Sleep and fibromyalgia among women

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesVefjagigt er sjúkdómur sem einkennist af langvinnum útbreiddum verkjum, þreytu og svefntruflunum. Grundvallaratriði við greiningu eru líkamlegir verkir sem hafa varað í minnst þrjá mánuði og eru oftast dreifðir um líkamann eftir ákveðinni staðsetningu. Önnur einkenni eru meðal annars breyting á hugrænni getu eins og einbeitingarleysi og minnisleysi, depurðareinkenni, kvíðatilfinningar og streita. Svefnleysi orsakast af ýmsum ástæðum hjá konum með vefjagigt. Líkamlegir verkir, lífeðlislegar truflanir í heila, einkenni þunglyndis, kvíða og streitu og ekki síst neikvæð og óhjálpleg viðhorf um svefn geta að öllum líkindum haft sameiginleg áhrif á svefntruflanir. Þar sem áhrif svefnleysis á einkenni og framgang vefjagigtar eru gríðarlega mikil og sjúklingar finna einna mest fyrir yfirþyrmandi þreytu í daglegu lífi er mikilvægt að meta helstu orsakir hjá hverjum og einum. Rannsóknir hafa sýnt að sjúklingar með greininguna vefjagigt hafa háa tíðni óhjálplegra viðhorfa til svefns þegar búið er að taka þunglyndi með í reikninginn. Meðferð við vefjagigt felst einna helst í að vinna með lífstílsbreytingar sem fela meðal annars í sér reglulega hreyfingu, hollt mataræði, aukin svefngæði, slökun, jafnvægi í daglegu lífi ásamt hugrænni atferlismeðferð. - Fibromyalgia is a debilitating condition characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue and disturbed sleep. The criteria for diagnosis require general body pain and a heightened pain response to pressure on specific tender points that has been present for at least three months. Other symptoms include problems with memory, depression, anxiety and stress. The reason for disturbed sleep among fibromyalgia patients varies. Physical pain, physiological disturbance in the brain, depression, anxiety and stress and maladaptive sleep beliefs all play an important role. It has been suggested that sleep difficulties play a substantial role in perpetuating fibromyalgia related fatigue and discomfort. It is important to recognize the causes Svefn kvenna með vefjagigt 52 Sálfræðiritið, 22. árg. 2017 of disturbed sleep for each patient. Studies have demonstrated that fibromyalgia patients have a high frequency of dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep when depression is taken out of the equation. Recommendations for treatment of fibromyalgia include regular exercise, a healthy diet, improved quality of sleep, relaxation, a good balance in daily living and cognitive behavioral therapy

Hreyfifærni fjögurra til tíu mánaða barna á suðvesturhorni Íslands

Neðst á síðunni er að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/OpenThe present study examined the motor development of 4-10 months old infants in Iceland using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS), and compared the results with the Canadian norms (1994). The study also addressed the effects of sleeping positions, prone position during wake, childrearing practices, and the use of infant oriented equipment on motor development, where information was obtained from parent questionnaires developed for the study. Parents of 169 infants were invited to participate in the study, where a random sample stratified by sex and age was pulled from the population of infants living in the southwestern part of Iceland. Parents of 126 infants chose to participate in the study, and the results from 121 infants were used in the data analysis. The results showed a significant correlation between total scores on the AIMS for 5-9 months old infants in Iceland and the Canadian norms. However, at the age of 4 months the Icelandic infants had significantly lower scores on the AIMS when compared to their Canadian counterparts. This difference might, in part, be explained by a general change in infants sleeping positions, where 96% of the infants in the present study slept on their back or sides. Prone position during wake had positive effect on the motor development, and parent counseling and positive experience of having their infants in prone position had positive effect on the amount of time infants spent in prone position. The results indicate that the use of the Canadian AIMS norms may be appropriate for 5-9 month old Icelandic infants. The present results also support previous research of effects of sleeping and playing positions on infant motor development

