text:
- Research
- Open Access
A focused ultrasound treatment system for moving targets (part I): generic system design and in-silico first-stage evaluation
- Michael Schwenke1Email authorView ORCID ID profile,
- Jan Strehlow1,
- Daniel Demedts1,
- Sabrina Haase1,
- Diego Barrios Romero1,
- Sven Rothlübbers1, 2,
- Caroline von Dresky1,
- Stephan Zidowitz1,
- Joachim Georgii1,
- Senay Mihcin3,
- Mario Bezzi4,
- Christine Tanner5,
- Giora Sat6,
- Yoav Levy7,
- Jürgen Jenne1, 2,
- Matthias Günther1, 2,
- Andreas Melzer3, 8 and
- Tobias Preusser1, 9
© The Author(s) 2017
- Received: 30 January 2017
- Accepted: 11 May 2017
- Published: 24 July 2017
Focused ultrasound (FUS) is entering clinical routine as a treatment option. Currently, no clinically available FUS treatment system features automated respiratory motion compensation. The required quality standards make developing such a system challenging.
A novel FUS treatment system with motion compensation is described, developed with the goal of clinical use. The system comprises a clinically available MR device and FUS transducer system. The controller is very generic and could use any suitable MR or FUS device. MR image sequences (echo planar imaging) are acquired for both motion observation and thermometry. Based on anatomical feature tracking, motion predictions are estimated to compensate for processing delays. FUS control parameters are computed repeatedly and sent to the hardware to steer the focus to the (estimated) target position. All involved calculations produce individually known errors, yet their impact on therapy outcome is unclear. This is solved by defining an intuitive quality measure that compares the achieved temperature to the static scenario, resulting in an overall efficiency with respect to temperature rise. To allow for extensive testing of the system over wide ranges of parameters and algorithmic choices, we replace the actual MR and FUS devices by a virtual system. It emulates the hardware and, using numerical simulations of FUS during motion, predicts the local temperature rise in the tissue resulting from the controls it receives.
With a clinically available monitoring image rate of 6.67 Hz and 20 FUS control updates per second, normal respiratory motion is estimated to be compensable with an estimated efficiency of 80%. This reduces to about 70% for motion scaled by 1.5. Extensive testing (6347 simulated sonications) over wide ranges of parameters shows that the main source of error is the temporal motion prediction. A history-based motion prediction method performs better than a simple linear extrapolator.
The estimated efficiency of the new treatment system is already suited for clinical applications. The simulation-based in-silico testing as a first-stage validation reduces the efforts of real-world testing. Due to the extensible modular design, the described approach might lead to faster translations from research to clinical practice.
Focused ultrasound (FUS) is increasingly entering clinical routine as an alternative treatment method in different indications [1]. Current clinical FUS applications mostly target static organs. FUS treatment of abdominal targets that move with the respiration of the patient (e.g. the liver) is not yet an available option in clinical routine due to the lack of treatment systems supporting this functionality. The current clinical use cases of FUS for moving abdominal organs include both palliative treatments and patients for whom resection is impossible due to the position of the malignant tissue or co-morbidities [2, 3].
Treating targets in abdominal organs like the liver with FUS is challenging [2]: The target moves with the respiration and may be partially blocked by the ribcage for parts of the respiratory cycle. Real-time temperature monitoring of the treatment needs to be performed using MR thermometry [4]. For moving organs this is even more complicated than for static organs. Thermometry using ultrasound imaging is possible [5], but not yet available for clinical use.
To tackle these challenges, in today's FUS treatment of moving abdominal targets, the motion of the target needs to be controlled under anesthesia [6–8]: One option is to stop the respiration (apnea) for the duration of active ultrasound application and afterwards let the respiration normalize before starting the next sonication. This procedure, however, results in long treatment duration and the need for general anesthesia. Another approach that is close to clinical application is respiratory-gated sonication [9]. Thereby, the therapeutic ultrasound is active during the respiratory cycle only when the target is detected to be in a certain position. This approach allows for a treatment without general anesthesia, but suffers also from overly long treatment duration due to the reduction of the FUS duty cycle.
In the long run, FUS can become competitive to other thermal ablation techniques as radio-frequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA), laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT), and cryoablation. It may even become an alternative to resection and radiosurgery. Whether FUS can be competitive to these well-established techniques strongly depends on results of current and future clinical application of the treatment. In our research we hypothesize that the full potential of FUS in moving organs can be unleashed only with dedicated computer support in planning and control of the treatment.
In this paper we present our efforts from the past years in developing model-based software support for FUS in the moving liver. An integrated system has been developed that shall allow to treat the liver during motion. Here we focus in particular on the system design and on our framework for in-silico testing of the system. We also describe our efforts to simplify the translation of research results to prototypes that may be used in clinical studies.
A major effort in developing a software system for treatment planning and control is quality assurance (QA): Making sure that the system does what it is supposed to do (efficacy), and, most importantly, that it does no harm (safety). For safety-critical systems estimates for the proportion of life cycle costs spent on QA and testing go up to 80% [10]. Thus, for industry, the hurdle to develop a FUS treatment system with motion compensation is high because of the risk that FUS may in the end turn out to not be competitive to the above-mentioned established ablation methods.
From the viewpoint of research and development, changing currently available clinical FUS treatment systems to make them capable of motion-compensated FUS is difficult as the clinically approved systems are not open for extensions and are subject to closed specifications. Also, introducing changes to the certified systems means that any validation needs to be re-performed.
For systems of such complexity the effort required for a change in the system grows drastically the later a defect is detected or a new feature should be incorporated (exponential cost-of-change curve [11]).
In our work, we define the requirements and design specification in an open way to simplify extension and collaboration. We aim at reducing the necessary QA efforts by code generation and extensive continuous testing. A virtual system using numerical FUS simulations has been developed and used for first-stage numerical experimental validation. Using this virtual system, automatic execution of system tests is possible and system design parameter studies can be performed to analyze the efficiency of the system. This way, the effort for actual real-world experimentation and validation can be reduced allowing for a more changeable system.
In this article we report on our development of a FUS treatment system including motion compensation with the long-term goal of meeting the requirements for a "Class III Medical Product". The system allows to perform a single-target motion-compensated sonication during respiratory motion. It is specified and defined in a generic way abstracting from actual hardware components. A first implementation of the system has been performed with clinically available hardware, i.e. an MR device (GE Healthcare Systems, Chicago, USA) and FUS device (Conformal Bone System 2100, InSightec Ltd., Tirat Camel, Israel). To facilitate the translation of FUS research results to the clinic, the treatment system is defined open for extensions and the use with hardware devices of other vendors and may be used as a research platform for FUS experimentation.
A virtual system using numerical FUS simulations is presented and used for first-stage numerical experimental validation. The treatment system interacts with the emulation in the same way it does with real hardware and is provided with realistic data that is influenced by its control commands. A comprehensive numerical FUS simulation during respiratory motion (previously described in detail [12]) is used to predict the treatment effects that would happen in a real FUS experiment. Using this virtual system, automatic execution of system tests is possible and system design parameter studies are performed to analyze the efficiency of the system. One advantage of this approach is that the numerical experiments can easily be observed in the simulation whereas physical measurements in real-world experiments are challenging, time-consuming, and require a lot of resources.
Related work
Approaches to FUS control systems with motion compensation
Reference (year)
Group/principal investigators
Tracking source
FUS control
Pernot et al. [20] (2004)
Fink, Tanter
3D US-based tracking (using elements of the therapeutic probe), 10-50 Hz
Steered (10-50 Hz)
Marquet et al. [19] (2011)
Fink, Tanter
3D US-based tracking (using elements of the therapeutic probe), 10 Hz
Steered, spiral (10 Hz)
Ex-vivo, in-vivo pig
de Senneville et al. [21] (2007)
MR image-based registration (correlation with motion atlas)
2 s delay compensation using pre-treatment analysis of periodic motions (average period Fourier decomposition)
Ex-vivo (phantom moved by motor)
Ries et al. [22] (2010)
2D MR with prospective slice tracking using pencil-beam navigator; 2D optical flow on GPU
3D Kalman-predictor for trajectory anticipation (<114 ms latency compensation)
Steered (>10 Hz)
Ex-vivo, in-vivo pigs
de Senneville et al. [23] (2011)
MR (10 Hz), optical flow
Learning motion pattern during preparation
Hyperthermia, ex-vivo, in-vivo pigs
Quesson et al. [24] (2011)
5-slice MR (2.5 Hz)
Not reported
Not reported
In-vivo pig
Holbrook et al. [25] (2014)
Respiratory bellow
Look-up table generated in preparation step
32 target presets
Ex-vivo, in-vivo pig
Auboiroux et al. [26] (2012)
MR compatible US imaging (≥ 20 Hz), optical flow tracking, 2D
Steered (8 Hz), single- and multi-focus
Ex-vivo (ventilator-driven balloon)
Celicanin et al. [27] (2014)
MR, 1D pencil-beam navigator (80 ms update)
Steered (max 20 Hz)
Ex-vivo, in-vivo sheep
System emulation as a driver for development. Industry uses emulation of hardware systems that can be employed in the software development process, for example in aerospace software development [13]. Clearly high priority is assigned to safety and reliability in these applications. To allow for a parallel development of hardware and software, in [13], the authors propose simulation-based hardware emulation. Therewith, the hardware and software can be developed iteratively and dependencies are minimized. This also facilitates the application of agile development approaches, in which requirements are not only specified at the beginning of the development but rather evolve during the development and adapt in short cycles. Contrary to the use of numerical simulations for periodic performance assessment (as being done in several industrial applications), in the emulation-based development, simulation is used to provide continuous feedback for collaborative design and development [13].
In the following, we first define the generic treatment system that abstracts from actual vendor-specific hardware details. While the system allows the use of different methodological approaches to solve FUS-related tasks (thermometry, focusing), it abstracts also from any implementation details of these. After the definition of the generic treatment system, we provide details for our implementation of the system with a clinically available MR device (GE Healthcare Systems, Chicago, USA) and a FUS device (Conformal Bone System 2100, InSightec Ltd., Tirat Camel, Israel). Closing the section, the numerical-simulation-based approach for a first-stage validation of the system is presented.
Specification and quality assurance approach
A thorough requirements analysis involving a multi-disciplinary team of radiologists and engineers was performed. According to these stated requirements, a detailed design specification of a generic system was defined. The details of these specifications go beyond this paper. We only briefly describe the main components and concepts of the system. The main hardware devices of the system are the MR imaging device and the therapeutic ultrasound transducer. Both devices have a software representation within the system controlling the devices by using their programming interfaces. The most important software components of the system include the motion compensation system and the temperature calculation component.
MR imaging device
The generic specification states that an MR device shall be able to acquire a breath-hold planning image. It does not specify a certain MR sequence. Furthermore, it shall allow the acquisition of a transducer calibration image that can be used by the system to identify the spatial orientation of the FUS transducer with respect to the patient. Most importantly, the MR device shall allow to acquire monitoring images with a high update rate and as little delay as possible. The treatment controller system derives motion observation and temperature information from these images. To simplify the system, we have restricted our developments to MR imaging although, generally, the system could use multiple sources of tracking data (respiratory belt, US tracking, MR tracking) simultaneously. The main intention for our restriction is to avoid the introduction of another hardware system like an MR-compatible diagnostic imaging device in the current development stage. For future versions, we expect a benefit from combining US tracking with MR tracking. We do not plan to use external tracking (like respiratory belts) as external motion is not necessarily correlated with the liver motion [14].
Ultrasound transducer system
- 1)
Transducer systems with a real-time interface (fast enough to be controlled with a full parameter set of phases and amplitudes for all individual elements in real time);
- 2)
Hardware that works with preset configurations, which need to be uploaded before the actual sonication and that can be activated sufficiently fast during sonication.
Transducers that provide a real-time interface are easier to handle, since a preset-based interface requires pre-computing a suitable set of presets based on an observed motion trajectory. In our system, in case of a multi-baseline thermometry approach, the presets can be determined from the motion information in the baseline image collection. This assumes that the motion states in the baseline collection are representative for the duration of the sonication. Focusing of the ultrasound beam is computed within the system using a ray-based method [12]. For complex focusing approaches that are not real-time capable, a preset-based approach can be used also with transducer systems with a full real-time API. The treatment system provides the focusing component with deformed anatomical structure maps to allow for trans-costal focusing approaches.
Motion compensation system
For motion compensation, the following steps are repeatedly performed during monitoring of the therapy. The computational pipeline starts with the image acquisition: image reconstruction, image send over network, receive and image assemble on the treatment controller. Based on each newly received image, the controller performs a motion analysis: Feature tracking is used to identify local motion of anatomical structures. The features are then related to the reference respiratory state of the planning image to allow for a mapping of planning data to the current motion state. To steer the ultrasound focus to the current target position, a temporal prediction needs to be performed compensating any delays (the delay from image acquisition to the analyzed motion state, the delays introduced by focusing, sending the FUS control parameters to the hardware, and the hardware delay of the FUS device).
Thereby, the observation and control loops can be executed with different update rates and can be adapted to the actual constraints of the hardware devices with great flexibility. This comes at the cost of slightly higher overall system latency that needs to be compensated by the motion model.
Temperature calculation component (Thermometry)
The specified interface of the temperature calculation component would allow both multi-baseline and reference-less proton-resonance frequency shift MR thermometry approaches. Currently only the multi-baseline approach is implemented. The temperature calculation component is queried by the treatment system core whether it requires baseline images. Accordingly, the system acquires as many baseline images during respiratory motion as the component requested. Then, in case of a multi-baseline thermometry approach, for each new monitoring image the most similar baseline image is determined based on the magnitude images. Consequently, the temperature is computed using the phase information of the current and baseline image. The resulting temperature image is mapped to the reference respiratory state and can be easily overlaid on the planning image to allow for a static-like monitoring of the therapy. This is intended to facilitate the visual inspection by the physician. For the reference-less thermometry, the only difference is that no baseline collection is acquired and for each new monitoring image, the baseline phase image would need to be estimated from the current image itself. A combination of both approaches would also be possible and would be an implementation detail of the temperature calculation component.
FUS system implementation
Emulating the hardware system and modeling the patient and therapy
For a first-stage validation of the system, we have replaced the actual hardware by a virtual system. The hardware and the effects of the treatment to the patient are emulated and numerically simulated. To simulate the resulting temperature in the patient's body, we incorporated a previously described numerical simulation method for FUS during respiratory motion [12]. The key advantages of using simulation in the process of system development are flexibility, responsive feedback, automatic execution of tests, and the possibility of checking the system efficiency for a wide range of hardware system characteristics like update rates and motion patterns. A detailed view into the inner state of the numerical experiment allows for a better assessment of the effectiveness of the system. Automated testing and evaluation of new components and its influences are possible through this. Elaborate and time-consuming real-world experiments still need to follow, but only after the emulation-based numerical experiments have shown the effectiveness of the system.
monitoring image duration (the rate at which monitoring images are produced);
imaging delay (delay between acquisition and availability of a monitoring image);
ultrasound shot duration for which the focus is kept static (the motion trajectory is broken down into multiple discrete short static foci called shots);
the transducer type (preset-based or real-time control).
Temporal motion predictors
a linear-extrapolation-based predictor uses the last two tracking samples and extrapolates by a linear fit into the future;
a history-based predictor that (assuming periodic motion) uses the latest tracking samples to find the most similar motion state in the history of motion states. The prediction of the target position thereby is performed by an interpolation in the historical data (the history continuously grows with new motion samples).
As mentioned above, quality assurance (QA) is the main effort in translation from research demonstrators to clinical prototypes that may be used in studies. From the two major aspects of efficacy and safety that have to be shown by QA and validation we focus on the efficacy in the following. Further results on experimental validation have been reported in [16].
