20th International Symposium on Shiftwork and Working Time: Biological Mechanisms,Recovery, and Risk Management in the 24-h Society

This dedicated issue of Chronobiology International is devoted to the selected proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time held in Stockholm, Sweden, 28 June to 1 July 2011. It constitutes the fifth such issue of the journal since 2004 dedicated to the selected proceedings to the meetings of the Working Time Society. The key theme of the 20th Symposium was “Biological Mechanisms, Recovery, and Risk Management in the 24-h Society.” The collection of papers of this dedicated issue represents the best of contemporary research on the effects of night and rotating shift schedules on worker health and safety. The contents cover such topics as sleep restriction, injuries, health, and performance of night work and rotating shiftwork, plus light treatment as a countermeasure against the circadian disruption of shiftwork. The majority of the papers are observational field studies, including some of large sample size, and three studies are well-designed laboratory experiments. (Author correspondence: goran.kecklund@stress.su.se)     

23rd International Symposium on Shiftwork and Working Time: Towards a Global Consensus

ABSTRACT

The Working Time Society (WTS), and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) Scientific Committee on Shiftwork and Working Time, are twin organisations focused on conducting research, and informing practice, regarding the impact of work hours in general, and shiftwork in particular, on the efficiency, productivity, safety, well-being, health, and biological rhythms, of employees. Every 2–3 years since 1969, the WTS and ICOH have conducted a series of international symposia in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. The purpose of these symposia is to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, and the discussion of contested issues, with researchers, employee representatives, regulators, and employers. The most recent symposium in this series – the 23rd International Symposium on Shiftwork and Working Time, entitled “Toward a Global Consensus” – was held on 19–23 June 2017, at Yulara, Australia, near Uluru. Since 2004, Chronobiology International has released a special issue after each symposium, and that tradition continues with a special issue that includes 17 contributions based on a selection of the 128 papers that were presented at the most recent symposium. Here, we provide an overview of the papers that comprise the special issue, and we briefly comment on the implications of the findings for shiftworkers and their employers.     

Introduction: aging and the multifaceted influences on adaptation to working time

This special issue of Chronobiology International presents a selection of papers originally delivered at the 18th International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time, held at Yeppoon, Australia, in August 2007. The key theme of the symposium was "Aging and Working Time: Creating Safe Environments." Older workers are widely believed to experience greater difficulty than younger workers adapting to shift work and irregular work schedules. However, while the three reviews of age effects published here (Costa & Di Milia, 2008; Folkard, 2008b; Gander & Signal, 2008) identify evidence that older workers do indeed adapt less well, they also demonstrate that much more research is urgently required. The remaining papers address various aspects of the impact of work schedules on health, safety, sleep, and performance. They can be divided into three broad categories: circadian and other periodic factors; sleep, sleepiness, and fatigue; and other aspects of health and adjustment. This collection of papers showcases the best of contemporary research on the safety and health effects of working hours, continuing the tradition established by the two previous issues of the journal devoted to earlier symposia on shift work and working time.     

Vital Working Hour Schemes: The Dynamic Balance between Various Interests

“Balancing Interests”, the theme of the 17th International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time held in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands (September 2005), refers to the ambition to reach an optimal balance between the various aspects of shift work. Economic, ergonomic, physical, and psychosocial factors all interact in determining the impact of shift work at the individual, organizational, and societal level. It is the challenge of this multidisciplinary field of research to model all relevant factors in such a way that it will allow us to optimize the dynamic trade‐off between the yield and the risk of shift work. The organizers of the 17th International Symposium and the co‐editors of these proceedings are convinced that the high quality of the contributions will bring us closer to this ultimate goal.     

Vital working hour schemes: The dynamic balance between various interests

“Balancing Interests”, the theme of the 17th International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time held in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands (September 2005), refers to the ambition to reach an optimal balance between the various aspects of shift work. Economic, ergonomic, physical, and psychosocial factors all interact in determining the impact of shift work at the individual, organizational, and societal level. It is the challenge of this multidisciplinary field of research to model all relevant factors in such a way that it will allow us to optimize the dynamic trade-off between the yield and the risk of shift work. The organizers of the 17th International Symposium and the co-editors of these proceedings are convinced that the high quality of the contributions will bring us closer to this ultimate goal.     

