Shift work, clinically significant sleep disorders and mental health in a representative, cross-sectional sample of young working adults

Mental health conditions confer considerable global disease burden in young adults, who are also the highest demographic to work shifts, and of whom 20% meet criteria for a sleep disorder. We aimed to establish the relationship between the combined effect of shift work and sleep disorders, and mental health. The Raine Study is the only longitudinal, population-based birth cohort in the world with gold-standard, Level 1 measurement of sleep (polysomnography, PSG) collected in early adulthood. Participants (aged 22y) underwent in-laboratory PSG and completed detailed sleep questionnaires. Multivariable adjusted robust linear regression models were conducted to explore associations with anxiety (GAD7) and depression (PHQ9), adjusted for sex, health comorbidities, and work hours/week. Data were from 660 employed young adults (27.3% shift workers). At least one clinically significant sleep disorder was present in 18% of shift workers (day, evening and night shifts) and 21% of non-shift workers (p = 0.51); 80% were undiagnosed. Scores for anxiety and depression were not different between shift and non-shift workers (p = 0.29 and p = 0.82); but were higher in those with a sleep disorder than those without (Md(IQR) anxiety: 7.0(4.0-10.0) vs 4.0(1.0-6.0)), and depression: (9.0(5.0-13.0) vs 4.0(2.0-6.0)). Considering evening and night shift workers only (i.e. excluding day shift workers) revealed an interaction between shift work and sleep disorder status for anxiety (p = 0.021), but not depression (p = 0.96), with anxiety scores being highest in those shift workers with a sleep disorder (Md(IQR) 8.5(4.0-12.2). We have shown that clinical sleep disorders are common in young workers and are largely undiagnosed. Measures of mental health do not appear be different between shift and non-shift workers. These findings indicate that the identification and treatment of clinical sleep disorders should be prioritised for young workers as these sleep disorders, rather than shift work per se, are associated with poorer mental health. These negative mental health effects appear to be greatest in those who work evening and/or night shift and have a sleep disorder.Amy C. Reynolds, Bastien Lechat, Yohannes Adama Melaku, Kelly Sansom, Brandon W. J. Brown, Meagan E. Crowther, Sian Wanstall, Kathleen J. Maddison, Jennifer H. Walsh, Leon Straker, Robert J. T. Adams, Nigel McArdle, Peter R. Eastwoo

Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties

14 p.Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ecological groups. This global dataset contains 10,840 sites, with 184 species, from 60 countries and all continents except Antarctica. The data were obtained from 182 published articles, published between 1973 and 2017, and 17 unpublished datasets. Amalgamating data into a single global database will assist researchers in investigating and answering a wide variety of pressing questions, for example, jointly assessing aboveground and belowground biodiversity distributions and drivers of biodiversity change

The Physics of Star Cluster Formation and Evolution

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00689-4.Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing the gas and stars may form very efficiently. These are also the regions where, in high-mass clusters, ejecta from some kind of high-mass stars are effectively captured during the formation phase of some of the low mass stars and effectively channeled into the latter to form multiple populations. Star formation epochs in star clusters are generally set by gas flows that determine the abundance of gas in the cluster. We argue that there is likely only one star formation epoch after which clusters remain essentially clear of gas by cluster winds. Collisional dynamics is important in this phase leading to core collapse, expansion and eventual dispersion of every cluster. We review recent developments in the field with a focus on theoretical work.Peer reviewe

Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2,3,4,5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellite-derived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets

Psychosexual implications of gynaecological cancer

Sexual dysfunction is common among adults with cancer,1 and women with gynaecological cancer are no exception.2,3 Much of this is easily explained, given that most patients with cancer experience anxiety or depression after diagnosis and during treatment. To this may be added other aspects of their condition or treatment that make sex difficult - chronic fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea, altered genital appearance or loss of the vagina, tender scars, pain, malodour, alopecia, nervousness about breakdown of the wound, embarrassment about stomas, or advanced disease. What is less clear is why, after “successful” treatment, some women continue to have sexual difficulties. Most of the organic causes of this problem relate to treatments that alter the genital area. Radical vulvectomy removes the clitoris (although orgasm may still occur4), renders the tissues tight and devoid of fat “cushioning,” and may result in prolapse of the posterior vaginal wall or vaginal stenosis. Radical hysterectomy shortens the vagina, and pelvic exenteration removes it entirely. Radiotherapy renders the vaginal mucosa dry, easily traumatised, stenosed, and less distensible; to this is added the effect of ovarian failure, which in itself causes substantial sexual dysfunction.5 Both surgery and