We have designed a suite of test scenarios that is based on the emulated system in order to analyze the performance of the treatment system. To quantify the performance of the system, i.e. its efficacy, we aim at comparing it with static sonications. Thus, we determine an efficiency factor for a certain choice of component implementations and system parameter values. This efficiency factor quantifies how much energy is delivered to a moving target in contrast to a static target, see below.
Numerical study
monitoring image duration (100 ms, 200 ms, 300 ms);
ultrasound shot duration (50 ms, 100 ms, 200 ms, 300 ms);
monitoring image delay is fixed to 150 ms;
a Bayesian tracking [17];
the linear-extrapolation-based and the history-based motion predictors described above;
emulated real-time and preset-based transducers with varying number of available preset configurations.
To identify the efficiency limit of a system constrained to the above system parameter values, we need to use ground-truth tracking and prediction components. The ground-truth components fulfill the software interface definitions of the tracking and the prediction components and they internally know the underlying test motion at all times. Using these test components the system is provided with exact motion information.
Ground-truth respiratory motion and generation of test data
where v∈I R 3 is the motion direction unit vector (superior-inferior direction). Using the scale parameter s≥0, the motion can be reduced to the static case (s=0) or increased to simulate exaggerated motion (s>1).
To generate an EPI magnitude image at some time t, we first find the EPI magnitude image that is most similar to the planning image respiratory state. Figure 4 b shows this image in the leftmost column.
We then add noise to this image as described below. Using Eq. (1) we translate the noisy image to the moving state. Note that in fact we use just a single translation vector d(t) here. Thus no deformation of the liver is modeled. A manual marking of the abdominal wall is used to keep the ribcage static by applying the displacements only to the inner organs that slide along the abdominal wall. Figure 4 b visualizes the generated test data for different respiratory states.
To be able to introduce noise we build a noise model based on the EPI images. To this end, we register 50 images of the EPI sequence to the reference EPI magnitude image. Registration was only applied to the inner organs and was based on a translation model. The differences between the registered images and the reference image were visually inspected to ensure that they contained negligible motion artifacts in the liver. During data generation, these difference images were then sequentially added to the reference EPI image to simulate appearance changes. Compared to directly using the original sequence with the registration results, this approach has the advantage of full control over the motion (especially image rate and furthermore magnitude to simulate exaggerated motion). Changing the image rate in a replay of the original sequence would also change the speed of motion, which is undesired.
System efficiency factor
For example, if the system has an efficiency of 80% for a certain motion pattern, the resulting temperature rise at the target during motion is equivalent to 80% of the temperature rise introduced in the static case. The value of η can also be interpreted as an energy efficiency: A 100 W sonication in the moving case results in the same peak temperature rise as an 80 W sonication in the static case.
We use the peak temperature rise at the planned target position as the metric for our studies as it gives good results only if the focus in the moving case is both as sharp as in the static case and also at the correct location. Assessing an average over a region around the target might underestimate an unintended focus dislocation. The main effects influencing the peak temperature rise at the planned target are firstly the quality of motion compensation (how accurately was the actual target motion followed by the moving focus) and secondly the heat diffusion process (how much heat is conducted from the heated target to the surrounding tissue). The second effect is largely influenced by the choice of tissue parameters. By using a relative metric that compares static and moving case for the exact same tissue parameters, however, we eliminate this dependency to a large extent.
Maximum efficiency during motion
Efficiency of temporal motion predictors
We here evaluate the system efficiency when equipped with different motion predictors. The reference again is the achieved temperature rise in the sonication with no motion. Tested motion predictors are the linear-extrapolation-based and the history-based predictor. As stated before, the ultrasound focus is kept static for the shot duration. During this shot, the target moves continuously along a trajectory.
Since we have de-coupled the observation loop from the control loop (cf. Fig. 1) we may purely concentrate on the small time window of the shot duration. For the focusing we can choose any point on the predicted trajectory within this time window to achive the short-time static sonication. However, we also need to take into account that the error of the prediction increases with prediction time.
Theoretically, shooting at the trajectory point in the middle of the shot duration should best approximate the trajectory. But this shooting at the center of the trajectory also increases the prediction time by half of the shot duration. To assess this effect, we evaluate both prediction methods for targeting at the predicted trajectory at i) the beginning and ii) the center of the shot duration time window.
To separate from tracking errors, the test-ground-truth tracking is used providing accurate tracking data to the motion predictors. All experiments are performed using an emulated real-time transducer. We thus can evaluate the error introduced by the different predictors. Figure 6 shows the efficiency plots over ultrasound shot duration for different motion amplitude factors (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5) for different monitoring image durations (100 ms, 200 ms, 300 ms; columns).
The first row shows the efficiency for all motion predictors for the static case (s=0.0) to verify that all of them can handle the static case. The other rows show the efficiency over shot duration for scaling factors of s=0.5, s=1.0, and s=1.5. We see that all motion predictors can handle the static case and have near-perfect efficiency. In all cases, the efficiency limit for targeting the trajectory center (dashed limit line) is higher than for targeting the beginning of the trajectory. This, however, represents the limit that is computed using the ground-truth predictor that provides the system with error-free motion predictions. When analyzing the imperfect predictors, firstly it is evident that in almost all numerical experiments, the history-based motion prediction performs better than or equally well as the linear-extrapolation-based predictor. Only in the case of 100 ms image duration and reduced motion (s=0.5), the linear prediction is slightly better. The plots furthermore show decreasing efficiency for increasing monitoring imaging duration (meaning decreasing image update rate). Sources of this error are the greater temporal prediction horizon and the associated greater prediction error, and also the inferior temporal sampling of the motion. The history-based predictor shows better efficiency and less dependency on image update rate than the linear-extrapolation-based predictor. This meets the expectations as the history-based predictor can better handle the inversion of motion directions at the turning points (see also Fig. 3). The linear-extrapolation-based predictor cannot handle the turning points and thus shows greater dependency on image update rate. We conclude that the history-based predictor is better suited for the available image update rates. Regarding the choice of targeting the beginning or the center of the motion trajectory during a shot with fixed focus, we do not see a clear improvement of shooting at the center. The better approximation of the trajectory on the one hand and the increasing prediction error on the other hand cancel each other out. As targeting the center should be theoretically better and in our tests it does not show worse efficiency than targeting the beginning of the shot, we favor shooting at the center of the trajectory.
Efficiency of motion tracker
Efficiency loss associated with the Bayesian tracking in combination with the motion predictors
Motion predictor
Mean η Δ
95%ile η Δ
6.4 %
12.9 %
3.3 %
7.9 %
4.9 %
10.8 %
Efficiency of preset-based ultrasound transducers
Estimated efficiency of the actual hardware FUS system
In this paper, we describe the development of a novel FUS treatment system capable of performing motion-compensated application of FUS. Motion-compensation is achieved by deriving motion information from MR monitoring images and computing motion predictions to compensate delays in the processing loop. The system is developed with the goal of clinical use. A major problem is that developing a whole treatment system under such high quality regulations is a huge effort for research groups which normally is not compatible with short research projects of a few years. Usually, research groups are furthermore not trained and certified for the high quality standards necessary for the application of the system to humans. This challenge requires a change of the development process in the research context as we propose later.
To reduce the efforts necessary for testing and particularly real-world experimental validation, we here propose a simulation-based hardware emulation to test and analyze the efficiency of the system. The emulation internally uses a full numerical simulation of FUS during respiratory motion. Using this virtual system, choices of system parameters and algorithms can be determined with less effort. The actual real-world testing is thereby minimized to performing tests on the system resulting from the in-silico design stage.
In this work, we focus our attention to the motion compensation of the system. Firstly, we compute the limits of motion compensation for different choices of system parameter values for image duration and ultrasound shot duration. Even exaggerated motion (s=1.5) can theoretically be compensated in the case of an ultrasound shot duration of 300 ms with an efficiency above 90%. However, it would require a perfect temporal prediction which in practice is clearly not possible. To see how good the actual predictors can forecast the motion, we first individually analyze their influence on the system efficiency. This testing is done in combination with perfectly accurate tracking information. Afterwards, also the influence of motion tracking and also the transducer types is quantified. The motion tracking reduces the efficiency on average by only 4.9%. The effect of using a preset-based transducer instead of a real-time transducer is also analyzed. For the sole task of motion compensation, 32 presets should be enough to compensate even exaggerated motion. However, for the additional task of trans-costal delivery we assume that a larger number of presets is required. The temporal motion prediction is the most influential component. The history-based motion prediction is found to perform better than a linear-extrapolation-based predictor. We, however, see potential for improving the temporal predictions. A spatio-temporal motion model for liver motion [15], which currently is being integrated, is expected to improve the predictions. The model includes a temporal prediction method extending [18].
Finally, a virtual model of the actual hardware system with the same specifications (150 ms monitoring imaging delay, 150 ms image duration, 64-preset transducer) is tested and found to be capable of motion compensation of normal respiratory motion with an efficiency above 80%. Exaggerated motion (s=1.5) can be compensated with an efficiency of about 70%.
Potential for improving the system efficiency lies also in decreasing the overall computational delays in the system including computational delays introduced by the motion tracking, the motion predictors, and also imaging delays and update rates. Furthermore, we see potential in improving the temporal motion predictions by the combination of different tracking sources like external motion surrogates and ultrasound tracking.
The reported efficiency values for the virtual model of our target hardware system are expected to be already suited for the clinical use of the motion compensation. We currently work on confirming the estimated efficiency of our system in real-world FUS experiments. Animal studies for further validation are in preparation. The long-term goal is to bring the technology to clinical use. Furthermore, we want to ease the translation of future research and build upon our current work in the future. The system might be a candidate for a platform for research developments in the FUS context. Research partners could contribute individual component implementations that are used in the system in a plugin fashion. A further long-term goal is to implement a challenge-style evaluation framework to automatically evaluate and compare the plugins using the simulation-based emulation. This approach could lead to more research results being transferred to clinical practice.
The authors acknowledge the whole FUSIMO and TRANS-FUSIMO teams and management.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements no. 270186 and no. 611889 http://www.trans-fusimo.eu.
Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.
Authors' contributions
MS, JS, DD, DBR, SR, SZ, JG, SM, CT, JJ, TP: writing of manuscript MS, JS, DD, DBR, SH: treatment system developer team MS, JG, TP: numerical FUS simulations and emulation SR: Bayesian tracking and integration SR, CT: additional motion compensation discussions CvD, MS: MR thermometry algorithm development and validation SM, AM: pre-clinical validation experiments providing feedback for the development of the treatment system MB, AM, JJ: clinical/technical requirements analysis GS: GE API and imaging support YL: INS API and transducer control support SZ, SH: QA management MG: technical coordinator AM: clinical coordinator TP: principal investigator. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests
YL is employed by InSightec. GS is employed by GE. AM and MB acknowledge research collaborations with GE and InSightec. AM further acknowledges support from the Northern Research Partnership. MG is CEO and Co-Owner of Mediri. JJ is partly employed by Mediri. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
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Authors' Affiliations
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- Wijlemans JW, de Greef M, Schubert G, Bartels LW, Moonen CTW, van den Bosch MAAJ, Ries M. A clinically feasible treatment protocol for magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation in the liver. Investig Radiol. 2015; 50(1):24–31.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- Dürichen R, Davenport L, Bruder R, Wissel T, Schweikard A, Ernst F. Evaluation of the potential of multi-modal sensors for respiratory motion prediction and correlation. In: 2013 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC): 2013. p. 5678–681. doi:10.1109/EMBC.2013.6610839.
- Tanner C, Zur Y, French K, Samei G, Strehlow J, Sat G, McLeod H, Houston G, Kozerke S, Székely G, Melzer A, Preusser T. In vivo validation of spatio-temporal liver motion prediction from motion tracked on mr thermometry images. Int J CARS. 2016; 11(6):1143–1152.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- Marquet F, Aubry JF, Pernot M, Fink M, Tanter M. Optimal transcostal high-intensity focused ultrasound with combined real-time 3D movement tracking and correction. Phys Med Biol. 2011; 56(22):7061–080.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
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text:
On Friday July 18, S.O.S. took part in a celebration of the 96th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth and his historic visit to Boys & Girls High School in 1990. Principal Bernard Gassaway, City Council Member Robert Cornegy, Mayor David Dinkins, Reverend Herbert Daughtry and a delegation from the South African ANC Party took part in the ceremony of remembrance, renaming the Boys & Girls High School athletic field Nelson Mandela Field. The day included a park and campus cleanup by students, performance by the Black and Gold Marching Band and a 67minute walk around the field commemorating the 67 years of South African Apartheid.
Save Our Streets Crown Heights and Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy are projects of The Mediation Center and the Center for Court Innovation. We work to eradicate gun violence in our neighborhoods.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Community Rally in Response to Shooting
On Thursday, July 10th, 20 community residents gathered along with S.O.S. staff to rally against the shooting that took place the previous weekend on the corner of Sterling Place and Schenectady Avenue.
Clergy members from three different churches attended to speak out against violence. Many people who did not join the group originally stopped and listened to the message, stop the shootings.
Clergy members from three different churches attended to speak out against violence. Many people who did not join the group originally stopped and listened to the message, stop the shootings.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Art Exposed Event July 5th
Join us on Saturday, July 5th, from 4-8 PM, at The Paper Box, as we gather for Art Exposed – a fun filled day of art, music, community, and food – hosted by MO Entertainment.
Art Exposed is an art and music showcase, intended to bring together local business owners, bloggers, entertainers, and artists to help raise money and awareness around important social causes.
This year's theme is gun violence, and a portion of ticket proceeds will be donated to S.O.S. Crown Heights.
MO Entertainment's founder, Megan Ollivierre, explains Art Exposed as "a way to begin an organic conversation on gun violence in our community, and provide a blueprint on ways we can do something to change it."
The event will include several live performances, a silent art auction, and BBQ provided by Hood Chef! Tickets are $15.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Speak Your Peace
Kristie Joseph is a summer intern at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center. She is a rising senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
I have been interning at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center for a few weeks. Interning at CHCMC has been a positive experience. Sadasia, my co-intern, and I are learning a lot of material and we're both grateful for the opportunity. A few weeks ago, we were given a project called Speak Your Peace. Speak Your Peace is a tool that gives people the opportunity to respond to gun violence in their neighborhood. Sadasia and I have visited 25 residents that live in the Crown Heights neighborhood. We've interviewed children and adults, and everyone had something different to say, but they all spoke on how their community could be improved. Two people that had the biggest impact on us were a man named Robert and a 12 year old boy named Jordan. They were completely honest, assertive, and kind. Everyone from the children to the adults had a great impact on us. Overall, this experience is very life-changing and informative, and Sadasia and I are so glad to have worked on this project.
Some pictures from our project:
"All we want is for everyone to cooperate and come together as a whole community."
"If I could change one thing in my community, I would want to stop those who kill other people's loved ones."
"People have been interacting better, but the violence is surreal and needs to stop."
"If I could change one thing in my community it would be the amount of guns that are in the streets."
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text:
7 Tips For Creating a Mobile Optimized Site In 2018
7 Tips For Creating a Mobile Optimized Site In 2018: Having a mobile-friendly website prolongs past great practice, it's a demand if you want your business to succeed. Mobile currently surpasses desktop Internet usage and also this suggests mobile customers anticipate services to provide an outstanding experience optimized for their gadget. Actually, nearly half of customers… Read More »


