Unique Regulation of Enterocyte Brush Border Membrane Na-Glutamine and Na-Alanine Co-Transport by Peroxynitrite during Chronic Intestinal Inflammation

Na-amino acid co-transporters (NaAAcT) are uniquely affected in rabbit intestinal villus cell brush border membrane (BBM) during chronic intestinal inflammation. Specifically, Na-alanine co-transport (ASCT1) is inhibited secondary to a reduction in the affinity of the co-transporter for alanine, whereas Na-glutamine co-transport (B0AT1) is inhibited secondary to a reduction in BBM co-transporter numbers. During chronic intestinal inflammation, there is abundant production of the potent oxidant peroxynitrite (OONO). However, whether OONO mediates the unique alteration in NaAAcT in intestinal epithelial cells during chronic intestinal inflammation is unknown. In this study, ASCT1 and B0AT1 were inhibited by OONO in vitro. The mechanism of inhibition of ASCT1 by OONO was secondary to a reduction in the affinity of the co-transporter for alanine, and secondary to a reduction in the number of co-transporters for B0AT1, which were further confirmed by Western blot analyses. In conclusion, peroxynitrite inhibited both BBM ASCT1 and B0AT1 in intestinal epithelial cells but by different mechanisms. These alterations in the villus cells are similar to those seen in the rabbit model of chronic enteritis. Therefore, this study indicates that peroxynitrite may mediate the inhibition of ASCT1 and B0AT1 during inflammation, when OONO levels are known to be elevated in the mucosa

Gaussian discrete restricted Boltzmann machine : theory and its applications : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Electronics and Computer Engineering at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) is a two-layer neural network, popular for its efficient training methodology in many applications involving data recall, classification, and recognition. Traditionally RBM is designed with binary neurons in both layers. RBMs with Gaussian (continuous-valued) neurons in visible layer have been introduced for ease of integration with real data. However, the hidden layer still consists of binary neurons. Recently, theoretical studies in discrete RBM with discrete visible and hidden nodes have shown that increasing the number of hidden states improves reconstruction error. Motivated by this finding, the research in this thesis aims to develop an RBM with a Gaussian visible layer and a discrete multi-state hidden layer, called the Gaussian Discrete RBM (GDRBM). The equations governing this new model have been worked out and a contrastive divergence training algorithm has been developed based on these equations. Performance results using the MNIST and CBCL benchmark datasets show that the performance of a GDRBM with 4-state hidden neurons is approximately the same as that of other Gaussian RBMs with binary hidden neurons when the size of the hidden layer is doubled. This GDRBM has also been used to form one layer of a deep autoencoder. This is the first time an autoencoder has been designed with a multi-state discrete layer. Initial experimental results show that a GDRBM-based deep autoencoder is able to reconstruct the inputs reasonably well. However the pretraining is not very effective and the amount of initial reconstruction error need to be reduced to make it perform at the same level of a traditional deep autoencoder. Further research will be needed to understand how GDRBM could be used in a deep autoencoder

Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor of the mandible

Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) is a benign odontogenic tumor, which presents as a noninvasive lesion of the jaws with slow but progressive growth. AOT is often misdiagnosed as an odontogenic cyst. It accounts for about 2.2 to 7.1% of all odontogenic tumors. It is predominantly seen in young females, in the anterior maxilla, associated with unerupted canines. This report describes a rare case of AOT in the mandible. This paper highlights the controversies regarding its origin and management in the light of recent findings

Unique Regulation of Enterocyte Brush Border Membrane Na-Glutamine and Na-Alanine Co-Transport by Peroxynitrite during Chronic Intestinal Inflammation

Na-amino acid co-transporters (NaAAcT) are uniquely affected in rabbit intestinal villus cell brush border membrane (BBM) during chronic intestinal inflammation. Specifically, Na-alanine co-transport (ASCT1) is inhibited secondary to a reduction in the affinity of the co-transporter for alanine, whereas Na-glutamine co-transport (B0AT1) is inhibited secondary to a reduction in BBM co-transporter numbers. During chronic intestinal inflammation, there is abundant production of the potent oxidant peroxynitrite (OONO). However, whether OONO mediates the unique alteration in NaAAcT in intestinal epithelial cells during chronic intestinal inflammation is unknown. In this study, ASCT1 and B0AT1 were inhibited by OONO in vitro. The mechanism of inhibition of ASCT1 by OONO was secondary to a reduction in the affinity of the co-transporter for alanine, and secondary to a reduction in the number of co-transporters for B0AT1, which were further confirmed by Western blot analyses. In conclusion, peroxynitrite inhibited both BBM ASCT1 and B0AT1 in intestinal epithelial cells but by different mechanisms. These alterations in the villus cells are similar to those seen in the rabbit model of chronic enteritis. Therefore, this study indicates that peroxynitrite may mediate the inhibition of ASCT1 and B0AT1 during inflammation, when OONO levels are known to be elevated in the mucosa

Multiple myeloma: Report of a very rare case and review

Multiple myeloma consists of a clonal proliferation of plasma cells in the bone marrow, with varying degrees of differentiation. The disease is more frequently seen in men and the average age at diagnosis is about 60 years. The diagnosis is established by blood and urine examination and biopsy. Patients may present renal failure, bone pain, fatigue, recurrent infections and nervous system dysfunction. Oral manifestations may be the first sign of multiple myeloma, highlighting the importance of the dentist in the early diagnosis of the disease. This paper reports a case of multiple myeloma in a 72 years old male patient