WYSIWYP: What You See Is What You Pick.

Scientists, engineers and physicians are used to analyze 3D data with slice-based visualizations. Radiologists for example are trained to read slices of medical imaging data. Despite the numerous examples of sophisticated 3D rendering techniques, domain experts, who still prefer slice-based visualization do not consider these to be very useful. Since 3D renderings have the advantage of providing an overview at a glance, while 2D depictions better serve detailed analyses, it is of general interest to better combine these methods. Recently there have been attempts to bridge this gap between 2D and 3D renderings. These attempts include specialized techniques for volume picking in medical imaging data that result in repositioning slices. In this paper, we present a new volume picking technique called WYSIWYP ("what you see is what you pick") that, in contrast to previous work, does not require pre-segmented data or metadata and thus is more generally applicable. The positions picked by our method are solely based on the data itself, the transfer function, and the way the volumetric rendering is perceived by the user. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed method, we apply it to automated positioning of slices in volumetric scalar fields from various application areas. Finally, we present results of a user study in which 3D locations selected by users are compared to those resulting from WYSIWYP. The user study confirms our claim that the resulting positions correlate well with those perceived by the user.

Childhood behavioral inhibition and maternal symptoms of depression.

BACKGROUND: The significance of behavioral inhibition in the second year of life for the development of social phobia in later childhood was the incentive to explore whether maternal postnatal psychopathology is a predictor for behavioral inhibition in the offspring. METHOD: 101 mother-infant pairs were recruited from local obstetric units and examined for maternal psychopathology by the Symptom Checklist and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale several times during the first postnatal year. Child behavioral inhibition was assessed at 14 months in a laboratory procedure. RESULTS: Postpartum depression at 4 months measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was found to be strongly associated with toddlers' fear score/behavioral inhibition at 14 months. Maternal depressive symptoms assessed by the revised 90-item Symptom Checklist at 6 weeks , 4 and 14 months were found to be related to child inhibition as well. CONCLUSIONS: Even maternal depression not reaching the level of clinical diagnosis and treatment has an impact on child behavioral development. These data should give rise to further studies on the origins of this relationship, which might be primarily genetic or interactional.

Maternal depressive symptoms in the postnatal period are associated with long-term impairment of mother-child bonding.

BACKGROUND: Postnatal Depression has demonstrated long-term consequences on child cognitive and emotional development, however, the link between maternal and child pathology has not been clearly identified. OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether maternal bonding to the infant and young child is impaired by maternal depressive symptoms. METHODS: 101 mothers of newborn infants were recruited from local obstetric units and examined for psychopathology using Symptom Checklist, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire at two weeks, six weeks, four months and fourteen months postpartum. RESULTS: Maternal depressive symptoms at 2 weeks, 6 weeks and four months postnatally but not at fourteen months of infant's age were found to be strongly associated with lower quality of maternal bonding to the infant and child from two weeks until fourteen months of postnatal age. Even mild and unrecognized maternal depressive symptoms had a significant impact on maternal bonding, if they occurred during the first four months of life. CONCLUSIONS: This gives reason for increased concern for mother-infant dyads in the first few months after birth that could be regarded as a highly sensitive period for the development of the mother-child relationship. The findings warrant further studies and inspire the development of preventive programs focussing on infant and early childhood mental health by emphasizing protection and support during the first critical months.

A novel test model for routine microbiological control of automated washer/disinfectors for flexible endoscopes.

Concerns exist about effective methods for endoscope cleaning, disinfection and sterilization. The aim of this study was to establish a model for controlling the function of automatic washer/disinfectors for flexible endoscopes under routine conditions. The team developed a dummy endoscope channel system representing two complete gastroscopes and a colonoscope, with channels joined together and fitted with adaptors to allow the models to fit into different washer/disinfectors. The models were artificially contaminated with various combinations of four test organisms and coagulating blood and run through test cycles in different washer/disinfectors. A total of 24 test runs were performed. The reduction of a given microbial burden by at least five log steps is an established measure of efficacy of a decontamination procedure. When the two challenge tests (45 channels) and the six positive controls are excluded, only 13/309 channels (4.2%) failed the proof of efficacy. In contrast, the failure rate in the challenge test was 65.3%. The difference of the final bioburden is statistically significant. The data suggest this test model could be regarded as a first step in rational and reliable biological control of flexible endoscope reprocessing.