244 research outputs found
Does the Insanity Defence lead to an Abuse of Human Rights?
No Abstract - Forensic Foru
Patients with severe mental illness: A new approach to testing for HIV
Background. The prevalence of HIV infection in South Africa
is approaching 20% of young adults. In severely mentally ill
people it is probably higher. Testing for infection is subject
to stringent ethical principles. Undiagnosed HIV infection in
people with severe mental illness increases costs and morbidity.
Since effective treatments are available, it is imperative to
diagnose HIV infection early in this high-risk population.
Methods. A literature review established the prevalence of HIV
infection in inpatient populations with HIV infection. The
pattern of testing for HIV over 3 years at a major psychiatric
hospital was investigated. We surveyed public sector
psychiatrists in the Western Cape to establish their attitudes to
HIV in their patients.
Results. The reported HIV seroprevalence in psychiatric
inpatients ranges from 0 to 59.3%, with a mean of 10%. Data
show a clear trend towards an increase in prevalence: before
1996 the mean HIV seroprevalence was 7.4%, while after 1996
the mean was 15%. State psychiatrists in the Western Cape do
not test routinely for HIV infection, mainly owing to ethical
constraints: 14.6% of patients at Lentegeur Hospital were tested
in 2006.
Conclusions. The high prevalence of HIV infection in South
Africa, which is probably higher in patients with severe mental
illness (most of whom are not competent to provide informed
consent), and the availability of effective treatment require
debate and a clear policy regarding testing for HIV infection
to be implemented. We recommend a new approach to HIV
testing in these patients. South African Medical Journal Vol. 98 (3) 2008: pp. 213-21
Does the Insanity Defence lead to an Abuse of Human Rights?
Every day convicted murderers, rapists, and other violent offenders are released by the prisons into the community. Most have not even completed their sentences, as they earned remittances for good behaviour. No one seems to worry that statistically many of these former prisoners remain dangerous, and will probably harm others sometime in the future. 1 In fact, there are criminologists who argue persuasively that fewer offenders should be imprisoned, for the good of their families and communities. This may reflect the confusion about what the actual purpose of imprisonment is, ranging from urges for retribution to achieving rehabilitation. Nevertheless, we are satisfied that when an offender ‘has repaid his debt to society’ he is free to re-enter ordinary life, albeit for a while under the sometimes wavering, watchful supervision of a parole officer
Quantum resource estimates for computing elliptic curve discrete logarithms
We give precise quantum resource estimates for Shor's algorithm to compute
discrete logarithms on elliptic curves over prime fields. The estimates are
derived from a simulation of a Toffoli gate network for controlled elliptic
curve point addition, implemented within the framework of the quantum computing
software tool suite LIQ. We determine circuit implementations for
reversible modular arithmetic, including modular addition, multiplication and
inversion, as well as reversible elliptic curve point addition. We conclude
that elliptic curve discrete logarithms on an elliptic curve defined over an
-bit prime field can be computed on a quantum computer with at most qubits using a quantum circuit of at most Toffoli gates. We are able to classically simulate the
Toffoli networks corresponding to the controlled elliptic curve point addition
as the core piece of Shor's algorithm for the NIST standard curves P-192,
P-224, P-256, P-384 and P-521. Our approach allows gate-level comparisons to
recent resource estimates for Shor's factoring algorithm. The results also
support estimates given earlier by Proos and Zalka and indicate that, for
current parameters at comparable classical security levels, the number of
qubits required to tackle elliptic curves is less than for attacking RSA,
suggesting that indeed ECC is an easier target than RSA.Comment: 24 pages, 2 tables, 11 figures. v2: typos fixed and reference added.
ASIACRYPT 201
- …