Introduction to artificial neural networks

Formation and prediction of heterocyclic amines and N-nitrosamines in smoked sausages using back propagation artificial neural network

BACKGROUND

Heterocyclic amines (HAs) and N-nitrosamines (NAs) are formed easily during the thermal processing of food, and epidemiological studies have demonstrated that consuming HAs and NAs increases the risk of cancer. However, there are few studies on the application of back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) models to simultaneously predict the content of HAs and NAs in sausages. This study aimed to investigate the effects of cooking time and temperature, smoking time and temperature, and fat-to-lean ratio on the formation of HAs and NAs in smoked sausages, and to predict their total content based on the BP-ANN model.

RESULTS

With an increase in processing time, processing temperature and fat ratio, the content of HAs and NAs in smoked sausages increased significantly, while the content of HA precursors and nitrite residues decreased significantly. The optimal network topology of the BP-ANN model was 5-11-2, the correlation coefficient values for training, validation, testing and all datasets were 0.99228, 0.99785, 0.99520 and 0.99369, respectively, and the mean squared error value of the best validation performance was 0.11326. The bias factor and the accuracy factor were within acceptable limits, and the predicted values approximated the true values, indicating that the model has good predictive performance.

CONCLUSION

The contents of HAs and NAs in smoked sausages were significantly influenced by the cooking conditions, smoking conditions and fat ratio. The BP-ANN model has high application value in predicting the contents of HAs and NAs in sausages, which provides a theoretical basis for the suppression of carcinogen formation. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

AntiBP3: A Method for Predicting Antibacterial Peptides against Gram-Positive/Negative/Variable Bacteria

Most of the existing methods developed for predicting antibacterial peptides (ABPs) are mostly designed to target either gram-positive or gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we describe a method that allows us to predict ABPs against gram-positive, gram-negative, and gram-variable bacteria. Firstly, we developed an alignment-based approach using BLAST to identify ABPs and achieved poor sensitivity. Secondly, we employed a motif-based approach to predict ABPs and obtained high precision with low sensitivity. To address the issue of poor sensitivity, we developed alignment-free methods for predicting ABPs using machine/deep learning techniques. In the case of alignment-free methods, we utilized a wide range of peptide features that include different types of composition, binary profiles of terminal residues, and fastText word embedding. In this study, a five-fold cross-validation technique has been used to build machine/deep learning models on training datasets. These models were evaluated on an independent dataset with no common peptide between training and independent datasets. Our machine learning-based model developed using the amino acid binary profile of terminal residues achieved maximum AUC 0.93, 0.98, and 0.94 for gram-positive, gram-negative, and gram-variable bacteria, respectively, on an independent dataset. Our method performs better than existing methods when compared with existing approaches on an independent dataset. A user-friendly web server, standalone package and pip package have been developed to facilitate peptide-based therapeutics.

Defining the optimal conditions using FFNNs and NARX neural networks for modelling the extraction of Sc from aqueous solution by Cryptand-2.2.1 and Cryptand-2.1.1

The main aim of this study is to figure out how well cryptand-2.2.1 (C 2.2.1) and cryptand-2.1.1 (C 2.1.1) macrocyclic compounds (MCs) work as novel extractants for scandium (Sc) by using an artificial neural network (ANN) models in MATLAB software. Moreover, C2.2.1 and C2.1.1 have never been evaluated to recover Sc. The independent variables impacting the extraction process (concentration of MC, concentration of Sc, pH, and time), and a nonlinear autoregressive network with exogenous input (NARX) and feed-forward neural network (FFNN) models were used to estimate their optimum values. The greatest obstacle in the selective recovery process of the REEs is the similarity in their physicochemical properties, specifically their ionic radius. The recovery of Sc from the aqueous solution was experimentally evaluated, then the non-linear relationship between those parameters was predictively modeled using (NARX) and (FFNN). To confirm the extraction and stripping efficiency, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) was employed. The results of the extraction investigations show that, for the best conditions of 0.008 mol/L MC concentration, 10 min of contact time, pH 2 of the aqueous solution, and 75 mg/L Sc initial concentration, respectively, the C 2.1.1 and C 2.2.1 extractants may reach 99 % of Sc extraction efficiency. Sc was recovered from a multi-element solution of scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), and lanthanum (La) under these circumstances. Whereas, at a concentration of 0.3 mol/L of hydrochloric acid, the extraction of Sc was 99 %, as opposed to Y 10 % and La 7 %. The Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm had the best training performance with an mean-squared-error, MSE, of 5.232x10-6 and 6.1387x10-5 for C 2.2.1 and C 2.1.1 respectively. The optimized FFNN architecture of 4-10-1 was constructed for modeling recovery of Sc. The extraction process was well modeled by the FFNN with an R2 of 0.999 for the two MC, indicating that the observed Sc recovery efficiency consistent with the predicted one.

Experimental validation of computer-vision methods for the successful detection of endodontic treatment obturation and progression from noisy radiographs

PURPOSE

(1) To evaluate the effects of denoising and data balancing on deep learning to detect endodontic treatment outcomes from radiographs. (2) To develop and train a deep-learning model and classifier to predict obturation quality from radiomics.

METHODS

The study conformed to the STARD 2015 and MI-CLAIMS 2021 guidelines. 250 deidentified dental radiographs were collected and augmented to produce 2226 images. The dataset was classified according to endodontic treatment outcomes following a set of customized criteria. The dataset was denoised and balanced, and processed with YOLOv5s, YOLOv5x, and YOLOv7 models of real-time deep-learning computer vision. Diagnostic test parameters such as sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp), accuracy (Ac), precision, recall, mean average precision (mAP), and confidence were evaluated.

RESULTS

Overall accuracy for all the deep-learning models was above 85%. Imbalanced datasets with noise removal led to YOLOv5x's prediction accuracy to drop to 72%, while balancing and noise removal led to all three models performing at over 95% accuracy. mAP saw an improvement from 52 to 92% following balancing and denoising.

CONCLUSION

The current study of computer vision applied to radiomic datasets successfully classified endodontic treatment obturation and mishaps according to a custom progressive classification system and serves as a foundation to larger research on the subject matter.

MBMethPred: a computational framework for the accurate classification of childhood medulloblastoma subgroups using data integration and AI-based approaches

Childhood medulloblastoma is a malignant form of brain tumor that is widely classified into four subgroups based on molecular and genetic characteristics. Accurate classification of these subgroups is crucial for appropriate treatment, monitoring plans, and targeted therapies. However, misclassification between groups 3 and 4 is common. To address this issue, an AI-based R package called MBMethPred was developed based on DNA methylation and gene expression profiles of 763 medulloblastoma samples to classify subgroups using machine learning and neural network models. The developed prediction models achieved a classification accuracy of over 96% for subgroup classification by using 399 CpGs as prediction biomarkers. We also assessed the prognostic relevance of prediction biomarkers using survival analysis. Furthermore, we identified subgroup-specific drivers of medulloblastoma using functional enrichment analysis, Shapley values, and gene network analysis. In particular, the genes involved in the nervous system development process have the potential to separate medulloblastoma subgroups with 99% accuracy. Notably, our analysis identified 16 genes that were specifically significant for subgroup classification, including EP300, CXCR4, WNT4, ZIC4, MEIS1, SLC8A1, NFASC, ASCL2, KIF5C, SYNGAP1, SEMA4F, ROR1, DPYSL4, ARTN, RTN4RL1, and TLX2. Our findings contribute to enhanced survival outcomes for patients with medulloblastoma. Continued research and validation efforts are needed to further refine and expand the utility of our approach in other cancer types, advancing personalized medicine in pediatric oncology.

