New sensitive and reliable methods for assessing alterations in regional lung structure and function are critically important for the investigation and treatment of pulmonary diseases. Accurate identification of the airway tree will provide an assessment of airway structure and will provide a means by which multiple volumetric images of the lung at the same lung volume over time can be used to assess regional parenchymal changes. The authors describe a novel rule-based method for the segmentation of airway trees from three-dimensional (3-D) sets of computed tomography (CT) images, and its validation. The presented method takes advantage of a priori anatomical knowledge about pulmonary airway and vascular trees and their interrelationships. The method is based on a combination of 3-D seeded region growing that is used to identify large airways, rule-based two-dimensional (2-D) segmentation of individual CT slices to identify probable locations of smaller diameter airways, and merging of airway regions across the 3-D set of slices resulting in a tree-like airway structure. The method was validated in 40 3-mm-thick CT sections from five data sets of canine lungs scanned via electron beam CT in vivo with lung volume held at a constant pressure. The method's performance was compared with that of the conventional 3-D region growing method. The method substantially outperformed an existing conventional approach to airway tree detection.
While interacting with a product or a service, people have diverse experiences, which constitute user experience (UX). In this study, the hierarchical dimensions of UX were considered, including overall UX, its elements (usability, affect, and user value) and their subelements. To determine how UX changes over time, the temporal changes of the influence of each element and subelement were analyzed. Twenty subjects participated in a longitudinal experiment by using a social network service (SNS). The most important element of UX changed from usability to user value after one week of use. These results suggest that adoption of an SNS occurs in two phases: a phase of affected by usability and a phase affected by user value. Identification of these phases and the systematic approach used in the study are expected to contribute to design and evaluation of new SNSs and other products and services. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Heavily tellurium (Te)-doped GaAs layers with diethyltellurium (DETe) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were investigated. The existence of Te-rich microprecipitates might degrade both the electrical and optical properties. Compared to Si doping, the tunnel junction diode doped with Te doping revealed lower tunneling resistance. A comparative study using both Si and Te doping in the GaAs tunnel junction of GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells showed a higher efficiency for Te doping. Therefore, the GaAs tunnel junction with Te doping can be considered to improve the device performance of GaAs-based multi-junction solar cells.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.