Numerical simulations for fractional variable-order equations ⁎ ⁎The work was supported by Polish founds of National Science Center, granted on the basis of decision DEC-2016/23/B/ST7/03686.

Abstract Background High hemodynamic forces similar to those observed in aortic stenosis (AS) can trigger neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation. Purpose An involvement of NETosis in the AS pathogenesis is unknown. Methods We enrolled 25 patients, median age 64.9 [range, 58–69] years with isolated severe AS (transvalvular pressure gradient, PGmean: 53.6±11.3 mm Hg, PGmax: 85.1±17.6 mmHg), after aortic valve replacement and 15 healthy sex/age-matched controls. Autopsy-derived aortic valves from 5 healthy donors served as negative control. Transverse valve sections were taken from the mid and commissural areas of the leaflet and cryosectioned by a Leica CM 1520 cryostat. Valvular expression of citrullinated histone H3 (citH3), together with myeloperoxidase (MPO), and neutrophil elastase (NE) as NETs biomarkers and macrophages (CD68) were evaluated by single- and double- immunostaining. Plasma concentrations of citH3 and interleukin 6 (IL-6) were also determined. Results All stenotic and healthy valves expressed citH3 in the leaflets' endothelial and sub-endothelial layers at the aortic side. The in loco expression of citH3-positive cells was higher in AS patients compared with controls (42.3±8.7% vs. 7.2±4.8%, p<0.05) and correlated with disease severity measured as aortic valve area (AVA; r=−0.84, p<0.0001), as well as PGmean (r=0.62, p<0.001), and PGmax (r=0.52, p>0.05). Double-staining revealed that within stenotic leaflets 28.3±8.4% of cells were citH3/MPO- and 25.2±7.1% citH3/NE-positive. None of control valves showed MPO or NE-positivity. Moreover, 6.6±1.9% of valvular cells (17.2±5.4% of citH3-positive cells) showed citH3/CD68 double-positivity and were identified as macrophages. Plasma levels of citH3 were 59% higher in AS patients then in controls (p<0.05), and the concentrations of citH3 correlated with IL-6 levels (r=0.44, p<0.05) and AVA (r=−0.48, p<0.05). Conclusions The presence of NETs in stenotic valves and association with AS severity might suggest novel mechanisms involved in the disease progression. This work was supported by the grant from the Polish National Science Center (DEC-2017/01/X/NZ5/02006 to R.K-T.). Acknowledgement/Funding This work was supported by the grant from the Polish National Science Center (DEC-2017/01/X/NZ5/02006 to R.K-T.).

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Maturation, pharmacogenomics and metabolomics as factors determining pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics profile of alpha‑agonist in pediatric intensive care unit patients

Journal of Medical Science ◽

10.20883/jms.2016.147 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 85 (3) ◽

pp. 219 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joanna Bartkowiak-Wieczorek ◽

Justyna Mocarska ◽

Alicja Bartkowska-Śniatkowska ◽

Jan Matysiak ◽

Agnieszka Klupczyńska ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit ◽

Pediatric Intensive Care ◽

Medical Sciences ◽

Science Center ◽

National Science ◽

Project Objectives ◽

Medical University ◽

Alpha Agonist

Research Project Objectives. Project entitled “Maturation, pharmacogenomics, and metabolomics as factors determining pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of alpha‑agonist in pediatric intensive care unit patients” was founded by the Polish National Science Center (NCN) under project number: 2015/17/B/NZ7/03032. The duration of the grant is 36 months, and the total grant value is 688800 PLN. The project is run by the Medical University of Gdansk and Poznan University of Medical Sciences. The aim of this grant is to examine the influence of maturation, pharmacogenetics, metabolomics and physiological (or pathophysiological) status of the patients on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of α2-adrenergic drugs (dexmedetomidine and clonidine) in pediatric population. The project was proposed to explain the unusual PK of dexmedetomidine reported in literature and in our preliminary experiments, in which a two‑fold increase in dexmedetomidine clearance was observed during prolonged (lasting more than 24 hr) infusions in the intensive care unit patients. General information. Project entitled “Maturation, pharmacogenomics, and metabolomics as factors determining pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics profile of alpha‑agonist in pediatric intensive care unit patients” was founded by the Polish National Science Center (NCN) under project number: 2015/17/B/NZ7/03032. The duration of the grant is 36 months, from 2016-04-27 to 2019-04-26 and the total grant value is 688800 PLN. The project is run by the Medical University of Gdansk and Poznan University of Medical Sciences. The research group consists of: principal investigator dr hab. Paweł Wiczling and co‑investigators: dr hab. Agnieszka Bienert, dr Alicja Bartkowska‑Śniatkowska, dr Joanna Bartkowiak‑Wieczorek, mgr Justyna Mocarska, prof. Edmund Grześkowiak, dr Jan Matysiak, mgr Agnieszka Klupczyńska, dr Danuta Siluk, mgr Agnieszka Borsuk and prof. dr hab. Zenon J. Kokot. The Ethical Committee permission number is 261/15.

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Eustathius over de Homerische goden, de plausibiliteit van de Ilias en de deskundigheid van Homerus

Lampas ◽

10.5117/lam2018.1.004.berg ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 43-60

Author(s):

Baukje van den Berg

Keyword(s):

Twelfth Century ◽

Target Audience ◽

Science Center ◽

National Science ◽

Composition Process ◽

Voor Zijn ◽

The Ideal

Summary This article Dit artikel is geschreven als onderdeel van een project gefinancierd door het National Science Center, Polen (UMO-2013/10/E/HS2/00170). Ik dank Niels Koopman voor zijn commentaar. explores the role of the gods in the Iliad as analysed by Eustathius of Thessaloniki in his Commentary on the Iliad. Eustathius aims to identify the principles and techniques that underlie Homer’s successful composition and to reconstruct, as it were, Homer’s composition process. In this way, he intends to familiarise his target audience, twelfth-century authors of rhetorical prose, with Homer’s admirable methods so that they can imitate them in their own writings. Eustathius interprets the gods as devices in the hands of the poet to steer his composition in the desired direction, to imbue it with rhetorical plausibility, and to foreground his skilfulness. Homer uses the gods in four ways: 1) by means of divine interventions, Homer maintains plausibility whenever he takes risks for the sake of rhetorical virtuosity; 2) the poet employs divine plans to motivate the course of events; 3) as allegories of the poet’s intellectual capacities the gods reveal authorial deliberations about the course of the Iliad; 4) the composition of the Iliad is partly determined by the meaning of the gods in terms of natural and ethical allegory. Eustathius thus presents Homer as a self-conscious author and shapes him, we may assume, in the image of the ideal Byzantine author, or perhaps that of himself.

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