Imagery rescripting as a short intervention for symptoms associated with mental images in clinical disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

There is an unmet need for effective short-term therapeutic techniques to reduce clinical symptoms associated with prospective-, as well as retrospective aversive mental images across mental disorders. We investigated the efficacy of imagery rescripting (IR) as a short-term intervention across clinical disorders, as the literature suggests that this technique could be a promising intervention to reduce psychopathology by altering intrusive mental images. A systematic literature review identified 23 trials including 805 adult patients, out of which 15 trials were designed as randomized controlled trials (RCT) including patients with the following diagnoses: Social anxiety disorder (SAD), Posttraumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD), Bulimia Nervosa, Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, nightmare disorder, test anxiety, health anxiety, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

The physiological period length of the human circadian clock in vivo is directly proportional to period in human fibroblasts.

Background: Diurnal behavior in humans is governed by the period length of a circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the brain hypothalamus. Nevertheless, the cell-intrinsic mechanism of this clock is present in most cells of the body. We have shown previously that for individuals of extreme chronotype ("larks" and "owls"), clock properties measured in human fibroblasts correlated with extreme diurnal behavior.

Toxicity of estuarine sediments using a full life-cycle bioassay with the marine copepod Robertsonia propinqua.

Estuarine sediment contamination is a growing significant ecological issue in New Zealand. Methods of assessing toxicity and ecological impacts in a cost effective way are currently limited. Further to that is a need to develop bioassays that generate data quickly and cost effectively and have ecological relevance to the wider community.

Benthic meiofauna community composition at polluted and non-polluted sites in New Zealand intertidal environments.

Meiofauna composition was investigated for six field sites, including polluted and non-polluted sites, within two regions (Auckland and Bay of Plenty) during winter (July-August 2004) in the North Island of New Zealand. Physico-chemical parameters were measured during the sampling period and meiofauna distribution and abundance were compared with these measured parameters. Analysis of meiofauna abundance indicated that foraminiferans, nematodes and ostracods were the taxa that contributed to the variability between field sites within the Auckland region.

The effects of low-dose 0.5-mg melatonin on the free-running circadian rhythms of blind subjects.

Exogenous melatonin (0.5-10 mg) has been shown to entrain the free-running circadian rhythms of some blind subjects. The aim of this study was to assess further the entraining effects of a daily dose of 0.