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 current study was conducted in the environment of the Martyr Monument Lake in the city center of Baghdad during 2019 to monitor the impact of climatic conditions such as drought, water shortage, high temperatures in the environment of the city and the lack of water flow during the years 2015 to 2018 and their effects on some of the physical and chemical factors of water and the dynamics of the phytoplankton community in the lake environment. Heterogeneity of some studied environmental factors, including air and water temperature, permeability, water depth, pH, DO, BOD5, nutrients, nitrate, NO3, and phosphates were found. The results showed the effect of climate change and the pres
Many of the Iraqi agricultural researches are used spraying technique to add chemical products including pesticides and growth regulators. Various studies were performed to study the effect of these substances at different concentrations to improve plant production. In order to adopt specific criteria of spraying researches and to replicate them easily, it is a necessary to mention all information related to the spraying processes and regulations for improving sprayer’s performance by increasing the amount of pesticide deposited on the target. The current study aims to survey Iraqi researches in details and analyse them randomly. Also, to highlight on the importance of information applied in sprayi
Deficiencies in revenue-related accounting standards, including American accounting standards as well as international accounting standards, prompted the issuance of the International Financial Reporting Standard IFRS 15 "Revenue from contracts with customers" as part of the convergence plan between the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) according to the requirements of The joint venture between the two councils, whereby the standard aims to define the basis for reporting useful information to the users of the financial statements about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty about the revenues and cash flows arising from a contract with the customer, The standard is base
... Show MoreIt was not coincidene that much talk about intertxtuality prescription phenomenon tzms the creative process but have directed their tracks beyond the litery taxs prior or contemporaneous as the mechanics of in tertexuality able to contain all the pattems of expression in literary texts and fee structures ofher text copable of understanding and in terpretaion especially as the phenomenon of in twrtexuality actually depends on the existence of Understanding and interpretation, especially as the phenomenon of intertextuality actually depends on the existence of systems indicative independent but carries processes rebuild text templates one way or another are included in the templates and visions of other intellectual, Mstmjh languages cultu
... Show MoreSocial media is known as detectors platform that are used to measure the activities of the users in the real world. However, the huge and unfiltered feed of messages posted on social media trigger social warnings, particularly when these messages contain hate speech towards specific individual or community. The negative effect of these messages on individuals or the society at large is of great concern to governments and non-governmental organizations. Word clouds provide a simple and efficient means of visually transferring the most common words from text documents. This research aims to develop a word cloud model based on hateful words on online social media environment such as Google News. Several steps are involved including data acq
... Show MoreOsmotin and osmotin-like proteins belong to the PR-5 pathogenesis-related group of proteins and are induced in response to various types of biotic and abiotic stresses in several plant species. Carrot was transformed with a tobacco osmotin gene that encodes a protein lacking the vacuolar-sorting motif that is composed of a 20-amino-acid sequence at the C-terminal end, under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Transgene integration and expression were confirmed by Southern and western blot analyses, and three selected transgenic lines were evaluated for their ability to tolerate drought stress. Under drought stress conditions, all transformants exhibited slower rates of wilti
... Show MoreA characteristic study of a passively Q-switched diode pumped solid state laser system is presented in this work. For laser a comparison study for the theoretically calculated results with a simulation results using a software which calculates the Q-switched solid state laser parameters was such as energy, peak power and pulse width were performed. There was a good agreement between our theoretical calculations and the simulation values.
Heat transfer applications usually contemplated day‐to‐day are primarily spotlighted on mixed convection, such as solar collector heating arrangements, electronic cooling, and drying processes. Enhancing convection heat transmission in such appliances can be achieved by inserting porous media, inflow loci, and/or line geometry. In the present paper, convection heat transmission inside a vented curved cavity () with an inserted metal foam layer ( PPI and 0.9% porosity) saturated with water was accomplished. The bottom cavity wall was discretely heated at a constant hot temperature, and the curved wall was kept at a constant cold temperature. Governing equations comprising cont
A new efficient Two Derivative Runge-Kutta method (TDRK) of order five is developed for the numerical solution of the special first order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The new method is derived using the property of First Same As Last (FSAL). We analyzed the stability of our method. The numerical results are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the new method in comparison with some well-known RK methods.
This study aims to reveal the semiotic of “March of Return” cartoon in the Palestinian journalism, topics, Symbols and semantics that were covered.
This study is descriptive. It uses the survey method. Content analysis, and methodological comparison was also used.
The researcher chose an intentional sample of Palestine and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspapers for one year from March 30, 2018 to March 31, 2019, through a comprehensive inventory of all cartoons of the return marches during this period, which amounted to 59 cartoons.
The study has reached the following findings:
Newspapers cartoons focused on the topics of durability of the protester
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