Background: Although upper-extremity disability correlates with psychosocial aspects of illness the association with sleep disturbance in upper extremity disability is less certain. To evaluate whether sleep disturbance is associated with upper-extremity disability among patients with upper extremity illness, accounting for sociodemographic, condition-related, and psychosocial factors. Method...

Feather pecking in laying hens is a major welfare and production problem for commercial egg producers, resulting in mortality, loss of production as well as welfare issues for the damaged birds. Damaging outbreaks of feather pecking are currently impossible to control, despite a number of proposed interventions. However, the ability to predict feather damage in advance would be a valuable resea...

For some decades, the Mondego estuary has been under severe ecological stress, mainly caused by eutrophication. The most visible effect was the occurrence of macroalgal blooms and the concomitant decrease of the area occupied by Zostera noltii beds. Since the end of 1998, mitigation measures were implemented in the estuary to promote the recovery of the seagrass beds and the entire surrounding ...

The fruit of woody plants is important as food for wildlife (Martin et al. 1951, Lay 1965). The relation of fruit production to southern forest stand conditions has been explored in only a few studies. Fruit production is greater in forest clearings than in closed forest stands (Lay 1966, Elalls and Alcaniz 1968). In Georgia slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations, fruit yields of shrubs are g...

Proper allocation and distribution of lift gas is necessary for maximizing total oil production from a eld with gas lifted oil wells. When the supply of the lift gas is limited, the total available gas should be optimally distributed among the oil wells of the eld such that the total production of oil from the eld is maximized. This paper describes a non-linear optimization problem with constra...

Sleep disturbance is associated with inflammation and related disorders including cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and diabetes mellitus. Given sex differences in the prevalence of inflammatory disorders with stronger associations in females, this study was undertaken to test the effects of sleep loss on cellular mechanisms that contribute to proinflammatory cytokine activity. In 26 healthy a...