Heavy rainfall triggers increased nocturnal flight in desert populations of the Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa).

Understanding of avian nocturnal flight comes mainly from northern hemisphere species in seasonal temperate ecosystems where nocturnal flight is often precisely timed and entrained by annual photoperiod. Here we investigate patterns of nocturnal flight in waterbirds of Australian desert ecosystems that fly considerable distances to find temporary water bodies formed from rainfall which is highly unpredictable seasonally and spatially, and when there is sufficient water, they then breed. How they perform these feats of navigation and physiology remain poorly known. Using GPS tracking of 38 satellite tagged Pacific black ducks (Anas superciliosa) in two contrasting ecosystems, before and after heavy rainfall we revealed a key role for facultative nocturnal flight in the movement ecology of this species. After large rainfall events, birds rapidly increased nocturnal flight activity in the arid aseasonal ecosystem, but not in the mesic seasonal one. Nocturnal flights occurred throughout the night in both ecosystems. Long range flights (>50 km in 2 hours) occurred almost exclusively at night; at night the distance flown was higher than during the day, birds visited more locations, and the locations were more widely dispersed. Our work reveals that heavy rainfall triggers increased nocturnal flight activity in desert populations of waterbirds.

Adherence to rehabilitation in patients with low back pain.

This study investigated adherence to low back pain rehabilitation in the clinical setting. Adherence was assessed in 105 (71 male and 34 female) patients attending private physiotherapy clinics for rehabilitation of low back pain. Three aspects of adherence were measured over the 4-week study period: attendance at clinic-based rehabilitation sessions, adherence to a home exercise component of rehabilitation, and adherence to activities and advice during clinic-based rehabilitation. Rehabilitation outcome was measured using the Patients' Measure of Perceived Rehabilitation (McDonald & Hardy 1990) and the Physiotherapists' Measure of Perceived Rehabilitation (McDonald & Hardy 1990). It was found that patients attended 87.7% of their scheduled physiotherapy rehabilitation appointments and reported completing 71.6% of their prescribed home exercises. In relation to adherence to clinic-based rehabilitation activities (as measured by the Sport Injury Rehabilitation Adherence Scale, Brewer et al. 2000), patients scored an average of 11.6/15. Although no gender differences were found, compensable patients adhered significantly less to clinic-based rehabilitation activities than did their non-compensable counterparts. Further, it was found that higher levels of adherence to clinic-based activities significantly predicted both the patients' and physiotherapists' perception of degree of rehabilitation at the end of the 4-week rehabilitation period. These findings are discussed in relation to rehabilitation strategies for physiotherapists.