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
The research aims to improve the effectiveness of internal control system according to a model COSO, by identifying the availability of system components according to the model and then improve the effectiveness of each component by focusing on areas for improvement in each component, as it was addressed to a model COSO and then Maamth with the environment, the current Iraqi by introducing some improvements on the form of some mechanisms of corporate governance of the Council of Directors, and senior management, the Audit Committee, Committee appointments, especially that supplies application available in the laws and legislation, the current Iraqi, taking into consideration to make some
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In the present paper, an eco-epidemiological model consisting of diseased prey consumed by a predator with fear cost, and hunting cooperation property is formulated and studied. It is assumed that the predator doesn’t distinguish between the healthy prey and sick prey and hence it consumed both. The solution’s properties such as existence, uniqueness, positivity, and bounded are discussed. The existence and stability conditions of all possible equilibrium points are studied. The persistence requirements of the proposed system are established. The bifurcation analysis near the non-hyperbolic equilibrium points is investigated. Numerically, some simulations are carried out to validate the main findings and obtain the critical values of th
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In this paper, a Sokol-Howell prey-predator model involving strong Allee effect is proposed and analyzed. The existence, uniqueness, and boundedness are studied. All the five possible equilibria have been are obtained and their local stability conditions are established. Using Sotomayor's theorem, the conditions of local saddle-node and transcritical and pitchfork bifurcation are derived and drawn. Numerical simulations are performed to clarify the analytical results
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This current research aims to identify the effectiveness of a training program in developing moral intelligence and mutual social confidence among middle school students. The researcher made a number of hypotheses for this purpose to achieve the goal of the research.
The researcher relied on the (Al Zawaida 2011) scale prepared according to Coles (1997), including (60) items, and the mutual social trust scale for (Nazmi 2001) based on Roter's theory including (38) items.  
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In the present work the performance of semifluidized bed adsorber was evaluated for removal of phenolic compound from wastewater using commercial activated carbon as adsorbent. P-chlorophenol (4-Chlorophenol) and o-cresol (2-methylphenol) was selected as a phenolic compound for that purpose. The phenols percent removal, in term of breakthrough curves were studied as affected by hydrodynamics limitations which include minimum and maximum semifluidization velocities and packed bed formation in the column by varying various parameters such as inlet liquid superficial velocity (from Uminsf to 8Uminsf m/s), and retaining grid (sometimes referred to as adsorbent loading) to initial static bed height ratio (from 3-4.5). In
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