Prevalence of Hepatitis B and Associated Factors in the Garoua Central Prison, Cameroon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major public health problem in Cameroon. Garoua city is the headquarters of the North Region of Cameroon, where the HBV prevalence is among the highest of the country. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBsAg carriage and associated factors among persons incarcerated in the Garoua Central Prison. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted from July 1 to July 31, 2023 at the Garoua Central prison. We included all prisoners willing to participate in the study and who gave their verbal consent. We collected data using a pre-established data entry form and we used rapid test for blood screening for HBV surface antigen (HBs Ag) with ELISA confirmation. Data were analyzed using the R® software for Windows. After the univariate analysis, we selected associated variables to HBV infection with p-value p-value was set at 5%. Results: We included 1389 prisoners out of which 97.6% were male. The median age (IQR) of the study population was 28 (23 - 35) years. The median (IQR) duration of incarceration was 12 (6 - 26) months and the mean (±sd) number of incarcerations was 1.24 (±0.6). HBV prevalence was estimated at 14.8% (95% CI: 13.0 - 16.7). Upon uni- and multivariate analysis, no risk factor was significantly associated with viral hepatitis B infection in our study population. Conclusion: The prevalence of Hepatitis B was high in the Garoua Central Prison, but there were no additional risk factors for HBV infection. There is a need to include the Garoua Central Prison and by the way other prisons in the country in the chronic viral hepatitis care program.

Prevalence and features of SARS-CoV-2 infection in prisons in Tuscany

BACKGROUND Prisons can be a reservoir for infectious diseases,including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),due to the very intimate nature of the living spaces and the large number of people forced to share them.AIM To investigate the SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology in prisons,this study evaluated the infection incidence rate in prisoners who underwent nasopharyngeal swabs.METHODS This is an observational cohort study.Data collection included information on prisoners who underwent nasopharyngeal swab testing for SARS-CoV-2 and the results.Nasopharyngeal swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 were performed between 15 February 2021 and 31 May 2021 for prisoners with symptoms and all new arrivals to the facility.Another section included information on the diagnosis of the disease according to the International Classification of Diseases,Ninth Revision,and Clinical Modification.RESULTS Up until the 31 May 2021,79.2%of the prisoner cohort(n=1744)agreed to a nasopharyngeal swab test(n=1381).Of these,1288 were negative(93.3%)and 85 were positive(6.2%).A significant association[relative risk(RR)]was found only for the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among foreigners compared to Italians[RR=2.4,95%confidence interval(CI):1.2-4.8].A positive association with SARS-CoV-2 infection was also found for inmates with at least one nervous system disorder(RR=4,95%CI:1.8-9.1).The SARS-CoV-2 incidence rate among prisoners is significantly lower than in the general population in Tuscany(standardized incidence ratio 0.7,95%CI:0.6-0.9).CONCLUSION In the prisoner cohort,screening and rapid access to health care for the immigrant population were critical to limiting virus transmission and subsequent morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population.

心理灵活性中介作用下的监狱人民警察工作倦怠与心理健康的关系

目的:探究监狱警察工作倦怠与其心理健康的关系,以及心理灵活性在二者关系中的中介作用,基于接纳与承诺疗法提出可行的解决办法。方法:采用分层抽样,选取四川省各职级监狱民警364人(男性249人,女性115人),使用工作倦怠量表(MBI-GS,分为情绪衰竭、去个性化、成就感低落3个维度)、心理灵活性问卷(CompACT,接纳与解离、关注当下、价值与行动3个维度)、焦虑症量表(GAD-7)和抑郁症量表(PHQ-9)进行调查。结果:监狱民警工作倦怠检出率为44.5%,其中中度工作倦怠的检出率为22.8%,高度工作倦怠检出率为21.7%;焦虑情绪的检出率为73.35%;抑郁情绪的检出率为81.31%;同时存在焦虑和抑郁情绪的检出率为71.4%;MBI-GS总分对PHQ-9、GAD-7得分的正向预测显著(β=0.58,0.59;P<0.01);MBI-GS总分对CompACT得分的负向预测显著(β=-0.24,P<0.01),CompACT得分对PHQ-9、GAD-7得分的负向预测显著(β=-0.67,-0.67;P<0.01);心理灵活性在工作倦怠和心理健康(PHQ-9、GAD-7)中起中介作用,中介效应占总效应的比例为43.2%。结论:监狱警察存在较高的工作倦怠感及更加严峻的心理问题,工作倦怠感可以正向预测心理健康水平,心理灵活性可以负向预测心理健康水平,并且在工作倦怠与心理健康之间起中介作用,故可采用以心理灵活性为核心的ACT治疗模型对监狱警察的工作倦怠感进行干预,改善心理健康水平。