Comparing different models to forecast the number of mass shootings in the United States: An application of forecasting rare event time series data

The number of mass shootings in the United States has increased in the recent decades. Understanding the future risk of the mass shootings is critical for designing strategies to mitigate the risk of mass shootings, and part of understanding the future risk is to forecast the frequency or number of mass shootings in the future. Despite the increasing trend in mass shootings, they thankfully remain rare events with fewer than 10 mass shootings occurring in a single year. Limited historical data with substantial annual variability poses challenges to accurately forecasting rare events such as the number of mass shootings in the United States. Different forecasting models can be deployed to tackle this challenge. This article compares three forecasting models, a change-point model, a time series model, and a hybrid of a time series model with an artificial neural network model. Each model is applied to forecast the frequency of mass shootings. Comparing among results from these models reveals advantages and disadvantages of each model when forecasting rare events such as mass shootings. The hybrid ARIMA-ANN model can be tuned to follow variation in the data, but the pattern of the variation may not continue into the future. The mean of the change-point model and the ARIMA model exhibit much more less annual variation and are not influenced as much by the inclusion of a single data point. The insights generated from the comparison are beneficial for selecting the best model and accurately estimating the risk of mass shootings in the United States.

Calendar ageing modelling using machine learning: an experimental investigation on lithium ion battery chemistries

Background: The phenomenon of calendar ageing continues to have an impact on battery systems worldwide by causing them to have undesirable operation life and performance. Predicting the degradation in the capacity can identify whether this phenomenon is occurring for a cell and pave the way for placing mechanisms that can circumvent this behaviour. Methods: In this study, the machine learning algorithms, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and artificial neural network (ANN) have been used to predict the calendar ageing data belonging to six types of cell chemistries namely, Lithium Cobalt Oxide, Lithium Iron Phosphate, Lithium Manganese Oxide, Lithium Titanium Oxide, Nickle Cobalt Aluminum Oxide and Nickle Manganese Cobalt Oxide. Results: Prediction results with overall Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 0.0126 have been obtained for XGBoost algorithm. Among these results, Nickle Cobalt Aluminum Oxide and Nickle Manganese Cobalt Oxide type cell chemistries stand out with their mean absolute percentage errors of 0.0035 and 0.0057 respectively. Also, algorithm fitting performance is relatively better for these chemistries at 100% state of charge and 60°C temperature compared to ANN results. ANN algorithm predicts with mean absolute error of approximately 0.0472 overall and 0.0238 and 0.03825 for Nickle Cobalt Aluminum Oxide and Nickle Manganese Cobalt Oxide. The fitting performance of ANN for Nickle Manganese Cobalt Oxide at 100% state of charge and 60°C temperature is especially poor compared to XGBoost. Conclusions: For an electric vehicle battery calendar ageing prediction application, XGBoost can establish itself as the primary choice more easily compared to ANN. The reason is XGBoost's error rates and fitting performance are more usable for such application especially for Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide and Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide chemistries, which are amongst the most demanded cell chemistries for electric vehicle battery packs.

The Process of Acquiring, Collecting, Processing and Archiving Data for the SHM System Designed to Identify Defects in Thin-Walled Structures

The article shows the results of the preparatory steps taken to create the artificial intelligence used in the automatic recognition of defects in ship thin-walled structures. The above steps are used to create a university private cloud and a computer system maintaining a dataset of vibration signal samples. In the article, a prototype of the private cloud was designed and developed, a model of the vibration sample was prepared, and a microservice was designed aimed at sharing the obtained data. The article demonstrates the results of the completed development.

Transfer learning for genotype-phenotype prediction using deep learning models

BACKGROUND

For some understudied populations, genotype data is minimal for genotype-phenotype prediction. However, we can use the data of some other large populations to learn about the disease-causing SNPs and use that knowledge for the genotype-phenotype prediction of small populations. This manuscript illustrated that transfer learning is applicable for genotype data and genotype-phenotype prediction.

RESULTS

Using HAPGEN2 and PhenotypeSimulator, we generated eight phenotypes for 500 cases/500 controls (CEU, large population) and 100 cases/100 controls (YRI, small populations). We considered 5 (4 phenotypes) and 10 (4 phenotypes) different risk SNPs for each phenotype to evaluate the proposed method. The improved accuracy with transfer learning for eight different phenotypes was between 2 and 14.2 percent. The two-tailed p-value between the classification accuracies for all phenotypes without transfer learning and with transfer learning was 0.0306 for five risk SNPs phenotypes and 0.0478 for ten risk SNPs phenotypes.

CONCLUSION

The proposed pipeline is used to transfer knowledge for the case/control classification of the small population. In addition, we argue that this method can also be used in the realm of endangered species and personalized medicine. If the large population data is extensive compared to small population data, expect transfer learning results to improve significantly. We show that Transfer learning is capable to create powerful models for genotype-phenotype predictions in large, well-studied populations and fine-tune these models to populations were data is sparse.

Artificial intelligence assisted tools for the detection of anxiety and depression leading to suicidal ideation in adolescents: a review

Epidemiological studies report high levels of anxiety and depression amongst adolescents. These psychiatric conditions and complex interplays of biological, social and environmental factors are important risk factors for suicidal behaviours and suicide, which show a peak in late adolescence and early adulthood. Although deaths by suicide have fallen globally in recent years, suicide deaths are increasing in some countries, such as the US. Suicide prevention is a challenging global public health problem. Currently, there aren't any validated clinical biomarkers for suicidal diagnosis, and traditional methods exhibit limitations. Artificial intelligence (AI) is budding in many fields, including in the diagnosis of medical conditions. This review paper summarizes recent studies (past 8 years) that employed AI tools for the automated detection of depression and/or anxiety disorder and discusses the limitations and effects of some modalities. The studies assert that AI tools produce promising results and could overcome the limitations of traditional diagnostic methods. Although using AI tools for suicidal ideation exhibits limitations, these are outweighed by the advantages. Thus, this review article also proposes extracting a fusion of features such as facial images, speech signals, and visual and clinical history features from deep models for the automated detection of depression and/or anxiety disorder in individuals, for future work. This may pave the way for the identification of individuals with suicidal thoughts.

Automated data preparation for in vivo tumor characterization with machine learning

Background

This study proposes machine learning-driven data preparation (MLDP) for optimal data preparation (DP) prior to building prediction models for cancer cohorts.