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The Ron Burgundy/Dodge Durango ad campaign has clearly been working wonders. Because it's one of the country's favorite fictional characters, people are intentionally seeking out these ads and thus becoming more aware that said SUV is out there. As a result, Durango sales are up 59%.
Of course, the character whose idea of discretion is yelling "VERONICA CORNINGSTONE AND I HAD SEX!" was bound to slip at some point. That point came when being interviewed by Conan O'Brien. He declared that the Durango was "terrible," claimed that his "cracked in half" after four feet of driving, and called all those people who just bought Durangos "suckers." We love it, and now we just want to hear him say "go fuck yourself, Dodge Durango."
RELATED: Ron Burgundy Cosigns the 2014 Dodge Durango (Video)
RELATED: The 10 Most Outrageous Car Salesman Commercials
[via TBS]


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Rashid Mehmood,
Meet Me
My Dashboard
My Career
My Expertise
Salary Calculator
Rashid Mehmood
The C – Suit business stagiest equipped with Participative Leadership Style & over 17 Base Points of PDI (Professional Development Index) in setting Growth Strategy, Business Growth Drivers & Growth Indicators backed by extensive knowledge and hands on expertise in Financial Management, Audit Management and Operations. Practicing management functions since years and have established finance department, audit department, corporate finance structures, feasibility studies, project management and monitoring. Specialized in establishing effective internal controls and cost cutting process, expert in Business Objective settings and KPIs development, Financial Modeling & Startup Projections.
Expert in Advanced Financial Modeling with VBA (Macros), Monte Calro Simulation, Investment Optimization and Business Intellegence Reporting.
Profile Summary
I believe, first we need to make right investment decision to drive Growth, second, ensuring that we turn that revenue into strong earnings and cash flow through SMART resource utilization and cost management. Finally, we need to optimize our capital structure and make efficient & strategic use of cash that we generate.
Intelectual Face
Author and contributor of professional Articles about Financial Management, Project Management, Audit Management, Business Reporting, Fraud Identification and Mitigation Process, Digit Analysis, Benish Modeling, Financial Modeling and Business Management. My Articles are published in various International Journals.
Author and contributor of articles in Urdu Language for various Pakistani News Papers relating to geo-politcal and Soci-economic issues of South Asia.
Specialized in team trainaing and have conducted various trainings for mid career and senior executives of large scale organizations relating to Budgeting, finance for non finance managers, internal audit and reporting, time management, meeting skills, business communication, setting of business objectives and KPIs development.
Professional Membership
Associate Member of Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants United States
of America, Montana Society of CPA's is world leading society of CPA Professionals to achieve professional excellence through knowledge, professional development, experience and growth opportunities.
Associate Member of Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accountants
an IFAC recognized accounting body established by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan in collabration of Directorate General of Audit and Accounts Government of Pakistan.
Affiliate of Saudi Organization of certified Public Accountants
an IFAC recognized Accounting body regulatory authority of accounting profession in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Associate Member of Institute of Professional Finance Managers - United Kingdom
a well known Accouting eduation institute working for the advancement of accounting profession globally.
Fellow Member of American Academy of Project Management - United States
the Academy is working to train the professionals in project management, project monitoring, project cost estimation &budgeting and project financial management and fiscal appraisals.
Member of Indian Chartered Accountants club
, this is a consortium of chartered accountants mainly from South Asia and provides a plateform to accounting professionals for sharing knowledge and training.
Technical Skills
Intellectual Skills
VBA Applicaiton in Excel (Macros)
Advanced MS Excel
Financial Modelling
Monte Carlo Simulation
Benford's Analysis
Beniesh Modelling
Dupont Analysis
Financial Health Analysis
Feasibility Studies
Financial Analysis
Optimization of Investments and Resources
Capital Restructuring
Business Projections and Forecasting
Business Planning, Analysis & Budgeting
Setting of Growth Drivers
Setting of Growth Indicators
Project Management
Internal and External Audit
IFRS (International Financial Reporting standards)
Financial & Management Reporting
ISAs (International Standards on Auditing)
Organizational Objective Settings
Performance Management
Strategy, Vision and Mission Planning
Operational Policies and Procedures Development
Human Resource Management
Effective communication
Time Management
Gap Analysis
Corporate and Orgnizational Development
Business Objective Setting and Performance Indicators
Motivation and Leadership
Business Write ups
Education & Trainings
Academic Profile
Courses & Workshops
Certified Public Accountant
Associate Public Finance Accountant
Certified Financial Modeling Master
Associate Professional Finance Manager
Master Project Manager
Certified International Projects Manager
Organizational Objective Settings and KPIs
Performance Management
ISO 9004:9008 Internal Audit
Time Management
Effective Meeting and Negotiation Skills
Health & Safety Training
Presentation Skills Training
SAGE X 3 ERP System
PRAXIS ERP (Oracle Application)
Oracle EBS
Join Hands with me


