Falling financial margins have prompted many owners of Australian harvesting businesses to extend normal working hours. After brief trial periods, most companies have again reverted to short-term and ad hoc solutions to meet peaks in demand. The harvesting industry is also being persuaded to operate extended hours under the guise of service-delivery and the ‘24-hour society’, in response to cus...

Endogenous circadian clocks regulate 24-h rhythms of behavior and physiology to align with external time. The endocrine system serves as a major clock output to regulate various biological processes. Recent findings suggest that some of the rhythmic hormones can also provide feedback to the circadian system at various levels, thus contributing to maintaining the robustness of endogenous rhythmi...

Electromagnetic spectra reduce melatonin production and delay the nadirs of rectal temperature and heart rate. Seven healthy men (16-22 yrs) completed 4 permuted sessions. The control session consisted of a 24-hours bedrest at < 30 lux, 18 degrees C, and < 50 dBA. In the experimental sessions, either light (1500 lux), magnetic field (16.7 Hz, 0.2 mT), or infrared radiation (65 degrees C) was ap...

Circadian rhythms impact on a wide range of physiological systems and this impact extends to fertility, such that disruptions to timing systems can impact upon reproductive capacity. This is highlighted most obviously in mutant mouse models whereby deletion or mutation of single genes results not only in disrupted circadian rhythmicity, but also compromised male and female reproductive function...

Abstract Biological rhythms regulate physiological activities. Shiftwork disrupts normal circadian and may increase the risk of cancer through unknown mechanisms. To mimic environmental light/dark changes encountered by shift workers, a protocol called ‘chronic jet lag (CJL)’ induced repeatedly shifting light–dark cycles has been used. Here, we subjected mice to CJL advancing cycle 6 h every 2 ...

Circadian rhythmicity can be important in the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of clinical disease. Due to the difficulties in conducting the necessary experimental work, it remains unknown whether approximately 24-h changes in pathophysiology or symptoms of many diseases are causally linked to endogenous circadian rhythms or to other diurnal factors that change across the day, such as...