Defection or Cooperation—Richard Power’s Moral Insights in Prisoner’s Dilemma

Prisoner’s Dilemma is a master trope for relaying the permanent impasse or dilemma of cooperation versus defection.In Prisoner’s Dilemma Richard Powers narrates a multiform of dilemma mainly narrating Eddie Hobson’s traumatic history,along with Eddie’s attempt to carry out a strategy—Eddie’s ideal Hobstown which is supposed to cope with the confused dilemma.Pow⁃ers’strategic moral insights are revealed by assuming that each player feels sympathy for the other and a moral cooperative instead of antagonistic solution to the Prisoner’s Dilemma will be found.

Richard Power’s Philosophical Thoughts in Prisoner’s Dilemma

The“prisoner’s dilemma”illustrates that everyone is rationally thinking about maximizing their own interests and taking their own best strategies,but the end result is counterproductive.In Prisoner’s Dilemma Richard Powers describes multiformareas of dilemma;to lose balance;to make choices;and ask each other:what to do next?It is a master trope for relaying the permanent impasse or dilemma of cooperation versus defection.In most cases,the prisoner's dilemma is more about the number of defeats in the game,and even a major loss of society.Individual rationality is likely to be a collective disregard,and if everyone is acting on the principle of self-interest,it is often the result that everyone is lost.Powers expresses his philosophical insight:Until a cooperative instead of antagonistic solution is collectively agreed upon,we still remain imprisoned in an interminable and oppressive struggle and conflict decided by self-interest and rational control,which is also a moral response to historical consciousness of postmodernism.

狱律与旁律——出土秦汉律篇形成过程探微

秦代律篇主要是以职官律和职事律间杂方式进行分篇,至秦末职官律逐渐向职事律转化。汉初完全继承了秦代的法律体系,并将与盗、贼、亡、收、复、迁等犯罪行为逐渐作为重要的约束对象,而对于抓捕、鞫审、告劾、拘押等有关官吏规范法律进行集合,形成了规范刑事犯罪为主体的“狱律”,其他具有规范性质的律章则放入了“旁律”。至此形成了“狱律”“旁律”体系的二分结构,而“旁律”则作为“狱律”条文的重要来源。

Intentional ingestions of foreign objects among prisoners: A review

The intentional ingestion of foreign objects(IIFO) is described more commonly in prison populations than in the general population, with an estimated annual incidence of 1 in 1900 inmates in our state correctional facilities. Incidents often involve ingestion of small metal objects(e.g., paperclips, razor blades) or other commonly available items like pens or eating utensils. Despite ingestion of relatively sharp objects, most episodes can be clinically managed with either observation or endoscopy. Surgery should be reserved for those with signs or symptoms of gastrointestinal perforation or obstruction. For those with a history of IIFO, efforts should focus on prevention of recurrenceas subsequent episodes are associated with higher morbidity, significant healthcare and security costs. The pattern of IIFO is often repetitive, with escalation both in frequency of ingestions and in number of items ingested. Little is known about successful prevention strategies, but efforts to monitor patients and provide psychiatric care are potential best-practice strategies. This article aims to provide state-of-the art review on the topic, followed by a set of basic recommendations.

An Adaptive Strategy via Reinforcement Learning for the Prisoner＇s Dilemma Game

The iterated prisoner's dilemma(IPD) is an ideal model for analyzing interactions between agents in complex networks. It has attracted wide interest in the development of novel strategies since the success of tit-for-tat in Axelrod's tournament. This paper studies a new adaptive strategy of IPD in different complex networks, where agents can learn and adapt their strategies through reinforcement learning method. A temporal difference learning method is applied for designing the adaptive strategy to optimize the decision making process of the agents. Previous studies indicated that mutual cooperation is hard to emerge in the IPD. Therefore, three examples which based on square lattice network and scale-free network are provided to show two features of the adaptive strategy. First, the mutual cooperation can be achieved by the group with adaptive agents under scale-free network, and once evolution has converged mutual cooperation, it is unlikely to shift. Secondly, the adaptive strategy can earn a better payoff compared with other strategies in the square network. The analytical properties are discussed for verifying evolutionary stability of the adaptive strategy.