text:
Black Flag was straight up one of the most influential bands in history. The fuck you attitude coupled with sarcastic observations of mainstream culture shot through distorted amps and like minded crowds literally helped define a generation. Chuck Dukowski is a smart bad ass who continues to raise his middle finger in the air and mean it. This is a conversation between two icons who continue to influence the world to this day. Juice Magazine presents Chuck Dukowski and Christian Fletcher. – DAN LEVY
"I just decided if I was going to have to be a force for some kind of rebellion, I better do it in the thing I love the most."
Hello? Is this Chuck? This is Christian Fletcher.
Greetings, Christian Fletcher. Where you at?
I'm in San Clemente at work.
What's work?
My family makes traction for surfboards, and sandals, and surf movies. I do mostly shipping and stuff like that.
Right. I know that game.
My kid and I work for my mom and my dad.
So you think you're some kind of rock star or something? I got all day to wait around for you while you're drinking coffee and shit?
[Laughs] I wasn't ready for the interview.
[Laughs] I'm just fucking with you, man.
I suppose there's some reality to that, but that's not why.
[Laughs] Well, I've done some interviews with people and been falling asleep or nodding out in the middle of it, and then I wake up a few minutes later and finish it up, so I understand.
[Laughs] I'm not doing any of that. I wasn't even drinking coffee. I was shy. I don't know. There are two sides to me.
Are you a Gemini?
I grew up around a lot of Gemini's and they made me believe in astrology. My brother is a Gemini. My cousin is a Gemini and they've got personalities for every year they're alive.
I don't know about astrology. It was pretty popular when I was in college. George Bush liked it right? Or was it Reagan's wife that liked astrology? Hitler was into it.
[Laughs] It seemed to work for him, I guess.
I guess not. It worked pretty badly for a few million people, like everybody in Germany. It was Hitler against the world, and if you were Jewish, it was especially a bad thing.
Yeah. That really would have sucked. Are you into politics?
I'm not a politician, but I do stay abreast of events and try to impact things in a positive direction. I feel like everybody needs to try to move the world to a better place. I think it's their responsibility, unless they're assholes and then they're trying to move it to a worse place.
It seems like there's a lot of assholes out there.
There are some big assholes out there, and then there are people who feel like their voice is futile, and it doesn't help for them to do anything, so they go ahead and just become tools. I think that that's a negative thing. It's important to represent for your beliefs.