Land Users – Land Watchers

GróLind is a collaborative project with the aim of monitoring Icelandic vegetation and soil resources. It was founded in 2017 by the Icelandic National Associations of Sheep Farmers, the Farmers Association of Iceland, Ministry of Industries and Innovation, and the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland. GróLind is a collaborative project and cooperation with stakeholders, such as the science community, landowners, and others, is a fundamental concept in the project. In this project, the state of vegetation and soils are evaluated. Currently, a citizen science project is being developed within GróLind, in which land-users will annually monitor, using a mobile app, the conditions of the land they utilize. The monitoring will be based up on permanent photo-points and simple ecological measurements. These data will be used together with more detailed measurements done by specialists, to assess the state and changes in Iceland\u27s vegetation and soil resources. Land users\u27 participation provides more extensive and accurate monitoring, both spatially and temporally. Cooperation between scientists and land users increases the flow of knowledge and trust between groups, ensuring that the knowledge gained in the project will be used for sustainable land management. Furthermore, the data will be used to develop research-based indicators for sustainable land-use that later can simplify the monitoring

Cod response to past and current warm phases in the Seas of Iceland, a time series analysis

Climate change, and in particular global warming, is already affecting the Arctic and is expected to continue in the near future. A sustainable use the Arctic resources requires an increased understanding of its functioning that helps us anticipate change and adapt to it. Cod time series in Iceland cover a period of more than 50 years. Three distinct phases can be identified over this span of time: (1) the current warm phase characterised by relatively high cod biomasses, (2) an earlier phase (around the 1950s) with similar conditions separated by (3) some 20 years of cold temperatures and low biomasses. The aim of this study is to identify possible regime-dependent dynamics associated to these warm and cold phases that can help us identify key drivers in the current and future warm regime. To do this we compiled a database of fishing pressure, hydrographical and biological (copepods and euphausiids) variables as well as three cod population descriptors: (i) total spawning stock biomass, (ii) the population growth rate derived from matrix population models and (iii) disaggregated number at age time series. These three cod indices were subsequently regressed (GAM and threshold GAM) against the environmental and anthropogenic variables. Our results point out a probable regime-dependent mechanism where plankton effects would only be important for cod under warm conditions. No threshold-like responses were found in the population growth rate nor in the number at age for the various age classes

Impacts of soil temperature, phenology and plant community composition on invertebrate herbivory in a natural warming experiment

Species and community-level responses to warming are well documented, with plants and invertebrates known to alter their range, phenology or composition as temperature increases. The effects of warming on biotic interactions are less clearly understood, but can have consequences that cascade through ecological networks. Here, we used a natural soil temperature gradient of 5–35°C in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, to investigate the effects of temperature on plant community composition and plant–invertebrate interactions. We quantified the level of invertebrate herbivory on the plant community across the temperature gradient and the interactive effects of temperature, plant phenology (i.e. development stage) and vegetation community composition on the probability of herbivory for three ubiquitous plant species, Cardamine pratensis, Cerastium fontanum and Viola palustris. We found that the percentage cover of graminoids and forbs increased, while the amount of litter decreased, with increasing soil temperature. Invertebrate herbivory also increased with soil temperature at the plant community level, but this was underpinned by different effects of temperature on herbivory for individual plant species, mediated by the seasonal development of plants and the composition of the surrounding vegetation. This illustrates the importance of considering the development stage of organisms in climate change research given the variable effects of temperature on susceptibility to herbivory at different ontogenetic stages.Peer reviewe

Multiple mechanisms of early plant community assembly with stochasticity driving the process

