Seasonal dynamics of Pneumocystis carinii in the field vole, Microtus agrestis, and in the common shrew, Sorex araneus, in Finland

Seasonal dynamics of Pneumocystis carinii in the field vole, Microtus agrestis, and in the common shrew, Sorex araneus, were investigated in southern and central Finland by microscopical examination of methenamine silver-stained tissue sections. In both host species at both localities the number of P. carinii cyst forms was highest in late autumn (November). In S. araneus, prevalence was higher than in M. agrestis during all seasons. None of the animals was heavily infected or apparently ill, and neither species showed any extrapulmonary dissemination. In this study covering an increase phase and 4 peak host-density phases of the vole cycle, the occurrence of P. carinii seemed to be related to the population density of M. agrestis.</jats:p

Business continuity of business models: Evaluating the resilience of business models for contingencies

Company business models are vulnerable to various contingencies in the business environment that may unexpectedly render their business logic ineffective. In particular, technological advancements, such as the Internet of things, big data, sharing economy and crowdsourcing, have enabled new forms of business models that can effectively and abruptly make traditional business models obsolete. By disrupting or even diminishing companies’ revenue streams, environmental contingencies may present a significant threat to business continuity (BC). Evaluating the resilience of business models against these contingencies should therefore be a core area of BC. However, existing BC approaches tend to focus on the continuity of the resources and processes through which a particular business model is accomplished in practice but omit the business model itself. We argue that in order for BC approaches to become holistic and strategic, business models need to become a part of the BC considerations, entailing an expansion of the scope of BC from value preservation to value creation. We propose an approach of Strategic Business Continuity Management, which consists of two parts: (1) sustaining the continuity of the company business model (value preservation) and (2) evaluating and modifying the business model (value creation). We illustrate conceptually the value creation part with an example drawn from the sharing economy.</p

Description of \u3ci\u3eParanoplocephala etholeni\u3c/i\u3e n. sp. (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae) in the Meadow Vole \u3ci\u3eMicrotus pennsylvanicus\u3c/i\u3e, with a Synopsis of \u3ci\u3eParanoplocehala s. l.\u3c/i\u3e in Holarctic Rodents

Paranoplocephala etholeni n. sp, parasitizing the meadow vole Microtus pennsylvanicus in Alaska and Wisconsin, USA. is described Paranaplocephala etholeni is morphologically most closely related to the Nearctic Paranoplocephala ondatrae (Rausch, 1948). Available data suggest that P. etholeni is a host-specific, locally rare species that may have a wide but sporadic geographical distribution in North America. The finding of P. ondatrae-like cestodes in Microtus spp. suggests that this poorly known species may actually be a parasite of voles rather than muskrat (type host). A tabular synopsis of all the known species of Paranoplocephala s. I. in the Holarctic region with their main morphological features is presented

Significant morphological but little molecular differences between Trypanosoma of rodents from Alaska

We examined blood smears of 173 rodents and 33 shrews captured at 4 sites in the Gates of the Arctic National Park, northern Alaska, in summer 2002. Trypanosoma spp. were detected in the plasma of 5 Microtus oeconomus, 4 Microtus miurus, and 1 Lemmus trimucronatus. The trypomastigote morphology from different individuals of M. oeconomus caught at the same site and of M. miurus from different sites varied significantly. The 4 DNA sequences obtained from the blood smear positive samples contained 2 different haplotypes very similar to each other and to that of Trypanosoma microti. Of possible vectors of blood parasites, the flea Amalaraeus dissimilis was collected from M. miurus