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I thoroughly enjoyed the RPI Players' most recent production. The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving, if irreverent, musical sendup of Broadway shows of old. Featuring a variety of musical and dance numbers, a zany plot, a biting commentary on the current stage of life, as well as a sentimental ending, The Drowsy Chaperone is a $5 investment you won't regret.
Narrated by an older man known only as "Man in Chair" (excellently portrayed by Ethan Henkler '12) as he reminisces on his life and love of the theatre, the show takes place entirely in his rundown apartment. Gradually, his kitchen transforms into the set of the Man in Chair's favourite show, The Drowsy Chaperone. It is a show within a show, unafraid to poke fun at both the genre and itself. From the very beginning, the fourth wall is not just broken, but smashed.
The show opens with a lengthy monologue from the Man in Chair as the audience sits in the dark, lamenting the fact that theatre these days is nothing like it used to be. As the lights rise, he bustles around his apartment decorated with theatre memorabilia, chatting with the audience and regaling them with obscure theatre-related facts before finally settling into his chair and selecting his favourite record to play on, yes, a record player. Within the show, The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical from 1928 or so. As the record begins, the show bursts out onto the stage, with actors pouring out of the doors, the windows, the closets, and even the refrigerator, turning the apartment into the set of The Drowsy Chaperone in the '20s.
It is the day of a wedding between flighty stage actress Janet and oil tycoon Robert, who are apparently being hosted at the house of the elderly and ditzy Mrs. Tottendale. The cast begins to introduce themselves in the opening number, ranging from George, the forgetful best man in the wedding, to stereotypical European lover Adolpho, the pilot Trix ("You'll see me at the end," she sings, stepping back offstage promptly), and the Drowsy Chaperone of the title. (Drowsy, if you were wondering, is apparently another word for drunk.) The Man in Chair wanders in and out of scenes, sometimes pausing them to offer a tidbit of advice or talk about his own life experiences.
The set is simple but well-constructed, and every part of it is used to the fullest. For example, the liquor cabinet, when wheeled around, opens into a painted garden background for an outdoors scene; a dramatic blue moon drops out of the sky to portray a night scene, even though the scene takes place in broad daylight. Director Frank Leavitt made the decision to keep the action entirely in the Man in Chair's apartment, commenting that this differed from most productions, which put him and his chair in the scene of the show itself.
The show also features an extensive amount of dancing, which is very impressive for any Players show. In the song "Cold Feets," Matthew Dembling and Patrick Kessler '12 perform a rollicking tap dance routine. While neither are trained dancers, they do a very nice job. The big ensemble numbers, such as "Toledo Surprise" at the end of Act 1, also feature joyful and impressive dancing from all, including some humor to remind the audience that the scenes actually take place in the Man in Chair's imagination.
The musical numbers are meant to be corny, and they succeed; but they are catchy. Joshua Palagyi in particular does a fantastic job playing the over-the-top Adolpho, and hides a deep, rich voice somewhere in his flashy silk cape. The sound mixing could have been better in parts, as some characters' mics were much too loud, while others could not muster the volume to be heard when they hit the high notes. Samantha Malanche '12, as the Chaperone, had great stage presence and was especially excellent at glowering impressively. The band also performed well, featuring a strong mix of students and professionals.
The Players did a great job with the spring musical, and a highly recommend you see it, given the chance. The Drowsy Chaperone is showing at the RPI Playhouse, running Thursday–Saturday at 8 pm each night; tickets cost $5 with RPI ID.


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Documentary Fest Draws Indies, Programmers
Aspiring to bring the creative and business sides of the
business together, next month's Westdoc: The West
Coast Documentary and Reality Conference will be
home to a gathering of documentary and reality producers,
directors, writers, network executives, agents
and distributors.
Slated for Sept. 9-12
at the remodeled Culver
Hotel and the Pacific
Theaters Culver
Stadium 12 in Culver
City, Calif., Westdoc
comprises more than
30 panels, plus case studies, social events, screenings and
networking sessions. Topics run the gamut from project
conception to financing; selling a documentary or reality
TV one-off or series; and different distribution models
from theatrical presentation to digital delivery. Keynote
speakers include Howard Owens, president of National
Geographic Channels, and Oscar-nominated documentary
filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist of Fate, Invisible War).
All told, more than 100 industry speakers and 400 attendees
are expected to participate in the third iteration
of the show, the previous two of which were held
in Santa Monica in 2009 and 2010. More
importantly, the conference provides an
invaluable commodity: real networking.
"Shows like NATPE became huge,"
said Richard Propper, the conference cofounder
and CEO of Solid Entertainment,
an international distributor of non-fiction
television programming. "It shut out the
independents, put them on the 45th floor
of some hotel. That doesn't work. Westdoc
is a place where network decisionmakers
are next to the creators in a casual
environment. There aren't a lot of people wearing ties."
Programmers participating include: ABC, A&E, Animal
Planet, BBC, Bravo, CMT, Discovery Channel, Documentary
Channel, ESPN, GSN, KCET, MTV, National
Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, OWN, Ovation,
Oxygen, PBS SoCaL, Spike TV, Style, Sundance Channel,
Syfy, TLC, Veria Living, VH1 and We TV.
While Westdoc may be rooted in documentary film,
reality TV is an integral part of the conference. "The
skill sets for documentary and reality production are
very similar," said Chuck Braverman, conference cofounder
and a director of both narrative and documentary
films; he has produced programming that has
appeared on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, A&E
and HBO. "Sure, there are lines drawn for both, but they
are drifting back and forth. Reality production is where
the money is today."
Propper noted that the two genres' differences in program
length and production lead-time can translate into
more income for indie filmmakers. "Some documentarians
are accustomed to working on one or two hours
a year," Propper said. "Here the networks, whether it's
TLC, Nat Geo or A&E, are all asking for unique stories
with big characters in half-hour episodes. Reality has become
a lucrative outlet for documentarians."
Network economic realities have been beneficial to
this segment of the creative community.
"Ten years ago, everybody thought reality was a flash
in the pan," Braverman said. "But with their lower production
costs, reality series are now a staple across many
broadcast and cable networks."
Creative types gain their chance to meet with network
officials in sit-down sessions where, over a 30-minute
span, production companies and channels delineate
their specific short- and longer-term needs. Shorter
"FaceTime" sessions afford 10-minute one-on-one opportunities
for filmmakers to espouse their ideas to TV
executives, who can critique the pitch and explain the
next steps in getting a show started or licensed.
The conference's final day centers around "Pitch-
Fest." There, a dozen documentary and reality producer
finalists visually and verbally present their new works
in progress to funders and network development executives
in front of a live audience — which votes on the
winner — for potential acquisition, licensing or co-production
funding. The Gilbert Group at Merrill Lynch
Wealth Management-Bank of America is providing a
cash prize of $12,500 to the winner, up from $7,500 in
the past.
The inaugural PitchFest winners — documentaries
First Position, chronicling the world of competitive ballet,
in 2009, and Indie Game: The Movie, about video games
and their creators, in 2010, have been on the theater circuit
in the U.S. and Canada. Both films started with
what Braverman called "great trailers."
"First Position raised money in the room, " he said. "Indie
Game also really had not started. Shooting began the
first day after PitchFest."
Added Propper: "There is a lot of business taking place
at Westdoc, or getting started there."
The third Westdoc conference
aims to give independent
filmmakers visibility with TV


