The Swiss National Vaccination Coverage Survey, 2005–2007

We described the results from the Swiss national vaccination coverage survey (SNVCS) 2005-2007, a survey designed to monitor immunization coverage of children and adolescents residing in Switzerland in each canton within a three-year period

Alexithymia and non-treatment: An Internet based study of 312 people with chronic anxiety

BACKGROUND: Despite the availability of highly efficacious treatments, many individuals with anxiety disorders never receive adequate treatment. Alexithymic deficits, such as difficulties in recognizing feelings and focusing on emotional experiences, may contribute to low rates of help seeking. METHODS: Multiple Internet-based strategies (announcements of anxiety disorder websites, postings in online self-help forums, notices in anxiety chat rooms) were used to recruit a sample of 312 participants with chronic and clinically relevant anxiety symptoms. Those who had never received professional treatment (n=49) were compared to those with current or previous treatment (n=263) with regard to alexithymia, anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis revealed that the strongest predictor for belonging to the never treated group was the externally oriented thinking facet of alexithymia. In addition, substantially more participants in the never treated group (49%) were considered high-alexithymic (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale total score ≥61) compared to the treated group (35%). CONCLUSIONS: The main finding was a strong relationship between the externally oriented thinking facet of alexithymia and the non-use of professional help for anxiety. Internet-based programs could be a promising first step in supporting this group of people to overcome their anxiety

Interactive Multicut Video Segmentation

Short paperInternational audienceVideo segmentation requires separating foreground from background, but the general problem extends to more complicated scene segmentations of different objects and their multiple parts. We develop a new approach to interactive multi-label video segmentation where many objects are segmented simultaneously with consistent spatio-temporal boundaries, based on intuitive multi-colored brush scribbles. From these scribbles, we derive constraints to define a combinatorial problem known as the multicut—a problem notoriously difficult and slow to solve. We describe a solution using efficient heuristics to make multi-label video segmentation interactive. As our solution generalizes typical binary segmentation tasks, while also improving efficiency in multi-label tasks, our work shows the promise of multicuts for interactive video segmentation