Tuberculosis (TB) Trends Among Refugee, Other Foreign-Born, and US-Born Cases in DeKalb County During 2004-2015

BACKGROUND: On World TB Day 2016, CDC reported an increase in number of US tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2015, the first time in 23 years. TB is the largest cause of mortality from any bacterial disease worldwide, with 95% of cases and deaths in low and middle-income countries, where it remains endemic. The recent increase in US TB cases highlights the fact that TB is a global issue, thus requiring a global effort to achieve elimination, with particular focus on active TB and Latent TB Infection (LTBI) identification and treatment among populations at high risk. The refugee population requires particular attention, considering TB disproportionately afflicts refugees and there are more refugees worldwide today than in the past 20 years. Georgia is among the top 10 US states for refugee arrivals, with majority resettling in DeKalb County, approximately 90% in 2010. There is a lack of data on TB rates among these populations and effects of implementation of the 2007 expanded CDC Technical Instructions on imported TB and LTBI reactivation. OBJECTIVES: (1) Estimate and compare TB disease incidence rates among refugee, other foreign-born, and US-born populations in DeKalb County from 2004 to 2015 (2) Determine refugee TB case contribution to total DeKalb County TB case burden (3) Examine possible trends in number of cases diagnosed ≤ 6 months of US entry, among refugee and other foreign-born persons screened overseas before and after implementation of 2007 expanded CDC Technical Instructions. METHODS: Retrospective study on all new TB cases diagnosed in DeKalb County during 2004-2015. Due to the lack of data on refugee population estimates along with the dynamic nature of this population, three different annual incidence rates were calculated for refugees and other FB. Participant characteristics were compared using chi-square tests and univariate analyses to identify significant differences between groups. Logistic regression was used to model change in number of TB diagnoses ≤ 6 months of US entry against implementation status (pre vs. post) and immigration status (refugee vs. other-FB). RESULTS: From 2004 to 2015, a total of 898 active TB cases were diagnosed in DeKalb County; 569 total foreign-born (144 refugees and 425 other foreign-born) and 329 US-born. Age, race/ethnicity, TB verification type, HIV status, and previous TB diagnosis were found to have significant differences between groups (p \u3c 0.05). Throughout the study period, the highest TB incidence rate was among refugees followed by other FB, and drastically lower rates among US-born. There were significantly more diagnoses ≤ 6 months of US entry among post vs pre-implementation, OR: 2.784 (95% CI: 1.683 – 4.606). Refugee vs. other-FB, OR: 5.103 (95% CI: 3.085 – 8.442). Majority of cases with prior B1 classification (83.6%) were diagnosed ≤ 6 of US entry, which is considered to be possible imported TB, While (90.9%) persons with Class B2, although few, were diagnosed ≤ 6 months of US entry, which suggests possible LTBI reactivation. DISCUSSION: Although TB cases and rates have decreased in DeKalb County over the years, particularly among US-born persons, the foreign-born population remains disproportionately afflicted, with majority of county disease burden, over 70% in 2015. Refugee TB rates in DeKalb County are more comparable to rates in high TB incidence low and middle-income countries rather than US rates. Imported TB and LTBI activation may be major factors involved in the stagnation of progression towards TB elimination. Efforts need to refocus on LTBI identification and treatment to tackle the global issue of TB

IMPLEMENTASI NILAI KEDISIPLINAN DAN KERJASAMA PADA EKSTRAKURIKULER PRAMUKA RUTIN DI SD

Scouting activities are mandatory for every elementary school to hold regularly, but can this develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation? In this research, many journals and books were taken or using a literature study method to find out whether scouting activities could be implemented or not. Then in the research, it was found that scouting activities can develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation among students in elementary school. Scouting activities are mandatory because they can help develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation in students, so this will be even more so if these activities continue in elementary schools

IMPLEMENTASI NILAI KEDISIPLINAN DAN KERJASAMA PADA EKSTRAKURIKULER PRAMUKA RUTIN DI SD

Scouting activities are mandatory for every elementary school to hold regularly, but can this develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation? In this research, many journals and books were taken or using a literature study method to find out whether scouting activities could be implemented or not. Then in the research, it was found that scouting activities can develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation among students in elementary school. Scouting activities are mandatory because they can help develop the values ​​of discipline and cooperation in students, so this will be even more so if these activities continue in elementary schools

