Introduced Tuber aestivum spreading spontaneously in Israel

A T. melanosporum plantation was established during 1994-95 in Kibbutz Bar´am in the Upper Galilee, Israel. In 1998, only approximately 70% of the trees maintained the inoculated mycorrhiza. A number of trees died; thus, several tree species were initially introduced. These included both European and local oak species, as well as hazelnuts. In 1999, seedlings were introduced into the plantation to fill the gaps between trees. These included, inadvertently, plants inoculated with T. aestivum. In July 2009, fruiting bodies of T. aestivum were collected from the plantation. In 2010, a manual search was conducted and a total of 2.2 kg of fruiting bodies of T. aestivum (a calculated yield of approximately 6.0 kg/acre) were obtained. No fruiting bodies were collected in 2011. In 2012, truffles were found in the original plantation and in a grove within a research farm approximately 3.5 km away. The latter appeared to be of the same origin as the originally introduced T. aestivum. The environmental conditions in the Upper Galilee, although unsuitable for T. melanosporum, are highly suitable for the more robust T. aestivum, which thrives on local oak species

Mapping apparent eccentricity and residual ensemble anisotropy in the gray matter using angular double-pulsed-field-gradient MRI

Conventional diffusion MRI methods are mostly capable of portraying microarchitectural elements such as fiber orientation in white matter from detection of diffusion anisotropy, which arises from the coherent organization of anisotropic compartments. Double-pulsed-field-gradient MR methods provide a means for obtaining microstructural information such as compartment shape and microscopic anisotropies even in scenarios where macroscopic organization is absent. Here, we apply angular double-pulsed-gradient-spin-echo MRI in the rat brain both ex vivo and in vivo for the first time. Robust angular dependencies are detected in the brain at long mixing time (tm). In many pixels, the oscillations seem to originate from residual directors in randomly oriented media, i.e., from residual ensemble anisotropy, as corroborated by quantitative simulations. We then developed an analysis scheme that enables one to map of structural indices such as apparent eccentricity (aE) and residual phase (φ) that enables characterization of the rat brain in general, and especially the rat gray matter. We conclude that double-pulsed-gradient-spin-echo MRI may in principle become important in characterizing gray matter morphological features and pathologies in both basic and applied neurosciences

War Narratives: Framing Our Understanding of the War on Terror

Unlike past American wars, the current war on terror has not been associated with a centrally proffered narrative providing some guidance and orientation for those administering government services under state-of-war conditions. War is as much a cultural endeavor as it is a military undertaking, and the absence of a clear sensemaking narrative was detected in this study of public administrators from three agencies with varying proximity to the conflict. Q-methodology was used to explore the way individuals processed the war narratives put forth by the Bush administration and reported in the media immediately following the September 11 attacks. Though no distinct state-of-war narratives were found among the public administrators in this study, there are clear indications that latent narratives reflecting local political and organizational task environments have emerged