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
Background: Tooth extraction is one of the most commonly performed procedures in dentistry. It is usually a traumatic process often resulting in immediate destruction and loss of alveolar bone and surrounding soft tissues. Various instruments have been described to perform atraumatic extractions which can prevent damage to the paradental structures. The physics forceps is one of those innovations in dental extraction technologies that claim to provide an efficient means for atraumatic dental extractions. Materials and method: A randomized clinical trial was conducted to compare the physics forceps with the conventional forceps for the removal of 28 mandibular single rooted teeth under the following parameters: incidence of crown, root, b
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Negotiation is considered as one of the most important kinds of communication in the contemporary organizations, which depend on the important role of managerial information systems in providing necessary and suitable information for success of the negotiation process.
Accordingly, this study aims at measuring the extent of the variables effect of managerial information system in the negotiation process.
To achieve this study, two hypotheses were chosen; the first is the correlation relation and the second is the effect, and statistical means represented by correlation coefficient "Spearman" and (R2) were used.
A Number of conclusions were
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This study showed that the lens in baloot muluki fish Chondrostoma regium is transparent, spherical shape, and solid in textures, while in the tree frog Hyla arborea savignyi, freshwater turtles Clemmys caspia caspia, white–eared bulbul Pycnonotus leucotis and brown rat Rattus norvegicus are transparent, soft and biconvex, it is very soft in white–eared bulbul. There are many significant differences have been recorded between the average weight lens and the total concentration of the protein in the lens all studied animals. Electrical migration process for lens proteins showed that there is one bundle of crystalline –? and one bundle also crystalline–? in all studied species, either crystalline–? may represent one bundle character
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Ecological risk assessment of mercury contaminant has a means to analyze the ecological risk aspect of ecosystem using the potential impact of mercury pollution in soil, water and organism. The ecological risk assessment in a coastal area can be shown by mangrove zonation, clustering and interpolation of mercury accumulation. This research aims to analyze ecological risk assessment of potential mercury (including bioaccumulation and translocation) using indicators of species distribution, clustering, zonation and interpolation of mercury accumulation. The results showed that the Segara Anakan had a high risk of mercury pollution, using indicators like as the potential of mercury contaminant in water body was 0137±0.0137 ppm, substrate a
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Psychological aspects are a major influence and motivation factor in many cinematic and television works such as television series. There are many films that dealt with psychological issues through the personality affected by psychological projections and complexes that lead towards abnormal behavior and actions in most cases, so the researchers chose the title and the research problem was raised through the following question: What is the mechanism that fulfills a psychological role in the narrative film? The objectives of the research were to reveal the mechanism used to instill psychological contents in the feature film? As for the limits of the research, it was an intentional sample, and the researchers adopted the descriptive anal
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The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of economic, social and institutional factors on adoption within the national program for the propagation of high-rank seeds of wheat crop. 170 questionnaires were collected, 50% of them were participants in the program from Wasit and Babil governorates. Probabilistic regression models were used to know this effect, and the possibility of adopting Farmers of improved seeds produced from the national program for the multiplication of seeds of higher grades using the (ADOPT) program. The adoption rate was 0.12%, and the total number of adopters were 12 farmers, at a rate of 14.2%. Tobit model was estimated to find out the impact of the profitability of the dunum, capital, farm si
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Verbs are an important material in the construction of the sentence, as they are among the requirements of every sophisticated language, and in this regard, Ibn Al-Gothic (d. 367 AH): “Know that verbs are the origins of the buildings of most speech, and thus scholars called them buildings.” Verbs are the source of expression of the speakers’ ideas to represent the element of activity and movement, and with their knowledge We infer the meanings of Arabic words, and Ibn Al-Sarraj (d. 316 AH) defined it: “The verb denotes a meaning and a time, and that time is either past, present, or future.” Its letters are original and does not drop from its construction a letter in the conjugation of its conjugations, and it is in Arabic two type
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Financing is one of the important pillars for activating and activating the agricultural sector, through which we can see an agricultural project on the ground. However, supplying the agricultural sector with financial resources requires a credit policy that is capable of making the right financing decision, because the financial resources are limited. The credit policy, and the financing decision, must be the best use not only to provide the necessary money, but to work to provide everything that would develop and activate the agricultural sector.
The transformation of the Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Iraq from specialized banking to the overall would lead to a decrease in the volume
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The adopted method in the teaching of history is conservation and indoctrination in all grades, and this will lead to a lack of students interact with teachers in the course of the lesson, and poor use of teachers to questions that raise students' thinking during the lesson, which leads to a lack of interest in the topic of the lesson and wasting opportunities contribution making it the teacher at the center of the educational process, and to provide arrogating the researcher to contribute to teaching style with the belief that the use of this method of teaching could lead to overcome the difficulties and problems faced by the teaching material.
And there are educational complexes integrated approac
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research is to design a list of the scientific and moral values that should be found in the content of the computer textbook for the second intermediate grade, as well as to analyze the content of the above- mentioned book by answering the following question:
What is the percentage of availability of scientific and moral values in the content of the computer textbook for Second Intermediate grade issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Education / the general directorate of the curriculum, for the academic year (2017-2018)?
In order to achieve the research objectives, the descriptive method (content analysis method) was adopted. The research community has been iden
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