Paul S Tofts, Brighton and Sussex Medical
School, University of Sussex BN1 9PX, UK
1. Summary
Implementing quantitative MR (qMR) methodology
can be a time-consuming task, sometimes seemingly without an end.
The concept of the Perfect qMR Machine offers the possibility that
the implementation is complete and that no further improvements
are needed. This is achieved by making the measurement
repeatability variance much less than the biological variance.
Thus the proposal is:
A Perfect Quantitative MR machine is one
that, in making a measurement, contributes no significant
extra variation to that which already exists from biological
variation.
A medal system (platinum, gold, silver and
bronze) recognises different sources of biological variance,
depending on the type of measurement being carried out (whether a
serial study or a group comparison, and whether on a single
machine or multi-centre).
A
perfect machine can in principle be demonstrated for each
quantitative measure (T1, ADC etc).
Meanwhile, startling
as it is that all visible evidence of invention should have been
refined out of this instrument and that there should be delivered
to us an object as natural as a pebble polished by the waves, it
is equally wonderful that he who uses this instrument should be
able to forget that it is a machine. There was a time when a flyer
sat at the center of a complicated works. Flight set us factory
problems. The indicators that oscillated on the instrument panel
warned us of a thousand dangers. But in the machine of today we
forget that motors are whirring: the motor, finally, has come to
fulfill its function, which is to whirr as a heart beats - and we
give no thought to the beating of our heart. Thus, precisely
because it is perfect the machine dissembles its own existence
instead of forcing itself upon our notice. And thus, also,
the realities of nature resume their pride of place. It is not
with metal that the pilot is in contact, Contrary to the vulgar
illusion, it is thanks to the metal, and by virtue of it, that the
pilot rediscovers nature. As I have already said, the machine
does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but
plunges him more deeply into them.
de Saint-Exupery ,
Antoine ; de Saint-Exupery , Antoine ; Galantiere, Lewis . Wind,
Sand and Stars: Wind, Sand and Stars (Harvest Book) by Antoine de
Saint-Exupery and Lewis Galantiere . Mariner Books. Kindle
Edition.
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more on the
genesis and inspiration for the concept of the Perfect
Machine perfect-machine-inspiration.pdf
Paul Tofts
November 19th 2022