Strategic Planning for Building Research—A Process Oriented Methodology

This paper explains and discusses the development of a strategic plan for the management of research in building in a planning horizon of 8–10 years. The plan has three major elements: (1) a knowledge base with ranked long range research needs in each discipline; (2) a second base which defines the main objectives of the building sector and the major interdisciplinary problems that must be solved in order to attain them; and (3) the procedures to be followed in order to initiate and carry out an annual research program in view of the strategic plan and the current information maintained in the two bases. This paper dwells first on the special features of research as a knowledge building and problem solving tool, and then describes the process of the actual development of the strategic plan for building research in Israel, including the construction of the knowledge bases and the generation of the annual research programs. Special attention is given to the objectivity and accountability of the process.     

Rapid method for assessing relative tissue stiffness using MR acoustic radiation force imaging

Acoustic radiation force imaging (ARFI) has been suggested as a tool for remote palpation. In this study an MR‐ARFI sequence, based on echo‐planar‐imaging, is introduced, for remote semi‐quantitative assessment of local tissue stiffness. The focal zone of a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is positioned at the region of interest and a single HIFU burst is transmitted. The method then measures the entire time integral of the resulting displacement at the focal zone. Combining this measurement with the Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic tissue model, a local stiffness index is obtained. The method was implemented on gel phantoms, ex‐vivo bovine brain and chicken liver specimens. The results have demonstrated the ability to evaluate the relative local stiffness within 600 ms and to distinguish between different tissues on the basis of their stiffness index. The method may potentially be used for remote palpation of suspicious regions for diagnostic purposes, or for providing a mechanical feedback during therapeutic procedures, such as thermal ablation.