Methods

A collection of well-established DP methods were incorporated for building the DP pipelines for various clinical cohorts prior to machine learning. Evolutionary algorithm principles combined with hyperparameter optimization were employed to iteratively select the best fitting subset of data preparation algorithms for the given dataset. The proposed method was validated for glioma and prostate single center cohorts by 100-fold Monte Carlo (MC) cross-validation scheme with 80-20% training-validation split ratio. In addition, a dual-center diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cohort was utilized with Center 1 as training and Center 2 as independent validation datasets to predict cohort-specific clinical endpoints. Five machine learning (ML) classifiers were employed for building prediction models across all analyzed cohorts. Predictive performance was estimated by confusion matrix analytics over the validation sets of each cohort. The performance of each model with and without MLDP, as well as with manually-defined DP were compared in each of the four cohorts.

Results

Sixteen of twenty established predictive models demonstrated area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) performance increase utilizing the MLDP. The MLDP resulted in the highest performance increase for random forest (RF) (+0.16 AUC) and support vector machine (SVM) (+0.13 AUC) model schemes for predicting 36-months survival in the glioma cohort. Single center cohorts resulted in complex (6-7 DP steps) DP pipelines, with a high occurrence of outlier detection, feature selection and synthetic majority oversampling technique (SMOTE). In contrast, the optimal DP pipeline for the dual-center DLBCL cohort only included outlier detection and SMOTE DP steps.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that data preparation prior to ML prediction model building in cancer cohorts shall be ML-driven itself, yielding optimal prediction models in both single and multi-centric settings.

Systematic Literature Review on the Accuracy of Face Recognition Algorithms

Real-time facial recognition systems have been increasingly used, making it relevant to address the accuracy of these systems given the credibility and trust they must offer. Therefore, this article seeks to identify the algorithms currently used by facial recognition systems through a Systematic Literature Review that considers recent scientific articles, published between 2018 and 2021. From the initial collection of ninety-three articles, a subset of thirteen was selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion procedures. One of the outstanding results of this research corresponds to the use of algorithms based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) considered in 21% of the solutions, highlighting the use of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Another relevant result is the identification of the use of the Viola-Jones algorithm, present in 19% of the solutions. In addition, from this research, two specific facial recognition solutions associated with access control were found considering the principles of the Internet of Things, one being applied to access control to environments and the other applied to smart cities.

Detection of Heart Arrhythmia on Electrocardiogram using Artificial Neural Networks

The electrocardiogram, also known as an electrocardiogram (ECG), is considered to be one of the most significant sources of data regarding the structure and function of the heart. In order to obtain an electrocardiogram, the contractions and relaxations of the heart are first captured in the proper recording medium. Due to the fact that irregularities in the functioning of the heart are reflected in the ECG indications, it is possible to use these indications to diagnose cardiac issues. Arrhythmia is the medical term for the abnormalities that might occur in the regular functioning of the heart (rhythm disorder). Environmental and genetic variables can both play a role in the development of arrhythmias. Arrhythmias are reflected on the ECG sign, which depicts the same region regardless of where in the heart they occur; thus, they may be seen in ECG signals. This is how arrhythmias can be detected. Due to the time limits of this study, the ECG signals of individuals who were healthy, as well as those who suffered from arrhythmias were divided into 10-minute segments. The arithmetic mean approach is one of the fundamental statistical factors. It is used to construct the feature vectors of each received wave and interval, and these vectors offer information regarding arrhythmias in accordance with the agreed-upon temporal restrictions. In order to identify the heart arrhythmias, the obtained feature vectors are fed into a classifier that is based on a multilayer perceptron neural network. In conclusion, ROC analysis and contrast matrix are utilised in order to evaluate the overall correct classification result produced by the ECG-based classifier. Because of this, it has been demonstrated that the method that was recommended has high classification accuracy when attempting to diagnose arrhythmia based on ECG indications. This research makes use of a variety of diagnostic terminologies, including ECG signal, multilayer perceptron neural network, signal processing, disease diagnosis, and arrhythmia diagnosis.

Fitness Movement Types and Completeness Detection Using a Transfer-Learning-Based Deep Neural Network

Fitness is important in people's lives. Good fitness habits can improve cardiopulmonary capacity, increase concentration, prevent obesity, and effectively reduce the risk of death. Home fitness does not require large equipment but uses dumbbells, yoga mats, and horizontal bars to complete fitness exercises and can effectively avoid contact with people, so it is deeply loved by people. People who work out at home use social media to obtain fitness knowledge, but learning ability is limited. Incomplete fitness is likely to lead to injury, and a cheap, timely, and accurate fitness detection system can reduce the risk of fitness injuries and can effectively improve people's fitness awareness. In the past, many studies have engaged in the detection of fitness movements, among which the detection of fitness movements based on wearable devices, body nodes, and image deep learning has achieved better performance. However, a wearable device cannot detect a variety of fitness movements, may hinder the exercise of the fitness user, and has a high cost. Both body-node-based and image-deep-learning-based methods have lower costs, but each has some drawbacks. Therefore, this paper used a method based on deep transfer learning to establish a fitness database. After that, a deep neural network was trained to detect the type and completeness of fitness movements. We used Yolov4 and Mediapipe to instantly detect fitness movements and stored the 1D fitness signal of movement to build a database. Finally, MLP was used to classify the 1D signal waveform of fitness. In the performance of the classification of fitness movement types, the mAP was 99.71%, accuracy was 98.56%, precision was 97.9%, recall was 98.56%, and the F1-score was 98.23%, which is quite a high performance. In the performance of fitness movement completeness classification, accuracy was 92.84%, precision was 92.85, recall was 92.84%, and the F1-score was 92.83%. The average FPS in detection was 17.5. Experimental results show that our method achieves higher accuracy compared to other methods.

A Machine Learning Study on the Role of Behavioral and Demographic Factors in Mining Injuries

Predictive models for work-related injuries in mines are complicated, with personal, technical, and societal aspects all playing a role. Numerous studies have reported that human behavior is a significant factor in mine injuries. Many researchers have opined that maintaining a high level of safe human behavior is a challenging task. In Indian mines, the risk management team uses hierarchy control charts to avoid incidents, but managing human behavioral factors which lead to injury is more challenging. Owing to these constraints, we attempted to find the significant human behavioral factors that lead to injury in mines. In this work, we try to develop predictive models using behavioral and demographic factors to predict mine workers’ injury status and evaluate the most significant factor. To investigate the relevance of behavioral characteristics in work-related injuries, we employed three machine learning models (neural networks, random forest, and K-NN) as well as two classic statistical approaches (linear and logistic regression) to compare their results and see which method performs better. We have collected data of six factors and injury status of 186 workers through a questionnaire survey. After data analysis, a detailed comparison between machine learning models and traditional methods shows that random forest performs better than other models. This study also found that demographic features and job dissatisfaction attitude are the leading influencing factors to work-related injuries. This work is beneficial to mine management in the present Indian mining scenario to devise appropriate countermeasures.

