Tobacco Smoke and Asthma among Adults at the National and State Levels: Do Smoke-Free Laws and Regulations Affect Smoking Rate among those with Asthma?

ABSTRACT Background: Asthma is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. This results in recurrent episodes of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Although the causes of asthma are poorly understood, genetic and environmental factors have been implicated in the development and exacerbation of the disease. Among environmental risk factors, cigarette smoke is a well-known risk factor to trigger asthma symptoms. Exposure to secondhand smoke irritates the airways and may trigger an attack in adults with asthma. Smoke-free laws and regulations in the United States differ by state. The enforcement of smoke-free legislation has been related to asthma rates as it has been shown that they lead to a sustained drop in emergency hospital admission for asthma among adults. These laws and regulations are also necessary in reducing smoking rate and secondhand smoke exposure. Objective: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the association between tobacco smoke rates and asthma status among adults at the national and state levels and to evaluate the effects of state smoke-free laws and regulations on tobacco smoking rate among adults with asthma. Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2009–2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data was used for the analyses. SAS-callable SUDAAN (version 10.0.0, RTI International, NC) was utilized to account for the complex sampling design of the BRFSS, and sample weights were used to produce estimates that were generalizable to the state and U.S. adult population. In addition to calculating descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression were used to test for group differences and association between variables of interest. State level smoking rates were ranked to identify states that are in the lower and upper 20th percentiles and compare them with states’ smoke-free laws and regulation status. Results were considered significantly different if 95% confidence intervals (CIs) did not overlap or if statistical testing at p\u3c0.05 was applicable. Results: Asthma prevalence rates are higher among adults that smoke cigarettes (10.5%, [aPR] =1.2) compared to non-smokers (7.8%, [aPR] =1.0). Of the 869,519 adult respondents in the survey, 8.5% reported having asthma. Nearly one-fifth (17.2%) of adults without asthma smoked cigarettes, while (21.7 %) of adults with asthma smoked. Females (10.5%) had higher asthma prevalence rates than males (6.4%). Black persons (10.0%), persons of American Indian (13.0%) descent had higher, and those of Hispanic (6.7%) descent had lower asthma rates than white persons (8.6%). Adults with a high school education or less (9.1%) had higher asthma rates than those with an education level that was equivalent to a 4 year college or more (7.3%) , and those with low income (\u3c$15,000) had higher rates (13.3%) than those with high income (6.8%). Percentage of male (23.4%) and females (20.7%) with asthma who smoke are higher than those that do not smoke (19.3% and 15.1%, respectively). Asthma prevalence rates and smoking rates vary by geographic location. Smoking rates among adults with asthma was highest in the South (LA, AL, SC, TN, OK, MS, AR, WV, KY) and a couple of Midwest states (OH, IN,). Evaluating the association between the 2008 State of Tobacco Control Report and smoking rate among adults with asthma by state showed a statistically significant relationship between smoking rate among adults with asthma and smoke-free policy and regulation at the state and national level. On average, states with the lowest smoking rate among persons with asthma (smoking rates less than 20th percentile) had significantly higher smoke-free policy grades (mean grade [sd]=7.2 [1.99]) than states with a high smoking rate (smoking rate of 80th percentile or more) (mean grade [sd]=2.0 [2.00]) (p-value \u3c 0.00001). Conclusion: Although most U.S. state smoke-free policies and regulations are relatively new, it is evident that these laws are effective in promoting cessation among adults and reducing nonsmokers’ exposure to secondhand smoke. The study found that smoke-free laws may improve health by lowering asthma prevalence and smoking rates among adult smokers. Also, these policies in turn protect non-smokers from the harmful health effects of secondhand smoke

Assessing the Relationship Between Training Environment and Training Effectiveness at MAESRK Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.

