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
Ping message focused on highlighting the fact commodity trading in Iraq, and increased exposure to world merchandise trade imbalance, which dominate Iraq's foreign trade major commodity is oil, and therefore the inability of Iraq to control financial revenue as a result of the fluctuations in the international market, the shortage of commodity products will lead inevitably to the weakness in the ability of the local market to meet the internal demand and due to the lack of flexible production machine For agricultural, industrial and economic sectors are responding to changes in the domestic or external demand which will open the door to merchandise imports to invade these markets, since the adoption of the Iraq oil exports,
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Hygienic engineering has dedicated a lot of time and energy to studying water filtration because of how important it is to human health. Thorough familiarity with the filtration process is essential for the design engineer to keep up with and profit from advances in filtering technology and equipment as the properties of raw water continue to change. Because it removes sediment, chemicals, odors, and microbes, filtration is an integral part of the water purification process. The most popular technique for treating surface water for municipal water supply is considered fast sand filtration, which can be achieved using either gravity or pressure sand filters. Predicting the performance of units in water treatment plants is
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The goal of this work is demonstrating, through the gradient observation of a of type linear ( -systems), the possibility for reducing the effect of any disturbances (pollution, radiation, infection, etc.) asymptotically, by a suitable choice of related actuators of these systems. Thus, a class of ( -system) was developed based on finite time ( -system). Furthermore, definitions and some properties of this concept -system and asymptotically gradient controllable system ( -controllable) were stated and studied. More precisely, asymptotically gradient efficient actuators ensuring the weak asymptotically gradient compensation system ( -system) of known or unknown disturbances are examined. Consequently, under convenient hypo
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the research goal is preparing a list of standard criteria and quality controls for information technology applications to serve the Holy Quran.
To achieve this goal, the researcher has built a list of criteria according to the following steps:
First - identify the key areas covered by the whole list which are:
1 – Standards of system building and implementing with the operating screens.
2 – Standards of display forms including audio and video presentation.
3 – Standards which are related to the program philosophy.
4 - Standards which are related to the program objectives.
... Show MoreInnovative laboratory research and fluid breakthroughs have improved carbonate matrix stimulation technology in the recent decade. Since oil and gas wells are stimulated often to increase output and maximum recovery, this has resulted in matrix acidizing is a less costly alternative to hydraulic fracturing; therefore, it is widely employed because of its low cost and the fact that it may restore damaged wells to their previous productivity and give extra production capacity. Limestone acidizing in the Mishrif reservoir has never been investigated; hence research revealed fresh insights into this process. Many reports have stated that the Ahdeb oil field's Mishrif reservoir has been unable to be stimulated due to high inj
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Cloud-based Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have seen a substantial increase in usage in recent years, especially for remote patient monitoring. Researchers are interested in investigating the use of Healthcare 4.0 in smart cities. This involves using Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cloud computing to remotely access medical processes. Healthcare 4.0 focuses on the systematic gathering, merging, transmission, sharing, and retention of medical information at regular intervals. Protecting the confidential and private information of patients presents several challenges in terms of thwarting illegal intrusion by hackers. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize the protection of patient medical data that is stored, accessed, and shared on
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Partial shading is one of the problems that affects the power production and the efficiency of photovoltaic module. A series of experimental work have been done of partial shading of monocrystalline PV module; 50W, Isc: 3.1A, Voc: 22V with 36 cells in series is achieved. Non-linear power output responses of the module are observed by applying various cases of partial shading (vertical and horizontal shading of solar cells in the module). Shading a single cell (corner cell) has the greatest impact on output energy. Horizontal shading or vertical shading reduced the power from 41W to 18W at constant solar radiation 1000W/m2 and steady state condition. Vertical blocking a column
... Show MoreNonlinear differential equation stability is a very important feature of applied mathematics, as it has a wide variety of applications in both practical and physical life problems. The major object of the manuscript is to discuss and apply several techniques using modify the Krasovskii's method and the modify variable gradient method which are used to check the stability for some kinds of linear or nonlinear differential equations. Lyapunov function is constructed using the variable gradient method and Krasovskii’s method to estimate the stability of nonlinear systems. If the function of Lyapunov is positive, it implies that the nonlinear system is asymptotically stable. For the nonlinear systems, stability is still difficult even though
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In this paper, point estimation for parameter ? of Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution has been investigated by using simulation technique, to estimate the parameter by two sections methods; the first section includes Non-Bayesian estimation methods, such as (Maximum Likelihood estimator method, and Moment estimator method), while the second section includes standard Bayesian estimation method, using two different priors (Inverse Chi-Square and Jeffrey) such as (standard Bayes estimator, and Bayes estimator based on Jeffrey's prior). Comparisons among these methods were made by employing mean square error measure. Simulation technique for different sample sizes has been used to compare between these methods.
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