Christoph Borzikowsky

The role of occlusion cues in apparent motion

Classical apparent motion stimuli exhibit an inherent ambiguity with respect to the onsets and offsets of the stimulus elements. Sigman and Rock (1974, Perception 3 9 – 28) presented evidence suggesting that occlusion cues are used to resolve this ambiguity. We present results from experiments designed to further test predictions of this hypothesis. As expected, we found that the apparent motion of a target stimulus is suppressed when a ‘moving’ occluder is positioned such that it rationalises the onsets and offsets of the stimulus elements constituting the target. Somewhat unexpectedly, though, we also observed a slight tendency for motion suppression under conditions where the target was only partially occluded. The expected motion suppression occurred both with solid occluders and purely virtual Kanizsa-like occluders, although it was not always observed in the latter case. Motion suppression was found to occur over a wide range of stimulus onset asynchronies. Finally, we used binocular disparity cues to test the occlusion account of the motion suppression phenomenon against an alternative explanation in terms of attentional factors. The results are in clear favour of the occlusion account.

Sensory symptoms in low back pain—how do they matter?

Abstract Objective: Successful treatment of chronic low back pain (LBP) is difficult in clinical practice and hard to measure in trials. One reason might be the use of insufficient outcome parameters. The aim was to investigate the importance of typical clinical characteristics of chronic LBP on QoL and functionality. Methods: A total of 51 patients with chronic LBP (19 with, 32 without radiculopathy) were investigated with different questionnaires. Results: Burdening symptoms differed in frequency, intensity and impairment of QoL and functionality between patients with and without radiculopathy and between the area of pain within the same patient, i.e. between back and leg. Symptoms of nerve affection such as prickling pain and numbness were rated higher in the area of radiating pain than on the back in radiculopathy, and typical neuropathic pain symptoms such as burning pain, prickling, spontaneous pain, and feeling of deep pressure and pain at the beginning of movement were rated with a higher impairment of QoL and functionality in patients with compared to those without radiculopathy. Furthermore, intensity, impairment of QoL, and functionality were not necessarily reported in association with one another: some patients were highly impaired in QoL or functionality, despite a moderate-to-low pain intensity, whereas others suffered from severe pain, but were less impaired in QoL or functionality. Conclusion: Results suggest the consideration of impairment of QoL and functionality in addition to symptom intensity for treatment evaluation of chronic LBP. This can help to improve overall well-being of the patients and enhance efficacy in clinical pain trials and patient-centered treatment.

Ocular Trauma Score as prognostic value in traumatic ocular injuries due to rotating wire brushes

PurposeRotating wire brushes are used, e.g., for rust removal. Detaching fragments can cause severe eye injuries. The purpose of this study was to investigate mechanism, severity, clinical outcome, validity of Ocular Trauma Score (OTS) and to assess the likelihood of final visual acuity.MethodsTwenty patients with traumatic ocular injuries by rotating wire brushes were included. Location and type of injury, grade of injury according to OTS, surgical procedure, and development of visual acuity were evaluated.ResultsEleven accidents (55%) happened at work, nine at home (45%). Eighteen injuries (90%) were penetrating, one (5%) was perforating. In one case (5%), an intraocular foreign body was present. One case each was classified OTS 1 and 2 (5%), six cases OTS 3 (30%), four cases OTS 4 (20%), and eight cases OTS 5 (40%). None of the patients was wearing safety goggles. Fourteen patients (70%) were surgically treated. Of these, five were treated at the anterior segment only, nine additionally underwent pars-plana vitrectomy. Nine patients received phacoemulsification. Mean best corrected visual acuity was logMAR 1.0 (2/20) at admission and 0.3 (10/20) at last follow-up. Our results were similar to those in the OTS study, except for OTS 1 (p = 0.046). Comparing the categorical distribution of final visual acuity in all OTS categories, no statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.119) between our results and the OTS study group.ConclusionsOTS may provide prognostic information in traumatic ocular injuries by rotating wire brushes. The injuries could have been avoided by wearing safety goggles.

