Are Scores on the PPT Useful in Determination of Risk of Future Falls in Individuals With Dementia?

Individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease (AD), exhibit both a progressive decline in cognitive function and accumulating difficulty with physical function.1 As cognitive impairment begins, individuals will initially demonstrate difficulties with short-term memory and with instrumental activities of daily living. As the dementia progresses, individuals will increasingly demonstrate difficulties with long-term memory, communication, and basic activities of daily living

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Reliability of the Physical Performance Test in People with Dementia

Purpose. Approximately 30% of older adults have dementia. Disease progression has been found to be the largest predictor of function, and dementia has been found to influence fall risk. In order to identify individuals with dementia who may benefit from interventions to increase function and decrease fall risk, assessment tools for these domains that are validated in this population are necessary. The 7-item Physical Performance Test (PPT) is a valid measure of balance and function in older adults; however, its reliability has not been established in those with dementia. The purpose of this study was to establish intra-tester, inter-tester, and test–retest reliability of the 7-item PPT in people with dementia. Methods. Thirty-three subjects with a diagnosis of dementia and a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score between 10 and 24 were tested with the PPT on two separate days with performance on the second day videotaped. One tester scored the videotaped performance on two separate occasions and intra-tester reliability was determined using an intraclass correlating coefficient (ICC) (3,1). Two testers independently scored the videotaped performances and inter-tester reliability was determined using an ICC (2,1). Scores from the first and second testing days were compared and test–retest reliability was determined using an ICC (3,1). Results. All subjects completed both testing sessions and reliability was established for intra-tester, inter-tester, and test–retest with ICCs of 0.99, 0.96, and 0.90, respectively. Conclusion. The 7-item PPT is reliable for use in people with mild to moderate dementia as defined by MMSE scores between 10 and 24

Long-term changes in avian biomass and functional diversity within disturbed and undisturbed Amazonian rainforest

Recent long-term studies in protected areas have revealed the loss of biodiversity, yet the ramifications for ecosystem health and resilience remain unknown. Here, we investigate how the loss of understory birds, in the lowest stratum of the forest, affects avian biomass and functional diversity in the Amazon rainforest. Across approximately 30 years in the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, we used a historical baseline of avian communities to contrast the avian communities in today\u27s primary forest with those in modern disturbed habitat. We found that in primary rainforest, the reduced abundance of insectivorous species led to reduced functional diversity, but no reduction of biomass, indicating that species with similar functional traits are less likely to coexist in modern primary forests. Because today\u27s forests contain fewer functionally redundant species - those with similar traits - we argue that avian communities in modern primary Amazonian rainforests are less resilient, which may ultimately disrupt the ecosystem in dynamic and unforeseen ways