The Propagation of Laser Light in Skin by Monte Carlo- Diffusion Method: A Fast and Accurate Method to Simulate Photon Migration in Biological Tissues

INTRODUCTION: Due to the importance of laser light penetration and propagation in biological tissues, many researchers have proposed several numerical methods such as Monte Carlo, finite element and green function methods. Among them, the Monte Carlo method is an accurate method which can be applied for different tissues. However, because of its statistical nature, Monte Carlo simulation requires a large number of photon pockets to be traced, so it is computationally expensive and time- consuming. Although other numerical methods based on the diffusion method are fast, they have two important limitations: first, they are not valid near the bounder of sample and source, and second, their accuracy is less than Monte Carlo method.METHODS: In this study, we combine the accuracy of Monte Carlo method and speed of the diffusion method. This hybrid method is faster than Monte Carlo Method and its accuracy is higher than the diffusion method.RESULTS: We first evaluate this hybrid model and the reflectance of a biological phantom is calculated by Monte Carlo method and this hybrid model. Then the propagation of laser light in the skin tissue has been studied.CONCLUSION: In this study, a combined method based on the Monte Carlo method and the diffuse equation is introduced. This hybrid method is five times faster than Monte Carlo Method, and its accuracy is higher than the diffusion method. The propagation of laser light in skin has also been studied by this hybrid method and its accuracy shows that it can be applied for laser penetration in biological tissues. It seems that this method is good for photo dynamic therapy (PDT) and optical imagin

Urdu Speech and Text Based Sentiment Analyzer

Discovering what other people think has always been a key aspect of our information-gathering strategy. People can now actively utilize information technology to seek out and comprehend the ideas of others, thanks to the increased availability and popularity of opinion-rich resources such as online review sites and personal blogs. Because of its crucial function in understanding people's opinions, sentiment analysis (SA) is a crucial task. Existing research, on the other hand, is primarily focused on the English language, with just a small amount of study devoted to low-resource languages. For sentiment analysis, this work presented a new multi-class Urdu dataset based on user evaluations. The tweeter website was used to get Urdu dataset. Our proposed dataset includes 10,000 reviews that have been carefully classified into two categories by human experts: positive, negative. The primary purpose of this research is to construct a manually annotated dataset for Urdu sentiment analysis and to establish the baseline result. Five different lexicon- and rule-based algorithms including Naivebayes, Stanza, Textblob, Vader, and Flair are employed and the experimental results show that Flair with an accuracy of 70% outperforms other tested algorithms.Comment: Sentiment Analysis, Opinion Mining, Urdu language, polarity assessment, lexicon-based metho

Review Analisis Pendidikan Fisika Berbasis Etnosains, Budaya, dan Kearifan Lokal di Indonesia

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah menganalisis review isi artikel sintesa dengan fokus pada daerah penelitian, tujuan, variasi metode, dan temuan. Metode pengumpulan data penelitian mengadopsi desain PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses), terdiri dari empat langkah: identifikasi, penyaringan, kelayakan, dan inklusi. Pencarian artikel dilakukan dengan menggunakan aplikasi publish or perish yang ditautkan langsung ke pencarian Google Cendekia. Jumlah artikel yang ditemukan adalah 3000 artikel pada periode 2017 hingga 2022. Penelitian ini memutuskan untuk mereview 15 artikel dengan sebaran Pendidikan Fisika Berbasis Etnosains  6 artikel, Pendidikan Fisika Berbasis Budaya 4 Artikel, dan Pendidikan Fisika Berbasis Kearifan Lokal 5 Artikel. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Kalimantan Selatan merupakan daerah di Indonesia yang dijadikan tempat penelitian terbanyak yaitu 20% dengan topik pendidikan fisika berbasis budaya, dan pendidikan fisika berbasis kearifan lokal. tujuan penelitian rata-rata adalah mengembangkan produk, menganalisis, mendiskripsikan dan mengembangkan karakter. Metode penelitian yang digunakan juga bervariasi, antara lain: R&D, kualitatif deskriptif, kuasi-eksperimental, dan pendekatan rasch model. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa topik ini menarik untuk dipelajari karena berpengaruh positif terhadap hasil belajar, meningkatkan berpikir kritis, kemampuan literasi sains, meningkatkan kreativitas serta meningkatkan motivasi belaja