Intercultural Competence by International Experiences? An Investigation of the Impact of Educational Stays Abroad on Intercultural Competence and Its Facets:

Intercultural competence (ICC) can be defined as a complex of abilities that are needed to interact with people from other cultures adequately and effectively. The goal of the present study was to investigate the development of ICC during international experiences. We conducted a quasi-experimental longitudinal study with a sample of N = 273 individuals. Whereas 199 participants went abroad for at least 3 months, the remaining 74 participants stayed in Germany during the same period. ICC was operationalized with the short version of the Test to Measure Intercultural Competence, which measures six facets of ICC multi-methodically with a self-appraisal test and a situational judgment test. We calculated regression analyses within the framework of change score models, thereby yielding significant increases in global ICC after 3 months abroad. Analyzing the six facets of ICC, we found the greatest increase for Cultural Identity Reflection, which is defined as intensively and constantly reflecting upon one’s own cultural character. We discuss our results with regard to the conceptualization of ICC and the relevance of stays abroad.

Multiples of Median-Transformed, Normalized Reference Ranges of Steroid Profiling Data Independent of Age, Sex, and Units

Background/Aims: The high complexity of pediatric reference ranges across age, sex, and units impairs clinical application and comparability of steroid hormone data, e.g., in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). We developed a multiples-of-median (MoM) normalization tool to overcome this major drawback in pediatric endocrinology. Methods: Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry data comprising 10 steroid hormones representing 905 controls (555 males, 350 females, 0 to > 16 years) from 2 previous datasets were MoM transformed across age and sex. Twenty-three genetically proven CAH patients were included (21-hydroxylase deficiency [21OHD], n = 19; 11β-hydroxylase deficiency [11OHD], n = 4). MoM cutoffs for single steroids predicting 21OHD and 11OHD were computed and validated through new, independent patients (21OHD, n = 8; adrenal cortical carcinoma, n = 6; obesity, n = 40). Results: 21OHD and 11OHD patients showed disease-typical, easily recognizable MoM patterns independent of age, sex, and concentration units. Two single-steroid cutoffs indicated 21OHD: 3.87 MoM for 17-hydroxyprogesterone (100% sensitivity and 98.83% specificity) and 12.28 MoM for 21-deoxycortisol (94.74% sensitivity and 100% specificity). A cutoff of 13.18 MoM for 11-deoxycortisol indicated 11OHD (100% sensitivity and 100% specificity). Conclusions: Age- and sex-independent MoMs are straightforward for a clinically relevant display of multi-steroid patterns. In addition, defined single-steroid MoMs can serve alone as predictors of 21OHD and 11OHD. Finally, MoM transformation offers substantial enhancement of routine and scientific steroid hormone data exchange due to improved comparability.

Decline in organ donation in Germany

BACKGROUND The annual number of post-mortem organ donations in Germany has declined by more than 30% since 2010. The causes of this development have not yet been adequately determined. METHODS All patients hospitalized in Germany between 2010 and 2015 (112 172 869 hospitalizations in total) were included in this nationwide secondary analysis. Among the deceased patients we identified those who had died in the presence of a brain damage and for whom organ donation was not excluded either by a medical contraindication or by the patients not having been artificially ventilated. The analysis was also conducted separately for six German university hospitals. RESULTS Over the period 2010-2015, the number of potential organ donors per year in Germany rose by 13.9%, from 23 937 to 27 258. This development was due to an increase in the number of deaths with severe brain damage as well as an increase in the percentage of patients who were treated with invasive ventilation before death. The contact quotient, i.e., the percentage of potential donors for whom contact was made with the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, DSO) fell over this period from 11.4% to 8.2%. At the same time, the realization quotient (the percentage of potential donors who became actual donors) fell from 5.4% to 3.2%, and the conversion quotient (the percentage of potential donors for whom contact was made who became actual donors) fell from 47% to 39.1%. From 2010 to 2012, the falling realization quotient was accounted for mainly by the falling conversion quotient; from 2012 to 2015, it was accounted for mainly by the falling contact quotient. The contact and realization quotients among the six university hospitals studied differed markedly (by factors of 17.5 and 23.3, respectively), while the conversion quotients differed only minimally (by a factor of 1.3). CONCLUSION The decline in post-mortem organ donation is due to a deficiency in the recognition and reporting of potential organ donors in hospital. If this process were better supported on the organizational and political level, far more organs could be transplanted.