PAROXYSMAL SUPRAVENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA MANAGED WITH ACUPRESSURE OF NEI-GUAN (PC6): THE REPORT OF A CASE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Background: We described a 75-year-old man with a history of recurrent attacks of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT). The patient presented to the emergency department (ED) with complaints of palpitations and chest tightness. Vagal stimulation maneuvers failed to convert the rhythm Materials and Methods: Acupressure was applied on Nei-Guan (PC6). Results: Acupressure applied on PC6 immediately converted the tachycardia to a normal sinus rhythm, thus successfully terminated an episode of PSVT complicated with hypotension and chest pain in the patient reported Conclusion: Acupressure of PC6 is easy to perform and safe, and can be done when other resuscitative measures are ongoing the same time. It is harmless and appropriate for certain groups of patients such as the elderly, children and pregnant women and worth trying before the administration of medication

Capulet and Slingshot share overlapping functions during Drosophila eye morphogenesis

BACKGROUND: CAP/Capulet (Capt), Slingshot (Ssh) and Cofilin/Twinstar (Tsr) are actin-binding proteins that restrict actin polymerization. Previously, it was shown that low resolution analyses of loss-of-function mutations in capt, ssh and tsr all show ectopic F-actin accumulation in various Drosophila tissues. In contrast, RNAi depletion of capt, tsr and ssh in Drosophila S2 cells all affect actin-based lamella formation differently. Whether loss of these three related genes might cause the same effect in the same tissue remains unclear. METHODS: Loss-of-function mutant clones were generated using the MARCM or EGUF system whereas overexpression clones were generated using the Flip-out system. Immunostaining were then performed in eye imaginal discs with clones. FRAP was performed in cultured eye discs. RESULTS: Here, we compared their loss-of-function phenotype at single-cell resolution, using a sheet of epithelial cells in the Drosophila eye imaginal disc as a model system. Surprisingly, we found that capt and ssh, but not tsr, mutant cells within and posterior to the morphogenetic furrow (MF) shared similar phenotypes. The capt/ssh mutant cells possessed: (1) hexagonal cell packing with discontinuous adherens junctions; and (2) largely complementary accumulation of excessive phosphorylated myosin light chain (p-MLC) and F-actin rings at the apical cortex. We further showed that the capt/ssh mutant phenotypes depended on the inactivation of protein kinase A (PKA) and activation of Rho. CONCLUSIONS: Although Capt, Ssh and Tsr were reported to negatively regulate actin polymerization, we found that Capt and Ssh, but not Tsr, share overlapping functions during eye morphogenesis

Toward Inter-Connection on OpenFlow Research Networks

With the advance of Future Internet technologies, many research issues andideas are growing fast in recent years. In the field of network virtualization, softwaredefined network becomes a common topic on network research. In Taiwan, manyinstitutes and laboratories of universities already built their bench-scale testbed forresearch and educational use with OpenFlow protocol. As time goes by, stitchingexperimental networks is a growing trend to fulfill requirements for large scaleemulation. Hence, this paper revealed a progressing deployment which connectsdifferent experimental networks with centralized control policy. The objective is tobuild an integrated research network with a proposed solution which utilizesOpenFlow protocol to deal with the inter-connections. With a centralized controllerand implemented architecture, the deployment not only solves the limitation of VLANtag number in network but also improves the flexibility of configuration. This designcould be a solution for the realistic constraints of network environment in Taiwan, andit also supports the possibility of stitching regional experimental networks fornetworking research

The prediction of Alzheimer’s disease through multi-trait genetic modeling

To better capture the polygenic architecture of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we developed a joint genetic score, MetaGRS. We incorporated genetic variants for AD and 24 other traits from two independent cohorts, NACC (n = 3,174, training set) and UPitt (n = 2,053, validation set). One standard deviation increase in the MetaGRS is associated with about 57% increase in the AD risk [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.577, p = 7.17 E-56], showing little difference from the HR for AD GRS alone (HR = 1.579, p = 1.20E-56), suggesting similar utility of both models. We also conducted APOE-stratified analyses to assess the role of the e4 allele on risk prediction. Similar to that of the combined model, our stratified results did not show a considerable improvement of the MetaGRS. Our study showed that the prediction power of the MetaGRS significantly outperformed that of the reference model without any genetic information, but was effectively equivalent to the prediction power of the AD GRS

HPV infection and p53 inactivation in pterygium

PurposeOur recent report indicated that tumor suppressor gene (p53) mutations and protein aberrant expression were detected in pterygium. Inactivation of p53 by Human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 E6 plays a crucial role in cervical tumorigenesis. In this study, we further speculate that p53 inactivation may be linked with HPV infection in pterygium pathogenesis. To investigate the involvement of HPV 16/18 E6 in p53 inactivation in pterygium, the association between HPV 16 or HPV 18 infection, the HPV E6 oncoprotein, and p53 protein expression was analyzed in this study.MethodsHPV 16/18 infection was detected by nested-polymerase chain reaction (nested-PCR), the p53 mutation was detected by direct sequencing, and the p53 and the HPV 16/18 E6 proteins were studied using immunohistochemistry on 129 pterygial specimens and 20 normal conjunctivas.ResultsThe HPV 16/18 was detected in 24% of the pterygium tissues (31 of 129) but not in the normal conjunctiva, and the HPV16/18 E6 oncoprotein was detected in 48.3% of HPV 16/18 DNA-positive pterygium tissues (15 of 31). In addition, p53 protein negative expression in pterygium was correlated with HPV16/18 E6 oncoprotein expression but not with a p53 mutation.ConclusionsHPV 16/18 E6 contributes to HPV-mediated pterygium pathogenesis as it is partly involved in p53 inactivation and is expressed in HPV DNA-positive pterygium