text:
Bee boh….August 13, 2013 at 6:50 pm | Posted in All about little girl, The journey within | Leave a comment
…. Menses came today. Sigh! It was supposed to come yesterday, and despite the negative pregnancy test, I hoped that it was just a false negative. Unfortunately, it turned out accurate after all… 😦
Sigh, I guess the conditions are not right for little girl yet. Maybe she knows that her papa has yet to confirm a new job, financial situation not stable, so she doesn't want to come, in case Mr Gua Gua feels stressed about not being able to provide for little girl.
BUT… Mr Gua Gua just received 2 job offers today. TWO! So at least his job is more or less settled, now just need to take care of his health. He has been falling sick so frequently recently, not sure if it's a good or bad sign, cos he just went to Dr F to tiao his body, so maybe it's detoxing symptoms. Anyway, he also knows that he needs to take care of his health. Otherwise how can little girl come?!?
I was feeling so sian today that I decided to browse the Zhu Sheng Niang Niang thread in the SMH forum. Wah, this tolberone forumer seems so skilled in giving advice that after reading so many of her posts, I feel compelled to come back to my Buddhist roots. Reflecting on myself, it seems like I really strayed very far in this past year. Not only did I stop meditating, chanting, etc, I even feel bored when praying at temple, started eating beef (but only once in a blue moon), and the worst is, I have been killing ants that crawl onto my body without blinking an eye. Tsk tsk… thinking about it makes me feel very regretful. And I have become so much less compassionate these days too. Maybe I need to start cultivating again before little girl would want to come. Especially if she is really going to be an emanation for Green Tara, as what Mr Gua Gua insists that she would be.
To be honest, I have really become very lazy in doing self cultivation, compared to the past when I was super onz. Even though tolberone has given very straightforward advice to do chanting and/or copy Medicine Buddha sutra so as to accumulate merits and create the conditions to conceive a child, and I realise that it's probably good advice, I still feel lazy about doing it. Sigh… not sure why either. I used to be so diligent in all kinds of practice, be it meditating, chanting, prostrating, etc, and now I just don't feel like doing it.
For now, i'm just listening to Medicine Buddha mantras on Youtube. Yeah, I know that that's really the most basic, but hopefully listening to it will gradually help me to become more motivated in doing more. Not only for conceiving little girl but during pregnancy as well. I believe that little boy is now so intelligent and relatively well-behaved is cos I chanted om mani padme hung rather diligently when I was pregnant with him, and I attended the mani retreat too. So hopefully by the time little girl comes, I will find the motivation to do some kind of spiritual practice as well.
ABC cabinet doneAugust 4, 2013 at 11:06 pm | Posted in Rantings and ravings | Leave a comment
I have been busy the past few days making little girl's ABC cabinet. I'm too lazy to post pictures here (who's gonna see?) but I can say that i'm pretty pleased with the result. Tried playing ABC storytelling with little boy on Sat, and he had fun with it for about 20 min before he decided to do something else. Guess that's a small success. Hopefully little girl will enjoy the ABC cabinet a lot more. Now it's more for putting names to pictures. Probably later on, I will think about how to add words so that little girl will learn reading too. Apparently some mummies start their babies on flash cards (pics + words) when they are only a few months old. So kiasu! But I guess if I want little girl to be an early and avid book reader, I might have to consider going down that path too. Anyway, now it's still early. I guess when I test positive for pregnancy, I can start doing more research on baby "education".
I have also been busy doing research for the upcoming trip to HK with mum and sis. The highlights of the trip for me would be the super highly recommended Tim Ho Wan (IIRC), the cheapest Michelin-rated dim sum restaurant in HK, the Take Out Comedy, the House of Dancing Water at Macau and Sai Kung, which has been called Venice of HK and supposedly have very nice seafood. Yums! My most "dreaded" destination would be the 10 000 Buddhas, which consists of 431 steps up a hill. Oh no… since I haven't exercised forever, I have no idea how am I going to last the journey without showing obvious physical strain. Hopefully I will outlast Mummy, even though she goes for her morning exercise very regularly (but very non-strenuous kind), otherwise, will definitely get suaned by her. Arghhh…. will just cross my fingers that it's going to be an enjoyable trip.
8 more days to knowing whether little girl is here yet.


text: This product is one of the newest in the Vivacity product line up. It is currently in pre-order. The first shipments will go out Friday February 9th, 2017. If you are ok with this wait time please proceed with the order. If not, please choose from some of our other amazing products.