This study attempt to evaluate the training effectiveness provided by Maersk Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. This study also identify the influencing factors that effect the training effectiveness, that is training environment. Adopted questioners were used for data collection. Out of 100 participants, 75 respondents returned their questioner, making the response rate of 75 percent. Data was processed and analyse using SPSS. Appropriate data analysis technique were used, both for descriptive and inferential analysis. Findings show that respondents perceived that training environment provided Maersk Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. are good especially on their ability in task involvement. Findings also revealed that training environment is significantly associated and influenced the training effectiveness. Suggestion for future research were made at the section of this study

Art in Qatar between Modernism and Postmodernism: Yousef Ahmed as a Case Study

The article discusses the development of art and art movements in Qatar. Throughout the paper, I examine modern and postmodern arts and highlight the roles of different factors that could influence artists in their move between modern and postmodern art and vise-versa. The forms of art developed during the modernist and postmodern periods were influenced by the traits of the people. For example, the modernists constantly searched for the abstract truth of life, while the postmodernists did not believe in the abstract truth. It is important to recognize that postmodern culture is a reaction against the culture of modernism. The works of postmodern artists create reality, whereas those of modernist artists reflect reality. During history, political crisis, natural crisis, economic development and social move have always played fundamental roles in art practice and movement in the world. Through studying art movement of the Qatari artist Yousef Ahmed and his transitions between modern and postmodern art, this paper nalyzes the reasons that might drove post-modern artists to look back at modernism. The paper addresses this question: why did Yousef Ahmed return to modernism after his huge success as a postmodernist artist? Through looking at the question, we realized that the reason for such move it could be the individuals’ real experiences in the real world. Yousef Ahmed had to look back to modernism to move from metaphor to reality so that he could better express his attachment to his culture

Performance Evaluation of a New Hybrid Multivariate Meteorological Model Analysis: A Simulation Study

Simulation is used to measure the robustness and the efficiency of the forecast-ing techniques performance over complex systems. A method for simulating multivariatetime series was presented in this study using vector autoregressive base-process. Byapplying the methodology to the multivariable meteorological time series, a simulationstudy was carried out to check for the model performance. MAPE and MAE performancemeasurements were used and the results show that the proposed method that considerpersistency in volatility gives better performance and theaccuracy error is six time smallerthan the normal hybrid model

Level of resilience measure for communication networks

Our daily life applications have come to depend on communication networks to deliver services in an efficient manner. This has made it possible for an attacker to sabotage its operation.Network resiliency is concerned with the degree the network is able to bounce back to a normal operation in the face of attacks.This paper introduced a new resiliency measure, called Levelof- Resilience (LoR) for communication networks, determined by examining: (a) the Level-of-Stability-Reduction (LoSR), as measured by percentage of "IP traffic dropped", (b) the eventual Level-of-Performance-Reduction (LoPR), as captured by the percentage of reduction in the application Quality-of-Service (QoS), namely latency and (c) Recovery-Time (RT), which is the time the network takes to detect and recover from an attack or a fault, as measured by convergence duration. Previous resiliency measures may only consider one aspect of the above parameters, while this measure is a composite of them. This paper showed that network topology can affect the network resilience, as indicated by the LoR metric.This measure is illustrated by comparing the resiliency level of two communication networks that served the same traffic, but differed in their network topology, under three different attack scenarios

Magnitude of screening for gestational diabetes mellitus in an urban setting in Tanzania; a cross-sectional analytic study

Background: Medical screening detects risk factors for disease or presence of disease in otherwise well persons in order to intervene early and reduce morbidity and mortality. During antenatal care (ANC) it is important to detect conditions that complicate pregnancy, like gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Despite international and local guidelines recommending screening for GDM during ANC, there is evidence to suggest that the practice was not being carried out adequately. A major challenge may be lack of consensus on uniform GDM screening and diagnostic guidelines internationally and locally. The primary objective was to determine the magnitude of screening for GDM among women receiving ANC at the Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam and Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam. Secondary objectives were: to determine the methods used by health practitioners to screen for GDM, to determine the magnitude of undiagnosed gestational diabetes mellitus among women attending ANC and factors associated with screening for GDM among these women. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was done. Data collection was done using pre-tested questionnaires and reviewing antenatal care records. The proportion of women attending ANC who were screened for GDM was determined. The 75 g Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) was offered to women who had not been screened after education and consent. Results: Only 107 out of 358 (29.9%) had been offered some form of GDM screening. Tests used for GDM screening were random blood sugar (56.8%), fasting blood sugar (32.8%), HbA1C (6%) and 75 g OGTT (3.4%). The uptake of the OGTT was 27%. Of these women the prevalence of GDM was 27.9%. Factors associated with screening for GDM were history of big baby, history of pregnancy induced hypertension and participant awareness of GDM (all p: \u3c 0.05). Conclusions: Screening for GDM among women attending ANC was lower than the World Health Organization target. Efforts should be directed towards promoting GDM screening, increasing awareness about GDM and developing more effective screening methods

