Collagen cross-linking for pediatric refractive correction

Corneal collagen-crosslinking(CXL)has been widely investigated in the adult population.There is still little available in the literature,however,on the effects of CXL in children.A review of the literature on CXL in the pediatric population is presented here,with a particular emphasis on the refractive effects.Although several studies demonstrate promising results,most studies have small sample sizes with relatively short follow-up periods.Further investigation on the effects of CXL in the pediatric population is required to better understand long-term effects.

Accurate Approximation of the Earth Mover's Distance in Linear Time

Color descriptors are one of the important features used in content-based in, age retrieval. The dominant color descriptor （DCD） represents a few perceptually dominant colors in an image through color quantization. For image retrieval based on DCD, the earth mover＇s distance （EMD） and the optimal color composition distance were proposed to measure the dissimilarity between two images. Although providing good retrieval results, both methods are too time-consuming to be used in a large image database. To solve the problem, we propose a new distance function that calculates an approximate earth mover＇s distance in linear time. To calculate the dissimilarity in linear time, the proposed approach employs the space-filling curve for multidimensional color space. To improve the accuracy, the proposed approach uses multiple curves and adjusts the color positions. As a result, our approach achieves order-of-magnitude time improvement but incurs small errors. We have performed extensive experiments to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach. The results reveal that our approach achieves almost the same results with the EMD in linear time.

Comparative effects of artemisia vulgaris and charcoal moxa stimulating Zhongwan(CV 12) on body temperature in healthy participants:a cross-over single-blind randomized study

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the efficacy,safety,satisfaction,discomfort and patient preference of moxa cones of artemisia vulgaris and charcoal moxa.METHODS:This comparative study of moxibustion treatment with Artemisia vulgaris and charcoal moxa cone stimulating Zhongwan(CV 12) is a cross-over single-blinded,randomized clinical trial.A total of 40 healthy subjects(24 males and 16females) participated in this study.Two subjects dropped out of the trial.Thirty-eight subjects were treated with Artemisia vulgaris and charcoal moxa cones for 30 min in a cross-over design.After treatment,the patients underwent a 30 minute waiting period,and then the temperatures at Tanzhong(CV 17),Zhongwan(CV 12) and Guanyuan(CV 4) were measured using digital infrared thermal imaging.RESULTS:After the use of Artemisia vulgaris moxa,the patients' body temperatures were slightly lowered at Tanzhong(CV 17),Zhongwan(CV 12)and Guanyuan(CV 4),but the changes were not statistically significant.After the use of charcoal moxa,the patients' body temperatures were somewhat increased at Zhongwan(CV 12) and Guanyuan(CV 4),but the changes were not statistically significant.After Artemisia vulgaris moxa use,the body temperature difference between Zhongwan(CV 12) and Guanyuan(CV 4)was significantly increased.After charcoal moxa use,the body temperature difference between Tanzhong(CV 17) and Zhongwan(CV 12) was significantly decreased in males and in the whole group.This change was caused by the difference in the moxibustion type and by gender differences.CONCLUSION:This pilot study found that moxibustion did not raise the body temperature,but temperature differences between acupoints were affected.Further large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed for the effect of moxibustion on body temperature.