Influence of fire prevention management strategies on the diversity of butterfly fauna in the eastern Pyrenees

Fire prevention management is becoming a necessity in many Mediterranean locations to regulate fire of natural or human origin. However, very few studies have determined the real effects of the strategies adopted on local fauna. Butterflies are sensitive to local changes and they can thus serve as indicators of environmental changes. Three different types of fire prevention management approaches in three different localities in the Eastern Pyrenees (France) were performed and the butterfly community composition was investigated. We show that of the 80 species of butterflies observed, 36 % can be considered as biological markers. An original objective treatment of data using hierarchical distance analysis combined with a neural network analysis (Self-Organizing Maps) was applied in this study. Our conclusions are that the overall number of species is maintained independently of the fire prevention type but that some important changes are observed among butterfly communities, with a clear reduction of the numbers of endemic/specialized species in favour of generalist ones for the two most drastic fire prevention management approaches studied here. The influence of such approaches is discussed on the basis of the conservation of Mediterranean species of Lepidoptera

What national governance codes say about corporate culture

This study aims to provide insight into the current incorporation of corporate culture in national corporate governance codes. The authors identify three levels of incorporation for each of the following three dimensions: layers of corporate culture (the “what”), the alignment of corporate culture in the organization (the “for whom”) and the board’s roles regarding corporate culture (the “how”)

Serotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in chronically infected pregnant women: predominance of type II in Europe and Types I and III in Colombia (South America)

Isolates of Toxoplasma gondii, which is responsible for a wide range of clinical manifestations are grouped into three clonal lineages of different virulence in mice. However, it is not clear whether this genotypic pattern is associated with the clinical profile of the disease in humans nor is the geographical distribution of the genotypes known. This is mainly due to difficulties in obtaining parasitic DNA from patients. The available data are therefore limited and originate from acute or congenital infections or from animals. A non-invasive assay is needed to address issues of strain type, geographical distribution and severity of clinical toxoplasmosis. To serotype T. gondii strains, we have developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that uses polymorphic polypeptides specific to the three clonal lineages and derived from two dense granule antigens, GRA5 and GRA6. Two hundred and fifty-two sera from chronically infected pregnant women from three different European countries and Colombia were investigated. The analysis of genotype-specific antibody response showed a homogeneous type II distribution in the European samples compared with types I and III but no type II in the Colombian population. Our data concord with those obtained from the genotyping of other isolates from Europe and South America. We demonstrated that, despite some limitation due to antigen and/or antibody specificity, serotyping is a promising assay to investigate the relationship between type of strain and severity of the disease

Insects as zoogeomorphic agents: an extended review

International audienc