Optimizing Deep Learning Model Parameters with the Bees Algorithm for Improved Medical Text Classification

This paper introduces a novel mechanism to obtain the optimal parameters of a deep learning model using the Bees Algorithm, which is a recent promising swarm intelligence algorithm. The optimization problem is to maximize the accuracy of classifying ailments based on medical text given the initial hyper-parameters to be adjusted throughout a definite number of iterations. Experiments included two different datasets: English and Arabic. The highest accuracy achieved is 99.63% on the English dataset using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) along with the Bees Algorithm, and 88% on the Arabic dataset using AraBERT

Museums in Qatar: creating narratives of history, economics and cultural co-operation

This thesis traces the history of museums in Qatar to investigate a significant period of transformation - politically, economically and socially - and their role in the reordering of ' things'. I compare the way in which Qatari museums have been used during two different eras, from the 19705 to 1995 and from 1995 to the current day, to demonstrate how museums in Qatar have been politically driven and where they have been used to strengthen a national profile, locally. region ally and globally. A specific study of Qatar National Museum allows for an exploration of how Sheikh Khalifa's aims for the museums in the country changed the community's understanding of their everyday objects, when they were shown in a museum context as a part of a specific narrative of history and change. The economic, social and political paradigm shifts that Qatar is witnessing currently have brought about recognition of the need for a wider and more important role for museums and their acquisitions. Alongside moves to modernise the country, there has begun to be an emphasis on the need to preserve Qatar's traditions and heritage and the desire to rebuild some sites and cities from Qatar's hi story. Throughout these projects, Qatari and Islamic heritage have been utilised in the politicians' vision and plans for globalisation and modernisation. The new museum culture in Qatar acts as a very powerful tool to generate narratives about the country as a nation; however, the opening of these new museums invites debate about why certain objects have been brought together and why specific narratives have been constructed around them. I have completed this research as both a curator employed by the Museums Authority in Qatar since 1998, and as a doctoral student at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. This has created an interesting tension in my work. As an insider, I have had to engage with the cultural basis of understanding demanded of a curator working in Qatar. However, as a research student, I have been required to question, analyse and critique Qatari museum practice. This is the first thesis to explore the history of museums in Qatar conducted by a Qatari employed by the Museums Authority and I have addressed the challenges of this position in my research

Deterritorialization in the context of cultural heritage and globalizing Msheireb downtown Doha

The State of Qatar has witnessed rapid urban activity and development in the decades since the discovery of oil, which has led to a large-scale change in the local cultural heritage and behavior of its residents. This uncontrolled rapid urbanization, along with the acceleration of globalization and modernity that has encompassed all areas, especially the city of Doha, has led to the deterioration and destruction of the downtown area of Msheireb. These transformations threaten the identity and local culture of Qatari society, affecting the place's sense of identity. The country's authorities have rushed to implement strategies and development plans aimed at redeveloping the old city center and improving the environment by creating innovative and inspiring living spaces that enable both locals and foreigners to communicate and integrate with one another to restore a sense of community. This study addresses the “Msheireb Downton Doha” project and the consequences of globalization. The study examines the concept of “deterritorialization” as a cultural condition that has pushed Msheireb Downtown Doha from modernity to postmodernism as an element of globalization. In this study, we will analyze the reconstruction of Msheireb, which helped to move the city toward cultural universality while simultaneously reducing regional borders. The study will analyze the extent to which this process succeeded or failed in preserving the spirit of the area's traditional architectural heritage and cultural identity in a manner that reflects the genuine sentiments and values of Qatari society