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.
Investment drives the wheel of the development of different developed and developing countries. Sudan is a model for a developing country facing a lot of difficulties in the field of both local and foreign investment. The present study was focused on the problem of poor diversification and efficiency of both local and foreign investment in Sudan. Also, it clarified the important role of administrative supervision to strengthen the efficiency of investment, taking the experience of the Sudan as a model. The researchers used the well-known descriptive and analytical tools (questionnaire, interview, observation) to complete this study. A well designed questionnaire was used. It included all questions that could cover all aspects of
... Show MoreIn this work, InSe thin films were deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation technique with a deposit rate of (2.5∓0.2) nm/sec. The thickness of the films was around (300∓10) nm, and the thin films were annealed at (100, 200 and 300)°C. The structural, morphology, and optical properties of Indium selenide thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscope and UV–Visible spectrometry respectively. X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the as deposited thin films have amorphous structures. At annealing temperature of 100°C and 200°C, the films show enhanced crystalline nature, but at 300°C the film shows a polycrystalline structure with Rhombohedral phase with crystallites size of 17.459 nm. Th
... Show MoreEstimation of the unknown parameters in 2-D sinusoidal signal model can be considered as important and difficult problem. Due to the difficulty to find estimate of all the parameters of this type of models at the same time, we propose sequential non-liner least squares method and sequential robust M method after their development through the use of sequential approach in the estimate suggested by Prasad et al to estimate unknown frequencies and amplitudes for the 2-D sinusoidal compounds but depending on Downhill Simplex Algorithm in solving non-linear equations for the purpose of obtaining non-linear parameters estimation which represents frequencies and then use of least squares formula to estimate
... Show MoreIs a high degree of economic freedom an important part in the development of the economies of developing countries in the last decade of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and the atheist. This is because a test subject (deltoid analysis of the relationship between the degree of economic freedom and foreign trade of selected developing countries for the period
( 1990 -2005) to determine the degree of economic freedom in foreign trade promotion in Singapore and Turkey. The research recommends a number of recommendations, the most important is the responsibility of the Ministry of Planning in Iraq that is providing the necessary data for the Fraser Institute, the aim of increasing cooperation
The aim of the research is to identify the trends of Saudi society towards visiting art galleries and museums in light of economic and social transformations after the implementation of the 2030 vision plans. The importance of the research is to track the reasons behind the reluctance of members of society to visit such cultural institutions, and to plan proposals and recommendations for how to attract members of society and motivate them. This research followed the descriptive approach, and the study sample reached 103 members of the Saudi community. several research tools were used in this research such as questionnaire, personal interviews in addition to the researcher notes. The results concluded that the art galleries attract the ap
... Show MoreThe study involved preparing a new compound by combining between 2- hydroxybenzaldehyde and (Z)-3-hydrazineylideneindolin-2-one resulting in Schiff bases and metal ions: Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) forming stable minerals-based-Schiff complexes. The formation of resulting Schiff bases is detected spectrally using LC-Mss which gave corresponding results with theoretical results, 1H-NMR proves the founding of N=CH signal, FT-IR indicates the occurrence of imine band and UV-VIs mean is proved the ligand formation. On the other hand, minerals-based-Schiff was characterized using the same spectral means that relied with ligand (Schiff bases). Those means gave satisfactory results and proved the suggested distinguishable geometries
... Show MoreThe study involved preparing a new compound by combining between 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and (Z)-3-hydrazineylideneindolin-2-one resulting in Schiff bases and metal ions: Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) forming stable minerals-based-Schiff complexes. The formation of resulting Schiff bases is detected spectrally using LC-Mss which gave corresponding results with theoretical results, 1H-NMR proves the founding of N=CH signal, FT-IR indicates the occurrence of imine band and UV-VIs mean is proved the ligand formation. On the other hand, minerals-based-Schiff was characterized using the same spectral means that relied with ligand (Schiff bases). Those means gave satisfactory results and proved the suggested distinguishable geometries.
... Show MoreThe current research aims to identify the impact of the (Landa) model on acquiring grammatical concepts among students of the College of Administration and Economics, University of Baghdad, and to achieve the research goal, the researcher has set the following hypotheses: There are no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (0.05) between the average degrees Students of the experimental group who studied the Arabic language according to the (Landa) model and the marks of the students of the control group who studied the same subject in the usual way in the post test, there are no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (0.05) in the average differences between the test scores before and
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