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.
A compact microstrip six-port reflectometer (SPR) with extended bandwidth is proposed in this paper. The design is based on using 16-dB multi-section coupled line directional couplers and a multi-section 3-dB Wilkinson power divider operating from 1 to 6 GHz. The proposed SPR employs only two calibration standards: a matched load and an open load. As compared to other dielectric substrates, fabricating the proposed SPR involves using a low-cost (FR4) substrate. A novel algorithm is also proposed to estimate the complex reflection coefficient over the frequency ranges at which the standard performance of the circuit components is not fully satisfied. The new algorithm is based on the circles’ intersection points, which have been de
... Show Moreplanning is among the most significant in the field of robotics research. As it is linked to finding a safe and efficient route in a cluttered environment for wheeled mobile robots and is considered a significant prerequisite for any such mobile robot project to be a success. This paper proposes the optimal path planning of the wheeled mobile robot with collision avoidance by using an algorithm called grey wolf optimization (GWO) as a method for finding the shortest and safe. The research goals in this study for identify the best path while taking into account the effect of the number of obstacles and design parameters on performance for the algorithm to find the best path. The simulations are run in the MATLAB environment to test the
... Show MoreA substantial portion of today’s multimedia data exists in the form of unstructured text. However, the unstructured nature of text poses a significant task in meeting users’ information requirements. Text classification (TC) has been extensively employed in text mining to facilitate multimedia data processing. However, accurately categorizing texts becomes challenging due to the increasing presence of non-informative features within the corpus. Several reviews on TC, encompassing various feature selection (FS) approaches to eliminate non-informative features, have been previously published. However, these reviews do not adequately cover the recently explored approaches to TC problem-solving utilizing FS, such as optimization techniques.
... Show MoreThe need for quick airborne transportation is critical, especially in emergencies. Drones with suspended payloads might be used to accomplish quick airborne transportation. Due to the environment or the drone's motion, the slung load may oscillate and lead the drone to fall. The altitude and attitude controls are the backbones of the drone's stability, and they must be adequately designed. Because of their symmetrical and simple structure, quadrotor helicopters are one of the most popular drone classes. In this work, a genetic algorithm with two weighted terms fitness function is used to adjust a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller to compensate for the altitude and attitude controllers in a quadrotor drone with a slun
... Show MoreRotational Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting (RPZTEH) is widely used due to mechanical rotational input power availability in industrial and natural environments. This paper reviews the recent studies and research in RPZTEH based on its excitation elements and design and their influence on performance. It presents different groups for comparison according to their mechanical inputs and applications, such as fluid (air or water) movement, human motion, rotational vehicle tires, and other rotational operational principal including gears. The work emphasises the discussion of different types of excitations elements, such as mass weight, magnetic force, gravity force, centrifugal force, gears teeth, and impact force, to show their effect
... Show MoreThis paper numerically and theoretically investigates the optical and thermal performance of a parabolic trough collector PTC system. Many numerical simulations and theoretical analyses are conducted to demonstrate the influence of the receiver geometry and shifting from the focal position on the optical performance. The examined receiver geometries are circular, square, triangular, elliptical, and the new circular–square combined geometry is named as channel receiver. The thermal performance of PTC is examined for different volume flow rates theoretically in the range of (0.36 to 2.4 lpm). The results show that the best optical design is the channel receiver with an intercept factor of 84%, while the worst is the elliptical receiver with
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