Hepatitis C virus infection and prisoners: Epidemiology, outcome and treatment

The studies on hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection in prison populations are few and mostly cross-sectional. We analyzed prevalently the articles appearing on Pub Med in the last ten years. HCV infection is frequent in prisoners, prevalences ranging from 3.1% to 38% according to the HCV endemicity in the geographical location of the prison and in the countries of origin of the foreign prisoners and to the prevalence of intravenous drug use, which is the most important risk factor for HCV infection, followed by an older age of prisoners and previous prison terms. HCV replication in anti-HCVpositive cases varies from 45% to 90% in different studies, and the most common HCV genotypes are generally 1 and 3. The response to antiviral treatment is similar in prisoners to that of the general population. Unfortunately, treatment is administered less frequently to prisoners because of the difficulties in management and follow-up. The new directly acting antivirals offer a good therapy option for inmates because of their good efficacy, short duration of treatment and low incidence of side effects. The efforts of the prison authorities and medical staff should be focused on reducing the spread of HCV infection in prisons by extending the possibility of follow-up and treatment to more prisoners with chronic hepatitis C.

An Exploration of the Relation between Hunting and Aggressiveness: Using Inmates Networks at Prison Secondary School as an Illustration

Aim of this research is to explore the relation of hunting with aggressiveness. For this purpose, two samples of prison inmates (who were students of the prison secondary school) were collected (class A = 23, class B = 12). The network indicators for superficial, idiosyncratic and strategic behavior (particularly, aggressiveness), applied in Bekiari and Hasanagas (2016), which were based on the primary network variables (outdegree, indegree, Katz status, pagerank, authority) were used. Non-network variables were also used for the criminal profile of the inmates. The data were sampled with questionnaire. Spearman test was conducted for detecting correlation between aggressiveness and hunting and Principal Component Analysis was used for formulating a typology. The following results were produced: The criminal profile seems hardly to be related with hunting experience or attitude. The relation of hunting experience and attitude with the superficial, idiosyncratic and strategic aggressiveness was examined. These three occasions of aggressiveness are expected to describe the incidental reaction, impulsive and adaptive reaction, respectively. The hunting is quite irrelevant to the incidental reaction. The impulsiveness seems to be more strongly correlated with hunting. In case of adaptiveness, there are many similarities with impulsiveness. The typology which is based on the existence (or not) of hunting experience seems to be more insightful, as it reveals a gradual involvement of aggressiveness dimensions, from incidentality to impulsiveness and further to adaptiveness. The following behavioral patterns of gradually enhanced aggressiveness appear: incidentally just provoking, impulsively being aggressive but without harming, and adaptively being aggressive and harming.

THE OPTIMAL CONTROL FOR PROMOTING THE COOPERATION IN EVOLUTION GAME GENERATED BY PRISONER'S DILEMMA

Natural selection opposes the evolution of cooperation unless specific mechanisms are at work in Prisoner＇s Dilemma. By taking advantage of the modern control theory, the controller design is discussed and the optimal control is designed for promoting cooperation based on the recent advances in mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation. Two con- trol strategies are proposed： compensation control strategy for the cooperator when playing against a defector and reward control strategy for cooperator when playing against a coop- erator. The feasibility and effectiveness of these control strategies for promoting cooperation in different stages are analyzed. The reward for cooperation can＇t prevent defection from being evolutionary stable strategy （ESS）. On the other hand, compensation for the coopera- tor can＇t prevent defection from emerging and sustaining. By considering the effect and the cost, an optimal control scheme with constraint on the admissible control set is put forward. By analyzing the special nonlinear system of replicator dynamics, the exact analytic solution of the optimal control scheme is obtained based on the maximum principle. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by examples.

