The evaluation of disability and its related factors among the elderly population in Kashan, Iran

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent literature indicates that developing countries in Asia are aging faster than other countries in the world and disability has become one of the greater public health concern in these countries. Pausity of published data on the elderly disability in Iran signifies the importance of this study designed to evaluate the disability and its related factors among the elderly population in Kashan, Iran during 2006–2007.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>A cross-sectional study is conducting on a multy-stage random sample of elderly people in Kashan ages 65 years and older. Volunteer participants were included by age 65 and older and excluded if they had the medical diagnosis of Alzhimer disease. The WHO DAS II was used as the generic disability measure in this survey. The original version of WHO DAS II was translated into Farsi according to the standardized guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of health-related measures. Upon completion of data collection the descriptive statistics will compute all the variables. Chi-square, t-test analysis and ANOVA will be used to examine significant differences between the subgroups.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This is the first research protocol to study disability among the Iranian elderly population. Presently, 80% of eligible subjects have been selected. The results of this study will help to develop more effective protocols to assist Iranian elderly population with disabilities.</p

A Floristic Quality Assessment System for the Coastal Prairie of Louisiana

Evaluation systems to assess the biotic integrity of plant communities exist for some ecosystems, but not the increasingly rare coastal prairies of Louisiana. A list of plant species occurring in Louisiana\u27s coastal prairie was created and coefficients of conservatism (C) were assigned for each species. A Floristic Quality Index (FQI), which is calculated using the C values provided by a panel of experts, can be used to evaluate prairie remnants and restorations. We assigned C values from 0-10 based on their estimated degree of association with prairies of various levels of natural quality and their tolerance of disturbance. Those species given a rank of 0-3 are deemed to be colonizing species found in a variety of habitats and are adapted to fairly severe disturbance. Species with C values of 4-6 are those that are often common in fairly high~quality coastal prairie, occur in other community types and are moderately tolerant of disturbance. Species with rankings of 7-8 are associated with high quality natural prairie habitat and slight disturbance. Those species ranking 9-10 are those restricted to very high-quality habitat and have a high fidelity to coastal prairie. Unlike FQI systems devised for other areas, we also weight the coefficients assigned to nonnative species found in coastal prairie. We believe that the presence of exotic species in a native plant community lowers the conservation value of that community. Consequently, we assigned C values from -1 to -3 to nonnative species based on the perceived threat of their invasive potential and ability to exclude native species. Including the C values of exotic species allows the calculation of an adjusted floral quality index that provides an additional dimension to floristic quality analysis. This index will be of value to restorationists, managers and others involved in assessing the integrity of natural areas and developing management strategies based on these criteria

The Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Louisiana: An Updated, Annotated Checklist

© 2018 Entomological Society of Washington. All rights reserved. An annotated checklist is provided for 243 species and subspecies of bees collected from or thought to occur in the state of Louisiana, where 163 are confirmed records, 46 are probable records, and 34 are possible records. We also list twelve records considered to be dubious because of the absence of supporting collection data and extralimital reported ranges. Data on parish localities, seasonality, and floral records are provided when available. Specimen data are provided from two separate surveys in the state, one focusing on the fauna of longleaf pine savannas and another focusing on Cajun prairie habitat in southwestern Louisiana. Data from a previous annotated checklist of bees from longleaf pine savannas (Bartholomew et al. 2006) are included, as well as online records from the Discover Life checklist (Ascher and Pickering 2016), and bee holdings of the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA).We highlight the role that this museum and similar small institutional insect collections play in documenting faunas on local and regional scales

Does Species Diversity Limit Productivity in Natural Grassland Communities?

Theoretical analyses and experimental studies of synthesized assemblages indicate that under particular circumstances species diversity can enhance community productivity through niche complementarity. It remains unclear whether this process has important effects in mature natural ecosystems where competitive feedbacks and complex environmental influences affect diversity–productivity relationships. In this study, we evaluated diversity–productivity relationships while statistically controlling for environmental influences in 12 natural grassland ecosystems. Because diversity–productivity relationships are conspicuously nonlinear, we developed a nonlinear structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology to separate the effects of diversity on productivity from the effects of productivity on diversity. Meta-analysis was used to summarize the SEM findings across studies. While competitive effects were readily detected, enhancement of production by diversity was not. These results suggest that the influence of small-scale diversity on productivity in mature natural systems is a weak force, both in absolute terms and relative to the effects of other controls on productivity