ELEMENTARY PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY IN MATHEMATICS

Self-efficacy (SE) is related to someone’s belief influencing their success, including success in teaching mathematics for elementary pre-service teachers. This research aimed to analyse: 1) the self-efficacy difference between high-levelled students and moderate-levelled students; 2) the correlation of self-efficacy indicators; 3) correlation of self-efficacy statements, and 4) pattern interpretation of significant correlation tendency between each self-efficacy statement on elementary pre-service teachers. The subjects of this research were the senior students of Primary Education Department in one of private universities in Bandung. The self-efficacy data were obtained from 149 students. The correlation and mean difference test analysis were done with the support of SPSS. The result showed that the self-efficacy of high-levelled students was better than the self-efficacy of medium-levelled students, there was positive significant correlation either for each self-efficacy indicator or self-efficacy statement. From the correlation, there was a meaningful pattern for self-efficacy of elementary pre-service teachers

Design Approval Smart Application for Dubai Electricity installations (DASA-DUBAI)

Design Approval smart application for assure the healthy and safety installations for buildings and properties in Dubai using programming and automations. It will enable the engineers in the concerned departments to have effective use of time and effort through having automatic first line defends reviewing the submissions of the electrical engineers contractors/ consultants who will be referred to as customers through the project description. The application will be a data base that carries the original standards and regulations that related to the installations of the electricity wiring in the government of Dubai. That kind of information’s are already distributed as written documents in both hard/soft copies. Having such a general standards and regulations that been updated every couple of years made it such a hard time to the customers to follow up. Also, in the same time it’s difficult to the customer to submit the correct submission from the first time trail to the concern department of electricity. This application will have the support of the city strategies in adaptation of the digital tools and program in order to be the masters in the digital transformation in the world. We are aligned with the fast improvement of the technologies all over the world. We will focused on the elements of how we can enable the software with the current/modification of hardware along with the networks and the rapidly increase of the data are pervading the business world quickly, deeply and broadly. In same time we will not neglecting the faster environment developments that the city is looking forwards such as the interfacing the machine learning and the Arterial intelligence in all industrial and governmental aspects. Moreover, the application will be as guidance tools to the upcoming business companies that would be establishing new business in Dubai. They will find the smart and digital way to know about the regulations and standards in more professional ways. However, the government employee will be able to have more control in the productivity through the day. It’s by having the first line defense ready as the machine dealing with the initial phase of the approval procedures. That will give him the power to use the time effectively. Moreover, transfer him to more powerful employee with skills to improve and modified some of the features that it’s already in the system. Having to learn about the system and observer of the how the application is working and give some enhancement. Which make him part of continues development in the application will increase his involvements and commitment to success of the application. That have different angle of the technology and how it will affect the social aspects too. The application will have the options to view the measurements of the electrical equipments and 2-3 dimensions of the sites to give fulfill views to the engineers how setting in the disk in his company. Moreover, the application will show some of the ideal projects tablets to make it easy to the customer to follow up with the types of their projects such as: if the project building is existing for 30 years ago and some modification will be done as a renovation. As customers concerned about the budget and the way he can make the job done with least changes. More over as a government utility we study the cases as individual to safe the network and the safety of the resident primary. This is to be some of the challenges that we will be discussing later through the project

Cytotoxicity of a New Nano Zinc-Oxide Eugenol Sealer on Murine Fibroblasts

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of a new nano zinc-oxide eugenol (NZOE) sealer in comparison with AH-26 and Pulpdent root canal sealers. Methods and Materials: The L929 mouse fibroblast cells were cultivated and incubated for 24, 48 or 72 h with different dilutions (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32) of culture media previously exposed to either of the test sealers naming NZOE, AH-26 or Pulpdent. At the end of incubation period, the effect of sealers on cell viability was evaluated using Mosmann’s Tetrazolium Toxicity (MTT) colorimetric assay. The data was compared using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey’s post hoc test for multiple comparisons. Results: After 24, 48 or 72 h, both NZOE and Pulpdent sealers inhibited cell viability at 1/1, 1/2 and 1/8 dilutions. Within the 24 and 48 h, the AH-26 sealer reduced the cell viability at all dilutions except the 1/32 solution; however after 72 h even the 1/32 dilution was cytotoxic. Conclusion: The biocompatibility of the nano zinc-oxide eugenol sealer was comparable to Pulpdent sealer and lower than AH-26.Keywords: Cytotoxicity; MTT Assay; Nanoparticles; Root Canal Sealer; Zinc-Oxide Eugenol

