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
Abstract
An optoelectronic system for fog detection and visibility technique is presented .The idea of this research is based on the measurement of the atmospheric visibility by using an infrared beam emitter from LED diode. The optical scattering is used as a method to calculate the visibility. This method is applied at forward scattering within a foggy atmosphere, which is modern and has great importance for measuring visibility in seaports, airports, public roads and highways. In this paper we focus on the description of the system, principles of its operation and some results of field tests.
Keywords: fog sensor, visibility sensor, backscattering, forward scattering.
Let/. It :0 ---0 G be any two self maps of a compact connected oriented Lie group G. In this paper, for each positive integer k , we associate an integer with fk,hi . We relate this number with Lefschetz coincidence number. We deduce that for any two differentiable maps f, there exists a positive integer k such that k 5.2+1 , and there is a point x C G such that ft (x) = (x) , where A is the rank of G . Introduction Let G be an n-dimensional com -pact connected Lie group with multip-lication p ( .e 44:0 xG--+G such that p ( x , y) = x.y ) and unit e . Let [G, G] be the set of homotopy classes of maps G G . Given two maps f , f G ---• Jollowing [3], we write f. f 'to denote the map G-.Gdefined by 01.11® =A/WO= fiat® ,sea Given a point g
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Ground state energies and other properties of 2S shell for some atoms as Be(Z=4), B(Z=5), C(Z=6) and N(Z=7) were calculated by using Hartree-Fock wave function. We found the values of potential energies in hartree unit (3.8369, 6.78565, 10.18852 and 14.41089) respectively and the other proprieties like expectation values of the position < r1m > were in agreement with the published results. All the studied atomic properties were normalized.
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This research study Blur groups (Fuzzy Sets) which is the perception of the most modern in the application in various practical and theoretical areas and in various fields of life, was addressed to the fuzzy random variable whose value is not real, but the numbers Millbh because it expresses the mysterious phenomena or uncertain with measurements are not assertive. Fuzzy data were presented for binocular test and analysis of variance method of random Fuzzy variables , where this method depends on a number of assumptions, which is a problem that prevents the use of this method in the case of non-realized.
Arabic calligraphy has great importance in the printing designs that are often on the written character-based to perform functional goals and to achieve some of the aesthetic values in design work, has led major developments in the field of computer manufacturing and design software for the design and layout to increase to deal with the programmed character for the purposes of typesetting has confronted this Find the Arab character programmed for the purposes of typesetting for the detection of the most important design interventions that underwent the Arabic letter written to turn it into a programmed image intended for the purposes of the printing and typesetting has been addressed in the context of which the theoretical types of
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A simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of captopril in aqueous solution. The method is based on reaction of captopril with 2,3-dichloro 1,4- naphthoquinon(Dichlone) in neutral medium to form a stable yellow colored product which shows maximum absorption at 347 nm with molar absorptivity of 5.6 ×103 L.mole-1. cm-1. The proposed method is applied successfully for determination of captopril in commercial pharmaceutical tablets.
This Research Tries To Investigate The Problem Of Estimating The Reliability Of Two Parameter Weibull Distribution,By Using Maximum Likelihood Method, And White Method. The Comparison Is done Through Simulation Process Depending On Three Choices Of Models (?=0.8 , ß=0.9) , (?=1.2 , ß=1.5) and (?=2.5 , ß=2). And Sample Size n=10 , 70, 150 We Use the Statistical Criterion Based On the Mean Square Error (MSE) For Comparison Amongst The Methods.
Stripping is one of the major distresses within asphalt concrete pavements caused due to penetration of water within the interface of asphalt-aggregate matrix. In this work, one grade of asphalt cement (40-50) was mixed with variable percentages of three types of additives (fly ash, fumed silica, and phosphogypsum) to obtained an modified asphalt cement to resist the effect of stripping phenomena .The specimens have been tested for physical properties according to AASHTO. The surface free energy has been measured by using two methods namely, the wilhelmy technique and the Sessile drop method according to NCHRP-104
procedures. Samples of asphalt concrete using different asphalt cement and modified asphalt cement percentages(4.1,4.6 an
The multiple linear regression model is an important regression model that has attracted many researchers in different fields including applied mathematics, business, medicine, and social sciences , Linear regression models involving a large number of independent variables are poorly performing due to large variation and lead to inaccurate conclusions , One of the most important problems in the regression analysis is the multicollinearity Problem, which is considered one of the most important problems that has become known to many researchers , As well as their effects on the multiple linear regression model, In addition to multicollinearity, the problem of outliers in data is one of the difficulties in constructing the reg
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