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 present work describes guggul as a novel carrier for some anti-inflammatory drugs. Guggulusomes containing different concentration of guggul with aceclofenac were prepared by sonication method and characterized for vesicle shape, size, size-distribution, pH, viscosity, spread ability, homogeneity, and accelerated stability in-vitro drug permeation through mouse skin. The vesicles exhibited an entrapment efficiency of 93.2 ± 12%, vesicle size of 0.769 ± 3μm and a zeta potential of - 6.21mV. In vitro drug release was analyzed using Franz’s diffusion cells. The cumulative release of the guggulusomes gel (G2) was 75.8% in 18 hrs, which is greater than that all the gel formulation. The stability profile of prepare
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The aim of this work is to design an algorithm which combines between steganography andcryptography that can hide a text in an image in a way that prevents, as much as possible, anysuspicion of the hidden textThe proposed system depends upon preparing the image data for the next step (DCT Quantization)through steganographic process and using two levels of security: the RSA algorithm and the digitalsignature, then storing the image in a JPEG format. In this case, the secret message will be looked asplaintext with digital signature while the cover is a coloured image. Then, the results of the algorithmare submitted to many criteria in order to be evaluated that prove the sufficiency of the algorithm andits activity. Thus, the proposed algorit
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Fractal image compression depends on representing an image using affine transformations. The main concern for researches in the discipline of fractal image compression (FIC) algorithm is to decrease encoding time needed to compress image data. The basic technique is that each portion of the image is similar to other portions of the same image. In this process, there are many models that were developed. The presence of fractals was initially noticed and handled using Iterated Function System (IFS); that is used for encoding images. In this paper, a review of fractal image compression is discussed with its variants along with other techniques. A summarized review of contributions is achieved to determine the fulfillment of fractal ima
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In this research, we introduce and study the concept of fibrewise bitopological spaces. We generalize some fundamental results from fibrewise topology into fibrewise bitopological space. We also introduce the concepts of fibrewise closed bitopological spaces,(resp., open, locally sliceable and locally sectionable). We state and prove several propositions concerning with these concepts. On the other hand, we extend separation axioms of ordinary bitopology into fibrewise setting. The separation axioms we extend are called fibrewise pairwise T_0 spaces, fibrewise pairwise T_1 spaces, fibrewise pairwise R_0 spaces, fibrewise pairwise Hausdorff spaces, fibrewise pairwise functionally Hausdorff spaces, fibrewise pairwise regular spaces, fibrewise
... Show MoreThis study aims to focus on the Motives behind volunteer work among a sample of volunteers working in civil society organizations and check if there are statistical differences with those variables according to (gender, age, job, period of volunteer work, and residence. The sample consists of (220 )volunteers,(189) male and(31) female from southern, northern and central governorate .The Volunteer Functions Inventory(VFI)(Clary & et al,1989)was applied, It consisting of(30) items with six fields( Values, Understanding, Social motives, Career, Protective, Enhancement).
The results show that the most common and important motivations are (Values, Understanding, and social motivations), there are differenc
... Show MoreInformation security is a crucial factor when communicating sensitive information between two parties. Steganography is one of the most techniques used for this purpose. This paper aims to enhance the capacity and robustness of hiding information by compressing image data to a small size while maintaining high quality so that the secret information remains invisible and only the sender and recipient can recognize the transmission. Three techniques are employed to conceal color and gray images, the Wavelet Color Process Technique (WCPT), Wavelet Gray Process Technique (WGPT), and Hybrid Gray Process Technique (HGPT). A comparison between the first and second techniques according to quality metrics, Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE), Compression-
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, AA Noaimi, WK Al-Janabi, Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 2013