This project begins with an overview of the female reproductive tract microenvironment. It outlines the microenvironment of the vaginal, cervical, and endometrial epithelium and the interactions with immune cells and hormone cycles. The review also outlines the models currently used to study the female reproductive tract. The second chapter of the thesis is a study of the effects of pathogenic and commensal bacteria P. micra, F. magna, and F. nucleatum on cervical epithelial cells. This study analyzes cytotoxic effects after 24 hour infection of these bacteria. This was assessed through crystal violet staining, conventional pcr of cDNA synthesized from extracted cervical RNA, and LDH analysis. There is also an attempted biofilm assay. It was concluded that bacteria P. micra, F. magna and F. nucleatum have cytotoxic potential. This was not expected as F. magna is largely understood to be a commensal bacteria in the vaginal microbiome.
In this thesis, the author proposed and tested a credit risk assessment model using data analytics techniques through an in-depth cases study with actual transaction data. Specifically, based on the 30,000 observations collected from actual transactional data from small and medium size firms of China’s home furnishing industry. The preliminary results are promising in spite of the limitations. The thesis concludes with the findings of relevance to improve the current practices and suggests areas of future research.