Health problems among detainees in Switzerland: a study using the ICPC-2 classification.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the health status of prisoners in Switzerland. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed description of the health problems presented by detainees in Switzerland's largest remand prison. METHODS: In this retrospective cross-sectional study we reviewed the health records of all detainees leaving Switzerland's largest remand prison in 2007. The health problems were coded using the International Classification for Primary Care (ICPC-2). Analyses were descriptive, stratified by gender. RESULTS: A total of 2195 health records were reviewed. Mean age was 29.5 years (SD 9.5); 95% were male; 87.8% were migrants. Mean length of stay was 80 days (SD 160). Illicit drug use (40.2%) and mental health problems (32.6%) were frequent, but most of these detainees (57.6%) had more generic primary care problems, such as skin (27.0%), infectious diseases (23.5%), musculoskeletal (19.2%), injury related (18.3%), digestive (15.0%) or respiratory problems (14.0%). Furthermore, 7.9% reported exposure to violence during arrest by the police. CONCLUSION: Morbidity is high in this young, predominantly male population of detainees, in particular in relation to substance abuse. Other health problems more commonly seen in general practice are also frequent. These findings support the further development of coordinated primary care and mental health services within detention centers.

Pathophysiology and classification of the vibration white finger.

Skin, arteries and nerves of the upper extremities can be affected by vibration exposure. Recent advances in skin and vascular biology as well as new investigative methods, have shown that neurovascular symptoms may be due to different vascular and neurological disorders which should be differentiated if proper management is to be evaluated. Three types of vascular disorder can be observed in the vibration white finger: digital organic microangiopathy, a digital vasospastic phenomenon and arterial thrombosis in the upper extremities. An imbalance between endothelin-1 and calcitonin-gene-related peptide is probably responsible for the vasospastic phenomenon. Moreover, paresthesiae can be due to either a diffuse vibration neuropathy or a carpal tunnel syndrome. A precise diagnosis is then necessary to adapt the treatment to individual cases. A classification describing the type and severity of the vascular lesions is presented. Asymptomatic lesions are included for adequate epidemiological studies and risk assessment of vibrating tools. Monitoring of vibration exposed workers should include not only a questionnaire about symptoms, but also a clinical evaluation including diagnostic tests for the screening of early asymptomatic neurovascular injuries.

Video Gaming in Children Improves Performance on a Virtual Reality Trainer but Does Not yet Make a Laparoscopic Surgeon.

Background: In children, video game experience improves spatial performance, a predictor of surgical performance. This study aims at comparing laparoscopic virtual reality (VR) task performance of children with different levels of experience in video games and residents. Participants and methods: A total of 32 children (8.4 to 12.1 years), 20 residents, and 14 board-certified surgeons (total n = 66) performed several VR and 2 conventional tasks (cube/spatial and pegboard/fine motor). Performance between the groups was compared (primary outcome). VR performance was correlated with conventional task performance (secondary outcome). Results: Lowest VR performance was found in children with low video game experience, followed by those with high video game experience, residents, and board-certified surgeons. VR performance correlated well with the spatial test and moderately with the fine motor test. Conclusions: The use of computer games can be considered not only as pure entertainment but may also contribute to the development of skills relevant for adequate performance in VR laparoscopic tasks. Spatial skills are relevant for VR laparoscopic task performance.

Cluster kernels for semisupervised classification of VHR urban images

In this paper, we present and apply a semisupervised support vector machine based on cluster kernels for the problem of very high resolution image classification. In the proposed setting, a base kernel working with labeled samples only is deformed by a likelihood kernel encoding similarities between unlabeled examples. The resulting kernel is used to train a standard support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Experiments carried out on very high resolution (VHR) multispectral and hyperspectral images using very few labeled examples show the relevancy of the method in the context of urban image classification. Its simplicity and the small number of parameters involved make it versatile and workable by unexperimented users.