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection and its related risk factors in drug abuser prisoners in Hamedan-Iran

AIM:Recent studies in Iran has shown that prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among Iranian prisoners is high, in spite of low HCV seroprevalence in general population. METHODS: This study was carried out in the central prison of Hamedan - Iran, in year 2002. Inmates were interviewed using a standard questionnaire including demographic, imprisonment history and HCV-related risk behaviors items. Thereafter, the sera drawn from the participants were tested for anti-HIV and anti-HCV antibodies. RESULTS: A total number of 427 drug abuser inmates participated in our study. Three hundred and ninety-seven (93%) were men and 30 (7%) were women. Total number of IV drug abusers (IDA) and non-IV drug abusers (NIDA) was 149 (34.9%) and 278 (65.1%), respectively. The overall rate of antibody positivity among inmates was 0.9% for HIV and 30% for HCV. Of all IDAs, 31.5% and of NIDAs, 29.1% had serological evidence of HCV infection. CONCLUSION: The seroprevalence of HCV infection among drug abuser prisoners in comparison with the general population in Iran, is very high (30% vs in italics 0.2%). Our results indicate the importance of policies to prevent transmission of HCV infection during and following incarceration.

Evolutionary prisoner's dilemma game on highly clustered community networks

This paper studies the evolutionary prisoner＇s dilemma game on a highly clustered community network in which the clustering coefficient and the community size can be tuned. It finds that the clustering coefficient in such a degree-homogeneous network inhibits the emergence of cooperation for the entire range of the payoff parameter. Moreover, it finds that the community size can also have a marked influence on the evolution of cooperation, with a larger community size leading to not only a lower cooperation level but also a smaller threshold of the payoff parameter above which cooperators become extinct.

Evolutionary prisoner’s dilemma on Newman-Watts social networks with an asymmetric payoff distribution mechanism

In this paper, we introduce an asymmetric payoff distribution mechanism into the evolutionary prisoner＇s dilemma game （PDG） on Newman Watts social networks, and study its effects on the evolution of cooperation. The asymmetric payoff distribution mechanism can be adjusted by the parameter α： if α〉 0, the rich will exploit the poor to get richer; if α 〈 0, the rich are forced to offer part of their income to the poor. Numerical results show that the cooperator frequency monotonously increases with c~ and is remarkably promoted when c~ 〉 0. The effects of updating order and self-interaction are also investigated. The co-action of random updating and self-interaction can induce the highest cooperation level. Moreover, we employ the Gini coefficient to investigate the effect of asymmetric payoff distribution on the the system＇s wealth distribution. This work may be helpful for understanding cooperative behaviour and wealth inequality in society.

Prison Term Prediction on Criminal Case Description with Deep Learning

The task of prison term prediction is to predict the term of penalty based on textual fact description for a certain type of criminal case.Recent advances in deep learning frameworks inspire us to propose a two-step method to address this problem.To obtain a better understanding and more specific representation of the legal texts,we summarize a judgment model according to relevant law articles and then apply it in the extraction of case feature from judgment documents.By formalizing prison term prediction as a regression problem,we adopt the linear regression model and the neural network model to train the prison term predictor.In experiments,we construct a real-world dataset of theft case judgment documents.Experimental results demonstrate that our method can effectively extract judgment-specific case features from textual fact descriptions.The best performance of the proposed predictor is obtained with a mean absolute error of 3.2087 months,and the accuracy of 72.54%and 90.01%at the error upper bounds of three and six months,respectively.

Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among inmates in Jos maximum security prison

Background: The prevalence of psychiatric illness in correctional settings is significantly elevated, with higher than community rates reported in most mental disorders. The prison is a correctional institution in which inmates have limited liberty, autonomy, and communication with family and friends. This can be devastating to some inmates thereby leading to deterioration in their physical, psychological and social wellbeing. The study was aimed to determine the prevalence of axis 1 psychiatric disorders and associated factors among prison inmates in Jos, Nigeria. Method: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in Jos maximum security prison among 608 inmates. Two sets of data collection instruments were used namely (General Health Questionnaire) GHQ-28 and (Composite International Diagnostic Interview) CIDI. SPSS statistical software package for windows version 15.0 was used for data analysis and test of significance was set at