Estimating Species-Specific Stem Size Distributions of Uneven-Aged Mixed Deciduous Forests Using ALS Data and Neural Networks

Sustainable forest management requires accurate fine-scale description of wood resources. Stem size distribution (SSD) by species is used by foresters worldwide as a representative overview of forest structure and species composition suitable for informing management decisions at shorter and longer terms. In mixed uneven-aged deciduous forests, tree data required for SSD estimation are most often collected in the field through traditional forest management inventories (FMIs), but these are time-consuming and costly with respect to the sampled area. Combining FMIs with remote sensing methods such as airborne laser scanning (ALS), which has high potential for predicting forest structure and composition, and is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable, could provide cheaper and faster SSD data across large areas. In this study, we developed a method for estimating species-specific SSDs by combining FMIs and dual-wavelength ALS data using neural networks (NNs). The proposed method was tested and validated using 178 FMI plots within 22,000 ha of a mixed uneven-aged deciduous forest in Belgium. The forest canopy was segmented, and metrics were derived from the ALS point cloud. A NN with a custom architecture was set up to simultaneously predict the three components required to compute species-specific SSDs (species, circumference, and number of stems) at segment level. Species-specific SSDs were thereafter estimated at stand level by aggregating the estimates for the segments. A robustness test was set up using fully independent plots to thoroughly assess the method precision at stand-level on a larger area. The global Reynolds index for the species-specific SSDs was 21.2 for the training dataset and 54.0 for the independent dataset. The proposed method does not require allometric models, prior knowledge of the structure, or the predefinition of variables; it is versatile and thus potentially adaptable to other forest types having different structures and compositions.

GA-PID Control for Ball and Beam: Simulation and Experiment

The Ball and Beam system with Deviated Axis is a single input-muti output (SIMO) system commonly used in laboratories to test control algorithms. In this paper, we build and investigate an PID-GA controller in simulation and apply to real model. The controller demonstrates the ability to control the balancing statement in different desired positions. Next, we conduct a survey of the above method in the object name Ball and beam system with deviated axis through STM32F4. Through simulation and experiment, our PID controller has successfully controlled the system and GA-PID has optimize well PID parameters. In addition, the control parameters had been adjusted to verify and summerize the theoretical rules.

Artificial Neural Network Algorithms to Predict Resting Energy Expenditure in Critically Ill Children

INTRODUCTION

Accurate assessment of resting energy expenditure (REE) can guide optimal nutritional prescription in critically ill children. Indirect calorimetry (IC) is the gold standard for REE measurement, but its use is limited. Alternatively, REE estimates by predictive equations/formulae are often inaccurate. Recently, predicting REE with artificial neural networks (ANN) was found to be accurate in healthy children. We aimed to investigate the role of ANN in predicting REE in critically ill children and to compare the accuracy with common equations/formulae.

STUDY METHODS

We enrolled 257 critically ill children. Nutritional status/vital signs/biochemical values were recorded. We used IC to measure REE. Commonly employed equations/formulae and the VCO₂-based Mehta equation were estimated. ANN analysis to predict REE was conducted, employing the TWIST system.

RESULTS

ANN considered demographic/anthropometric data to model REE. The predictive model was good (accuracy 75.6%; R² = 0.71) but not better than Talbot tables for weight. After adding vital signs/biochemical values, the model became superior to all equations/formulae (accuracy 82.3%, R² = 0.80) and comparable to the Mehta equation. Including IC-measured VCO₂ increased the accuracy to 89.6%, superior to the Mehta equation.

CONCLUSIONS

We described the accuracy of REE prediction using models that include demographic/anthropometric/clinical/metabolic variables. ANN may represent a reliable option for REE estimation, overcoming the inaccuracies of traditional predictive equations/formulae.

Quality by Design tools reducing the gap from bench to bedside for nanomedicine

Pharmaceutical nanotechnology research is focused on smart nano-vehicles, which can deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients to enhance their efficacy through any route of administration and in the most varied therapeutical application. The design and development of new nanopharmaceuticals can be very laborious. In recent years, the application of mathematics, statistics and computational tools is emerging as a convenient strategy for this purpose. The application of Quality by Design (QbD) tools has been introduced to guarantee quality for pharmaceutical products and improve translational research from the laboratory bench into applicable therapeutics. In this review, a collection of basic-concept, historical overview and application of QbD in nanomedicine are discussed. A specific focus has been put on Response Surface Methodology and Artificial Neural Network approaches in general terms and their application in the development of nanomedicine to monitor the process parameters obtaining optimized system ensuring its quality profile.

Prediction of Mental Health in Medical Workers During COVID-19 Based on Machine Learning

Mental health prediction is one of the most essential parts of reducing the probability of serious mental illness. Meanwhile, mental health prediction can provide a theoretical basis for public health department to work out psychological intervention plans for medical workers. The purpose of this paper is to predict mental health of medical workers based on machine learning by 32 factors. We collected the 32 factors of 5,108 Chinese medical workers through questionnaire survey, and the results of Self-reporting Inventory was applied to characterize mental health. In this study, we propose a novel prediction model based on optimization algorithm and neural network, which can select and rank the most important factors that affect mental health of medical workers. Besides, we use stepwise logistic regression, binary bat algorithm, hybrid improved dragonfly algorithm and the proposed prediction model to predict mental health of medical workers. The results show that the prediction accuracy of the proposed model is 92.55%, which is better than the existing algorithms. This method can be used to predict mental health of global medical worker. In addition, the method proposed in this paper can also play a role in the appropriate work plan for medical worker.

The Current State of the Art in Research on Predictive Maintenance in Smart Grid Distribution Network: Fault’s Types, Causes, and Prediction Methods—A Systematic Review

With the exponential growth of science, Internet of Things (IoT) innovation, and expanding significance in renewable energy, Smart Grid has become an advanced innovative thought universally as a solution for the power demand increase around the world. The smart grid is the most practical trend of effective transmission of present-day power assets. The paper aims to survey the present literature concerning predictive maintenance and different types of faults that could be detected within the smart grid. Four databases (Scopus, ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science) were searched between 2012 and 2020. Sixty-five (n = 65) were chosen based on specified exclusion and inclusion criteria. Fifty-seven percent (n = 37/65) of the studies analyzed the issues from predictive maintenance perspectives, while about 18% (n = 12/65) focused on factors-related review studies on the smart grid and about 15% (n = 10/65) focused on factors related to the experimental study. The remaining 9% (n = 6/65) concentrated on fields related to the challenges and benefits of the study. The significance of predictive maintenance has been developing over time in connection with Industry 4.0 revolution. The paper’s fundamental commitment is the outline and overview of faults in the smart grid such as fault location and detection. Therefore, advanced methods of applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques can enhance and improve the reliability and resilience of smart grid systems. For future direction, we aim to supply a deep understanding of Smart meters to detect or monitor faults in the smart grid as it is the primary IoT sensor in an AMI.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs): concepts and applications in pharmacogenomics

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been used to extract information from various datasets of different dimensions. This approach has led to accurate interpretations in several subfields of biological research, like pharmacogenomics, addressing issues previously faced by other computational methods. With the rising attention for personalized and precision medicine, scientists and clinicians have now turned to artificial intelligence systems to provide them with solutions for therapeutics development. CNNs have already provided valuable insights into biological data transformation. Due to the rise of interest in precision and personalized medicine, in this review, we have provided a brief overview of the possibilities of implementing CNNs as an effective tool for analyzing one-dimensional biological data, such as nucleotide and protein sequences, as well as small molecular data, e.g., simplified molecular-input line-entry specification, InChI, binary fingerprints, etc., to categorize the models based on their objective and also highlight various challenges. The review is organized into specific research domains that participate in pharmacogenomics for a more comprehensive understanding. Furthermore, the future intentions of deep learning are outlined.

