Assessment of alcohol problems using AUDIT in a prison setting: more than an 'aye or no' question

<br>Background: Alcohol problems are a major UK and international public health issue. The prevalence of alcohol problems is markedly higher among prisoners than the general population. However, studies suggest alcohol problems among prisoners are under-detected, under-recorded and under-treated. Identifying offenders with alcohol problems is fundamental to providing high quality healthcare. This paper reports use of the AUDIT screening tool to assess alcohol problems among prisoners.</br> <br>Methods: Universal screening was undertaken over ten weeks with all entrants to one male Scottish prison using the AUDIT standardised screening tool and supplementary contextual questions. The questionnaire was administered by trained prison officers during routine admission procedures. Overall 259 anonymised completed questionnaires were analysed.</br> <br>Results: AUDIT scores showed a high prevalence of alcohol problems with 73% of prisoner scores indicating an alcohol use disorder (8+), including 36% having scores indicating ‘possible dependence’ (20-40). AUDIT scores indicating ‘possible dependence’ were most apparent among 18-24 and 40-64 year-olds (40% and 56% respectively). However, individual questions showed important differences, with younger drinkers less likely to demonstrate habitual and addictive behaviours than the older age group. Disparity between high levels of harmful/hazardous/dependent drinking and low levels of ‘treatment’ emerged (only 27% of prisoners with scores indicating ‘possible dependence’ reported being ‘in treatment’). Self-reported associations between drinking alcohol and the index crime were identified among two-fifths of respondents, rising to half of those reporting violent crimes.</br> <br>Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to identify differing behaviours and needs among prisoners with high AUDIT score ranges, through additional analysis of individual questions. The study has identified high prevalence of alcohol use, varied problem behaviours, and links across drinking, crime and recidivism, supporting the argument for more extensive provision of alcohol-focused interventions in prisons. These should be carefully targeted based on initial screening and assessment, responsive, and include care pathways linking prisoners to community services. Finally, findings confirm the value and feasibility of routine use of the AUDIT screening tool in prison settings, to considerably enhance practice in the detection and understanding of alcohol problems, improving on current more limited questioning (e.g. ‘yes or no’ questions).</br&gt

Locating Photography

The specter of global dissemination haunted photography from its very beginning. This chapter explains two aspects of photography's “globalization”: its use as a “western” technique to document an increasingly colonized world and its dissemination around the world and its adoption by local practitioners. In rural and small‐town central India, the studio retains a central place in most people's encounters with photography. Martín Chambi would retain a lifelong adherence to the purity of the photographic image but other indigenista photographers, such as Juan Manuel Figueroa Aznar, would increasingly use paint alongside photography. A World System Photography, seen in networks that fold locally articulated practices into trajectories that fuse technics, history, and culture, can help people think in new ways about the “location” of photography. Locations have to be re‐imagined as “Terra Infirma”, unstable and complex positions which may have more of the quality of linking sections of a network than of territories

Flow Structure Identification for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems via Finite-Time Lyapunov Analysis

Identifying and characterizing geometric structure in the flow of a nonlinear dynamical system can facilitate understanding, model simplification, and solution approximation. The approach addressed in this paper uses information from finite-time Lyapunov exponents and vectors associated with the tangent linear dynamics. We refer to this approach as finite-time Lyapunov analysis (FTLA). FTLA identifies the potential for flow structure based on the stability and timescales implied by the spectrum of finite-time Lyapunov exponents. The corresponding Lyapunov vectors provide a basis for representing a splitting of the tangent space at phase points consistent with the splitting of the spectrum. A key property that makes FTLA viable is the exponential convergence of the splitting as the finite time increases. Tangency conditions for the vector field are used to determine points on manifolds of interest. The benefits of the FTLA approach are the dynamical model need not be in a special normal form, the manifolds of interest need not be attracting nor of known dimension, and the manifolds need not be associated with a fixed point or periodic orbit. After a brief review of FTLA, it is applied to spacecraft stationkeeping around a libration point in the circular restricted three-body problem. This application requires locating the stable and unstable subspaces at points on periodic and aperiodic orbits. For the periodic case, the FTLA subspaces are shown to agree with the Floquet subspaces; for the quasi-periodic case, the accuracy of the FTLA subspaces is demonstrated by simulation

Structure and genetic diversity of Ixora margaretae an endangered species. A baseline study for conservation and restoration of natural dry forest of New Caledonia

International audienceThe dry forests of New Caledonia are an excep- tional ecosystem because of their numerous endemic botan- ical species and their highly diversified fauna of insects, mollusks, reptiles and birds. Unfortunately, the area of the dry forests has been significantly reduced, mainly by human activities. Ecological, phenological and genetic analysis of Ixora margaretae, a symbolic species of the sclerophyll forest, has revealed contrasting traits among natural stands. The division of the natural range and then the separation of forest islands has greatly reduced the existing genetic vari- ability of this species. The genetic diversity is strongly structured in genetic clusters which correspond well to spe- cific ecotypes according to the environmental conditions and the forest types. Furthermore, genetic analysis of the reproductive and non-reproductive trees as well the half- sib families obtained by complete protection of mothertrees has revealed substantial genetic drift which has resulted in increased loss of allelic variability. The total consumption of seeds by mainly rats confirms the ob- served absence of natural regeneration. All these results show that measures taken to protect the stands of dry forests will not be enough to maintain sufficient genetic variability of I. margaretae populations in the long term. Assisted regeneration with control of the increase in var- iability will be necessary to maintain the biodiversity of the species. The results obtained for I. margaretae must be confirmed with other symbolic species in order to take the necessary measures for the effective preservation of the dry forests in New Caledoni