Alexander D. Klose and Andreas H. Hielscher
This paper sets out to give an overview about state‐of‐the‐art optical tomographic image reconstruction algorithms that are based on the equation of radiative transfer (ERT).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to give an overview about state‐of‐the‐art optical tomographic image reconstruction algorithms that are based on the equation of radiative transfer (ERT).
Design/methodology/approach
An objective function, which describes the discrepancy between measured and numerically predicted light intensity data on the tissue surface, is iteratively minimized to find the unknown spatial distribution of the optical parameters or sources. At each iteration step, the predicted partial current is calculated by a forward model for light propagation based on the ERT. The equation of radiative is solved with either finite difference or finite volume methods.
Findings
Tomographic reconstruction algorithms based on the ERT accurately recover the spatial distribution of optical tissue properties and light sources in biological tissue. These tissues either can have small geometries/large absorption coefficients, or can contain void‐like inclusions.
Originality/value
These image reconstruction methods can be employed in small animal imaging for monitoring blood oxygenation, in imaging of tumor growth, in molecular imaging of fluorescent and bioluminescent probes, in imaging of human finger joints for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, and in functional brain imaging.
Details
Keywords
Jens Hogreve and Andrea Beierlein
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors aim to shed light on the potential value outcomes of community participation covering the reduction of service costs by professionals' community participation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors also introduce GABEK® as a unique method of qualitative empirical content analysis. In the quantitative study, the authors refer to customer survey data and transactional data.
Findings
The results show that participation in online communities by professionals emerges as a dual concept, consisting of both help-seeking and help-providing behaviors. These behaviors in turn facilitate the creation of economic and relational value, as well as influencing the perceived usefulness of the online community, resulting in higher satisfaction with the community among the participating professionals. Customer survey data and transactional data were gathered from a major medical equipment vendor hosting an online community, and those data confirm that participation also decreases service support costs to professionals by reducing the number of necessary service visits by the vendor's service technicians.
Practical implications
The resulting model of participation and corresponding benefits in an online community for health-care professionals reflects and informs current developments in the health care industry.
Originality/value
The combination of qualitative as well as quantitative studies relying on the data of a world leading medical equipment vendor hosting an online community provides unique and innovative insights into participation and value creation within B2B communities.