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"Knowing your zheng classification can serve as a pre-screening tool and help withpreventive medicine," said Dong Xu, chair of MU's computerscience department in the College of Engineering and studyco-author. "Our software helps bridge Eastern and Westernmedicine, since an imbalance in zheng could serve as a warning to go see a doctor. Within a year, ourultimate goal is to create an application for smartphones that willallow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the statusof their zheng ." The software analyzes images based on the tongue's color andcoating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of"hot" or "cold" zheng . Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng , whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng . "Hot and cold zheng doesn't refer directly to body temperature," said Xu, who isalso on the faculty of the Bond Life Sciences Center. "Rather,it refers to a suite of symptoms associated with the state of thebody as a whole." For example, a person with cold zheng may feel chills and coolness in the limbs and show a pale flushingof face. Their voice may have a high pitch. Other symptoms of coldsheng are clear urine and loose stool. They also may prefer hotfoods and drinks and desire warm environments. In Chinese traditional medicine both hot and cold zheng can be symptoms of gastritis, an inflammation of the stomachlining frequently caused by bacterial infection. For the study, 263 gastritis patients and 48 healthy volunteers hadtheir tongues analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified bywhether they showed infection by a certain bacteria, known as Helicobacter pylori , as well as the intensity of their gastritis symptoms. Inaddition, most of the gastritis patients had been previouslyclassified with either hot or cold zheng . This allowed the researchers to verify the accuracy of thesoftware's analysis. "Our software was able to classify people based on their zheng status," said study co-author Ye Duan, associate professor ofcomputer science at MU. "As we continue to work on the software we hope to improve itsability," Duan said. "Eventually everyone will be able touse this tool at home using webcams or smartphone applications.That will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments." The study "Automated Tongue Feature Extraction for ZHENGClassification in Traditional Chinese Medicine" was acceptedfor publication in the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The study's first author was doctoral student RatchadapornKanawong and the second author was post-doctoral researcher TayoObafemi-Ajayi. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Fotga Glass Protector , AF-Confirm Adapter, and more. For more , please visit SLR Camera Lens Hood today!
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