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.
Buffering of Local anaesthesia (LA) has been suggested as a mechanism to improve injection comfort and hasten the onset of anaesthesia. Aim This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of buffered LA in the extraction of maxillary premolars and molars. Materials and Methods This randomized controlled study included 100 patients who were indicated for extraction of maxillary posterior teeth, they were randomly divided into two groups; a study group that received infiltration of buffered 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with 1:80,000 epinephrine LA, and a control group that received non-buffered 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with 1:80,000 epinephrine LA. The buffering was performed using the Onset® LA buffering system (Onpharma®). The outcome va
... Show MoreThe advancement of digital technology has increased the deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in our daily life. However, locating sensor nodes is a challenging task in WSNs. Sensing data without an accurate location is worthless, especially in critical applications. The pioneering technique in range-free localization schemes is a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) method, which utilizes network connectivity to estimate sensor location without additional hardware. This study presents a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art SMC localization schemes. We present the schemes as a thematic taxonomy of localization operation in SMC. Moreover, the critical characteristics of each existing scheme are analyzed to identify its advantages
... Show MoreIraqi insurance market need to develop products and to find new insurance policies to cover the damages of the violence and political commotions dangers and to meet the needs of the proposers.
The global insurance companies recently issued such policies to pay the losses wich caused by the violent political acts of vandalism suffered by the property and investments wich estimated billions of dollars.
... Show MoreIn our research, we seek to shed a light on one of the most important and sensitive issues, namely, the Sufi influence in the Iraqi novel through the lame maqam of the novelist Jumaa Al-Lami, the Sufi discourse contains many semantic paradoxes between the text's apparent pronunciation and its interpretation of the format and the context that produced these patterns, and incited them, which concludes different results from the prevailing provisions and fixed ideas from the narrative text.The Arabic and Iraqi novel in particular became inspired by the power of Sufi discourse by talking about several Sufi figures by referring to it openly, or implicitly inspired by unauthorized concealment, in employing some of the ideas, or summoning
... Show MoreUnderstanding energy metabolism and intracellular energy transmission requires knowledge of the function and structure of the mitochondria. Issues with mitochondrial morphology, structure, and function are the most prevalent symptoms. They can damage organs such as the heart, brain, and muscle due to a variety of factors, such as oxidative damage, incorrect metabolism of energy, or genetic conditions. The control of cell metabolism and physiology depends on functional connections between mitochondrial and biological surroundings. Therefore, it is essential to research mitochondria in situ or in vivo without isolating them from their surrounding biological environment. Finding and spotting abnormal alterations in mitochondria is the
... Show MoreBackground: Prevention against nosocomial infection is an important issue of health care field and considered a challenge of patients’ since it reflects its effect on their quality of life. This due to that it will lead in most cases to prolonged hospitalization and also more cost.Objective: To determine the prevalence of different types of nosocomial infection and to demonstrate the association of different risk factors (hospital environment, workers, visitors) with nosocomial infection.Patients: this study was carried out in eleven months at Ba’quba general Hospital; Iraq. A total of 81 clinical specimens (urine, pus from abscess , burn swab, nasal swab, ear swab and wound swab) taken from surgical patients,102 specimens from
... Show MoreThis study aims at shedding light on the linguistic significance of collocation networks in the academic writing context. Following Firth’s principle “You shall know a word by the company it keeps.” The study intends to examine three selected nodes (i.e. research, study, and paper) shared collocations in an academic context. This is achieved by using the corpus linguistic tool; GraphColl in #LancsBox software version 5 which was announced in June 2020 in analyzing selected nodes. The study focuses on academic writing of two corpora which were designed and collected especially to serve the purpose of the study. The corpora consist of a collection of abstracts extracted from two different academic journals that publish for writ
... Show MoreSoil wetted pattern from a subsurface drip plays great importance in the design of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system for delivering the required water directly to the roots of the plant. An equation to estimate the dimensions of the wetted area in soil are taking into account water uptake by roots is simulated numerically using HYDRUS (2D/3D) software. In this paper, three soil textures namely loamy sand, sandy loam, and loam soil were used with three different types of crops tomato, pepper, and cucumber, respectively, and different values of drip discharge, drip depth, and initial soil moisture content were proposed. The soil wetting patterns were obtained at every thirty minutes for a total time of irrigation equ
... Show MoreWe propose a new method for detecting the abnormality in cerebral tissues present within Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI). Present classifier is comprised of cerebral tissue extraction, image division into angular and distance span vectors, acquirement of four features for each portion and classification to ascertain the abnormality location. The threshold value and region of interest are discerned using operator input and Otsu algorithm. Novel brain slices image division is introduced via angular and distance span vectors of sizes 24˚ with 15 pixels. Rotation invariance of the angular span vector is determined. An automatic image categorization into normal and abnormal brain tissues is performed using Support Vector Machine (SVM). St
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