Integration strategies of multi-omics data for machine learning analysis

Increased availability of high-throughput technologies has generated an ever-growing number of omics data that seek to portray many different but complementary biological layers including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. New insight from these data have been obtained by machine learning algorithms that have produced diagnostic and classification biomarkers. Most biomarkers obtained to date however only include one omic measurement at a time and thus do not take full advantage of recent multi-omics experiments that now capture the entire complexity of biological systems.

Multi-omics data integration strategies are needed to combine the complementary knowledge brought by each omics layer. We have summarized the most recent data integration methods/ frameworks into five different integration strategies: early, mixed, intermediate, late and hierarchical. In this mini-review, we focus on challenges and existing multi-omics integration strategies by paying special attention to machine learning applications.

Eye-color and Type-2 diabetes phenotype prediction from genotype data using deep learning methods

Background

Genotype–phenotype predictions are of great importance in genetics. These predictions can help to find genetic mutations causing variations in human beings. There are many approaches for finding the association which can be broadly categorized into two classes, statistical techniques, and machine learning. Statistical techniques are good for finding the actual SNPs causing variation where Machine Learning techniques are good where we just want to classify the people into different categories. In this article, we examined the Eye-color and Type-2 diabetes phenotype. The proposed technique is a hybrid approach consisting of some parts from statistical techniques and remaining from Machine learning.

Results

The main dataset for Eye-color phenotype consists of 806 people. 404 people have Blue-Green eyes where 402 people have Brown eyes. After preprocessing we generated 8 different datasets, containing different numbers of SNPs, using the mutation difference and thresholding at individual SNP. We calculated three types of mutation at each SNP no mutation, partial mutation, and full mutation. After that data is transformed for machine learning algorithms. We used about 9 classifiers, RandomForest, Extreme Gradient boosting, ANN, LSTM, GRU, BILSTM, 1DCNN, ensembles of ANN, and ensembles of LSTM which gave the best accuracy of 0.91, 0.9286, 0.945, 0.94, 0.94, 0.92, 0.95, and 0.96% respectively. Stacked ensembles of LSTM outperformed other algorithms for 1560 SNPs with an overall accuracy of 0.96, AUC = 0.98 for brown eyes, and AUC = 0.97 for Blue-Green eyes. The main dataset for Type-2 diabetes consists of 107 people where 30 people are classified as cases and 74 people as controls. We used different linear threshold to find the optimal number of SNPs for classification. The final model gave an accuracy of 0.97%.

Conclusion

Genotype–phenotype predictions are very useful especially in forensic. These predictions can help to identify SNP variant association with traits and diseases. Given more datasets, machine learning model predictions can be increased. Moreover, the non-linearity in the Machine learning model and the combination of SNPs Mutations while training the model increases the prediction. We considered binary classification problems but the proposed approach can be extended to multi-class classification.

Classification Accuracy of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Outcome: Data Mining Approach

BACKGROUND

The dataset from genes used to predict hepatitis C virus outcome was evaluated in a previous study using a conventional statistical methodology.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to reanalyze this same dataset using the data mining approach in order to find models that improve the classification accuracy of the genes studied.

METHODS

We built predictive models using different subsets of factors, selected according to their importance in predicting patient classification. We then evaluated each independent model and also a combination of them, leading to a better predictive model.

RESULTS

Our data mining approach identified genetic patterns that escaped detection using conventional statistics. More specifically, the partial decision trees and ensemble models increased the classification accuracy of hepatitis C virus outcome compared with conventional methods.

CONCLUSIONS

Data mining can be used more extensively in biomedicine, facilitating knowledge building and management of human diseases.

Forecasting hand-foot-and-mouth disease cases using wavelet-based SARIMA-NNAR hybrid model

BACKGROUND

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease_(HFMD) is one of the most typical diseases in children that is associated with high morbidity. Reliable forecasting is crucial for prevention and control. Recently, hybrid models have become popular, and wavelet analysis has been widely performed. Better prediction accuracy may be achieved using wavelet-based hybrid models. Thus, our aim is to forecast number of HFMD cases with wavelet-based hybrid models.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We fitted a wavelet-based seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA)-neural network nonlinear autoregressive (NNAR) hybrid model with HFMD weekly cases from 2009 to 2016 in Zhengzhou, China. Additionally, a single SARIMA model, simplex NNAR model, and pure SARIMA-NNAR hybrid model were established for comparison and estimation.

RESULTS

The wavelet-based SARIMA-NNAR hybrid model demonstrates excellent performance whether in fitting or forecasting compared with other models. Its fitted and forecasting time series are similar to the actual observed time series.

CONCLUSIONS

The wavelet-based SARIMA-NNAR hybrid model fitted in this study is suitable for forecasting the number of HFMD cases. Hence, it will facilitate the prevention and control of HFMD.

Personalized nutrition approach in pediatrics: a narrative review

Dietary habits represent the main determinant of health. Although extensive research has been conducted to modify unhealthy dietary behaviors across the lifespan, obesity and obesity-associated comorbidities are increasingly observed worldwide. Individually tailored interventions are nowadays considered a promising frontier for nutritional research. In this narrative review, the technologies of importance in a pediatric clinical setting are discussed. The first determinant of the dietary balance is represented by energy intakes matching individual needs. Most emerging studies highlight the opportunity to reconsider the widely used prediction equations of resting energy expenditure. Artificial Neural Network approaches may help to disentangle the role of single contributors to energy expenditure. Artificial intelligence is also useful in the prediction of the glycemic response, based on the individual microbiome. Other factors further concurring to define individually tailored nutritional needs are metabolomics and nutrigenomic. Since most available data come from studies in adult groups, new efforts should now be addressed to integrate all these aspects to develop comprehensive and-above all-effective interventions for children. IMPACT: Personalized dietary advice, specific to individuals, should be more effective in the prevention of chronic diseases than general recommendations about diet. Artificial Neural Networks algorithms are technologies of importance in a pediatric setting that may help practitioners to provide personalized nutrition. Other approaches to personalized nutrition, while promising in adults and for basic research, are still far from practical application in pediatrics.

Prediction of Resting Energy Expenditure in Children: May Artificial Neural Networks Improve Our Accuracy?

The inaccuracy of resting energy expenditure (REE) prediction formulae to calculate energy metabolism in children may lead to either under- or overestimated real caloric needs with clinical consequences. The aim of this paper was to apply artificial neural networks algorithms (ANNs) to REE prediction. We enrolled 561 healthy children (2-17 years). Nutritional status was classified according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, and 113 were obese. REE was measured using indirect calorimetry and estimated with WHO, Harris-Benedict, Schofield, and Oxford formulae. The ANNs considered specific anthropometric data to model REE. The mean absolute error (mean ± SD) of the prediction was 95.8 ± 80.8 and was strongly correlated with REE values (R² = 0.88). The performance of ANNs was higher in the subgroup of obese children (101 ± 91.8) with a lower grade of imprecision (5.4%). ANNs as a novel approach may give valuable information regarding energy requirements and weight management in children.

