Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases affecting man with up to 90% of the global population affected. Its severe form can lead to the tooth loss in 10-15% of the population worldwide. The disease is caused by a dysbiosis of the local microbiota and one organism that contributes to this alteration in the bacterial population is Prophyromonas gingivalis. This organism possesses a range of virulence factors that appear to contribute to its growth and survival at a periodontal site amongst which is its ability to invade oral epithelial cells. Such an invasion strategy provides a means of evasion of host defence mechanisms, persistence at a site and the opportunity for dissemination to other sites in the mouth. However, previous studies have demonstrated that invasion of the mammalian cells in a population by P. gingivalis is heterogenous, with some cells becoming heavily invaded while others harbour no or only a few bacteria. An understanding of this heterogeneity may throw light on the mechanisms involved and we hypothesised that the phase of the host cell cycle may explain this phenomenon. In an attempt to study the factors influencing P. gingivalis invasion and the cell response to that invasion, a standard antibiotic protection assay was employed and an oral keratinocyte cell line, H357. The results showed that P. gingivalis NCTC 11834 invasion was significantly increased with increasing time of exposure to the cells and the cell density. This may reflect an increased host cell surface area available for bacterial attachment. No effect on invasion of P. gingivalis invasion was observed by the bacterial growth phase, H357 cell passage number or whether cells were pre-incubated with P. gingivalis lipopolysaccharide. Epithelial cells did, however, respond to the presence of P. gingivalis in a number of ways. For example, the mRNA expression of endothelin-1 and urokinase receptor were upregulated with increasing P. gingivalis infection time, suggesting that these proteins could act as inflammatory mediators and possibly as useful markers of the severity of periodontal disease or in the diagnosis and treatment of periodontitis. iii Secondly, in an attempt to investigate the reason for the observed heterogeneous P. gingivalis invasion of H357 cell populations, the effect of cell cycle phase on P. gingivalis invasion was investigated. H357 cells were synchronized by serum starvation. On re-introduction of serum, characterisation of cell cycle phase distribution was performed by flow cytometry following staining with propidium idodide (PI) or by immunofluorescence using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), which specifically identifies cells in S-phase. The effect of cell cycle phases on P. gingivalis invasion was measured using the antibiotic protection assay, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry and these were correlated with gene and surface expression of the urokinase receptor and the α5-integrin subunit, which is thought to mediate P. gingivalis invasion. Results showed that the percentage invasion was enhanced with increasing serum re-introduction time, and positively correlated with the number of cells in S-phase. In addition, flow cytometry data showed that the highest association of fluorescent P. gingivalis was with PI positive S-phase cells. Moreover, BrdU positive S-phase cells were 3 times more likely to be invaded and contained 10 times more P. gingivalis than cells in other phases. Also, α5-integrin was more highly expressed in cells in S-phase than other phases, which could explain the mechanism underlying this enhanced invasion. Data presented here have suggested that P. gingivalis targeting of cells in S- phase could, in vivo, allow preferential invasion of the junctional epithelial cells which turns over rapidly. The data presented in this thesis suggest that P. gingivalis invasion is greatly dependent on several factors attributed to the host, the bacteria itself, and to the environment which the bacteria reside in. The invasion occurs within a population of host cells in a heterogeneous fashion, and is dependent on the cell cycle phase, specifically S-phase. This novel finding, in addition to the previously reported mechanisms of P. gingivalis invasion, increases our understanding of this virulence trait and suggests that such a strategy is a highly organised process which the bacteria can follow to ensure its survival within the host. Furthermore, knowledge of these mechanisms could provide novel approaches to treatment of periodontal diseases.
<span lang="EN-GB">Transmitting the highest capacity throughput over the longest possible distance without any regeneration stage is an important goal of any long-haul optical network system. Accordingly, Polarization-Multiplexed Quadrature Phase-Shift-Keying (PM-QPSK) was introduced lately to achieve high bit-rate with relatively high spectral efficiency. Unfortunately, the required broad bandwidth of PM-QPSK increases the linear and nonlinear impairments in the physical layer of the optical fiber network. Increased attention has been spent to compensate for these impairments in the last years. In this paper, Single Mode Fiber (SMF), single channel, PM-QPSK transceiver was simulated, with a mix of optical and electrical (Digi
... Show More
(4)
(1)
The main objective of this research is to find out the effect of deviation in the aggregate gradients of asphalt mixtures from the Job Mix Formula (JMF) on the general mixture performance. Three road layers were worked on (wearing layer, binder layer, and base layer) and statistical analysis was performed for the data of completed projects in Baghdad city, and the sieve that carried the largest number of deviations for each layer was identified. No.8 sieve (2.36mm), No.50 sieve (0.3mm), and 3/8'' sieve (9.5mm) had the largest number of deviations in the wearing layer, the binder layer, and the base layer respectively. After that, a mixture called Mix 1, was made. This mixture was selected from a number of completed mixtures, and it
... Show More
(18)
(22)
(24)
Bathyplectes curcurlionis (Thomson) is the sole parasitoid encountered in west Baghdad parasitising larvae of alfalfa weevil Hypera postica (GylIenhal). Percent of parasitisation did not exceed 8% in 1989 and 1990 and overall rate of parasitisation was 5%. Additional reduction in percent of parasitisation caused by presence of the fungal pathogen Erynia phytonomi. High survival percent of weevil's larvae under the study conditions explains why this insect is a key pest of alfalfa. Suggestions were made to inhance the role of B. curcurtionis in controlling the weevil.
This study aims to evaluate drinking water quality at the Al Wahda plant (WTP) in Baghdad city. A conventional water treatment plant with an average flow rate of 72.82 MLD. Water samples were taken from the influent and effluent of the treatment plant and analyzed for some physicochemical and biological parameters during the period from June to November 2020. The results of the evaluation indicate that treated water has almost the same characteristics as raw water; in other terms, the plant units do not remove pollutants as efficiently as intended. Based on this, the station appears to be nothing more than a series of water passage units. However, apart from Total dissolved solids, the mean values of all parameters in the study were
... Show More
(1)
The paper aims at initiating and exploring the concept of extended metric known as the Strong Altering JS-metric, a stronger version of the Altering JS-metric. The interrelation of Strong Altering JS-metric with the b-metric and dislocated metric has been analyzed and some examples have been provided. Certain theorems on fixed points for expansive self-mappings in the setting of complete Strong Altering JS-metric space have also been discussed.
(2)
(2)
ABSTRACT
The research aims to analyze the value chain of dairy products in Iraq (Abu Ghraib/Study Case) factories for the year 2022, where value chain rings are identified to discuss and track the most important determinants and problems in the value chain rings of dairy products and their basic and secondary activities, as well as calculate the value added of the products by subtracting the total revenues of products from their variable costs. Research data were collected for the period 2022. Preliminary information and data from its field sources and personal interviews were collected through a questionnaire prepa
The increasing availability of computing power in the past two decades has been use to develop new techniques for optimizing solution of estimation problem. Today's computational capacity and the widespread availability of computers have enabled development of new generation of intelligent computing techniques, such as our interest algorithm, this paper presents one of new class of stochastic search algorithm (known as Canonical Genetic' Algorithm ‘CGA’) for optimizing the maximum likelihood function strategy is composed of three main steps: recombination, mutation, and selection. The experimental design is based on simulating the CGA with different values of are compared with those of moment method. Based on MSE value obtained from bot
... Show More
(3)
(2)