Introduction: Aging and the Multifaceted Influences on Adaptation to Working Time

This special issue of Chronobiology International presents a selection of papers originally delivered at the 18th International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time, held at Yeppoon, Australia, in August 2007. The key theme of the symposium was “Aging and Working Time: Creating Safe Environments.” Older workers are widely believed to experience greater difficulty than younger workers adapting to shift work and irregular work schedules. However, while the three reviews of age effects published here (Costa & Di Milia, ; Folkard, ; Gander & Signal, ) identify evidence that older workers do indeed adapt less well, they also demonstrate that much more research is urgently required. The remaining papers address various aspects of the impact of work schedules on health, safety, sleep, and performance. They can be divided into three broad categories: circadian and other periodic factors; sleep, sleepiness, and fatigue; and other aspects of health and adjustment. This collection of papers showcases the best of contemporary research on the safety and health effects of working hours, continuing the tradition established by the two previous issues of the journal devoted to earlier symposia on shift work and working time.     

2015生物能源专刊序言

生物能源领域的研究和产业开发在近年得到了快速发展,呈现出系统性和多元性的趋势。2014年10月17–19日,第四届生物质能源技术国际会议-暨第八届国际生物能源会议(ICBT/WBS 2014)在长沙市举行。本次会议由中国可再生能源学会生物质能专业委员会、生物质能源产业技术创新战略联盟、欧洲生物质能产业协会、美国化学工程师学会和联合国开发计划署主办,由湖南省林业科学院和清华大学中国-巴西气候变化与能源技术创新研究中心承办。在会议优秀论文基础上,结合征稿出版了"生物能源"专刊。本专刊以综述和研究论文的形式介绍了国内在生物能源及相关领域的最新研究成果,包括生物质资源分析、预处理、燃料和化学品制备、副产品利用和策略研究等。     

Celebrating the diversity of biogeographical research

Biogeography aims to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of life on Earth. Biogeographical research is aimed not only at describing where organisms live, at what densities, with whom, and how it all relates to the environmental and geographical setting but also why this is so. The International Biogeography Society, IBS, is a young and vibrant international and interdisciplinary society contributing to the advancement of all studies of the geography of nature, including spatial ecology (< www.biogeography.org >). In January 2009, the 4th International Conference of the International Biogeography Society took place in Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Ecography provided financial support, acting as the sponsor of the Symposium of Extinction Biogeography and contributing to student travel awards. In addition, Ecography was the officially designated journal for publishing some of the many exciting talks and posters presented at the conference. All of the papers in this special issue of Ecography arose from the IBS conference. They have all been subject to external peer review, subsequent revision, and final editorial decisions of acceptance/rejection.     

The neglected sense-olfaction in primate behavior, ecology, and evolution

This special issue emerged from a symposium held during the 20th Congress of the International Primatological Society in Torino, Italy, in August 2004. The symposium brought together scientists studying several different aspects of olfaction in primates. The topics addressed ranged from the morphology and physiology of the sensory apparatus, the genetics and chemistry of olfactory signals and the use of such signals in primate communication, to a comparative analysis of the role of olfaction in neural evolution. The papers in this issue reflect a surge of interest in diverse aspects of olfaction-an interest that has been stimulated by the more rigorous theoretical approaches and new techniques that have recently become available. This introduction briefly reviews past research on primate olfaction, summarizes the scope of this special issue, and provides a somewhat speculative glimpse of the future.     

