Abstract Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen that grows in yeast and hyphal forms in the human gut. C. albicans causes mucosal and cutaneous diseases that can result in significant mortality following systematic infections and it also exhibits drug resistance. Zebrafish have been an excellent model to investigate C. albicans infections because of their transparency and the availability of many transgenic lines. However, there is a limitation in using zebrafish as a model because the fish embryos cannot survive at 37°C therefore it is not suitable for studying Candida infections at physiological relevant human body temperature. In this thesis, the normal embryonic development of Arabian killifish (A. dispar) is investigated, revealing that embryogenesis was divided into 32 stages based on diagnostic patterns of development. A. dispar can also found to tolerate a wide range of temperatures and salinities. This suggests that A. dispar could be developed as a novel model to investigate host-pathogen interactions. The tolerance of A. dispar to high temperatures may in part be attributable to brown pigment cells with a highly fluorescent character that may have developed to allow the fish to adapt to live within extreme environmental conditions with strong sunlight and a wide range of temperatures (Chapter 3). In terms of Candida infections, this study examined A. dispar as a model to test C. albicans pathogenicity. The survival of A. dispar embryos following Candida infection showed a dose dependent relationship. We also found that A. dispar can survive longer than zebrafish after infection. Furthermore, C. albicans cells were observed to undergo a transition from yeast to hyphae at 37°C. An investigation of the ability of mutant strains of C. albicans with defects in cell wall mannosylation revealed a significant impact on virulence, host mortality, and the fishes’ immune response. The present study found that although the deletion of O- and N-mannan from the cell wall of C. albicans, affected fungal burden (attenuation), and the survival of the infected embryos per se was significantly decreased in the infections of the mutant strains compared to the WT. This data confirms the importance of the mannosylation state of the cell wall in triggering an immune recognition event (Chapter 4). A. dispar is also shown to be suitable for studying the effectiveness of 3 | P a g e antifungals. Fluconazole treatment of infected embryos and eggs promoted greater rates of survival at high doses, alongside a significant reduction of C. albicans CFUs (Chapter 4). When looking at the Candida-host interaction, we directly observed phagocytosed yeast cells within macrophages. Various detection methods were used to follow macrophages and neutrophils including Western blotting, immunostaining and histological staining (Sudan black and FITC-tyramide) allowing the monitoring of the time course of the immune cells. A biphasic response of macrophages was detected by L-plastin Western blotting, suggesting activation of two different type of macrophage: activated macrophage (M1) and alternative macrophage (M2). We also assayed reactive oxygen species (ROS) within infected embryos using a fluorescent probe (H2DCFDA), revealing the accumulation of the fluorescent probe at the sites of infection. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the oxidative and immune response using the H2DCFDA and qPCR were also accomplished within A. dispar embryos after infection with both the WT and mutant strains of Candida albicans (WT, pmr1∆, mnt1-mnt2∆, and och1∆). The results confirmed that the mutant strains did not activate a host oxidative stress response nor immune cell accumulation when compared to WT, suggesting that the immune response is less activated against these mutants. Finally, a new transgenic line of A. dispar fish was developed using Betaactin-DsR-LoxP-GFP. The new transgenic A. dispar is suggested to be an ideal model for real time observation of host-pathogen interactions and for investigation of molecular functions of the immune response. Overall these results improve our understanding of the use of a new transparent fish model to study fungal pathogenesis and demonstrates the potential advantages of using this species in future studies of bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens at a physiologically relevant temperature for human infection. Such a model could lead us to investigate in more depth the key interactions between pathogens and their host and permit the screening and development of new antifungal therapies (that might target the pathogens directly or target the host immune system). View full metadata
Chromene is considered a fused pyran ring with a benzene ring, which is found in many plants and is part of many important compounds such as anthocyanidins, anthocyanins, catechins, and flavanones. These compounds are included under the headings "flavonoids" and "isoflavonoids." These compounds are well known as bioactive molecules with wide medicinal uses. According to these pharmacokinetic characteristics, many researchers are giving more attention to this type of compound and its derivatives. Many chromene derivatives have been synthesized to study their biological effects for the treatment of many diseases. Furthermore, the researcher displayed wide interest in finding new methods for synthesizing chromene derivatives. These met
... Show MoreThis study concerns the removal of a trihydrate antibiotic (Amoxicillin) from synthetically contaminated water by adsorption on modified bentonite. The bentonite was modified using hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTAB), which turned it from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic material. The effects of different parameters were studied in batch experiments. These parameters were contact time, solution pH, agitation speed, initial concentration (C0) of the contaminant, and adsorbent dosage. Maximum removal of amoxicillin (93 %) was achieved at contact time = 240 min, pH = 10, agitation speed = 200 rpm, initial concentration = 30 ppm, and adsorbent dosage = 3 g bentonite per 1L of pollutant solution. The characterization of the adsorbent, modi
