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 particle-hole state densities have been calculated for 232Th in
the case of incident neutron with , 1 Z Z T T T T and 2 Z T T .
The finite well depth, surface effect, isospin and Pauli correction are
considered in the calculation of the state densities and then the
transition rates. The isospin correction function ( ) iso f has been
examined for different exciton configurations and at different
excitation energies up to 100 MeV. The present results are indicated
that the included corrections have more affected on transition rates
behavior for , , and above 30MeV excitation energy
Contemporary management is interested in the process of performance assessment because of its significance in the field of planning and controlling the multiactiveties to attain its goals and uncovering digression of virtual performance after comparing it with the plan or equitable performance.
Digression is analyzed to enable management control centers of authority.
Assessment process significance is closely related by setting definite categories to evaluate the economic activity to know the ability to achieves aims.
This study concentrated on the most important categories that used to evaluate company understudy with ather categories suggested to complete assessment process.
This study is in
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The present study reports the effect of temperature and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) on the cumene cracking reaction rate and selectivity by using a laboratory continuous flow unit with fixed bed reactor operating at atmospheric pressure. The prepared HX zeolite was made from Iraqi kaolin with good crystallinity .The activity and selectivity of prepared HX-zeolite was compared with standard HY zeolite and HX zeolite catalysts in the temperature range of 673-823K and LHSV of 0.7-2.5 h-1 . It was found that the cumene conversion increases with increasing temperature and decreasing LHSV at 823K and LHSV of 0.7 h-1 the conversions 65.32, 42.88 and 59.42 mol% for HY, HX and prepared HX catalysts respectively and at LHSV of 2.5 h-1 and th
... Show MoreEducation specialists have differed about determining the best ways to detect the
talented. Since the appearance of the mental and psychological measurement movement, some
scholars adopted intelligence ratios as a criterion to identify the talented and others went to
rely on the degree of academic achievement. Each of these two methods has its own flaws and
mistakes and a large number of talented children were victims of these two methods.
Therefore the need to use other scales for the purpose of detection of talented children
appeared because they provide valuable information which may not be obtained easily
through objective tests and these scales are derived from consecutive studies of gifted andtalented children
This study focuses on evaluating the suitability of three interpolation methods in terms of their accuracy at climate data for some provinces of south of Iraq. Two data sets of maximum and minimum temperature in February 2008 from nine meteorological stations located in the south of Iraq using three interpolation methods. ArcGIS is used to produce the spatially distributed temperature data by using IDW, ordinary kriging, and spline. Four statistical methods are applied to analyze the results obtained from three interpolation methods. These methods are RMSE, RMSE as a percentage of the mean, Model efficiency (E) and Bias, which showed that the ordinary krigingis the best for this data from other methods by the results that have b
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The variety of clean energy sources has risen, involving many resources, although their fundamental principles remain consistent in terms of energy generation and pollution reduction. The using of hydropower system for energy production also has a dynamic impact in which it utilizes to harness the water for the purpose of energy production. As it is important to overcome the problem of accidents in the highway and rural areas in the case of server rainfall and flood by implementation a smart system that used for energy production. This paper aims to develop a controlled hydropower system installed in the drainage sinks allocated in highway roads used for producing. The proposed system consists of storage unit represented by pipes used for t
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Markov chains are an application of stochastic models in operation research, helping the analysis and optimization of processes with random events and transitions. The method that will be deployed to obtain the transient solution to a Markov chain problem is an important part of this process. The present paper introduces a novel Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) approach to solve the Markov chain problem. The probability distribution of a continuous-time Markov chain with an infinitesimal generator at a given time is considered, which is a resulting solution of the Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equation. This study presents a one-step second-derivative method with better accuracy in solving the first-order Initial Value Problem
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This study aims to clarify areas of using information technology in accounting and its impact on the profession of auditors by reviewing the concept, types, areas and the importance of information technology and its implications on the audit profession as well as to clarify the extent of contribution of information technology in developing of procedures of the audit profession and what its requirement, also this study aims to enhance the theoretical side by identifying the views of a sample of auditors in Arab countries selected (Iraq, Syria, Jordan), for the extent of using of information technology in their work and level of their perception for the importance of that
In a world of limited space, the owners are always surrounded by others next to them, and, consequently, there is hardly any activity which the owner may exercise on his land which would not affect the other owners. If he builds a building, that building may block the sun's rays or the air from the buildings next to it and owned by other people. And if he runs a business, the lands adjacent to that business may be overburdened with the accompanying noise or traffic. If oil is prospected in a land, the neighboring lands may be deprived of oil or their owners may be exposed to toxic fumes. Hence the importance of researching the intention of harming others, as it is one of the most important forms of abuse in the use of the right (especially
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