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 radio drama is considered to be one of the arts that is discovered after a long period of theater's discovery. Initially , it was the broad framework of the theater's work when radio was broadcasting the shows on the huge theaters. This beginning encouraged many of the radio specialists to correlate plays with radio and make a novice and distinctive type of art. Thus, radio drama made its first step including the following ( plays, short and long series drama as well as other types of radio arts). Because of the above mentioned , the researcher is stimulating to study directing techniques to process the radio drama script ( Khata'a play as a sample).
The first chapter deals with the
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To investigate the efficacy of polyether‐ether‐ketone (PEEK) wire as a fixed orthodontic retainer, by comparing its performance to other retainer wires and optimizing its adhesion to composite bonding materials.
Retainer wires of 15 mm segments were used, PEEK wires were prepared in cylindrical form with 0.8 mm diameter, and had two surface treatments namely air‐abrasion and conditioning with adhesive system. Three different metallic retainer wires were used for comparison and three tests were performed; two tests measured debonding force and associated wire deflec
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An α-fractional integral and derivative of real function have been introduced in new definitions and then, they compared with the existing definitions. According to the properties of these definitions, the formulas demonstrate that they are most significant and suitable in fractional integrals and derivatives. The definitions of α-fractional derivative and integral coincide with the existing definitions for the polynomials for 0 ≤ α < 1. Furthermore, if α = 1, the proposed definitions and the usual definition of integer derivative and integral are identical. Some of the properties of the new definitions are discussed and proved, as well, we have introduced some applications in the α- fractional derivatives and integral
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This study aims to deeply analyze the character of serial killers in Thomas Harris’ novels and focuses on his novel Red Dragon. The Study searches in these complex and deep characters through the use of Erich Fromm's concepts about the destructive nature of the human psyche and what are the factors affecting serial killers in all social psychological, and biological aspects. This study Concluded: Thomas Harris portrayed the characters of serial killers in a professional and complex and made the reader go on a contemplative journey in the mind and soul of the serial killer, thus reaching the climax of artistic perfection.
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The research stems from its goal of identifying the impact of visual management on the strategic acceleration of business organizations and the state of this effect through the knowledge embedding in the Iraqi oil companies. The oil sector was tested, represented by (3) oil companies, and a sample of (151) individuals who participated in activating the visual management, distributed in higher management levels. The research relied on the descriptiveanalytical approach and the questionnaire was a main tool for collecting data and information. The results showed that visual management positively affects strategic acceleration. Moreover, This effect is amplified by the mediating role played by Embedding Knowledge.
The deliberative system of communicative studies is exposed to cultural openness, according to modern cultural studies, to establish a verbal language system that achieves reciprocal and cross-cultural relations. This research has examined the concept of deliberative approach in the contemporary Iraqi theater text by studying the deliberative system of text and its interrelationship with The stage of the verbal embodiment of the dramatic event, because the dramatic text achieves in its construction of racism, a deliberative approach between the verbal event and the language, and what later leads to the completion of the dramatic action. The research included four chapters. The first chapter was the systematic framework of the research, T
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The Mauddud reservoir, Khabaz oil field which is considered one of the main carbonate reservoirs in the north of Iraq. Recognizing carbonate reservoirs represents challenges to engineers because reservoirs almost tend to be tight and overall heterogeneous. The current study concerns with geological modeling of the reservoir is an oil-bearing with the original gas cap. The geological model is establishing for the reservoir by identifying the facies and evaluating the petrophysical properties of this complex reservoir, and calculate the amount of hydrocarbon. When completed the processing of data by IP interactive petrophysics software, and the permeability of a reservoir was calculated using the concept of hydraulic units then, there
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In present work the effort has been put in finding the most suitable color model for the application of information hiding in color images. We test the most commonly used color models; RGB, YIQ, YUV, YCbCr1 and YCbCr2. The same procedures of embedding, detection and evaluation were applied to find which color model is most appropriate for information hiding. The new in this work, we take into consideration the value of errors that generated during transformations among color models. The results show YUV and YIQ color models are the best for information hiding in color images.