Shiftwork and metabolic dysfunction

Many of the health problems that are more prevalent among shiftworkers are thought to be linked to their heightened susceptibility to metabolic syndrome, i.e., the association of even moderate degrees of visceral obesity, dyslipidemia, abnormal blood pressure, and serum glucose levels in the same individual. Although previous studies have identified associations between shiftwork and metabolic syndrome, there is relatively little evidence to date of how the risk of developing it varies as a function of exposure to shiftwork. The current study seeks to confirm earlier findings of an association between shiftwork exposure and metabolic dysfunction, and to examine the impact of exposure duration, while adjusting for a number of covariates in the analyses. The analyses were based on data from VISAT, a study involving the measurement of physiological, behavioral, and subjective outcomes from 1757 participants, 989 being current or former shiftworkers. The sample comprised employed and retired wage earners, male and female, who were 32, 42, 52, and 62 yrs old. The first analysis sought to confirm previous findings of an association between exposure to shiftwork and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. It indicated that participants who were or who had previously been shiftworkers (i.e., working schedules that involved rotating shifts; not being able to go to bed before midnight; having to get up before 05:00 h; or being prevented from sleeping during the night) were more likely to exhibit symptoms of metabolic syndrome, after adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol intake, perceived stress, and sleep difficulty (odds ratio [OR] 1.78; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-3.08). The results suggest the association between shiftwork and metabolic syndrome cannot be fully accounted for by either higher levels of strain or increased sleep difficulty among shiftworkers, although it remains a possibility that either one or both of these factors may have played a contributing role. The second analysis addressed the issue of duration of exposure to shiftwork. Participants with >10 yrs' experience of working rotating shifts were more likely to exhibit symptoms of metabolic syndrome than participants without exposure to shiftwork, i.e., dayworkers, even after adjusting for age and sex (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.03-3.75). Thus, the current study confirms the association between shiftwork exposure and metabolic syndrome. It also provides new information regarding the time course of the development of the illness as function of exposure duration, although this was only examined in relation to rotating shiftwork. It is concluded that those responsible for monitoring workers' health should pay particular attention to indices of metabolic dysfunction in workers who have been exposed to shiftwork for >10 yrs.     

Shiftwork and Metabolic Dysfunction

Many of the health problems that are more prevalent among shiftworkers are thought to be linked to their heightened susceptibility to metabolic syndrome, i.e., the association of even moderate degrees of visceral obesity, dyslipidemia, abnormal blood pressure, and serum glucose levels in the same individual. Although previous studies have identified associations between shiftwork and metabolic syndrome, there is relatively little evidence to date of how the risk of developing it varies as a function of exposure to shiftwork. The current study seeks to confirm earlier findings of an association between shiftwork exposure and metabolic dysfunction, and to examine the impact of exposure duration, while adjusting for a number of covariates in the analyses. The analyses were based on data from VISAT, a study involving the measurement of physiological, behavioral, and subjective outcomes from 1757 participants, 989 being current or former shiftworkers. The sample comprised employed and retired wage earners, male and female, who were 32, 42, 52, and 62 yrs old. The first analysis sought to confirm previous findings of an association between exposure to shiftwork and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. It indicated that participants who were or who had previously been shiftworkers (i.e., working schedules that involved rotating shifts; not being able to go to bed before midnight; having to get up before 05:00?h; or being prevented from sleeping during the night) were more likely to exhibit symptoms of metabolic syndrome, after adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol intake, perceived stress, and sleep difficulty (odds ratio [OR] 1.78; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03–3.08). The results suggest the association between shiftwork and metabolic syndrome cannot be fully accounted for by either higher levels of strain or increased sleep difficulty among shiftworkers, although it remains a possibility that either one or both of these factors may have played a contributing role. The second analysis addressed the issue of duration of exposure to shiftwork. Participants with >10 yrs' experience of working rotating shifts were more likely to exhibit symptoms of metabolic syndrome than participants without exposure to shiftwork, i.e., dayworkers, even after adjusting for age and sex (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.03–3.75). Thus, the current study confirms the association between shiftwork exposure and metabolic syndrome. It also provides new information regarding the time course of the development of the illness as function of exposure duration, although this was only examined in relation to rotating shiftwork. It is concluded that those responsible for monitoring workers' health should pay particular attention to indices of metabolic dysfunction in workers who have been exposed to shiftwork for >10 yrs. (Author correspondence: p.t.tucker@swansea.ac.uk)     

The influence of internal time, time awake, and sleep duration on cognitive performance in shiftworkers

