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.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women over the world. To reducing reoccurrence and mortality rates, adjuvant hormonal therapy (AHT) is used for a long period. The major barrier to the effectiveness of the treatment is adherence. Adherence to medicines among patients is challenging. Patient beliefs in medications can be positively or negatively correlated to adherence. Objectives: To investigate the extent of adherence and factors affecting adherence, as well as to investigate the association between beliefs and adherence in women with breast cancer taking AHT. Method: A cross-sectional study included 124 Iraqi women with breast cancer recruited from Middle Euphrates
... Show More
Mixed convection heat transfer to air inside an enclosure is investigated experimentally. The bottom wall of the enclosure is maintained at higher temperature than that of the top wall which keeps in oscillation motion, whereas the left and right walls are well insulated. The differential temperature of the bottom and top walls changed several times in order to accurately characterize the temperature distribution over a considerable range of Richardson number. Adjustable aspect ratio box was built as a test rig to determine the effects of Richardson number and aspect ratio on the flow behavior of the air inside the enclosure. The flow fields and the average Nusselt number profiles were presented in this wo
... Show MorePurpose: the purpose of study is estimate the Risk premium, Interest rate, Inflation and FDI in the through of Coronavirus in the MENA countries. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework included the study of the main variables, which are risk premium, interest rate, inflation, and foreign direct investment during the Corona virus pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Concentrating on “COVID-19”, as an effective factor on the Foreign direct investment (FDI), I employ data of “MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa)” countries from 2000 to 2021 to investigate the impact of COVID-19, financial and macroeconomic indicators on FDI relying on the analytic research approach of Static panel data regression, includ
... Show MoreThis research aims to shed light on the reality of the process of rehabilitation of human resources for the implementation of electronic management practice in the ministry, and availability requirements of the application of electronic management and diagnosis of the most important stages and steps that can be followed in the process of transition towards electronic management to keep abreast of developments in the field of information technology, has been the application of this research in the Ministry of science and technology on a group of heads of departments and directors of the people in the departments of the Ministry through the use of case study method, which includes cohabitation field intervi
... Show MoreAbstract:
The researcher shed light on a diet in Iraq before 2003 became in this period. And how the ration card has a variety of vocabulary and cover the need of the population of commodities and have a key role in saving Iraq from a real crisis in the period of economic siege, especially in light of the State's direction to support the agricultural sector, which in that period able to fill half of the market needs of food the basic. As well as providing strategic storage at the Ministry of Commerce enough for six months But after the events of 2003 and the crises that hit the country and the unstable security situation began to rise voices calling for reform of the ration card system as a system that is a burden on the
... Show MoreCommunity detection is useful for better understanding the structure of complex networks. It aids in the extraction of the required information from such networks and has a vital role in different fields that range from healthcare to regional geography, economics, human interactions, and mobility. The method for detecting the structure of communities involves the partitioning of complex networks into groups of nodes, with extensive connections within community and sparse connections with other communities. In the literature, two main measures, namely the Modularity (Q) and Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) have been used for evaluating the validation and quality of the detected community structures. Although many optimization algo
... Show MoreWhen writing a text, such as a newspaper article, various types of discourse markers are frequently used to group sentences into paragraphs and parts in order to establish a discourse with certain functions, such as coordination, orientation, emphasizing the concepts presented, etc. It should also be noted that this type of mark exists in both written and spoken language. Therefore, it is convenient to dedicate a chapter to these linguistic elements to clarify their use and their classification, which is mainly based on Jose Portolés (2001), as well as the main features, specifically their features (prosodic, morphological, semantic and pragmatic).
Resumen
... Show More
Introduction/Aim. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in pediatric population and adolescents. Limited data is available on the characteristics of RMS in Iraqi pediatric patients. The aim of the study was to examine the clinical and histological aspects of RMS in Iraqi children, with a focus on their response to treatment, prognosis, and survival. Methods. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Oncology Unit of Children's Welfare Teaching Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq and included patients who were newly diagnosed with RMS and received treatment during the period between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2019. The patients were followed up from the time of diagnosis until October 1, 2020.
... Show More