Biodiversity plays a crucial role in stability and productivity of natural ecosystem. The main goal of this research was to classify ecological groups in steppe rangeland and investigate their relationships with plant diversity indices. Therefore, fifty different Land Unit Tracts (LUT) were identified in Khod-Neuk basin, Yazd province, Iran, in 2010. Vegetation and soil samples were taken in th...

Structural complexity is a key factor in ecology, often positively linked to biodiversity and carrying capacity of habitats. However, defining quantitatively the ecological role of structural complexity remains a challenge, mainly due to its unclear definition and lack of accurate measurement tools and indices. The most common structural complexity indices used in ecological studies are the “Ru...

Measurement uncertainties are inherent to assessment of biological indices of water bodies. The effect of these uncertainties on the probability of misclassification of ecological status is the subject of this paper. Four Monte-Carlo (M-C) models were applied to simulate the occurrence of random errors in the measurements of metrics corresponding to four biological elements of surface waters: m...

background: long‑term effects of diabetes could be prevented or delayed by adopting a proper diet. the aim of this study was to adapt and provide a pilot test using health action process approach (hapa)‑based inventory to capable of capturing significant determinants of healthful diet for diabetics. methods: the inventory was reviewed by eight diabetes patients and verbal feedbacks with regard ...

Ebola virus disease afflicts both human and animal populations and is caused by four ebolaviruses. These different ebolaviruses may have distinct reservoir hosts and ecological contexts that determine how, where, and when different ebolavirus spillover events occur. Understanding these virus-specific relationships is important for preventing transmission of ebolaviruses from wildlife to humans....

Much of the research on relapse crises in dieting has focused on isolated lapse events and relied heavily on retrospective self-report data. The present study sought to overcome these limitations by using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) techniques to examine situations of dietary temptation and lapse with a sample of obese, formerly sedentary, postmenopausal women (N = 37) during the fina...