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.
The paper aims to build a model that supports organizational sustainability by analyzing the correlations and revealing the impact between the two main variables (entrepreneurial leadership) with its dimensions of proactive outlook, risk, and creativity (Van Zyl & Mathur-Helm, 2007), and (organizational sustainability) with its economic, environmental, and societal dimensions (Hansmann et al., 2012). As well as identifying the level of awareness and informing managers in the General Company for the Automotive and Equipment Industry, of the theoretical implications and performance, and its vital importance to society and the surrounding ecological environment, and drawing attention to that and improving performance, and indicatin
... Show MoreApplying a well-performing heat exchanger is an efficient way to fortify the relatively low thermal response of phase-change materials (PCMs), which have broad application prospects in the fields of thermal management and energy storage. In this study, an improved PCM melting and solidification in corrugated (zigzag) plate heat exchanger are numerically examined compared with smooth (flat) plate heat exchanger in both horizontal and vertical positions. The effects of the channel width (0.5 W, W, and 2 W) and the airflow temperature (318 K, 323 K, and 328 K) are exclusively studied and reported. The results reveal the much better performance of the horizontal corrugated configuration compared with the smooth channel during both melti
... Show MoreBackground: COVID-19 is a disease that started in Wuhan/China in late 2019 and continued through 2020 worldwide. Scientists worldwide continue to research to find vaccines, treatments, and medication for this disease. Studies also conenue to find the pathogenicity and epidemiology mechanisms. Materials and Methods: In this work, we analyzed cases obtained from Alshifaa center in Baghdad/Iraq for 23/2/2020-31/5/2020 with total instances of 797, positive cases of 393, and death cases of 30. Results: Results showed that the highest infection cases were among people aged between 41-45. Also, it was found that males' number of cases was more than females. In contrast, death cases were significantly higher in males than females. It was not
... Show MoreThe recent advancements in security approaches have significantly increased the ability to identify and mitigate any type of threat or attack in any network infrastructure, such as a software-defined network (SDN), and protect the internet security architecture against a variety of threats or attacks. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) are among the most popular techniques for preventing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on any kind of network. The objective of this systematic review is to identify, evaluate, and discuss new efforts on ML/DL-based DDoS attack detection strategies in SDN networks. To reach our objective, we conducted a systematic review in which we looked for publications that used ML/DL approach
... Show MoreIn this research, the problem of ambiguity of the data for the project of establishing the typical reform complex in Basrah Governorate was eliminated. The blurry of the data represented by the time and cost of the activities was eliminated by using the Ranking function and converting them into normal numbers. Scheduling and managing the Project in the Critical Pathway (CPM) method to find the project completion time in normal conditions in the presence of non-traditional relationships between the activities and the existence of the lead and lag periods. The MS Project was used to find the critical path. The results showed that the project completion time (1309.5) dinars and the total cost has reached (33113017769) dinars and the
... Show MoreBackground: The apical seal is the single most important factor in determining the success of surgical endodontics, the aim of this study was to compare the sealing ability of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate in three different cavity designs. Materials and Methods: Thirty extracted human single-rooted teeth were divided into three groups of ten teeth per group, a retrograde cavity preparation was carried out using a low speed handpiece and round bur with parallel walls in the first group, ultrasonic retrotip and unit in the second group and a low speed handpiece with a carbide inverted cone bur with undercuts in the third group, all the cavities were filled with MTA. microleakage was measured by dye penetration technique using methylene blue. Re
... Show MoreThrough research and research in the creative composition in the poetry of Zafer-Alhaddad it turned out to be superior in its systems, especially that he chose a linguistic and verbal texture accompanied by a cultural dictionary full of creativity and beauty helped this culture arrangement reflects the poetically wonderful and beautiful custom led to the harmony of colors and bodies painted by the poet brush the creative artist evaluates the metaphorical and metaphorical relations that would explain the poets idea, most of which were inspired by the wonderful spirit of nature, its beautiful landscapes and bright colors, especially that we do not forget the beautiful colors and the aesthetic touch that created a fascinating musical intera
... Show MoreA case–control study (80 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus [HBV] infection and 96 controls) was performed to evaluate the association of an IL12A gene variant (rs582537 A/C/G) with HBV infection. Allele G showed a signifcantly lower frequency in patients compared to controls (31.2 vs. 46.9%; probability [p]=0.009; corrected p [pc]=0.027) and was associated with a lower risk of HBV infection (odds ratio [OR]=0.49; 95% confdence interval [CI]=0.29–0.83). A similar lower risk was associated with genotypes CG (17.5 vs. 29.2; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.08–0.81; p=0.02) and GG (10.0 vs. 16.7; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.07–0.91; p=0.036), but the pc value was not signifcant (0.12 and 0.126, respec‑ tively). Serum IL35 levels showed signifcant difere
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