To date, studies investigating the consequences of shiftwork have predominantly focused on external (local) time. Here, we report the daily variation in cognitive performance in rotating shiftworkers under real-life conditions using the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and show that this function depends both on external and internal (biological) time. In addition to this high sensitivity of PVT performance to time-of-day, it has also been extensively applied in sleep deprivation protocols. We, therefore, also investigated the impact of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake on performance. In two separate field studies, 44 young workers (17 females, 27 males; age range 20-36 yrs) performed a PVT test every 2?h during each shift. We assessed chronotype by the MCTQ(Shift) (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire for shiftworkers). Daily sleep logs over the 4-wk study period allowed for the extraction of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake in a given shift, as well as average sleep duration ("sleep need"). Median reaction times (RTs) significantly varied across shifts, depending on both Local Time and Internal Time. Variability of reaction times around the 24?h mean (≈ ±5%) was best explained by a regression model comprising both factors, Local Time and Internal Time (p < .001). Short (15th percentile; RT(15%)) and long (85th percentile; RT(85%)) reaction times were differentially affected by Internal Time and Local Time. During night shifts, only median RT and RT(85%) were impaired by the duration of time workers had been awake (p?相似文献   

Gasparikova O., Ciamporova M., Mistrik I., Baluska F. Recent advances of plant root structure and function. Developments in plant and soil sciences, volume 90.

This slim book presents selections of the proceedings of the5th International Symposium on Structure and Function of Rootsheld in Stará Lensná, Slovakia, in 1998. The qualityof the print and the     

Healthy shiftwork, healthy shiftworks

Reflecting diversifying shift systems, extensive effort is put into managing shiftwork and reducing safety and health risks. It is accepted that shiftworkers are exposed to particular risks inherent in their irregular work schedules. This raises the question of how and to what extent we can ensure healthy work life for shiftworkers. In answering the question, we need to identify effective measures to improve both shiftworking conditions and the health of shiftworkers. Based on recent experiences in managing shiftwork, we note three directions of such measures: (a) comprehensive action to avoid risk-enhancing conditions based on general guidelines, (b) risk control as to workload, worksite ergonomics and risk reduction, and (c) support for flexible and restful working life. International standards are obviously relevant to these three aspects. Our own experiences in applying a set of ergonomic checkpoints to plant maintenance shiftwork demonstrate the usefulness of focusing on flexible work schedules and on multiple job-related factors such as night workload, ergonomic environment, resting conditions and training. There is a strong need for participatory planning and implementation of multi-area improvements as well as for relying on flexible schedules and autonomic teamwork. We may conclude that healthy shiftwork and healthy shiftworkers are compatible with each other only when certain conditions are met. In achieving this end, we need to combine (a) comprehensive measures to improve work schedules and job life, (b) strict risk management and (c) locally adjusted participatory steps for continual improvement.     

The Biology of Tardigrades: An Introduction to the 9th International Symposium on Tardigrada*

The 9th International Symposium on Tardigrada took place in Tampa, Florida, USA from 28 July to 1 August 2003. Fifty-four participants representing thirteen countries attended and there were fifty-two presentations of which fourteen were chosen for the publication in these proceedings. Topics include cryptobiosis, ecology, taxonomy and systematics of tardigrades. * This symposiumvolume is dedicated to Nigel Marley (Fig. 4) for his courage and persistence in pursuing research on tardigrades, despite ongoing medical challenges. His optimism and positive attitude are an inspiration to all of us, and his willingness to help other tardigradologists is gratefully acknowledged and appreciated.     

Guide to authors preparing papers for the 7th International Coral Reef Symposium and for publication in Coral Reefs

This is a statement of the problem, along with a summary of the method adopted for solving the problem, the major results and conclusions, and an explanation regarding the importance of the research. The Abstract should not include phrases such as the results will be discussed....The organising committee for the 7th International Coral Reef Symposium, to be held in Guam from 22–26 June 1992, have adopted the Coral Reefs format for all papers that are to be published in the conference proceedings. Following are some suggestions for writing and structuring papers. These tips may prove helpful to the less-experienced author.