Use of artificial neural networks to identify the predictive factors of extracorporeal shock wave therapy treating patients with chronic plantar fasciitis

The purpose of our study is to identify the predictive factors for a minimum clinically successful therapy after extracorporeal shock wave therapy for chronic plantar fasciitis. The demographic and clinical characteristics were evaluated. The artificial neural networks model was used to choose the significant variables and model the effect of achieving the minimum clinically successful therapy at 6-months’ follow-up. The multilayer perceptron model was selected. Higher VAS (Visual Analogue Score) when taking first steps in the morning, presence of plantar fascia spur, shorter duration of symptom had statistical significance in increasing the odd. The artificial neural networks model shows that the sensitivity of predictive factors was 84.3%, 87.9% and 61.4% for VAS, spurs and duration of symptom, respectively. The specificity 35.7%, 37.4% and 22.3% for VAS, spurs and duration of symptom, respectively. The positive predictive value was 69%, 72% and 57% for VAS, spurs and duration of symptom, respectively. The negative predictive value was 82%, 84% and 59%, for VAS, spurs and duration of symptom respectively. The area under the curve was 0.738, 0.882 and 0.520 for VAS, spurs and duration of symptom, respectively. The predictive model showed a good fitting of with an overall accuracy of 92.5%. Higher VAS symptomatized by short-duration, severer pain or plantar fascia spur are important prognostic factors for the efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave therapy. The artificial neural networks predictive model is reasonable and accurate model can help the decision-making for the application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy.

Artificial neural network models for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma using serum levels of α-fetoprotein, α-fetoprotein-L3, des-γ-carboxy prothrombin, and Golgi protein 73

More than 70% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases develop as a consequence of liver cirrhosis (LC). Here we have evaluated the diagnostic potential of four serum biomarkers, and developed models for HCC diagnosis and differentiation from LC patients. Serum levels of α-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP-L3, des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), and Golgi protein 73 (GP73) were analyzed in 114 advanced HCC patients, 81 early stage HCC patients, and 152 LC patients. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks were used to construct the diagnostic models. Using all stages, HCC diagnostic models had a higher sensitivity (>70%) than the individual serum biomarkers, whereas only early stage HCC diagnostic models had a higher specificity (>80%). The early stage HCC diagnostic models could not be used as HCC screening tools due to their low sensitivity (about 40%). These results suggest that a combination of the two models might be used as a screening tool to distinguish early stage HCC patients from LC patients, thus improving prevention and treatment of HCC.

Prediction of HCV vertical transmission: what factors should be optimized using data mining computational analysis

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Neonates born to hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive mothers are usually not screened for HCV. Unscreened children may act as active sources for social HCV transmission, and factors contributing for vertical HCV transmitting still remained controversial and needed optimization. We aimed to investigate the factors contributing for vertical HCV transmission in Egypt; the highest HCV prevalence worldwide.

METHODS

We prospectively followed the neonates born to HCV-positive mother in the child-bearing period, to identify mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) factors from January 2015 to March 2016. Data mining computational analysis was used to quantify the findings.

RESULTS

Among 3000 randomized pregnant women, prevalence of HCV was 46/3000 (1.53%). HCV vertical transmission was identified in eight neonates (17.39%). Only high viral load identified at 975.000 IU was the predictor risk for MTCT.

CONCLUSIONS

Hepatitis C virus in pregnancy has substantial risk for vertical HCV transmission: High viral load in HCV-positive women increases the risk of HCV transmission to neonates. Screening pregnant women during early stage of pregnancy and optimizing the HCV viral load in HCV-positive women might prevent vertical HCV transmission to neonates.

Forecasting outpatient visits using empirical mode decomposition coupled with back-propagation artificial neural networks optimized by particle swarm optimization

Accurately predicting the trend of outpatient visits by mathematical modeling can help policy makers manage hospitals effectively, reasonably organize schedules for human resources and finances, and appropriately distribute hospital material resources. In this study, a hybrid method based on empirical mode decomposition and back-propagation artificial neural networks optimized by particle swarm optimization is developed to forecast outpatient visits on the basis of monthly numbers. The data outpatient visits are retrieved from January 2005 to December 2013 and first obtained as the original time series. Second, the original time series is decomposed into a finite and often small number of intrinsic mode functions by the empirical mode decomposition technique. Third, a three-layer back-propagation artificial neural network is constructed to forecast each intrinsic mode functions. To improve network performance and avoid falling into a local minimum, particle swarm optimization is employed to optimize the weights and thresholds of back-propagation artificial neural networks. Finally, the superposition of forecasting results of the intrinsic mode functions is regarded as the ultimate forecasting value. Simulation indicates that the proposed method attains a better performance index than the other four methods.

Estimation of umbilical cord blood leptin and insulin based on anthropometric data by means of artificial neural network approach: identifying key maternal and neonatal factors

Background

Leptin and insulin levels are key factors regulating fetal and neonatal energy homeostasis, development and growth. Both biomarkers are used as predictors of weight gain and obesity during infancy. There are currently no prediction algorithms for cord blood (UCB) hormone levels using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) that have been directly trained with anthropometric maternal and neonatal data, from neonates exposed to distinct metabolic environments during pregnancy (obese with or without gestational diabetes mellitus or lean women). The aims were: 1) to develop ANN models that simulate leptin and insulin concentrations in UCB based on maternal and neonatal data (ANN perinatal model) or from only maternal data during early gestation (ANN prenatal model); 2) To evaluate the biological relevance of each parameter (maternal and neonatal anthropometric variables).

Methods

We collected maternal and neonatal anthropometric data (n = 49) in normoglycemic healthy lean, obese or obese with gestational diabetes mellitus women, as well as determined UCB leptin and insulin concentrations by ELISA. The ANN perinatal model consisted of an input layer of 12 variables (maternal and neonatal anthropometric and biochemical data from early gestation and at term) while the ANN prenatal model used only 6 variables (maternal anthropometric from early gestation) in the input layer. For both networks, the output layer contained 1 variable to UCB leptin or to UCB insulin concentration.

Results

The best architectures for the ANN perinatal models estimating leptin and insulin were 12-5-1 while for the ANN prenatal models, 6-5-1 and 6-4-1 were found for leptin and insulin, respectively. ANN models presented an excellent agreement between experimental and simulated values. Interestingly, the use of only prenatal maternal anthropometric data was sufficient to estimate UCB leptin and insulin values. Maternal BMI, weight and age as well as neonatal birth were the most influential parameters for leptin while maternal morbidity was the most significant factor for insulin prediction.

