Bronchodilators are the most important drugs used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In particular, these therapeutic agents are mostly long-acting compounds utilized via inhalation, and include LAMA (long-acting muscarinic receptor antagonists) and LABA (long-acting β2-adrenoceptor agonists). Because LAMA and LABA induce bronchodilation by distinct mechanisms of...

The paper illustrates a novel approach to conformant planning using classical planners. The approach relies on two core ideas developed to deal with incomplete information in the initial situation: the use of a classical planner to solve nonclassical planning problems, and the reduction of the size of the initial belief state. Differently from previous uses of classical planners to solve non-cl...

PURPOSE Frequent exacerbations which are both costly and potentially life-threatening are a major concern to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), despite the availability of several treatment options. This study aimed to assess the lifetime costs and outcomes associated with alternative treatment regimens for patients with severe COPD in the UK setting. PATIENTS AND MET...

AIM The study aimed at describing the evolution over a 6-year period of patients leaving the emergency department (ED) before being seen ("left without being seen" or LWBS) or against medical advice ("left against medical advice" or LAMA) and at describing their characteristics. METHODS A retrospective database analysis of all adult patients who are admitted to the ED, between 2005 and 2010, ...

BACKGROUND Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) global strategy (2015) provides guidance for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with different first-choice options per GOLD category without specification. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the level of medical experts' consensus on their preferred first-choice treatment within different COPD categories....

ArvandHerd is a parallel planner that won the multicore sequential satisficing track of the 2011 International Planning Competition (IPC 2011). It assigns processors to run different members of an algorithm portfolio which contains several configurations of each of two different planners: LAMA-2008 and Arvand. In this paper, we demonstrate that simple techniques for using different planner conf...

BACKGROUND To estimate the potential cost savings by following the current Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guideline recommendations in patients being treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with the combination of long-acting β(2)-agonist (LABA), long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) or inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). METHODS The Geisinger Hea...

Four Aspergillus nidulans genes are known to be under the control of the trans-acting regulatory gene amdR. We describe the isolation and initial characterization of one of these amdR-regulated genes, lamA. The lam locus, however, was found to consist of two divergently transcribed genes, the lamA gene, and a new gene, also under amdR control, which we have designated lamB. Using recombinant DN...

In order to dissect the functions of laminin A in vivo, we have undertaken a molecular and genetic characterization of the laminin A subunit (lamA) gene in Drosophila. Sequence analysis predicts a multidomain structure similar to mammalian homologs. We generated a series of complete and partial loss-of-function mutant alleles of the lamA gene; complete loss-of-function mutations lead to late em...

BACKGROUND To assess the symptomatic and cost burden among patients initiating long-acting bronchodilator (LABD) therapy and impact of adherence on healthcare resource use and costs. METHODS This retrospective cohort study identified patients with COPD who were newly prescribed a LABD (long-acting muscarinic antagonist [LAMA], long-acting beta2-agonist [LABA], a combination of LABA+LAMA or co...