text:
Metal Cleanliness Check
Many microstructural evaluations are carried out to offer quality inspection of components using metallurgical techniques and microscopy. Carrying out a metal cleanliness check is important.
Metallurgical technicians may be interested in possible contaminants in the material or undesirable inclusions. All products should be manufactured to a specification and this should be proved to be conformed to. We have selected a range of products that will be suitable for metallography.
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text:
Welcome to
Now firmly established in our new home premises at
(See yellow tab 2nd from top left for directions)
Ring the club on 0161 445 3712 or Dave on 07717 252114 for any clarification
or email firstname.lastname@example.com
to Club Members
who won the
last weekend.
It is with great sadness that we inform members of the sad psssing of Bernard Goldenfield.
His funeral was held on Thursday 6th June at Philips Park Cemetery.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.
(A full obituary is posted on the MCBA Website)
EBU 6 Jun 2019
Yesterday morning during the The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky on Virgin Radio, Chris Evans and his sports reporter Vassos Alexander, gave a glowing review of bridge. When talking about improving memory and keeping your mind active they said that bridge is the best game in the world ever to offset Alzheimer's, with lots of people now taking up the game.
If you would like to listen to again, please use the link below. The bridge mention is at approximately 8.10am
Link to the full show
John Armstrong Swiss Pairs
Schapiro Spring Foursomes
The 2019 Buffett Cup took place in China this year, in the southern coastal city of Haikou, capital of Hainan Province.
Starting on 24th April and running until 28th April, the competition included a team from Europe, the United States and China, each team consisting of 8 players. The Buffett Cup is similar to the prestigious Ryder Cup of golf and Davis Cup of tennis. Each squad has a number of players who compete in multiple formats. The outcome of the event is determined by the aggregate results of the segments.
First held in 2006, the Buffett Cup consists of pairs, teams, and individual competitions. The event is named after world-renowned businessman Warren Buffett, lifelong bridge devotee and competitor.
This year there were two English Pairs playing for Europe:
For more information about the event visit the Buffett Cup website.
The final result saw the USA team in first place with 972.3 and Jason and Justin's European team coming a very close second with 967.7.
Higson Finals
Teltscher Trophy Result
The Teltscher Trophy - the 'senior Camrose' competition - took place in April. This year the event was held in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The England team (pictured from left to right: Norman Selway, Gunnar Hallberg, Paul Hackett, Brian Senior, John Holland, David Mossop and NPC Simon Cochemé) were victorious, winning all 10 matches on the way to the trophy.
Last year's champions Scotland were runners up.
AGM of MANCHESTER BRIDGE CLUB
Sunday 7th April 2019
Members attending participated in a brief round-up by Jeff of last years' exciting news items culminating in the move to Fallowfield. This was followed by a delicious supper prepared and served by Eylem and a duplicate from 7.30pm.
Jeff's Review of 2018 Activities, Successes and Results are now under the yellow tab top left of this page marked "2019 AGM"
21 Feb 2019
John Holland has regained the Sunday Telegraph Salver, for the most Master Points earned in the calendar year.
John, who has won the competition on six previous occasions, earned 26,361 points in 2018. Gary Hyett, was second with 21,699.
John also topped the Gold Point list.
"She's done it again!"
Congratulations to EVE LIGHTHILL on becoming our 2019 Club Champion.
This Club Senior Individual Player Contest has been achieved by coming top on Wednesday Evenings over the 12 months period between April 2018 and May 2019.
Well Done Eve!
Current Competitions
2019 / 20 Club Championship
This Wednesday Evening Individual Player Contest runs from
May 1st 2019 until the end of April 2020
2019 Tony Wood Cup
This Monday Evening Duplicate Pairs Contest runs from
May 2019 until the end of August 2019
The Winning Pair on Monday,
Wednesday and Thursday evenings
can claim their
Here at Manchester Bridge Club we can always find you a playing partner but please arrive in good time to allow us to find someone suited to your ability.
If you arrive at the last minute you may have to take "pot luck"!
Alternatively please phone David ahead of the session to ask him to find someone for you.
"We aim to please!!"
Are you receiving the Bridge Club e-Mails & Newsletter?
If not - please let Dave know so he can make sure you are included.
If you would prefer not to be contacted please email Dave at the address below.
Tel: 0161 445 3712 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Snyder predicts record crowd on Sunday
Daniel Snyder's offseason-long media exposure party continued this week, as the Redskins owner scored the cover story of Montgomery Life magazine and appeared live on CNBC's The Strategy Session to talk about the NFL and finances.
Though actually, during that CNBC bit he was too pumped up about the upcoming Cowboys game to talk about anything else. Here's what he said when asked about the current economic environment.
"I think things are tough out there, and this economy is difficult right now," Snyder said. "It's sort of bumping along a little bit. Right now all I'm doing is looking forward to playing Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx field. That's the only thing I'm thinking about right now. We're looking forward to this season."
Here's what he said when asked about international expansion.
"I think that Roger Goodell, our commissioner, really has got his sights set on expanding the league in the future," Snyder said. "I'll just support him and I hope right now we just look forward to this season. That's all we're thinking about right at this moment though."
Here's what he said when asked about revenue projections in 2027.
"I don't know," he said. "All I'm thinking about is Sunday, so 2027 sounds like a long way off."
And here's what he said when asked about reports concerning declining NFL attendance.
"We've been fortunate here at the Redskins, we think we'll have a record crowd this weekend, this Sunday night for the Dallas Cowboy game," Snyder said. "And from my personal perspective, we feel that it's been going pretty well here, even though we've had a tough season last year. We're looking forward to getting it going now. Overall, obviously the economy, we're all susceptible to it, and it's taken a little bit of time to get it to go in the right direction, but it's gonna be pretty good in the future."
Snyder also said he's "never been involved or interested at all" in buying the Washington Times, praised the NFL's competitive balance, and talked about how important live content is to content distributors. Oh, and when he was asked to predict the AFC's Super Bowl participant, he said he was excited about Sunday.
"We're looking forward to getting the Redskins going right now, and this season and this Sunday it all kicks it off for us," he said. "We hope to have over 90,000, a record at FedEx Field, and just hopefully beat them Cowboys."
As for the Montgomery Life profile, you can read it here. Snyder talked about growing up a Redskins fan, and building his business portfolio, and his charity work and devotion to the D.C. area. His daughters are both mentioned by name, which is not something I ever remember happening. And he again described sports ownership as a "stewardship," like so:
"This is not really a business as much as stewardship. It's an honor." An honor that he admits can be "heartbreaking," but also "wonderfully fulfilling."
This fits in nicely with Ted Leonsis -- who has written that "owning a team is a public trust" -- and with Mark Lerner -- who has said that owning the Nats is "a trusteeship for the city."
Also, Snyder introduced himself to the Montgomery Life reporter as Dan, saying "Mr. Snyder was my father."
Dan Steinberg
September 7, 2010; 1:07 PM ET
Categories: Media , Redskins
Save & Share: Previous: Shanahan cautions media on discretion
Next: Redskins oldest NFC East team across the board
Someone has a new good PR person that he is listening to. Obviously points 1-10 on the list were "looking forward to Sunday."
Posted by: dcborn61 | September 7, 2010 1:17 PM | Report abuse
Hey, it was on CNBC, and the game is Sunday on NBC. What a coincidence.
Posted by: Cosmo06 | September 7, 2010 1:21 PM | Report abuse
He's like a robot in this interview...obviously he was coached by some PR flack. What a joke -- The guy is now and always will be a disingeniuos little creep.
Posted by: dbunkr | September 7, 2010 1:38 PM | Report abuse
I agree, he's creepy! ;)
- Ray
Posted by: rmcazz | September 7, 2010 1:42 PM | Report abuse
I again point out there is NOTHING he can do to change the fact that his "stewardship" has ruined our cities NFL Franchise. He does NOTHING unless it's got his bottom lines' interest in mind. "Hey, nobody likes any of our players, let's market the oldtimers!" KA-CHING!!!!
What is he focussed on for Sunday? Hanging out with Jerry Jones some more? Watching from his Ivory Tower on how to milk more money out of his fan base? He has seen no downturn in the economy.
Posted by: Leeguru | September 7, 2010 2:18 PM | Report abuse
I was at the Tech-Boise State game last night. I've never seen that stadium so crowded. Never. I think he got his record crowd, and it was last night.
Posted by: rodeorob | September 7, 2010 2:19 PM | Report abuse
The biggest question is how did it take more than a decade for Dan Snyder to actually get some good PR advice? Was Cerrato in charge of that, too?
Snyder is a guy who was so clueless a few years ago that when he was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at a charity event at the JCC in Rockville, instead of recording a video talking about himself, his feelings about the Redskins and growing up a fan, thanking his family, etc., (something every other honoree did)he didn't even bother and had Joe Gibbs do a video praising him instead. At least someone is finally guiding Dan on the right path.
Posted by: TheFingerman | September 7, 2010 2:29 PM | Report abuse
It does say a lot when a university that's nearly a 5 hour drive from Landover provided the best crowd in the stadium's history.
Posted by: Kev29 | September 7, 2010 2:35 PM | Report abuse
Nice that Snyder's learning a bit of PR. The guy has been remarkably clueless on such matters. But the plain fact is that you can polish a piece of crap all you want, but it still stinks..............
Posted by: poguesmahone | September 7, 2010 3:06 PM | Report abuse
"Hopefully beat the Cowboys?"
How about "hopefully" we can score a TD against them?
Posted by: Scoonie97 | September 7, 2010 3:16 PM | Report abuse
A billionaire can't answer a few easy questions on the economy, oh thats right its Snyder, the man has the personality of a roof shingle.
Posted by: DCFanatic | September 7, 2010 5:21 PM | Report abuse
"I think things are tough out there, and this economy is difficult right now," Snyder said. "It's
how the hell would he know if its tough out there...cos he paid haynesworth 32 million out of his 2.9 billion?
paleeeeze...give out free tickets to the game and ill take that seriously
Posted by: mrhney03 | September 7, 2010 5:42 PM | Report abuse
This guy will always be an asshat. How insulting to the fans of the NFL to come out with this complete opposite persona, Obviously he was coached to the hilt. It is so embarrassing.
""Mr. Snyder was my father." Geeshh...uh, has that line been used, oh, say by 5 million people?
Posted by: peauxsucent | September 8, 2010 12:16 AM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.


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Good news for those homeowners looking to do a short sale in the new year! This may also impact those facing foreclosure or trialing a loan modification with a principal reduction that could result in the "forgiveness of debt."
Congress passed the "fiscal cliff package" late yesterday with language that extends the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief through 2013. This is good for homeowners who are experiencing a hardship or for an other reason have to short sell their homes. This is because without these protections homeowners might otherwise be taxed on the amount "forgiven" by the bank as it may be treated as income. This gives home sellers, selling their primary homes, some relief in the new year.
Short sales will continue to drive many areas of Contra Costa and many have been waiting to sell their homes just wondering if these tax relief provisions would be extended. Many banks continue to push short sales as a more desirable option to foreclosure, so its believed will continue to see short sales rise in 2013.
For more information about the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Extended for 2013 just click on the link to read more including details about the package, links to the IRS and State tax relief information pages and more.
Keep in mind, this is just the IRS/Federal tax relief, and does not apply to the individual states. We have to wait still to see if California will follow suit as they did in 2010 to come in line with the Feds.
If you're thinking of doing a short sale with your Contra Costa home in the New Year – call me for a free, confidential consultation.
Catherine Myers, Broker Associate
Prudential California Realty
Offices in Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and San Ramon
Concord, Clayton Resident since 1995!
Call: 925-683-2125
Or more information at Contra Costa homes for sale and more! or Contra Costa Short Sales


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Category Archives: The Jury
Day 0: The Flight
He didn't like to fly. Every time he slept on an airplane he would dream with vivid detail that the plane would go down. Usually it would be a section of the wing that would break off, causing the plane to … Continue reading
Day 1: The Sweeny
The hotel the Thieve's Guild had booked him into turned out to be fantastic, nested on a slope that rises sharply up from the Grande Piazza in the center of town, and his room had a stunning view of Lake … Continue reading
Day 2: The Curator Arrives
It was his practice when in a hotel room to booby trap his door. He knew that card key locks were easily hacked. He knew full well of software available for the Arduino processor board that when plugged into the … Continue reading
Day 3: The Last Bang
The Jury spent the day studying the heists of both the Man From Georgia and a Swiss-German Crew who could have easily been college students.
Day 4: Zoe
His face was still bruised and his lip was split, which made drinking his frequent espresso doppios that much more difficult, but by this time the addiction to caffeine had returned with a vengeance. Clouds had rolled in from over … Continue reading
Day 5: The Cypher
In the night it began to storm. First there was the rain, and the lightening with regular and rapid flashes illuminating the mountains. The thunder shook the panes of glass in the windows of the restaurant while The Jury discussed … Continue reading
Day 6: Of One And Half A Dozen Of Another
The hotel lunch room was empty except for the South Korean, who motioned for the Canadian to join him. They discussed the heists they had seen, and considered forming an alliance in case the other Jury members didn't agree with … Continue reading


