Background: Rituximab is a chimeric IgG1 kappa immunoglobulin that has been genetically modified to incorporate human constant region sequences together with murine light- and heavy-chain variable region sequences. People use it to treat rheumatoid arthritis and certain malignancies. Objective: The study aimed to assess the potential association between the serum levels of Factor I, CD59, interleukins (IL)-6, and interferon-gamma (IFN)-γ and the response to Rituximab treatment in Iraqi rheumatoid arthritis patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the rheumatology center at Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Ninety adult patients who have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and are receiving Rituximab intravenous infusions were included. The enrolled patients were divided into a responder group (45 patients) and a non-responder group (45 patients). The response to Rituximab was assessed according to the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28). Results: The serum levels of Factor I and CD59 were significantly higher in the non-responders group in comparison to the responders group. In addition, the serum IL-6 and IFN-γ levels were significantly elevated in the non-responders group in comparison to the responders group. The estimated marker serum levels showed a strong, significant correlation with the 6-month change in DAS28. Conclusions: In Rituximab nonresponder RA patients, serum levels of Factor I, CD59, Factor H, IL-6, and IFN-γ are higher, and they have good potential to be used in the assessment of the response to Rituximab therapy.
Biomass is a popular renewable carbon source because it has a lot of potential as a substitute for scarce fossil fuels and has been used to make essential compounds like 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). One of the main components of biomass, glucose, has been extensively studied as a precursor for the production of HMF. Several efforts have been made to find efficient and repeatable procedures for the synthesis of HMF, a chemical platform used in the manufacturing of fuels and other high-value compounds. Sulfonated graphite (SG) was produced from spent dry batteries and utilized as a catalyst to convert glucose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Temperature, reaction time, and catalyst loading were the variables studied. When dimethyl sulfo
... Show MoreIn this work, the circular patch antenna was fabricated and analyzed. Microwave Studio (version 2019) computer simulation technology (CST) was used to design the circular patch antenna. The material FR-4 was used to build this antenna, using the computer numerical control (CNC) method to implement this work. For the purpose of accomplishing this design, the values of the resonant frequency, dielectric constant and dielectric thickness of the material used as in 4.424, 2.4 GHz and 0.159 cm respectively were used as inputs to the CST program to get the said program outputs for the required antenna radius with the logarithmic function (F) of the circular patch antenna 1.6909 cm and 1.7415 cm respectively. Practically, the b
... Show MorePortland Cement is manufactured by adding 3% gypsum to clinker which is produced by grinding, pulverizing, mixing, and then burning a raw mix of silica, and calcium carbonate. Limestone is the main source of carbonates, while clay collected from arable land is the main source of silica. The marl in the Euphrates Formation was studied as an alternative to arable lands. Nine boreholes drilled and penetrated the marl layer in selected locations at the Kufa cement quarry. Forty-one samples of marl from boreholes and four samples of limestone from the closed area were collected. The chemical content of the major oxides and the hardness of the marl layer was very encouraging as a raw material for Portland Cement as they are SiO2 (17.60),
... Show MoreThe effect of three ionic liquids viz., 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (ILE), 1-hexyl-3-metylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (ILF) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (ILG) when used as surfactants on the performance of dissolved air floatation (DAF) was investigated.
Experiments were conducted at a temperature of 30-35 ºC, 10ppm ferric chloride as coagulant, 50% recycle ratio, pH 8, and 10 minutes treatment time to find oil and grease (OG) and turbidity removal efficiencies at saturation pressure (2-6) bar.
ILs were used at concentration of 50 µl/liter of treated water in two positions in DAF system; the saturation vessel and the treatment tank. The performance using ILs
... Show MoreThe effluent quality improvement being discharged from wastewater treatment plants is essential to maintain an environment and healthy water resources. This study was carried out to evaluate the possibility of intermittent slow sand filtration as a promising tertiary treatment method for the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) effluent. Laboratory scale slow sand filter (SSF) of 1.5 UC and 0.1 m/h filtration rate, was used to study the process performance. It was found that SSF IS very efficient in oxidizing organic matter with COD removal efficiency up to 95%, also it is capable of removing considerable amounts of phosphate with 76% and turbidity with 87% removal efficiencies. Slow sand filter efficiently reduced the mass of suspended
... Show MoreTreated effluent wastewater is considered an alternative water resource which can provide an important contribution for using it in different purposes, so, the wastewater quality is very important for knowing its suitability for different uses before discharging it into fresh water ecosystems. The wastewater quality index (WWQI) may be considered as a useful and effective tool to assess wastewater quality by indicating one value representing the overall characteristic of the wastewater. It could be used to indicate the suitability of wastewater for different uses in water quality management and decision making. The present study was conducted to evaluate the Al-Diwaniyah sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent quality based on wastewa
... Show MoreToxic substances have been released into water supplies in recent decades because of fast industrialization and population growth. Fenton electrochemical process has been addressed to treat wastewater which is very popular because of its high efficiency and straightforward design. One of the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) is electro-Fenton (EF) process, and electrode material significantly affects its performance. Nickel foam was chosen as the source of electro-generated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) due to its good characteristics. In the present study, the main goals were to explore the effects of operation parameters (FeSO4 concentration, current density, and electrolysis time) on the catalytic performance that was optimized by r
... Show MoreThis paper describes the transport of Alkaloids through Rotating Discs Contactor (RDC) using n-decane as a liquid membrane. The transport of Pelletierine Alkaloid from a source phase through bulk liquid membrane to the receiving phase has been investigated. The general behaviour of Pertraction process indicates that% Extraction of pelletierine Alkaloid increased with increase in the number of stages and the agitation speed but high agitation speed was not favoured due to the increased risk of droplet formation during the operation. The pH of source and receiving phases were also investigated. The effect of organic solvent membrane on the extraction of Pelletierine was evaluated using ndecane, n-hexane and methyl cyclohexane. The results sho
... Show MoreIn this paper, the memorization capability of a multilayer interpolative neural network is exploited to estimate a mobile position based on three angles of arrival. The neural network is trained with ideal angles-position patterns distributed uniformly throughout the region. This approach is compared with two other analytical methods, the average-position method which relies on finding the average position of the vertices of the uncertainty triangular region and the optimal position method which relies on finding the nearest ideal angles-position pattern to the measured angles. Simulation results based on estimations of the mobile position of particles moving along a nonlinear path show that the interpolative neural network approach outperf
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