Background: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune vesiculobullous mucocutaneous disease with life-threatening consequences. Rituximab (RTX) has recently emerged as an effective treatment for PV. Objectives: This study aims to determine changes in neutrophil and platelet counts for PV patients treated with RTX or corticosteroids combined with Imuran (azathioprine). Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Dermatology at Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. Thirty PV patients received two types of treatment: 15 patients were administered RTX and 15 patients took corticosteroids with Imuran (azathioprine). Neutrophil and platelet counts were detected at the hospital laboratory. Results: The age range of PV patients was 27–67 years, and the mean ±SD was 44.866 ± 10.979 years for the patient group treated with RTX and 44.133 ± 11.519 for the patient group treated with corticosteroids and Imuran. In patients treated with RTX, 26.6% were males and 73.33% were females, with a female-to-male ratio of 2.75:1. In patients treated with corticosteroids with Imuran, 40% were males and 60% were females, with a female-to-male ratio of 1.5:1. The results revealed that among patients treated with RTX, 30% of them had mucocutaneous lesions, 6.66% had oral lesions, and 13.33% had cutaneous lesions. Among the other groups treated with corticosteroids and Imuran, 23.33% had mucocutaneous lesions, 13.33% had oral lesions, and 13.33% had cutaneous lesions. Among the patients treated with RTX, 53.33% had normal range of neutrophil count, while 46.6% had neutrophil count above the NR, while in patients treated with corticosteroids and Imuran, 40% had a normal range and 60% had above the normal range. Conclusion: RTX was a more effective treatment compared to corticosteroids with Imuran because no patient remained in an active state during this study. PV was prevalent in females aged 40 years with mucocutaneous lesions.
Nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed in deionized (DI) water, brine, or surfactant micelles, have become a promising solution for many industrial applications including enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon geostorage. At ambient conditions, nanoparticles can effectively alter the wettability of the strongly oil-wet rocks to water-wet. However, the reservoir conditions present the greatest challenge for the success of this application at the field scale. In this work, the performance of anionic surfactant-silica nanoparticle formulation on wettability alteration of oil-wet carbonate surface at reservoir conditions was investigated. A high-pressure temperature vessel was used to apply nano-modification of oil-wet
... Show MoreIn low-latitude areas less than 10° in latitude angle, the solar radiation that goes into the solar still increases as the cover slope approaches the latitude angle. However, the amount of water that is condensed and then falls toward the solar-still basin is also increased in this case. Consequently, the solar yield still is significantly decreased, and the accuracy of the prediction method is affected. This reduction in the yield and the accuracy of the prediction method is inversely proportional to the time in which the condensed water stays on the inner side of the condensing cover without collection because more drops will fall down into the basin of the solar-still. Different numbers of scraper motions per hour (NSM), that is
... Show MoreSoftware Defined Network (SDN) is a new technology that separate the control plane from the data plane. SDN provides a choice in automation and programmability faster than traditional network. It supports the Quality of Service (QoS) for video surveillance application. One of most significant issues in video surveillance is how to find the best path for routing the packets between the source (IP cameras) and destination (monitoring center). The video surveillance system requires fast transmission and reliable delivery and high QoS. To improve the QoS and to achieve the optimal path, the SDN architecture is used in this paper. In addition, different routing algorithms are used with different steps. First, we eva
... Show MoreMetal oxide nanoparticles demonstrate uniqueness in various technical applications due to their suitable physiochemical properties. In particular, yttrium oxide nanoparticle(Y2O3NPs) is familiar for technical applications because of its higher dielectric constant and thermal stability. It is widely used as a host material for a variety of rare-earth dopants, biological imaging, and photodynamic therapies. In this investigation, yttrium oxide nanoparticles (Y2O3NPs) was used as an ecofriendly corrosion inhibitor through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive X-ray spe
... Show MoreAs one type of heating furnaces, the electric heating furnace (EHF) typically suffers from time delay, non-linearity, time-varying parameters, system uncertainties, and harsh en-vironment of the furnace, which significantly deteriorate the temperature control process of the EHF system. In order to achieve accurate and robust temperature tracking performance, an integration of robust state feedback control (RSFC) and a novel sliding mode-based disturbance observer (SMDO) is proposed in this paper, where modeling errors and external disturbances are lumped as a lumped disturbance. To describe the characteristics of the EHF, by using convection laws, an integrated dynamic model is established and identified as an uncertain nonlinear second ord
... Show MoreIn general, path-planning problem is one of most important task in the field of robotics. This paper describes the path-planning problem of mobile robot based on various metaheuristic algorithms. The suitable collision free path of a robot must satisfies certain optimization criteria such as feasibility, minimum path length, safety and smoothness and so on. In this research, various three approaches namely, PSO, Firefly and proposed hybrid FFCPSO are applied in static, known environment to solve the global path-planning problem in three cases. The first case used single mobile robot, the second case used three independent mobile robots and the third case applied three follow up mobile robot. Simulation results, whi
... Show MoreDue to its importance in physics and applied mathematics, the non-linear Sturm-Liouville problems
witnessed massive attention since 1960. A powerful Mathematical technique called the Newton-Kantorovich
method is applied in this work to one of the non-linear Sturm-Liouville problems. To the best of the authors’
knowledge, this technique of Newton-Kantorovich has never been applied before to solve the non-linear
Sturm-Liouville problems under consideration. Accordingly, the purpose of this work is to show that this
important specific kind of non-linear Sturm-Liouville differential equations problems can be solved by
applying the well-known Newton-Kantorovich method. Also, to show the efficiency of appl
Construction of artificial higher order protein complexes allows sampling of structural architectures and functional features not accessible by classical monomeric proteins. Here, we combine in silico modelling with expanded genetic code facilitated strain promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition to construct artificial complexes that are structurally integrated protein dimers and demonstrate functional synergy. Using fluorescent proteins sfGFP and Venus as models, homodimers and heterodimers are constructed that switched ON once assembled and display enhanced spectral properties. Symmetrical crosslinks are found to be important for functional enhancement. The determined molecular structure of one artific
Poly urea formaldehyde –Bentonite (PUF-Bentonite) composite was tested as new adsorbent
for removal of mefenamic acid (MA) from simulated wastewater in batch adsorption
procedure. Developed a method for preparing poly urea formaldehyde gel in basic media by
using condensation polymerization. Adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of
water pH, temperature, contact time, adsorbent dose and initial MA concentration .Effect of
sharing surface with other analgesic pharmaceuticals at different pH also studied. The
adsorption of MA was found to be strongly dependent to pH. The Freundlich isotherm model
showed a good fit to the equilibrium adsorption data. From Dubinin–Radushkevich model the
mean free