Prevalence,genotypes and factors associated with HCV infection among prisoners in Northeastern Brazil

AIM： To determine hepatitis C virus （HCV） seropreva- lence and its genotypes, and to identify the factors associated with HCV infection. METHODS： This cross-sectional study, conducted in two prisons （one male and one female） in the State of Ser- gipe, Brazil, comprised 422 subjects. All of the prisoners underwent a rapid test for the detection of HCV antibod- ies. Patient~ with a positive result were tested for anti- HCV by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and for HCV RNA by qualitative polymerase chain reaction （PCR）. The virus genotype was defined in every serum sample that presented positive for PCR-HCV. In order to determine the factors independently associated with positive serol- ogy for HCV, multivariate logistic regression was used. RESULTS： HCV seroprevalence was 3.1%. Of the 13 subjects with positive anti-HCV, 11 had viremia confirmed by PCR. Of these, 90.9% had genotype 1. A total of 43 （10.2%） were injecting drug users, and HCV seroprevalence in this subgroup was 20.6%. The variable most strongly associated with positive serology for HCV was use of injecting drugs [odds ratio （OR）, 23.3; 95% confidence interval （CI）, 6.0-90.8]. Age over 30 years （OR, 5.5; 95%CI, 1.1-29.2）, history of syphilis （OR, 9.8; 95%CI, 1.7-55.2） and history of household contact with HCV positive individual （OR, 14.1; 95%CI, 2.3-85.4） were also independently associated with HCV infection. CONCLUSION： Most of the HCV transmissions result from parenteral exposure. However, there is evidence to suggest a role for sex and household contact with an infected subject in virus transmission.

Effects of Probability of Revelation of Defection and Penalty to Defection on Cooperative Behavior in 2-Person Prisoner＇s Dilemma Game

In our society, it is a major issue to enhance cooperative behaviors. Without this, our society fall into social dilemma situations, and gets worse and worse. Such a situation in an organization leads to violation of social or organizational rules, and at the worst case it suffers from serious accidents or scandals. Therefore, it is important for organizational managers to make efforts and take measures to enhance cooperative behaviors. Although there seem to be many ways to constantly elicit cooperative behaviors, the punishment is one of the most effective measures for enhancing cooperation. This study focused on the effects of penalty and probability of the revelation of defection on the cooperation, and getting insight into how punishment strategy should be used to get rid of social dilemmas and enhance cooperation. This study conducted a simulation experiment to find the proper penal regulations condition that can suppress violations （defective behavior） in a 2-person prisoner＇s dilemma situation. The effects of probability of the revelation of defection and penalty to revelation on the cooperative behavior were identified with the interactive effect of both experimental factors. The defection （uncooperative behavior） decreased when the penalty to the defection was heavy and the probability of the revelation of defection was low than that when the penalty to the defection was light and the probability of the revelation of the defection was high.

The Epidemiology of Self-Harm in the Romanian Juvenile Prison System: A Two-Year Cohort Study

Background: There is no extensive literature on social predictors of self-harm in the juvenile justice system, over the time of a prisoner’s sentence. Self-harm behavior displays a higher prevalence in prison, 11 to 14 times greater than in the general population. Our study extended the current research in self-harm by examining dynamic factors of self-harm in adolescents over their sentence in the Romanian juvenile prison system. Method: The present research examined longitudinal predictors of self-harm behaviors in 439 adolescent inmates (Mage = 16.21;5.2% female, 94.8% male), enrolled in prison during 2011-2012, following them for two years. A series of time-to-event analyses were applied to start from the time of the subject’s internment in the juvenile prison system. Results: Findings from the multivariate survival analyses show that adherence to self-harm conduct in prison was consistently influenced by family factors and prison contexts;although low ability to cope with frustration, sensitivity and emotion dysregulation also mattered. Keeping the other covariates invariant, serving a prison sentence in a closed regime reduces the probability of remaining free of self-harm events, increasing the monthly hazard of self-harm by a factor of 5.26 on average (HR = 5.26, 95% CI = 2.37 - 11.64) compared to the open regime. Conclusion: A greater focus on longitudinal studies may help improve the screening process and also follow the progress of each juvenile to warrant the efficacy of preventive programs in self-harm, according to their emerging needs.