Conclusions

Low error percentage and short computing time makes these ANN models interesting in a translational research setting, to be applied for the prediction of neonatal leptin and insulin values from maternal anthropometric data, and possibly the on-line estimation during pregnancy.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-0967-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Computer-Aided Prediction of Long-Term Prognosis of Patients with Ulcerative Colitis after Cytoapheresis Therapy

Cytoapheresis (CAP) therapy is widely used in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients with moderate to severe activity in Japan. The aim of this study is to predict the need of operation after CAP therapy of UC patients on an individual level using an artificial neural network system (ANN). Ninety UC patients with moderate to severe activity were treated with CAP. Data on the patients' demographics, medication, clinical activity index (CAI) and efficacy of CAP were collected. Clinical data were divided into training data group and validation data group and analyzed using ANN to predict individual outcomes. The sensitivity and specificity of predictive expression by ANN were 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. Events of admission, operation, and use of immunomodulator, and efficacy of CAP were significantly correlated to the outcome. Requirement of operation after CAP therapy was successfully predicted by using ANN. This newly established ANN strategy would be used as powerful support of physicians in the clinical practice.

Networks in Coronary Heart Disease Genetics As a Step towards Systems Epidemiology

We present the use of innovative machine learning techniques in the understanding of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) through intermediate traits, as an example of the use of this class of methods as a first step towards a systems epidemiology approach of complex diseases genetics. Using a sample of 252 middle-aged men, of which 102 had a CHD event in 10 years follow-up, we applied machine learning algorithms for the selection of CHD intermediate phenotypes, established markers, risk factors, and their previously associated genetic polymorphisms, and constructed a map of relationships between the selected variables. Of the 52 variables considered, 42 were retained after selection of the most informative variables for CHD. The constructed map suggests that most selected variables were related to CHD in a context dependent manner while only a small number of variables were related to a specific outcome. We also observed that loss of complexity in the network was linked to a future CHD event. We propose that novel, non-linear, and integrative epidemiological approaches are required to combine all available information, in order to truly translate the new advances in medical sciences to gains in preventive measures and patients care.

An improved I-FAST system for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease from unprocessed electroencephalograms by using robust invariant features

OBJECTIVE

This paper proposes a new, complex algorithm for the blind classification of the original electroencephalogram (EEG) tracing of each subject, without any preliminary pre-processing. The medical need in this field is to reach an early differential diagnosis between subjects affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI), early Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the healthy elderly (CTR) using only the recording and the analysis of few minutes of their EEG.

METHODS AND MATERIAL

This study analyzed the EEGs of 272 subjects, recorded at Rome's Neurology Unit of the Policlinico Campus Bio-Medico. The EEG recordings were performed using 19 electrodes, in a 0.3-70Hz bandpass, positioned according to the International 10-20 System. Many powerful learning machines and algorithms have been proposed during the last 20 years to effectively resolve this complex problem, resulting in different and interesting outcomes. Among these algorithms, a new artificial adaptive system, named implicit function as squashing time (I-FAST), is able to diagnose, with high accuracy, a few minutes of the subject's EEG track; whether it manifests an AD, MCI or CTR condition. An updating of this system, carried out by adding a new algorithm, named multi scale ranked organizing maps (MS-ROM), to the I-FAST system, is presented, in order to classify with greater accuracy the unprocessed EEG's of AD, MCI and control subjects.

RESULTS

The proposed system has been measured on three independent pattern recognition tasks from unprocessed EEG tracks of a sample of AD subjects, MCI subjects and CTR: (a) AD compared with CTR; (b) AD compared with MCI; (c) CTR compared with MCI. While the values of accuracy of the previous system in distinguishing between AD and MCI were around 92%, the new proposed system reaches values between 94% and 98%. Similarly, the overall accuracy with best artificial neural networks (ANNs) is 98.25% for the distinguishing between CTR and MCI.

CONCLUSIONS

This new version of I-FAST makes different steps forward: (a) avoidance of pre-processing phase and filtering procedure of EEG data, being the algorithm able to directly process an unprocessed EEG; (b) noise elimination, through the use of a training variant with input selection and testing system, based on naïve Bayes classifier; (c) a more robust classification phase, showing the stability of results on nine well known learning machine algorithms; (d) extraction of spatial invariants of an EEG signal using, in addition to the unsupervised ANN, the principal component analysis and the multi scale entropy, together with the MS-ROM; a more accurate performance in this specific task.

Construction of a fuzzy and Boolean logic gates based on DNA

Logic gates are devices that can perform logical operations by transforming a set of inputs into a predictable single detectable output. The hybridization properties, structure, and function of nucleic acids can be used to make DNA-based logic gates. These devices are important modules in molecular computing and biosensing. The ideal logic gate system should provide a wide selection of logical operations, and be integrable in multiple copies into more complex structures. Here we show the successful construction of a small DNA-based logic gate complex that produces fluorescent outputs corresponding to the operation of the six Boolean logic gates AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, and XNOR. The logic gate complex is shown to work also when implemented in a three-dimensional DNA origami box structure, where it controlled the position of the lid in a closed or open position. Implementation of multiple microRNA sensitive DNA locks on one DNA origami box structure enabled fuzzy logical operation that allows biosensing of complex molecular signals. Integrating logic gates with DNA origami systems opens a vast avenue to applications in the fields of nanomedicine for diagnostics and therapeutics.

Application of a hybrid method combining grey model and back propagation artificial neural networks to forecast hepatitis B in china

Accurate incidence forecasting of infectious disease provides potentially valuable insights in its own right. It is critical for early prevention and may contribute to health services management and syndrome surveillance. This study investigates the use of a hybrid algorithm combining grey model (GM) and back propagation artificial neural networks (BP-ANN) to forecast hepatitis B in China based on the yearly numbers of hepatitis B and to evaluate the method's feasibility. The results showed that the proposal method has advantages over GM (1, 1) and GM (2, 1) in all the evaluation indexes.

Spatial and seasonal variability of tap water disinfection by-products within distribution pipe networks

Gradually-changing shocks associated with potable water quality deficiencies are anticipated for urban drinking-water distribution systems (UDWDS). The impact of structural UDWDS features such as, the number of pipe leaking incidences on the formation of water trihalomethanes (THM) at the geocoded household level has never been studied before. The objectives were to: (i) characterize the distribution of water THM concentrations in households from two district-metered areas (DMAs) with contrasting UDWDS characteristics sampled in two seasons (summer and winter), and (ii) assess the within- and between-household, spatial variability of water THM accounting for UDWDS characteristics (household distance from chlorination tank and service pipe leaking incidences). A total of 383 tap water samples were collected from 193 households located in two DMAs within the UDWDS of Nicosia city, Cyprus, and analyzed for the four THM species. The higher intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values for water tribromomethane (TBM) (0.75) followed by trichloromethane (0.42) suggested that the two DMAs differed with respect to these analytes. On the other hand, the low ICC values for total THM levels between the two DMAs suggested a large variance between households. The effect of households nested under each DMA remained significant (p<0.05) for TBM (not for the rest of the THM species) in the multivariate mixed-effect models, even after inclusion of pipe network characteristics. Our results could find use by water utilities in overcoming techno-economic difficulties associated with the large spatiotemporal variability of THM, while accounting for the influence of UDWDS features at points of water use.

