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.
Abstract
Business organizations are using the technological innovations like cloud computing (CC) as a developmental platform in order to improve the performance of their information systems. In that context, our paper discusses know-how in employing the public and private CC to serve as platforms to develop the evaluation system of annual employees' performance (ESAEP) at Iraqi universities. Therefore, we ask the paper question which is “Is it possible to adopt the innovative solutions of ICTs (Like: public and private CC) for finding the developmental vision about management information systems at business organizations?”. In addition, the paper aim
... Show MoreBackground: This study was conducted to assess the effect of sonic activation and bulk placement of resin composite in comparison to horizontal incremental placement on the fracture resistance of weakened premolar teeth. Materials and method: Sixty sound human single-rooted maxillary premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes were used in this study. Teeth were divided into six groups of ten teeth each: Group 1 (sound unprepared teeth as a control group), Group 2 (teeth prepared with MOD cavity and left unrestored), Group 3 (restored with SonicFill™ composite), Group 4 (restored with Quixfil™ composite), Group 5 (restored with Tertic EvoCeram® Bulk Fill composite) and Group 6 (restored with Universal Tetric EvoCeram® co
... Show MoreAchieving an accurate and optimal rate of penetration (ROP) is critical for a cost-effective and safe drilling operation. While different techniques have been used to achieve this goal, each approach has limitations, prompting researchers to seek solutions. This study’s objective is to conduct the strategy of combining the Bourgoyne and Young (BYM) ROP equations with Bagging Tree regression in a southern Iraqi field. Although BYM equations are commonly used and widespread to estimate drilling rates, they need more specific drilling parameters to capture different ROP complexities. The Bagging Tree algorithm, a random forest variant, addresses these limitations by blending domain kno
The paper exposes a discourse taxonomy of language clichéd units in English and Russian, and presents some definitions of what is a cliché as being a semioticform of perceiving language and discourse. Also, it deals with language clichés as being units of structure reflecting a scheme of stereotypical situations of dialogue, whether among individuals of one culture, or in relation to cross-cultural communication. The paper proposes a taxonomy of units in language clichés in English and Russian by tackling clichés of daily use, such as professional, cultural, artistic, and scientific clichés.
Аннотация
... Show MoreUrban expansion and its environmental and safety effects are one of the critical information needed for future development planning, safety considerations and environmental management. This work used two methods to monitor urban expansion and it's environmental and safety effects, the first is based on Google Maps for the years 2002 and 2010, and the second was the usage of spatial videos for the year 2013. Although the usage of satellite images is critical to know and investigate the general situation and the total effects of the expansion on a large piece of area, but the Spatial videos do a very detailed fine scale investigation, site conditions regarding both environmental and safety cannot be easily distinguished fr
... Show MoreNumerous tests are recently conducted to assess vibration's role in accelerating the heat transfer rate in various heat exchangers. In this work, the enhancement of heat transfer by the effect of transfer vibration and inclination angles on the surface of a double pipe heat exchanger experimentally has been investigated. A data acquisition system is applied to record the data of temperatures, flow rates, and frequencies over the tests. A compound technique was adopted, including the application of a set of inclination angles of (0°, 10°, 20°, and 30°) under the effect of frequency of vibration ranging from sub-resonance to over-resonance frequencies. The results showed that the overall heat transfer coefficient enhan
... Show MoreThis book in our hands is a 'book in the science of rhymes' written by the linguistic and grammatical world 'Othman bin Jenni' 'T 392 AH', and included in it: the concept of rhyme, its characters, movements, and disadvantages, with mention of its ramifications, defining them by definition, clarification and martyrdom poetry, It is concise in size, but it is a book containing a full science in its content.
The study was divided into two parts, the first: the study, and included a study of the author and the author, I talked first about his life, such as his name and origin, and scientific status, and the words of scientists in it, and so on, and secondly: the name of the book, and his percentage, and the time of its composition, etc. I
The issue of insurance against unlawful risks raises a jurisprudential and judicial debate between two opposing trends: the first considers coverage of these risks invalid due to their impact on public order or morals, while the second—which this research analyses—calls for the possibility of covering these risks in specific circumstances, based on contractual considerations in accordance with the principle that the contract is the law of the contracting parties, and based on the obligation to compensate the harmed third party—the victim—who has no connection to the unlawful act. In this context, our research highlights that contractual considerations can justify coverage of some unlawful risks, provided that the goal is to achieve
... Show MoreThis work proposes a new video buffer framework (VBF) to acquire a favorable quality of experience (QoE) for video streaming in cellular networks. The proposed framework consists of three main parts: client selection algorithm, categorization method, and distribution mechanism. The client selection algorithm was named independent client selection algorithm (ICSA), which is proposed to select the best clients who have less interfering effects on video quality and recognize the clients’ urgency based on buffer occupancy level. In the categorization method, each frame in the video buffer is given a specific number for better estimation of the playout outage probability, so it can efficiently handle so many frames from different video
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