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
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It is noted in the title that the paper studies the viewpoint in the novel The Dog and the Long Night by the Iranian novelist Shahranoush Parsi Pour and in the novel Alibaba's Sad Night by the Iraqi novelist Abdulkhaliq Ar-Rikabi. Both are well known novelists, and about whose stories and novels many critical books, MA theses, and Ph.D. dissertations have been written. Also, some of their literary works have won prizes. Here, the researcher shed light on the concept of viewpoint, its types, and its importance in novels in general. This was done along with tackling the two viewpoints in both novels, where similarities and differences were identified. For this end, the researcher has adopted the analytic-descriptive appro
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--The objective of the current research is to identify: 1) Preparing a scale level for e-learning applications, 2) What is the relationship between the applications of e-learning and the students of the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Education for Pure Sciences/ Ibn Al-Haytham – University of Baghdad. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher used the descriptive approach because of its suitability to the nature of the study objectives. The researcher built a scale for e-learning applications that consists of (40) items on the five-point Likrat scale (I agree, strongly agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree). He also adopted the scale of scientific values, and it consists of (40) items on a five-point scale as wel
... Show MoreThe added value of internal audit greatly contributes to adding value to the institution, but most departments of economic units in Iraq neglected the role of internal audit and the added value that can be achieved by those institutions, since the term added value of internal audit is a relatively vague term from the premise that what cannot be measured is difficult Determine it, and perhaps descriptive standards for it is the extent of compliance with international auditing standards (IIA).
The research aims to study the procedures and results of auditing to verify that they have given an added value to the audit with a positive impact, develop its aspects and research, identify deficiencies for the audi
... Show MoreThe investment budget represents a stage of the investment decision in service units, and the preparation and implementation needs to be a complement of the same planning part, because the planning does not end with the development of the plan, but includes a follow-up implementation, so it has to be effective and efficient oversight of the estimates and procedures for disbursement of funds approved for investment projects, The problem with research in that local governments suffer from the presence of Allkaat and problems facing the implementation of the investment budget projects due to the adoption budget items which can not be measured the efficiency of the performance of these units of government by, and shortcomings in the control
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The study aimed to identify the social support and its relation with death anxiety for
olds who are listed at the Palestinian ministry of social affairs in the Jerusalem governorate,
the researcher uses the descriptive method and she bases her research on two types of
criterion: the social support and the criterion of death anxiety, these two criterion are applied
on a stratified random sample, amounted to (184) of the elderly.
The results show no statistical differences in the level of social support for olds who
are listed at the Palestinian ministry of social affairs according to the variables of sex.
Whereas there are statistical differences in the level of social support for those olds according
to the variab
Founding a System to secure deposits and protecting the depositors is considered one of the important and exchanged subjects out there in the banking system/field in Iraq at the current time, and the reason behind the exchange and spread of this subject is due to the financial crisis of which the banking sector is suffering from and the stumbling of many banks, those factors have had led to the insecurity of the depositors and their mistrust towards banks, thus, it is necessary to create a system to secure deposits in which depositors would be compensated for the losses caused by the banks' failures. in addition, it could be a countermeasure system which maintains the banking stability, protects the rights of depositors and gains
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Background: One of the most predominant periodontal diseases is the plaque induced gingivitis. For the past 20 years, super-oxidized solutions have be..
The research Aim is to provide support to small enterprises by providing tools that enable measurement and test their performance and identifying weaknesses and work on them is determined by the problem of searching using traditional assessment methods for small projects with only financial performance measurement standards that do not provide a complete picture of the performance of these projects so use the balanced scorecard the four pillars (financial, customer, learning and growth, and internal processes) and identify deviations and work on them through the use of the outputs of the programme (probe), PROmoting Business Excellence-PROBE), which It is a model of performance evaluation, with which you can deve
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The problem of present study is determined by answering the following questions:
1) What is the effect of using the oral open- ended questions on Students' achievement in the third-stage of Arabic department in the college of Education? 2) What is the effect of the oral open-ended questions on developing the creative thinking of students in
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