Screening esophagus during routine ultrasound: medical and cost benefits

OBJECTIVE

Cost-effectiveness analysis is an approach used to determine the value of a medical care option and refers to a method used to assess the costs and health benefits of an intervention. Upon the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, the current guidelines recommend that all cirrhotic patients have to be screened for the presence of esophageal varices by endoscopy. In addition, patients with a positive family history of esophageal cancer are screened annually. These approaches place a heavy burden on endoscopy units, and repeated testing over time may have a detrimental effect on patient compliance.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Following the recommendations of a recent study entitled 'Detection of risky esophageal varices using two dimensional ultrasound: when to perform endoscopy', the intra-abdominal portion of the esophagus of 1100 patients was divided into a hepatic group, which included 650 patients, and a nonhepatic group, which included 450 patients, who presented with manifestations of liver diseases and gastrointestinal symptoms, respectively, and were examined using standard two-dimensional ultrasound (US) to evaluate cost effectiveness, standard issues, and medical benefits using conventional US.

RESULTS

The overall effectiveness analysis of 1100 patients yielded a 41% cost standard benefit calculated to be $114,760 in a 6-month study.

CONCLUSION

Two-dimensional US can play an important role in screening for esophageal abnormalities, thus saving money and time. The esophagus should be screened during routine conventional abdominal US.

Back propagation artificial neural network for community Alzheimer's disease screening in China

Alzheimer's disease patients diagnosed with the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria were selected from the community through on-site sampling. Levels of macro and trace elements were measured in blood samples using an atomic absorption method, and neurotransmitters were measured using a radioimmunoassay method. SPSS 13.0 was used to establish a database, and a back propagation artificial neural network for Alzheimer's disease prediction was simulated using Clementine 12.0 software. With scores of activities of daily living, creatinine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, age, dopamine and aluminum as input variables, the results revealed that the area under the curve in our back propagation artificial neural network was 0.929 (95% confidence interval: 0.868-0.968), sensitivity was 90.00%, specificity was 95.00%, and accuracy was 92.50%. The findings indicated that the results of back propagation artificial neural network established based on the above six variables were satisfactory for screening and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in patients selected from the community.

Predicting the outcomes of combination therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C using artificial neural network

BACKGROUND

Treatment with Peginterferon Alpha-2b plus Ribavirin is the current standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C (CHC). However, many host related and viral parameters are associated with different outcomes of combination therapy.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model to predetermine individual responses to therapy based on patient's demographics and laboratory data.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This case-control study was conducted in Tehran, Iran, on 139 patients divided into sustained virologic response (SVR) (n = 50), relapse (n = 50) and non-response (n = 39) groups according to their response to combination therapy for 48 weeks. The ANN was trained 300 times (epochs) using clinical data. To test the ANN performance, the part of data that was selected randomly and not used in training process was entered to the ANN and the outputs were compared with real data.

RESULTS

Hemoglobin (P < 0.001), cholesterol (P = 0.001) and IL-28b genotype (P = 0.002) values had significant differences between the three groups. Significant predictive factor(s) for each group were hemoglobin for SVR (OR: 1.517; 95% CI: 1.233-1.868; P < 0.001), IL-28b genotype for relapse (OR: 0.577; 95% CI: 0.339-0.981; P = 0.041) and hemoglobin (OR: 0.824; 95% CI: 0.693-0.980; P = 0.017) and IL-28b genotype (OR: 2.584; 95% CI: 1.430-4.668;P = 0.001) for non-response. The accuracy of ANN to predict SVR, relapse and non-response were 93%, 90%, and 90%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Using baseline laboratory data and host characteristics, ANN has been shown as an accurate model to predict treatment outcome, which can lead to appropriate decision making and decrease the frequency of ineffective treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Stable Atlas-based Mapped Prior (STAMP) machine-learning segmentation for multicenter large-scale MRI data

Machine learning (ML)-based segmentation methods are a common technique in the medical image processing field. In spite of numerous research groups that have investigated ML-based segmentation frameworks, there remains unanswered aspects of performance variability for the choice of two key components: ML algorithm and intensity normalization. This investigation reveals that the choice of those elements plays a major part in determining segmentation accuracy and generalizability. The approach we have used in this study aims to evaluate relative benefits of the two elements within a subcortical MRI segmentation framework. Experiments were conducted to contrast eight machine-learning algorithm configurations and 11 normalization strategies for our brain MR segmentation framework. For the intensity normalization, a Stable Atlas-based Mapped Prior (STAMP) was utilized to take better account of contrast along boundaries of structures. Comparing eight machine learning algorithms on down-sampled segmentation MR data, it was obvious that a significant improvement was obtained using ensemble-based ML algorithms (i.e., random forest) or ANN algorithms. Further investigation between these two algorithms also revealed that the random forest results provided exceptionally good agreement with manual delineations by experts. Additional experiments showed that the effect of STAMP-based intensity normalization also improved the robustness of segmentation for multicenter data sets. The constructed framework obtained good multicenter reliability and was successfully applied on a large multicenter MR data set (n>3000). Less than 10% of automated segmentations were recommended for minimal expert intervention. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using the ML-based segmentation tools for processing large amount of multicenter MR images. We demonstrated dramatically different result profiles in segmentation accuracy according to the choice of ML algorithm and intensity normalization chosen.

Biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: the old and the new

RATIONALE

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with onset during early childhood and typically a life-long course. The majority of ASD cases stems from complex, 'multiple-hit', oligogenic/polygenic underpinnings involving several loci and possibly gene-environment interactions. These multiple layers of complexity spur interest into the identification of biomarkers able to define biologically homogeneous subgroups, predict autism risk prior to the onset of behavioural abnormalities, aid early diagnoses, predict the developmental trajectory of ASD children, predict response to treatment and identify children at risk for severe adverse reactions to psychoactive drugs.

OBJECTIVES

The present paper reviews (a) similarities and differences between the concepts of 'biomarker' and 'endophenotype', (b) established biomarkers and endophenotypes in autism research (biochemical, morphological, hormonal, immunological, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical, neuropsychological, behavioural), (c) -omics approaches towards the discovery of novel biomarker panels for ASD, (d) bioresource infrastructures and (e) data management for biomarker research in autism.

RESULTS

Known biomarkers, such as abnormal blood levels of serotonin, oxytocin, melatonin, immune cytokines and lymphocyte subtypes, multiple neuropsychological, electrophysiological and brain imaging parameters, will eventually merge with novel biomarkers identified using unbiased genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic methods, to generate multimarker panels. Bioresource infrastructures, data management and data analysis using artificial intelligence networks will be instrumental in supporting efforts to identify these biomarker panels.

CONCLUSIONS

Biomarker research has great heuristic potential in targeting autism diagnosis and treatment.

An analytical model and ANN simulation for carbon nanotube based ammonium gas sensors

As one of the most interesting advancements in the field of nano technology, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been given special attention because of their remarkable mechanical and electrical properties and are being used in many scientific and engineering research projects.