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 given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
In recent days, the escalating need to seamlessly transfer data traffic without discontinuities across the Internet network has exerted immense pressure on the capacity of these networks. Consequently, this surge in demand has resulted in the disruption of traffic flow continuity. Despite the emergence of intelligent networking technologies such as software-defined networking, network cloudification, and network function virtualization, they still need to improve their performance. Our proposal provides a novel solution to tackle traffic flow continuity by controlling the selected packet header bits (Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP)) that govern the traffic flow priority. By setting the DSCP bits, we can determine the appropriate p
... Show MoreParonomasia is a recognized rhetorical device by which poets could play with words that are similar or identical in form but different in meaning. The present study aims to identify paronomasia in Arabic and English. To achieve the aim of the study, a corpus of selected verses chosen from two famous figures in Arabic and English literatures and analyzed thoroughly. The analysis of data under investigation reveals that paronomasia is a crucial aid used by poets to portrait the real world as imaginative. It further shows that the concept of paronomasia in English is not the same as in Arabic. In English, there are echoes of the Arabic jinās, i.e., there are counterpart usages of similar devices, yet English rhetoricians have not defined or c
... Show MoreObjectives: This study aims to broaden our knowledge of the role of eDNA in bacterial biofilms and antibiotic-resistance gene transfer among isolates. Methods: Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from different non-repeated 170 specimens. The bacterial isolates were identified using morphological and molecular methods. Different concentrations of genomic DNA were tested for their potential role in biofilms formed by study isolates employing microtiter plate assay. Ciprofloxacin resistance was identified by detecting a mutation in gyrA and parC. Results: The biofilm intensity significantly decreased (P < 0.05) concerning S. aureus isolates and insignificantly (P > 0.05) concernin
... Show MoreOne of the prominent goals of Metrical Phonology Theory is providing stress of poetry on the syllable-, the foot-, and the phonological word- levels. Analysing poetry is one of the most prominent and controversial issues for the involved number and types of syllables, feet, and meters are stable in poetry compared to other literary texts. The prosodic seeds of the theory have been planted by Firth (1948) in English, while in Arabic يديهارفلا in the second half of the eighth century (A.D.) has done so. Investigating the metrical structure of poetry has been conducted in various languages, whereas scrutinising the metrical structure of English and Arabic poetry has received little attention. This study aims at capturing the
... Show MoreFind cares studying ways in the development of industrial products and designs: the way the progressive development (how typical) and root development (jump design), was the aim of the research: to determine the effectiveness of the pattern and the jump in the development of designs and industrial products. After a process of analysis of a sample of research and two models of contemporary household electrical appliances, it was reached a set of findings and conclusions including:1-leaping designs changed a lot of entrenched perceptions of the user on how the product works and its use and the size and shape of the product, revealing him about the possibilities of sophisticated relationships with the product, while keeping the typical desi
... Show MoreThe purchase of a home and access to housing is one of the most important requirements for the life of the individual and the stability of living and the development of the prices of houses in general and in Baghdad in particular affected by several factors, including the basic area of the house, the age of the house, the neighborhood in which the housing is available and the basic services, Where the statistical model SSM model was used to model house prices over a period of time from 2000 to 2018 and forecast until 2025 The research is concerned with enhancing the importance of this model and describing it as a standard and important compared to the models used in the analysis of time series after obtaining the
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Among the things that have happened and that have emerged from the developments in society is the phenomenon of dairy banks, where institutions collect milk from donating mothers or sellers of milk and benefit from it by sterilizing and selling it.
This topic is considered one of the important topics, as Islam considers breastfeeding as a link as well as parentage, and it has the same genealogy as the spread of sanctity. Therefore, Imamate jurists addressed this topic with research despite its absence in Islamic societies.
The importance of r
... Show MoreThe power generation of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is being implemented in every nation worldwide due to its environmentally clean characteristics. Therefore, PV technology is significantly growing in the present applications and usage of PV power systems. Despite the strength of the PV arrays in power systems, the arrays remain susceptible to certain faults. An effective supply requires economic returns, the security of the equipment and humans, precise fault identification, diagnosis, and interruption tools. Meanwhile, the faults in unidentified arc lead to serious fire hazards to commercial, residential, and utility-scale PV systems. To ensure secure and dependable distribution of electricity, the detection of such ha
... Show MoreThe present study was performed to spotlight the potential role of soil bacteria in the Al-Rumaila oil field as a bioindicator of heavy metals pollution. For this purpose, nine soil samples were collected from different sites, with 20cm depth, to assess the pollution status depending on the total and available concentrations of heavy metals. The result indicates pollution of the studied soils with the following metals: Cd, Cu, Fe, Zn, and Pb. The mean of total concentration for all studied metals was higher than the allowed maximum limit based on the international limit:(3.394, 3.994, 39.993, 8844.979,150.372, and 103.347 µg/g), respectively. While measuring the total Metal concentration is important in determining the de
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