Upon completion of my PhD, I was awarded the Toshiba Research Fellowship and went to Japan to work at the R&D center of Toshiba Medical Systems (March 2000 - October 2001). The bulk of my research work at Toshiba was devoted to the development of SPEEDER, a technique for fast MRI based on the use of multiple RF coils and a subsampling k-space acquisition.

M. Miyazaki, H. Takai, H. Kanazawa, M. A. González Ballester, Y. Machida, and S. Sugiura. Applications of Non-Enhanced MRA: a Dual-Phase Acquisition, Functional MRA, and an RF Subencoding Acquisition. In 12th International Workshop on Magnetic Resonance Angiography, Lyon, France, 2000.

Y. Machida, Y. Kassai, Y. Hamamura, M. A. González Ballester, S. Kuhara, and M. Miyazaki. High Speed Imaging Using Multiple RF Coils for FASE Non-Contrast-Enhanced Blood Flow Imaging (in Japanese). In 28th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Kyoto, Japan, 2000.

Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, H. Takai, and Y. Hamamura. Application of Multiple RF Coil High Speed Imaging (SPEEDER) to Flow-Compensated Fresh Blood Imaging (in Japanese). In 9th Japanese Conference on Magnetic Resonance Angiography, Tokyo, Japan, 2001.

Y. Kobayashi, O. Tanaka, K. Matsuura, K. Hamada, Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, T. Miyata, and K. Yodo. Improvement of Image Quality in 2D/3D Fase Non-Contrast MRA with Multiple RF Coil High Speed Imaging (in Japanese). In Japanese Radiological Society JRS, 2001.

T. Yokomizo, Y. Koyama, M. Sagehashi, N. Imai, Y. Chiba, Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, T. Miyata, and K. Yodo. Evaluation of Basic Characteristics of Multiple RF Coil High Speed Imaging (in Japanese). In Japanese Society of Radiological Technicians JSRT, Kobe, Japan, 2001.

M. A. González Ballester, Y. Machida, Y. Kassai, Y. Hamamura, and H. Sugimoto. Robust Estimation of Coil Sensitivities for PPA Reconstruction. In 3rd International Symposium of the Japanese Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JSMRM, Tokyo, Japan, 2001.

M. Miyazaki, H. Takai, H. Kanazawa, M. A. González Ballester, and Y. Machida. Progress in Non-Enhanced MRA: Dual-Phase Scan, Functional MRA, and RF Sub-Encoding Acquisition. In 3rd International Symposium of the Japanese Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JSMRM, Tokyo, Japan, 2001.

M. A. González Ballester, Y. Machida, S. Nozaki, S. Uchizono, and H. Sugimoto. 3D Thin-Plate Splines for Prescan-Based Sensitivity Assessment in Parallel Imaging. In 29th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Tsukuba, Japan, 2001.

Y. Machida, S. Kuhara, M. A. González Ballester, S. Nozaki, H. Takai, Y. Kassai, and Y. Hamamura. Application of SPEEDER to FBI - Artifact Reduction in ESSR (in Japanese). In 29th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Tsukuba, Japan, 2001

S. Nozaki, T. Kimura, H. Takai, M. A. González Ballester, Y. Hamamura, and Y. Machida. Application of SPEEDER to Diffusion Imaging (in Japanese). In 29th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Tsukuba, Japan, 2001.

S. Kuhara, Y. Kassai, M. Yui, Y. Machida, and M. A. González Ballester. 3D Interactive Locator Technique Using SPEEDER Fast Imaging (in Japanese). In 29th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Tsukuba, Japan, 2001.

Y. Kobayashi, O. Tanaka, K. Matsuura, K. Hamada, Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, T. Miyata, and K. Yodo. Evaluation of Black Blood Imaging Using Multicoil High Speed Imaging (SPEEDER) (in Japanese). In 29th Meeting of the Japanese Journal of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine JMRM, Tsukuba, Japan, 2001.

M. A. González Ballester, Y. Machida, Y. Kassai, Y. Hamamura, and H. Sugimoto. Robust Estimation of Coil Sensitivities for RF Subencoding Acquisition Techniques. In 9th Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine ISMRM, Glasgow, UK, 2001.

Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, H. Takai, Y. Kassai, and Y. Hamamura. Application of RF Subencoding Acquisition to Flow Compensated 3D Half-Fourier FSE MRA. In 9th Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine ISMRM, Glasgow, UK, 2001.

Y. Machida, S. Kuhara, M. A. González Ballester, H. Takai, Y. Kassai, and Y. Hamamura. A Novel Subencoding Reconstruction Technique in 3D Half-Fourier FSE for Non-Contrast MRA without Flow-Related N/2 Artifacts. In 9th Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine ISMRM, Glasgow, UK, 2001.

Y. Kobayashi, T. Osamu, N. Imai, T. Yokomizo, Y. Machida, M. A. González Ballester, and K. Yodo. Improvement of Image Quality in 2D/3D Half-Fourier FSE with RF Subencoding Acquisition - Clinical Applications in Thoracic Imaging. In 9th Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine ISMRM, Glasgow, UK, 2001.

Y. Machida, Y. Hamamura, M. A. González Ballester, S. Nozaki, K. Okamoto, S. Uchizono, N. Ichinose, Y. Kassai, H. Kanazawa, and Y. Usui. Development of MR Parallel Imaging, SPEEDER (in Japanese). Medical Review, 83:52-58, November 2001.

M. A. González Ballester and Y. Machida. Apparatus, Method and MRI System for Evaluating Coil Sensitivity Distribution (in Japanese). Japanese Patent Application, number 2001-12478, January 2001.

M. A. González Ballester and Y. Machida. Parallel MR Imaging Using High-Precision Coil Sensitivity Map. International Patent Application, number PCT/JP02/00343, January 2002.