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.
This study aims to design unified electronic information system to manage students attendance in Lebanese French university/Erbil, as a system that simplifies the process of entering and counting the students absence, and generate absence reports to expel students who passed the acceptable limit of being absent, and by that we can replace the traditional way of using papers to count absence, with a complete electronically system for managing students attendance, in a way that makes the results accurate and unchangeable by the students.
In order to achieve the study's objectives, we designed an information syst
... Show MoreThis study aims to know the role of strategic leadership to achieving competitiveness in industrial establishments by identifying the respondents’ perceptions about the level of availability of dimensions of leadership strategies (creativity and innovation, risk tolerance, available opportunities) in Bashir Al-Siksek & Partners Company for the manufacture of sanitary and plastic ware in Gaza strip
To achieve this, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of managers, auditors, accountants, and administrative employees in the study sample company. The questionnaire tool was distributed to 60 employees and employees, of which (52) were retrieved, or 86.6%, and (8) were excluded for la
... Show MoreThe heavy metal cadmium is extremely harmful to both humans and animals. Zinc supplementation protects the biological system and reduces cadmium-induced toxicity. This study aimed to determine whether zinc chloride (ZnCl2) could protect male mice with the damaged liver induced by cadmium chloride (CdCl2). The protective role of zinc chloride and expression of the metallothionein (MT), Ki-67, and Bcl-2 apoptotic proteins in hepatocytes were studied after subchronic exposure of mice to cadmium chloride for 21 days. Thirty male mice were randomly categorized into 6 groups (5 mice/group) as follows: a control group that did not receive any treatment, a group given ZnCl2 at 10 mg/kg alone, and two groups received ZnCl2 (10 mg/kg) i
... Show MoreThe current study was designed to remove Lead, Copper and Zinc from industrial wastewater using Lettuce leaves (Lactuca sativa) within three forms (fresh, dried and powdered) under some environmental factors such as pH, temperature and contact time. Current data show that Lettuce leaves are capable of removing Lead, Copper and Zinc ions at significant capacity. Furthermore, the powder of Lettuce leaves had highest capability in removing all metal ions. The highest capacity was for Lead then Copper and finally Zinc. However, some examined factors were found to have significant impacts upon bioremoval capacity of studied ions, where best biosorption capacity was found at pH 4, at temperature 50º C and contact time of 1 hour.
In this paper, the ability of using corn leaves as low-cost natural biowaste adsorbent material for the removal of Indigo Carmen (IC) dye was studied. Batch mode system was used to study several parameters such as, contact time (4 days), concentration of dye (10-50) ppm, adsorbent dosage (0.05-0.25) gram, pH (2-12) and temperature (30-60) oC. The corn leaf was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy device before and after the adsorption process of the IC dye and scanning electron microscope device was used to find the morphology of the adsorbent material. The experimental data was imputing with several isotherms where it fits with Freundlich (R2 = 0.9937) and followed pseudo second order kinetic. The hi
... Show MoreABSTRACT
Learning vocabulary is a challenging task for female English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Thus, improving students’ knowledge of vocabulary is critical if they are to make progress in learning a new language. The current study aimed at exploring the vocabulary learning strategies used by EFL students at Northern Border University (NBU). It also aimed to identify the mechanisms applied by EFL students at NBU University to learn vocabulary. It also aimed at evaluating the approaches adopted by EFL female students at Northern Border University (NBU) to learn a language. The study adopted the descriptive-analytical method. Two research instruments were developed to collect data namely, a survey qu
... Show MoreBackground: Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) is the commonest regular supraventricular tachyarrhythmia. Ablation in the area of slow pathway (SP) has been successfully implemented in every day clinical electrophysiological practice for more than 20 years. Although the procedure is generally regarded as effective and safe, data on long-term effects and predictors of success or failure are incomplete.