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

Islamic shrines architecture is one of the Islamic Architectural building types. It is called (Thresholds); (Atabat) in Arabic. Thoroughbred throughout the Islamic world from the east to west. In addition, it carries the style features and peculiarities of uniqueness from the rest of the types of Islamic architecture. By virtue of the particularity of its function as tomb for important person in Islamic history. Islamic shrines architecture has grown and evolved in started from the small shrines, and then taken to widen with the evolution of time in line with the value of the event and the rituals associated with it. Some of them to became centers of large cities of the largest in many parts of the Islamic world.

The extraction process of chlorophyll from dehydrated and pulverized alfalfa plant were studied by percolation method. Two  solvent systems were used for the extraction namely; Ethanol-water and Hexane-Toluene systems . The effect of circulation rate, solvent concentration, and solvent volume to solid weight ratio were studied. In  both ethanol water, and Hexane-Toluene systems it appears that solvent concentration is the most effective variable.

Modern emerged technologies impose development and fabrication of miniatur-ized parts and devices in the micro- and nano-scale. Producing micro- and nano-featured structures requires nonconventional machining processes where con-ventional machining processes such as grinding, milling and eroding have failed. New emerging processes, such laser machining processes, are still fraught with almost invincible processes. Micro-/nano-machining are the pro-cesses of producing parts, microsystems or features at a scale of a few microm-eters and less than one hundred nanometers, respectively. Precise cutting and clean material removal accompanied with a negligible heat affected zone (HAZ), which are usually the characteristics of laser ablation, have

Amongst the literary writers who used their art to direct the attention towards the issue of woman and her rights in a proper life is the English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who has been praised for his “openness to the feminine principle” 1 as Irving Howe put it. Hardy’s wide readings have changed his way of dealing with and thinking about so many critical issues which started to float on the surface of the English society during the mid and late of the 19th century. His readings for a number of writers, who seem of huge impact on his writings as he later admits that – “[his] pages show harmony of view with

The activity of Alanine aminopeptidase( AAP ) was measured in the urine of healthy and urinary tract cancer patients , the results showed higher activity of (AAP) in patients compared to healthy . AAP was Purified from the urine of healthy and patients with urinary tract cancer by dialysis and gel filtration (Sephadex G – 50) and two isoenzymes of (AAP) were separated from urine by using ion-exchang resin (DEAE – Sephadex A – 50 ) in previous study. The kinetics studies showed that both isoenzymes I and II obeyed Michaelis – Menton equation . with optimal concentration of alanine-4-nitroanilide as substrate for isoenzymes I and II which was (2 x 10-3 mol/L ). The two isoenzymes obeyed Arrhenius equation up two 37° C and t

Abstract 

This paper presents an intelligent model reference adaptive control (MRAC) utilizing a self-recurrent wavelet neural network (SRWNN) to control nonlinear systems. The proposed SRWNN is an improved version of a previously reported wavelet neural network (WNN). In particular, this improvement was achieved by adopting two modifications to the original WNN structure. These modifications include, firstly, the utilization of a specific initialization phase to improve the convergence to the optimal weight values, and secondly, the inclusion of self-feedback weights to the wavelons of the wavelet layer. Furthermore, an on-line training procedure was proposed to enhance the control per

In this paper waste natural material (date seed) and polymer particles(UF) were used for investigation of  removal dye of the potassium permanganate. Also study effect some variables such as pH, dye concentration and adsorbent concentration on dye removal. 15 experimental runs were done using  the itemized conditions designed established on the Box-Wilson design employed to optimize dye removal. The optimum conditions for the dye removal were found: (pH) 12, (dye con.) 2.38 ppm, (adsorbant con.) 0.0816 gm for date seed with 95.22% removal and for UF (pH) 12, (dye con.) 18 ppm, (adsorbant con.) 0.2235 gm with 91.43%. The value of R-square was 85.47%  for Date seed  and (88.77%) for UF.

In this research, the performance of asphalt mixtures modified with polyethylene polymer (PE) by adding 2%, 4%, and 6% percentages was evaluated. Two kinds of PE are employed: Low-Density PE (LDPE) and High-Density PE (HDPE). The semi-wet mixing technique (SWM) was conducted to avoid stability issue for PE-modified binder during storage condition. Many experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the ability of these mixtures to withstand the effects of loads and moisture. The hardness index of these mixtures was also measured to determine their resistance to the effects of high temperatures without causing permanent deformations. The results showed that adding PE led to a remarkable enhancement in the performance of PE-modified mixtures.

The present study addresses adopting the organic and nutritious materials in dairy wastewater as media for cultivation of microalgae, which represent an important source of renewable energy. This study was carried out through cultivation of three types of microalgae; Chlorella sp., Synechococcus, and Anabaena. The results shows the success the cultivation of the Synechococcus and  Chlorella Sp, while the Anabaena microalgae were in low-growth level. The highest growth was in the Synechococcus farm, followed by Chlorella and Anabaena. However, the growth of Synechococcus required 10 days to achieve this increase that re