculations of inorganic and molecular crystals, and layered materials.

How can we improve antibiotic prescribing in primary care

Abstract: Antibiotic stewardship is a necessity given the worldwide antimicrobial resistance crisis. Outpatient antibiotic use represents around 90% of total antibiotic use, with more than half of these prescriptions being either unnecessary or inappropriate. Efforts to improve antibiotic prescribing need to incorporate two complementary strategies: changing healthcare professionals' behaviour, and modifying the healthcare system. In this review, we present a broad perspective on antibiotic stewardship in primary care in high and high-middle income country settings, focussing on studies published in the last five years. We present the limitations of available literature, discuss perspectives, and provide suggestions for where future work should be concentrated.