... Show MoreObjectives: Serratia marcescens is a gram-negative pathogen of many species. The ability of S. marcescens to form biofilms and its potent innate resistance to antimicrobials and cleaning solutions are both essential for its pathogenicity and survival. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) on the biofilm of S. marcescens, as an alternative for antibiotic therapy. Methods: Different specimens, including ear swabs, burns, mid-stream urine, wound swabs, and sputum, were collected from patients who were brought to Al-Ramadi Hospital, Iraq. All samples were cultured, and the colonies that were obtained were detected using the VITEK® 2 compact. The ability of biofilms to develop was e
... Show MoreUnderstanding, promoting, and teaching media literacy is an important societal challenge. STEM educators are increasingly looking to incorporate 21st century skills such as media literacy into core subject education. In this paper we investigate how undergraduate Computer Science (CS) students can learn media literacy as a by-product of collaborative video tutorial production. The paper presents a study of 34 third-year CS undergraduates who, as part of their learning, were each asked to produce three video tutorials on Raspberry Pi programming, using a collaborative video production tool for mobile phones (Bootlegger). We provide results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the production process and resulting video tutorials,
... Show MoreThe current research aims to identify the effect of the learning mastery strategy using interactive learning as a therapeutic method on the achievement of secondary school students in mathematics. To achieve the research objective, the researcher selected second-grade middle school students at Al-Haybah Intermediate School for Boys and determined his research sample, which consisted of (77) students distributed into two sections: Section (A) the experimental group, with (38) students, and Section (B) the control group, with (39) students. The statistical equivalence of the two research sample groups was confirmed in the variables (intelligence test, previous achievement, and previous knowledge test). The researchers chose the par
... Show MoreExtreme conditions will cause the water level of high fill canal segment to change suddenly, which will affect the velocity and pore pressure of the slope. A 9 km irrigation earth canal in the city of Alsyahy, 15 km away from Al-Hilla city, and branching off from the left side of Shatt Al-Hilla at 57 km, was studied. The aim of this work is to study and analyze the effect of rationing system on the Birmana earthen canal during rapid drawdown case. Finite element modeling with Geo-Studio software was used in the present study to analyze the combined seepage and slope stability for three cycles. The resulting minimum safety factor obtained from the analysis using the saturated and
Sustainable development is longer that meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs as it seeks to harmonize economic, social, Why research aims to check the availability of a proposed program takes into account the evidence and scrutiny of financial commitment and performance audit in accordance with the dimensions of sustainable development (economic, environmental, social and institutional) to measure the extent of the province on the needs of current and future generations, The problem with research that there is no audit program ensures the audit of financial statements, commitment and performance of health services in order to achieve sustainable development
... Show MoreWireless networks and communications have witnessed tremendous development and growth in recent periods and up until now, as there is a group of diverse networks such as the well-known wireless communication networks and others that are not linked to an infrastructure such as telephone networks, sensors and wireless networks, especially in important applications that work to send and receive important data and information in relatively unsafe environments, cybersecurity technologies pose an important challenge in protecting unsafe networks in terms of their impact on reducing crime. Detecting hacking in electronic networks and penetration testing. Therefore, these environments must be monitored and protected from hacking and malicio
... Show MoreThis research consists of two parts, the first part concern with analyzing the collected data of BOD and COD values in discharge waste water from Al-Dora refinery during 2010 to find the relationship between these two variables The results indicates that there is a high correlation between BOD and COD when using a natural logarithm model (0.86 ln(COD)) with correlation coefficient of 0.98. This relationship is useful in predicting the BOD value using the COD value. The second part includes analyzing collected data from the same site in order to find a relationsip between BOD and other parameters COD, Phenol(phe), Temperature(T), Oil, Sulphat(SO4),pH and Total dissolved solids( TDS) discharged from the refinery. The results indicated that th
... Show MoreAsset management involves efficient planning of economic and technical performance characteristics of infrastructure systems. Managing a sewer network requires various types of activities so the network can be able to achieve a certain level of performance. During the lifetime of the network various components will start to deteriorate leading to bad performance and can damage the infrastructure. The main objective of this research is to develop deterioration models to provide an assessment tool for determining the serviceability of the sewer networks in Baghdad city the Zeppelin line was selected as a case study, as well as to give top management authorities the appropriate decision making. Different modeling techniques
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