The international classification of functioning, disability and health in clinical practice, research findings and their impact on training and education.

At the ICF Research Institute (at MSH Medical School Hamburg) multiprofessional experts collaborate on various research projects with a focus on bio-psycho-social health and education. Initially, the main goal was monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in clinical practice. Over time and based on the initial findings, the research group started developing new approaches to support training and education of health professionals in the use of the ICF.

Sparse Quadratic Approximation for Graph Learning.

Learning graphs represented by M-matrices via an l-regularized Gaussian maximum-likelihood method is a popular approach, but also one that poses computational challenges for large scale datasets. Recently proposed methods cast this problem as a constrained optimization variant of precision matrix estimation. In this paper, we build on a state-of-the-art sparse precision matrix estimation method and introduce two algorithms that learn M-matrices, that can be subsequently used for the estimation of graph Laplacian matrices.

On cheap entropy-sparsified regression learning.

Regression learning is one of the long-standing problems in statistics, machine learning, and deep learning (DL). We show that writing this problem as a probabilistic expectation over (unknown) feature probabilities - thus increasing the number of unknown parameters and seemingly making the problem more complex-actually leads to its simplification, and allows incorporating the physical principle of entropy maximization. It helps decompose a very general setting of this learning problem (including discretization, feature selection, and learning multiple piece-wise linear regressions) into an iterative sequence of simple substeps, which are either analytically solvable or cheaply computable through an efficient second-order numerical solver with a sublinear cost scaling.

Multiway -spectral graph cuts on Grassmann manifolds.

Nonlinear reformulations of the spectral clustering method have gained a lot of recent attention due to their increased numerical benefits and their solid mathematical background. We present a novel direct multiway spectral clustering algorithm in the -norm, for . The problem of computing multiple eigenvectors of the graph -Laplacian, a nonlinear generalization of the standard graph Laplacian, is recasted as an unconstrained minimization problem on a Grassmann manifold.

[The Need for Psychosocial Support of Parents of Children in Neonatal Care].

Advances in neonatal care have reduced mortality but increased morbidity in babies born pre-maturely or after high-risk pregnancies. However, this often increases the burden on the family and the parents in particular. A systematic review of the literature was conducted that demonstrated the importance of psychosocial support for parents of children in neonatal care.

The face scan as a means for the visualization of complex prosthetic reconstructions.

The face scan can serve as a means for the visualization of planes relevant for extensive prosthetic reconstructions. The key prerequisite is the availability of data in stl format for further processing in different software programs. The method is described in this article by a patient case.

Zirconia crowns - the new standard for single-visit dentistry?

Zirconia crowns combine the advantages of metal restorations, such as minimally invasive tooth preparation and ease of cementation, with those of full ceramic crowns, such as low thermal conductivity and tooth color. With the introduction of a high-speed sintering procedure, it is possible to produce and cement zirconia crowns and small monolithic bridges in a Cerec Single Visit procedure. This new procedure is compared to established chairside methods.

Needles: Toward Large-Scale Genomic Prediction with Marker-by-Environment Interaction.

Genomic prediction relies on genotypic marker information to predict the agronomic performance of future hybrid breeds based on trial records. Because the effect of markers may vary substantially under the influence of different environmental conditions, marker-by-environment interaction effects have to be taken into account. However, this may lead to a dramatic increase in the computational resources needed for analyzing large-scale trial data.

[The living will. An analysis of state of knowledge of patients in the HELIOS hospital Leisnig].

On September 1, 2009, the Guardianship Law (Betreuungsgesetz) changed for the third time. Thus, the rights of the people living in Germany have been improved with reference to the preventive instruments. The aim of the work was to find about the subject to what extent patients understand the subject and how many of them have such a preventive document.