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.
Production of fatty acid esters (biodiesel) from oleic acid and 2-ethylhexanol using sulfated zirconia as solid catalyst for the production of biodiesel was investigated in this work.
The parameters studied were temperature of reaction (100 to 130°C), molar ratio of alcohol to free fatty acid (1:1 to 3:1), concentration of catalyst (0.5 to 3%wt), mixing speed (500 to 900 rpm) and types of sulfated zirconia (i.e modified, commercial, prepared catalyst according to literature and reused catalyst). The results show the best conversion to biodiesel was 97.74% at conditions of 130°C, 3:1, 2wt% and 650 rpm using modified catalyst respectively. Also, modified c
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Objectives: The study aims to reveal the approach of Imam Al-Salmi in the weighting between the apparently conflicting texts, and to show the extent of his agreement and disagreement with the rest of the fundamentalists, and does he have vocabulary that can be used to elicit legal rulings in modern contemporary issues?
Method: The method of induction and analysis is one of the main tools to reach the research results. The study resorted to following the sayings of Imam Al-Salmi in various sources and fatwas and standing on them, then analyzing and applying them to the various branches of jurisprudence in the various jurisprudential chapters.
... Show MoreBriefly the term of cyber security is a bunch of operations and procedures working on insurance and protecting the network, computer devices, the programs and data from attack and from damaging penetration, also from breaking, abstraction and disturbing in spite of the fact that the concept of cyber conflict is got widening. So, the needs arise in the state to secure cyberspace and protect it by several methods to confront the electronic intrusions and threats which is known as cyber security. Countries seek to preserve its national security in particular the United States of America after the events of September 11 ,2001. In addition, the United States follow all ways to take over cyber threats.
The chemical, physical and toxicological effects on health of synthetic dyes that used as tracking dye in the electrophoresis requires seriously search about alternative tracking dye. The present study is aimed to find an alternative dye from safe food dyes which commonly used in food coloring. Five dyes were selected depending on their chemical properties and the availability in local market: Brilliant Blue FCF, Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow FCF, Carmoisine, and green traditional, three dyes were chosen to be mixed as loading buffer: Brilliant Blue FCF, Sunset Yellow FCF as a basic because it give the whole range size of most traditional loading buffers that available in market, and adding the Carmoisine as a new indicator for the bands less t
... Show MoreThe influence of Cr3+ doping on the ground state properties of SrTiO3 perovskite was evaluated using GGA-PBE approximation. Computational modeling results infered an agreement with the previously published literature. The modification of electronic structure and optical properties due to Cr3+ introducing into SrTiO3 were investigated. Structural parameters assumed that Cr3+ doping alters the electronic structures of SrTiO3 by shifting the conduction band through lower energies for the Sr and Ti sites. Besides, results showed that the band gap was reduced by approximately 50% when presenting one Cr3+ atom into the SrTiO3 system and particularly positioned at Sr sites. Interestingly, substituting Ti site by Cr3+ led to eliminating the band ga
... Show MoreCertain cyclic amine derivatives of metronidazole via acetate spacer were prepared. Cyclic amines used are piperidine and piperazine to improve the physicochemical properties and reduce some of metronidazole side effects. This is believed to be done by modification of its structural features to get prodrugs with improved properties over that of metronidazole. The present work includes esterification of metronidazole with choroacetic acid, N-alkylation of the cyclic amines by the halogenated ester and characterization of their structures by spectral(UV and IR) and elemental(CHN)analysis.The melting points, degree of solubilities and partition coefficients were also determined. Both metronid
... Show MoreThe world's population growth and the increasing demand for new infrastructure facilities and buildings , present us with the vision of a higher resources consumption, specially in the form of more durable concrete such as High Performance Concrete (HPC) . Moreover , the growth of the world pollution by plastic waste has been tremendous. The aim of this research is to investigate the change in mechanical properties of HPC with added waste plastics in concrete. For this purpose 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% in volume of natural fine aggregate in the HPC mixes were replaced by an equal volume of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste , got by shredded PET bottles. The mechanical propert
... Show MoreThe aesthetic contents of data visualization is one of the contemporary areas through which data scientists and designers have been able to link data to humans, and even after reaching successful attempts to model data visualization, it wasn't clear how that reveals how it contributed to choosing the aesthetic content as an input to humanize these models, so the goal of the current research is to use The analytical descriptive approach aims to identify the aesthetic contents in data visualization, which the researchers interpreted through pragmatic philosophy and Kantian philosophy, and analyze a sample of data visualization models to reveal the aesthetic entrances in them to explain how to humanize them. The two researchers reached seve
... Show MoreMCM-48 zeolites have unique properties from the surfaces and structure point of view as it’s shown in the results ,and unique and very sensitive to be prepared, have been experimentally prepared and utilized as a second-generation/ acid - catalyst for esterification reactions of oleic acid as a model oil for a free fatty acid source with Ethanol. The characterization of the catalyst used in the reaction has been identified by various methods indicating the prepared MCM-48 is highly matching the profile of common commercial MCM-48 zeolite. The XRF results show domination of SiO2 on the chemical structure with 99.1% and agreeable with the expected from MCM-48 for it's of silica-based, and the SEM results show the cubic c
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