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The Cammel International companies Cameron Tilbury Publicity and Kickin Media, both based in England, announce that the world's first all-digital, international, fan-based country music awards have attracted nominations from around the world. So far, the strongest response has come from the English-speaking countries outside the USA, but interest is growing in Continental Europe.
Fans are able to nominate and vote for artists in all categories, whether in their own territory or in other territories around the world (the USA, Canada, Britain and Ireland, Continental Europe, and Australia), on the Country Music Awards Facebook page.
The voting system features twenty-three categories, one of which is bluegrass - and, of course, bluegrass artists can be nominated in other categories, such as instrumental or vocal. For more information, visit the DCMA website.
Michael Cleveland – Tall Fiddler
1 day ago


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These must-read stories and much more are the foundation of the wall-to-wall coverage inside the newest issue of Cardinals Magazine, which presents the most comprehensive, colorful look at the present, future and past of all-things-Cardinals. The brand-new issue delivers on all fronts, with 120 pages of content including a revealing profile on the electrifying Kolten Wong, exclusive scouting reports on the club's top 10 signees from the 2015 draft and a no-nonsense evaluation of the 45 Hall of Famers with a "Cardinals connection" – and who really earned their place in the Hall as Redbirds.
During this homestand, Cardinals Magazine is on sale for just $5 inside each gate from our refurbished vendor carts, the Team Store, and the Cardinals Authentics Shop inside Ballpark Village. It's also available at many area retailers, notably Schnucks, Dierbergs, QT, Walgreens and Cardinals Clubhouse. To order a subscription—and receive 2 FREE tickets to most any Monday through Thursday home game—visit cardinals.com/magazine or call 314.345.9000 (#CardsMag).


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So you want to be President of the United States?
What do you have to do first?
Get funding
Get recognition
What do you have to do next?
Become your party's nominee by winning the primaries
US Primaries and Caucuses; Q&A
What is the significance of Iowa and New Hampton?
How was it looking by March 2008?
Be nominated at the National Convention and select a running mate.
How do you get people to vote for you?
Presidential Debates
How does the US elect its President?
Each state has a number of electors or electoral college votes (ECV) California has the most (54), Montana, Vermont and Alaska have the least (3). The electorate vote in their states for who they want to be President.
The Presidential candidate who gains the most votes gains all the electoral vote for that state. The electors meet in their state capitals and vote for President. The candidate with the most ECV votes wins.
What happened in 2000? What was significant about it?
Who else do Americans vote for?
The House of Representatives
The Senate
The State Governor
The State Legislature
On initiatives and referendums (in some states)


text:
Go 4 Construction Jobs is the only site you need if you're looking for a building, engineering and construction Job in Thailand. We have all the best Jobs from all the top Recruitment Agencies and Employers on one site.
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text: Riesling is one of the world's great white-wine grapes. This German grape variety is notable for being able to produce stunning sweet wines (Eiswein, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese) as well as dry ones. The Riesling grape's ability to retain its piercing acidity while balancing intense sweetness creates wines with enormous aging potential. Riesling wines are delicate but complex. The elegant multi-layered bouquet usually has delicate notes of peaches, apricots and citrus fruits. The flavor characteristics are flowery, citrus and the minerals from the vineyard soil. Because of its natural acidity, Riesling is very racy, tart and long on the palate; it constantly develops and thus ages very well.


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An Israeli delegation tasked with negotiating a compensation over the Mavi Marmara flotilla raid paid its first visit to Ankara yesterday [April 22]. Led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security advisor, Yaakov Amidror, and special envoy Joseph Ciechanover, the delegation was deemed to be of satisfactory rank in Ankara.
With US President Barack Obama by his side, Netanyahu had personally extended an apology to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on behalf of his country, and made pledges about paying compensation and lifting the blockade of Gaza.
The mission of the delegation was to outline the framework of the compensation that Turkey had demanded as a condition in the wake of the Israeli military raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla. Following technical talks at the foreign ministry, the delegation met with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, who is in charge of the related political process.
Both meetings were "positive," according to initial information. This was expected since Israel now places great importance on rebuilding ties with Turkey. The Netanyahu government knows best that the restoration of relations, severed in the past three years, requires a lengthy and arduous process and, therefore, wants that process to start immediately. For that purpose, the Israelis arrived well-prepared for the first meeting in Ankara.
The talks between the two sides resulted in a "draft protocol" that would pave the way for the normalization of ties. The draft was drawn up in consultation with both governments.
The three-page document contains no reference to the amount of compensation, but is rather intended as a road map outlining the general framework of the negotiations.
The draft protocol will be submitted to the Turkish and Israeli prime ministers for further consideration. The governments will add the final touches.
Both sides are careful to prevent the leaking of the protocol's contents while it is still a draft. This is understandable. The Turkish side in particular is well aware that the families of the Mavi Marmara martyrs are annoyed even by the word "compensation."
A source I spoke to made the following comments: "The Mavi Marmara ferry was a civic human rights initiative. The sole objective of scores of human rights activists from more than 30 countries was to break the Israeli blockade, which is responsible for the human tragedy of the Palestinians in Gaza. They attempted to do that not by testing Israel's legitimate boundaries, but via international waters, which Israel controls illegally. Israel, however, intervened with guns. Turkey cannot ignore the noble and humane objective of that legitimate initiative. Moreover, Turkey will take no step that could degrade or trivialize it.
"The suspension of ties with Israel was a reaction 'from state to state' and the conditions of restoring ties were determined at the very outset. Turkey never stepped back from those conditions. The Israeli prime minister apologized and said he accepted also the two other conditions: the payment of compensation and the lifting of the Gaza blockade. There are now two things the state will do: conduct the process related to the compensation to be paid by the Israeli state and follow up on whether the blockade of Gaza is lifted. That's the reason why Turkey is having talks today with the delegation on compensation — it is not bargaining over the martyrs. Turkey has never forgotten that breaking the blockade of Gaza is the essential objective of the Mavi Marmara martyrs. Hence, to describe the negotiations as 'money bargaining' would be an insult to both the martyrs and the human rights activists."
Deputy Prime Minister Arinc emphasized the same point when he met with the Turkish media in Europe last week. So, it is pleasing to hear that an important agreement has been reached in today's talks on the way of sealing the process with a "protocol."
Manipulating the issue of compensation in a way that could undermine the process will be to no one's benefit.
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Downtown Dallas' former First National Bank tower, vacant for more than a year, has been sold to an investor who hopes to renovate the skyscraper.
The 52-story office building at 1401 Elm St. had been up for sale by lenders who took control of the property and investors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The last tenants moved out of the 45-year-old tower in early 2010.
Since then, Colliers International has been trying to find a buyer for the 1.3 million-square-foot tower, which had a price tag of $19 million.
A group of Eastern European investors headed by Turkish developer Mukemmel Sarimsakci bought the empty skyscraper with hopes of redeveloping the building.
"It took a while, but we finally got it sold," said Colliers' David Glasscock, who negotiated the sale with Jim Sobel, also of Colliers. "The sale just closed."
The new owners, in a presentation almost two weeks ago to the city of Dallas, said they plan to spend about $125 million to convert the empty high-rise to offices, apartments and retail space.
If the plan goes forward, the city might contribute $30 million in tax increment financing assistance.
Sarimsakci's company, Polidev International Inc., has also purchased smaller office buildings in the San Francisco Bay area. In Internet accounts, Sarimsakci has been referred to as "the Turkish Trump."
Karl Zavitkovsky, Dallas' director of economic development, said Polidev appears to have substantial capital capacity.
"This building has a host of issues, but this is a sophisticated group who is aware of the challenges and has a long-term perspective regarding downtown market potential," Zavitkovsky said in an email. "I am very supportive of this effort, and the reimbursement deal recommended by the tax increment finance board is contingent on performance."
Sarimsakci told Dallas officials that he plans to begin work on the Elm Street project later this year.
Dallas' Merriman Associates Architects Inc. has done some preliminary design work on the proposed renovation project.
Known in recent years as "Elm Place," the First National Bank building was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River when it opened in 1965.
The tower was designed by Dallas architect Thomas Stanley, who worked with famed designer George Dahl's firm.
It's still one of the biggest buildings on Dallas' skyline, and is known for its bankers' pinstripe exterior of dark gray glass with lighted white vertical strips.
The tower is the largest empty office block in downtown Dallas. And with the recent sale of the old Statler Hilton Hotel on Commerce Street, two major vacant properties have changed hands this year.


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Incorporated in 1989, Renaissance Jewellery Limited (RJL) is in the business of manufacture and sale of studded gold, platinum and silver jewellery. Renaissance product profile includes rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, etc. which are manufactured using polished diamonds, precious and other semi precious stones which are set in precious metals like gold, platinum and silver. Renaissance has three manufacturing units, two in Mumbai and one at Bhavnagar, Gujarat.
Company is entering the capital markets with an initial public offering, IPO of 5,324,240 Equity Shares, for cash, at a premium to be decided through a 100% Book Built Issue.
The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs. 125/- at lower level and Rs. 150/- at upper level for equity share of Rs. 10/-. The issue opens on Nov 19, 2007, and closes for subscription on Nov 21, 2007. The equity shares of the company are proposed to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Click here for more information about Renaissance Jewellery Limited IPO, Renaissance IPO Allotment Status, Renaissance IPO discussions, Renaissance IPO reviews, RJL IPO News and Renaissance IPO Listing Date.