Development of Clinical Rating Criteria for Tests of Lumbopelvic Stability

Background. Lumbopelvic stability (LPS) is regarded as important for injury prevention, yet there are few reliable or valid tests that can be used in the clinical assessment of LPS. Three dynamic functional tests were identified that assess LPS in multiple planes of motion: dip test (DT), single leg squat (SLS), and runner pose test (RPT). Existing rating criteria for SLS have limited reliability and rating criteria for DT and RPT have not been established. Objective. To develop rating criteria for three clinical tests of LPS. Design. Qualitative research: focus group. Method. A focus group of five expert physiotherapists used qualitative methods to develop rating criteria for the three clinical tests. Results. Detailed rating criteria were established for the three tests. Each key factor considered important for LPS had characteristics described that represented both good and poor LPS. Conclusion. This study established rating criteria that may be used to clinically assess LPS

African pollen database inventory of tree and shrub pollen types

African pollen data have been used in many empirical or quantitative palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. However, the pollen types used in these studies were not controlled and standardised, preventing the precise understanding of pollen-plant and pollen-climate relation that is necessary for the accurate quantification of continental scale climate change or ecological processes in the past. This paper presents a summary of the progress made with the African Pollen Database (APD) inventory of plant diversity from pollen data extracted from 276 fossil sites and more than 1500 modem samples, with a focus on tropical tree pollen types. This inventory (1145 taxa) gives, for each pollen taxon whose nomenclature is discussed, information on the habit, habitat and phytogeographical distribution of the plants they come from. Special attention has been paid to pollen types with similar morphology, which include several plant species or genera, whose biological or environmental parameters can differ considerably