Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were

A land magnetic survey was carried out along regional profile, which is located at the north part of the Iraqi western desert. It starts from al –Qaam City (at north) toward Rutba City (at south) with a total length of 238km. The survey was carried out along the paved road between the two cities, About 113 measuring points were done with inter-station distance of 2 km (for 198 km) and 2 to 5km (for 40km). Two proton magnetometers were used in this survey. One of them is used for base station monitoring, which was fixed as of Salah Aldin field (Akkas). Its readings were used for diurnal corrections. All magnetic measurements were corrected for normal and topographic corrections. The readings were reduced to a certain base level. The resu

In this paper a new method is proposed to perform the N-Radon orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which are equivalent to 4-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, ... etc. in spectral efficiency. This non conventional method is proposed in order to reduce the constellation energy and increase spectral efficiency. The proposed method gives a significant improvement in Bit Error Rate performance, and keeps bandwidth efficiency and spectrum shape as good as conventional Fast Fourier Transform based OFDM. The new structure was tested and compared with conventional OFDM for Additive White Gaussian Noise, flat, and multi-path selective fading channels. Simulation tests were generated for different channels

The significant addition of immersive technologies, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality(AR) and Mixed Reality(MR) are transforming the domain of design education. Still, finding an equilibrium between these new tools alongside with traditional methods of teaching is a menace which educational institutes needs to solve. This paper proposes a structure that would help the ease with which to include immersive technologies within design education, keeping in mind the solid points of more conventional pedagogical methods. Based on a survey of interior design programs, this research highlights the potential for VR, AR and MR in student engagement, creativity skills and professional practices. The results suggest that adoption of an im

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were

   The petroleum industry, which is one of the pillars of the national economy, has the potential to generate vast wealth and employment possibilities. The transportation of petroleum products is complicated and changeable because of the hazards caused by the corrosion consequences. Hazardous chemical leaks caused by natural disasters may harm the environment, resulting in significant economic losses. It significantly threatens the aim for sustainable development. When a result, determining the likelihood of leakage and the potential for environmental harm, it becomes a top priority for decision-makers as they develop maintenance plans. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the risks associated with oil and gas pipeli

Rutting has a significant impact on the pavements' performance. Rutting depth is often used as a parameter to assess the quality of pavements. The Asphalt Institute (AI) design method prescribes a maximum allowable rutting depth of 13mm, whereas the AASHTO design method stipulates a critical serviceability index of 2.5 which is equivalent to an average rutting depth of 15mm. In this research, static and repeated compression tests were performed to evaluate the permanent strain based on (1) the relationship between mix properties (asphalt content and type), and (2) testing temperature. The results indicated that the accumulated plastic strain was higher during the repeated load test than that during the static load tests. Notably, temperatur

This paper proposes a new encryption method. It combines two cipher algorithms, i.e., DES and AES, to generate hybrid keys. This combination strengthens the proposed W-method by generating high randomized keys. Two points can represent the reliability of any encryption technique. Firstly, is the key generation; therefore, our approach merges 64 bits of DES with 64 bits of AES to produce 128 bits as a root key for all remaining keys that are 15. This complexity increases the level of the ciphering process. Moreover, it shifts the operation one bit only to the right. Secondly is the nature of the encryption process. It includes two keys and mixes one round of DES with one round of AES to reduce the performance time. The W-method deals with