Assessment of Noise Impact of Air Traffic at Dubai International Airport

The aviation industry in UAE has experienced rapid expansion over the past decade due to increase in economic growth and technological advancements. UAE’s total fiscal investment on airport development over the coming 20 years is estimated to exceed Dh 71 billion (US$19.35 billion). Civil aviation now a day is considered one of the greatest environmental concerns which lead to many different environmental problems. The International Aviation Organization (ICAO) secretariat considered aircraft noise as the most significant cause of adverse community reaction relating to the operation and expansion of airports. This is expected to remain the case in most regions of the world for the foreseeable future. Dubai International Airport (DIA) was established in 1959. The site was chosen not just for its proximity to town but also with future expansion in mind. Since 1992 the growth rate of incoming aircraft at DIA has been exponential, and the airport capacity has doubled between 1980 and 2001. Aircraft movement is further expected to increase in the next 20 years with the already constructed new terminal. The negative impacts of noise resulting from airport operations are known and documented globally. However, a difficulty arise in predicting the variations and changes in airport operations and aircraft noise. The specific objectives of this study were to assess the noise exposure levels, contour the noise profile within the surroundings of DIA, and depict long-term future noise exposure. Field measurements of aircraft noise were undertaken close to the runway 12L/30R end point as well at 7 key locations in the vicinity of DIA. The aircraft noise was modeled using the Integrated Noise Model (INM) which is developed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to simulate the current and future noise levels based on steady increase in flight operation. A future annual growth rate of 10.3% till the end of 2010 and 3.5% till the end of 2015 was used based on feedback from local authorities. The local order 61/1991 of the Emirate of Dubai states that “noise level should not exceed 55 dBA between 7:00 am and 8:00 pm and between 8:00 pm and 7:00 am”. Values for community noise set by WHO state that the equivalent noise level for outdoor living area should not exceed 55 dBA. Noise measurement in the vicinity of DIA shows that equivalent noise level varies from 45-65.1 dBA during normal flight hours and from 43.8 – 69.4 dBA during busy flight hours. Also, there was a reduction in the noise level by almost 8 dBA between day and night time measurements. Measured noise level in the vicinity of the airport were close to those predicted under the current conditions. Predicted noise level at the end of 2010 at Al Rashidiya and Mirdif are 62.3 and 65.2 dBA, respectively. The predicted noise level at the end of 2015 at the two community locations will rise to 63 and 69.5 dBA, respectively. Hence, the noise under current and future flight conditions is 7-11 dBA higher (especially at night) than the regulatory limits at certain locations surrounding DIA. Mitigations scenarios were stimulated to develop guidance and mitigation measures to minimize aircraft noise impact in the vicinity of DIA. This was achieved by utilizing the runway end usages and considering wind direction. Results of the mitigated cases lead to change in noise contour and shapes and reductions of the noise level at the most affected areas like Al Khabaisi). The results also illustrated a reduction in the noise level by 3-8 dBA at Mirdif and Al Rashidiya. The second objective of the study was to assess the impact of aircraft noise from DIA on the surrounding community by conducting an individual noise survey at seven areas with consideration of distance and population density. A total of 172 respondents filled the distributed questionnaire. About 78% of the respondents were annoyed by the noise level due to aircraft movement art DIA, mainly in the areas which are in line with the flight path. There is also a difference in the percentage of people annoyed among the surveyed areas due to the differences in the distance from the airport as well as the location within the path of the runway and the flight tracks. The most affected areas based on respondents’ input were Al Tawar and Mirdif. Finally several recommendation were presented by studying airports mitigation procedures, plans and legislations and considering the respondents suggestions. The noise abatement was one of the most recommended procedures by ICAO Committee on Aviation Environment Protection (CAEP). Thus, noise abatement procedures are used to redistribute the noise produced during the flight to alleviate the impact of noise on the most sensitive areas. Changing runways and routes, special noise abatement maneuvers during take-off and approach, reduces the number of people exposed to noise at specific areas around airports