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 demand for electronic -passport photo ( frontal facial) images has grown rapidly. It now extends to Electronic Government (E-Gov) applications such as social benefits driver's license, e-passport, and e-visa . With the COVID 19 (coronavirus disease ), facial (formal) images are becoming more widely used and spreading quickly, and are being used to verify an individual's identity, but unfortunately that comes with insignificant details of constant background which leads to huge byte consumption that affects storage space and transmission, where the optimal solution that aims to curtail data size using compression techniques that based on exploiting image redundancy(s) efficiently.
Emotion could be expressed through unimodal social behaviour’s or bimodal or it could be expressed through multimodal. This survey describes the background of facial emotion recognition and surveys the emotion recognition using visual modality. Some publicly available datasets are covered for performance evaluation. A summary of some of the research efforts to classify emotion using visual modality for the last five years from 2013 to 2018 is given in a tabular form.
This paper is intended to focus on the existing relation between 'logic' and 'meaning', and how 'meaning' is looked at through logical perspective. Besides, this paper adopts simple logical symbols to represent some aspects of meaning.
Since meaning is still regarded as a thorny area that needs further study to determine its nature and borderline, this paper proposes to resort to logic and logical rules. This paper points out how logical rules are used and how they clarify some oblique sentences. The paper also sheds light on how meaningful sentences are logically symbolized and how logic can define the borderline of meaning in an adequate manner. This paper hypothesizes that logic, l
... Show MoreThis article studies a comprehensive methods of edge detection and algorithms in digital images which is reflected a basic process in the field of image processing and analysis. The purpose of edge detection technique is discovering the borders that distinct diverse areas of an image, which donates to refining the understanding of the image contents and extracting structural information. The article starts by clarifying the idea of an edge and its importance in image analysis and studying the most noticeable edge detection methods utilized in this field, (e.g. Sobel, Prewitt, and Canny filters), besides other schemes based on distinguishing unexpected modifications in light intensity and color gradation. The research as well discuss
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Image Fusion is being used to gather important data from such an input image array and to place it in a single output picture to make it much more meaningful & usable than either of the input images. Image fusion boosts the quality and application of data. The accuracy of the image that has fused depending on the application. It is widely used in smart robotics, audio camera fusion, photonics, system control and output, construction and inspection of electronic circuits, complex computer, software diagnostics, also smart line assembling robots. In this paper provides a literature review of different image fusion techniques in the spatial domain and frequency domain, such as averaging, min-max, block substitution, Intensity-Hue-Saturation(IH
... Show MoreThe most influential theory of ‘Politeness’ was formulated in 1978 and revised in 1987 by Brown and Levinson. ‘Politeness’, which represents the interlocutors’ desire to be pleasant to each other through a positive manner of addressing, was claimed to be a universal phenomenon. The gist of the theory is the intention to mitigate ‘Face’ threats carried by certain ‘Face’ threatening acts towards others.
‘Politeness Theory’ is based on the concept that interlocutors have ‘Face’ (i.e., self and public – image) which they consciously project, try to protect and to preserve. The theory holds that various politeness strategies are used to prot
... Show MoreThe research aimed to identify the effects of the modern of technology on translating the media term from English language to Arabic. and try to identify the use of the impact of foreign media terminologies on the Arabic media term, and to know the effect of the translation process on Arabic media terminologies.
This research is considered an analytical study by using survey study for 111 items and the results for the study as following:
1.High percentage of the (use of foreign terms work to low the level of production) was (68.13%) and average 3.55
2.The percentage of (The multiplicity of translation of the foreign term into Arabic effects on the opinions and cognitive ideas of the Arab researcher and affects the
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This study aims at investigating the partial Islamic rules of preparing and distributing cartoons in order to issue an overall Islamic rul. To reach an end, descriptive and analytical approaches are adopted to clarify the nature of cartoons and other related concepts. The researcher, as well, with reference to verses of the Holy Quran, tradition (Hadith) and Islamic jurists, adopts a deductive approach to issue Islamic rules related to the industry of cartoons and it's distribution
The study consists of three sections. The first Section addresses the following issues: Definition animation; and related wordy. The second Section: Origin of Cartoon's history and it's negative and positive effects. The third Section: Islamic rules related
Synthesis and study liquid crystalline properties of novel Benzimidazol-8-hydroxyquinoline complexes by reaction of a-Chloro acetic acid with 3,3'-dimethylbiphenyl-4,4'-diamine in 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide to synthesized compound [I] then the later compound reacted with o-phenylenediamine in 4N Hydrochloric acid to synthesized compound N4,N4'-bis((1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)methyl)-3,3'-dimethyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine =[II] . While the complexes [III],[IV],[V],[VI] and [VII] synthesized from reacted compound [II] , 8-hydroxyquinoline with metal(II) salts { M= Mn(II), Fe(II), Ni (II), Cu(II),and Zn(II)}. Newly synthesized compounds were characterized using melting points, FT-IR, UV-Vis spectra, and some of them 1H NMR spectroscopy. ma
... Show MoreOnchocerciasis is an infection with cutaneous, ocular and systemic manifestations caused by the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted by the bite of various species of the anthropophilic blood-sucking Simulium vectors (black flies). Onchocerciasis is endemic to the savannahs and rainforests of subequatorial Africa and in some countries of the Arabian Peninsula, notably Yemen and Oman, and in Central America, and the Amazon basin of South America. Onchocercomas, which can be defined as subcutaneous fibrous nodules containing adult worms, are among the variable clinical manifestations of this infestation; they are either superficial or deep and usually located over bony prominences. In this paper we report a case of an o
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