The effects of graded motor imagery and its components on chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in The Journal of Pain. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 The American Pain Society.Graded motor imagery (GMI) is becoming increasingly used in the treatment of chronic pain conditions. The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize all evidence concerning the effects of GMI and its constituent components on chronic pain. Systematic searches were conducted in 10 electronic databases. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of GMI, left/right judgment training, motor imagery, and mirror therapy used as a treatment for chronic pain were included. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Six RCTs met our inclusion criteria, and the methodological quality was generally low. No effect was seen for left/right judgment training, and conflicting results were found for motor imagery used as stand-alone techniques, but positive effects were observed for both mirror therapy and GMI. A meta-analysis of GMI versus usual physiotherapy care favored GMI in reducing pain (2 studies, n = 63; effect size, 1.06 [95% confidence interval, .41, 1.71]; heterogeneity, I2 = 15%). Our results suggest that GMI and mirror therapy alone may be effective, although this conclusion is based on limited evidence. Further rigorous studies are needed to investigate the effects of GMI and its components on a wider chronic pain population.NHMR

Simpler proof of the theorem by Pusey, Barrett, and Rudolph on the reality of the quantum state

The theorem of Pusey, Barrett, and Rudolph proves that different quantum states describe different physical realities. Their proof is based on the construction of entanglement measurement bases of two, and more than two qbits. In this note, I show that a two-qubit entanglement base is sufficient for a general proof.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Estonian alphabet and pronunciation

Introduction to the Estonian alphabet, spelling, and pronunciatio

Finding the balance in complex regional pain syndrome. Expertise, optimism, and evidence

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), perhaps more than any other chronic pain disorder, is perplexing. It is highly disabling, particularly once it has “set in,” and it has a tendency to polarize the community—some view it as a quasidiagnosis to obscure malingering or conceal substandard clinical skills,1 and others as a multiple system overprotective response.2 What is agreed is that its pathophysiology is not completely understood and that it is difficult to treat. In light of this rather murky backdrop, we welcome the new perspectives article in this issue of Neurology® by Birklein et al.3 They describe their own clinical approach to the problem and their impressions of what works, what does not, and where the field might be heading. The lead author is the most prolific and arguably the most important researcher in this field, and the article clearly draws on a wealth of expertise and clinical experience probably unmatched globally. The article reminds us of the remaining substantial challenges that we face: for example, the need for prospective studies, higher quality clinical trials and audits, and a putative model that accounts for the transition from acute CRPS to chronic CRPS, which is arguably characterized by distinct pathophysiology. Anyone who treats a good number of CRPS patients will recognize the clinical patterns to which the authors allude and be comforted by the realization that even this group, at the top of the field, share the same substantial treatment challenges.G.L.M. is supported by a Principal Research Fellowship from the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia ID 1061279

Submodular Optimization with Contention Resolution Extensions

This paper considers optimizing a submodular function subject to a set of downward closed constraints. Previous literature on this problem has often constructed solutions by (1) discovering a fractional solution to the multi-linear extension and (2) rounding this solution to an integral solution via a contention resolution scheme. This line of research has improved results by either optimizing (1) or (2). Diverging from previous work, this paper introduces a principled method called contention resolution extensions of submodular functions. A contention resolution extension combines the contention resolution scheme into a continuous extension of a discrete submodular function. The contention resolution extension can be defined from effectively any contention resolution scheme. In the case where there is a loss in both (1) and (2), by optimizing them together, the losses can be combined resulting in an overall improvement. This paper showcases the concept by demonstrating that for the problem of optimizing a non-monotone submodular subject to the elements forming an independent set in an interval graph, the algorithm gives a .188-approximation. This improves upon the best known 1/(2e)~eq .1839 approximation

N-component Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optical Lattice: Destruction of the Condensate and Quasiparticle Properties

We present a model of N-component hard-core bosons on a lattice. The limit N to infinity can be solved exactly. A saddle point approximation leads to a 1/N expansion and allows the calculation of physical quantities like the density of the condensate, the correlation between the components and the density-density correlation function and the correlation between different components. We find a superfluid phase with a tendency towards a Mott insulator at high densities and finite N.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, small changes, error corrected in Appendi