Initial plant establishment is one of the most critical phases in ecosystem development, where an early suite of physical (environmental filtering), biological (seed limitation, species interactions) and stochastic factors may affect successional trajectories and rates. While functional traits are commonly used to study processes that influence plant community assembly in late successional communities, few studies have applied them to primary succession. The objective here was to determine the importance of these factors in shaping early plant community assembly on a glacial outwash plain, Skeiðarársandur, in SE Iceland using a trait based approach. We used data on vascular plant assemblages at two different spatial scales (community and neighborhood) sampled in 2005 and 2012, and compiled a dataset on seven functional traits linked to species dispersal abilities, establishment, and persistence for all species within these assemblages. Trait‐based null model analyses were used to determine the processes that influenced plant community assembly from the regional species pool into local communities, and to determine if the importance of these processes in community assembly was dependent on local environment or changed with time. On the community scale, for most traits, random processes dominated the assembly from the regional species pool. However, in some communities, there was evidence of non‐random assembly in relation to traits linked to species dispersal abilities, persistence, and establishment. On the neighborhood scale, assembly was mostly random. The relative importance of different processes varied spatially and temporally and the variation was linked to local soil conditions. While stochasticity dominated assembly patterns of our early successional communities, there was evidence of both seed limitation and environmental filtering. Our results indicated that as soil conditions improved, environmental constraints on assembly became weaker and the assembly became more dependent on species availability.This study was funded by Icelandic Research Fund (grants nr. 040263031 and 090255021). BM work was supported by the University of Iceland Innovation Fund. The study has been supported by the TRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db.org).Peer Reviewe

State and Transition Models in Space and Time – Using STMs to Understand Broad Patterns of Ecosystem Change in Iceland

Managing ecological systems sustainably requires a deep understanding of ecosystem structure and the processes driving their dynamics. Conceptual models can lead to improved management, by providing a framework for organizing knowledge about a system and identifying the causal agents of change. We developed state-and-transition models (STMs) to describe landscape changes in Iceland over three historical periods with different human influence, from pre-settlement to present days. Our models identified the set of possible states, transitions and thresholds in these ecosystems and their changes over time. To illustrate the use of these models for predicting and improving management interventions, we applied our present-day STM to a case study in the central highlands of Iceland and monitored ecosystem changes within an ongoing field experiment with two management interventions (grazing exclusion and fertilization) in areas experiencing contrasting stages of degradation. The results of the experiment broadly align with the predictions of the model and underscore the importance of conceptual frameworks for adaptive management, where the best available knowledge is used to continuously refine and update the models

How to grow brand post engagement on Facebook and Twitter for airlines? An empirical investigation of design and content factors

acceptedVersio

Development and resilience in three Arctic ecosystems: Baltic, Barents and Iceland Seas

In this GreenMAR project we look into the historical development of the marine ecosystems that surround the Nordic countries in an effort to forecast their future evolution. We pay particular attention to the way their food webs responded to similar stressors (warming) and fishing regimes in the past. We have compiled historical information on environmental and biological components, from plankton to fish, over the last 25 to 45 years, depending on the system. On these four ecosystems we have: (i) carried out multivariate analyses to describe their main trends and (ii) constructed stability landscapes to quantify their resilience. We will show these results and discuss their implications

Historical changes in genotypic frequencies at the Pantophysin locus in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in Icelandic waters: evidence of fisheries-induced selection?

The intense fishing mortality imposed on Atlantic cod in Icelandic waters during recent decades has resulted in marked changes in stock abundance, as well as in age and size composition. Using a molecular marker known to be under selection (Pan I) along with a suite of six neutral microsatellite loci, we analysed an archived data set and revealed evidence of distinct temporal changes in the frequencies of genotypes at the Pan I locus among spawning Icelandic cod, collected between 1948 and 2002, a period characterized by high fishing pressure. Concurrently, temporal stability in the composition of the microsatellite loci was established within the same data set. The frequency of the Pan IBB genotype decreased over a period of six decades, concomitant with considerable spatial and technical changes in fishing effort that resulted in the disappearance of older individuals from the fishable stock. Consequently, these changes have likely led to a change in the genotype frequencies at this locus in the spawning stock of Icelandic cod. The study highlights the value of molecular genetic approaches that combine functional and neutral markers examined in the same set of individuals for investigations of the selective effects of harvesting and reiterates the need for an evolutionary dimension to fisheries management