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The Arabian killifish (Aphanius dispar) as a novel model for mycophysiological studies.
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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

Publication Date
Wed Dec 16 2020
Journal Name
Electronics
Downlink Training Design for FDD Massive MIMO Systems in the Presence of Colored Noise
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Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MaMi) systems have attracted much research attention during the last few years. This is because MaMi systems are able to achieve a remarkable improvement in data rate and thus meet the immensely ongoing traffic demands required by the future wireless networks. To date, the downlink training sequence (DTS) for the frequency division duplex (FDD) MaMi communications systems have been designed based on the idealistic assumption of white noise environments. However, it is essential and more practical to consider the colored noise environments when designing an efficient DTS for channel estimation. To this end, this paper proposes a new DTS design by exploring the joint use of spatial channel and n

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Publication Date
Sat Jun 30 2012
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Chemical And Petroleum Engineering
Effect of Annealing on the Crystallization of Poly Vinyl Chloride for Drug Delivery System
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Poly vinyl alcohol has been studied for its ability to form crystallites by using annealing method. Semicrystalline films of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) were prepared by casting 11.5 wt. % and 13 wt. % PVA aqueous solution onto glass slides at annealing temperature range 90 -120°C and duration time 15- 60 minute. This allowed the macromolecules to form crystallites, small regions of folded and compacted chains separated by amorphous regions where single PVA chain may pass through several of these crystallites. Degree of crystallinity of PVA films (hydrogels) was determined by method of density; on the other hand the swelling behavior was conducted by the determination of water uptake, wet degree of crystallinity, gel fraction and solubilit

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Publication Date
Tue Dec 01 2020
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Development of Regression Models for Predicting Pavement Condition Index from the International Roughness Index
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Flexible pavements are considered an essential element of transportation infrastructure. So, evaluations of flexible pavement performance are necessary for the proper management of transportation infrastructure. Pavement condition index (PCI) and international roughness index (IRI) are common indices applied to evaluate pavement surface conditions. However, the pavement condition surveys to calculate PCI are costly and time-consuming as compared to IRI. This article focuses on developing regression models that predict PCI from IRI. Eighty-three flexible pavement sections, with section length equal to 250 m, were selected in Al-Diwaniyah, Iraq, to develop PCI-IRI relationships. In terms of the quantity and severity of eac

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Publication Date
Thu Sep 05 2024
Journal Name
Herald Of The Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Series Natural Sciences Scientific-theoretical And Applied-science Journal.
Study the Efficiency of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles for Water Treatment from Conge Red Dye
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A modified chemical method was used to prepare titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), which were diagnosed by several techniques: X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, field emission scaning electron microscopy, energy disperse X-ray, and UV-visible spectroscopy, which proved the success of the preparation process at the nanoscale level. Where the titanium oxide particles have an average particle size equal to 6.8 nm, titanium dioxide particles were used in the process of adsorption of Congo red dye from its aqueous solutions using a batch system. The titanium oxide particles gave an adsorption efficiency of Congo red dye up to more than 79 %. The experimental data of the adsorption process were analyzed with kinetic models and

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Publication Date
Sun Dec 02 2018
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Physics
Optical emission spectroscopy for studying the exploding copper wire plasma parameters in distilled water
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This work aims to study the exploding copper wire plasma parameters by optical emission spectroscopy. The emission spectra of the copper plasma have been recorded and analyzed The plasma electron temperature (Te), was calculated by Boltzmann plot, and the electron density (ne) calculated by using Stark broadening method for different copper wire diameter (0.18, 0.24 and 0.3 mm) and current
of 75A in distilled water. The hydrogen (Hα line) 656.279 nm was used to calculate the electron density for different wire diameters by Stark broadening. It was found that the electron density ne decrease from 22.4×1016 cm-3 to 17×1016 cm-3 with increasing wire diameter from 0.18 mm to 0.3 mm while the electron temperatures increase from 0.741 to

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Publication Date
Mon Sep 03 2018
Journal Name
Al-academy
The Technical Treatment for Pottery Body by (Kintsugi) Technique in Japanese Pottery – Analytic Study
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The aesthetic and technical expertise help  in producing the artistic work and achieving results in aesthetic formulations that reflect the aesthetic and  expressive dimensions and the reflective dimensions of the pottery, surpassing its traditions, asserting  its active presence in life, cherishing it  even when it  breaks  or get damaged   by employing techniques that are originated  from  the Japanese environment.

                       The research problem is to study how ( Kintsugi) technique and similar techniques are used to create  new rebirths of pottery piec

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Publication Date
Sat Sep 01 2012
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Role of Tourism Industry in the Developing of Economie to Iraq for (1990- 2009)
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The Developing economies of countries have witnessed essential changes to words the development of tourism industry in the 21st century . in addition to adopting same of policies and strategies to grow up with the tourism sector to make it one of the important economic sector to compete the tourist cal  developments in the wear .

As for the tourism sector in Iraq ,it's still afresh one , has many of elements which can be in vested ,needs a wide strategies of tourist cal in statutes and variety completive services and change of success for the locale and forgin investor ,the essential aim after this research is to prompt the national economic through the tourism industry and making concisen

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Publication Date
Tue Mar 30 2021
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Some Estimation for the Parameters and Hazard Function of Kummer Beta Generalized Normal Distribution
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Transforming the common normal distribution through the generated Kummer Beta model to the Kummer Beta Generalized Normal Distribution (KBGND) had been achieved. Then, estimating the distribution parameters and hazard function using the MLE method, and improving these estimations by employing the genetic algorithm. Simulation is used by assuming a number of models and different sample sizes. The main finding was that the common maximum likelihood (MLE) method is the best in estimating the parameters of the Kummer Beta Generalized Normal Distribution (KBGND) compared to the common maximum likelihood according to Mean Squares Error (MSE) and Mean squares Error Integral (IMSE) criteria in estimating the hazard function. While the pr

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Publication Date
Tue Nov 01 2016
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Synthesis and Characterization Of CaMgO2 Nanoparticles Photocatalyst For the Decolorization Of Orange G Dye
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A series of heterogeneous basic catalysts of CaO, MgO and CaMgO2 at different calcination temperature were synthesized via solution combustion method. Different characterization techniques have been carried out to investigate the structure of the produced catalysts i.e. X-ray diffraction (XRD), particle size analyzer, morphology by atomic force microscope (AFM) and reflection using UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectra. The particles size analyzer revealed that the mixed oxide catalysts calcined at different calcination temperature possess smaller nano size particles compared to pure CaO. Moreover, the energy band gap was calculated based on the results of diffuse reflectance spectra. The energy band gap was redu

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Publication Date
Sun Mar 04 2012
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
The use of laurylamine hydrocholoride CH3(CH2)11 NH3 –Cl for secondary oil recovery
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Laurylamine hydrochloride CH3(CH2)11 NH3 – Cl has been chosen from cationic surfactants to produce secondary oil using lab. model shown in fig. (1). The relationship between interfacial tension and (temperature, salinity and solution concentration) have been studied as shown in fig. (2, 3, 4) respectively. The optimum values of these three variables are taken (those values that give the lowest interfacial tension). Saturation, permeability and porosity are measured in the lab. The primary oil recovery was displaced by water injection until no more oil can be obtained, then laurylamine chloride is injected as a secondary oil recovery. The total oil recovery is 96.6% or 88.8% of the residual oil has been recovered by this technique as shown

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