A Novel Computational Approach for Biomarker Detection for Gene Expression-Based Computer-Aided Diagnostic Systems for Breast Cancer

Detecting dengue fever in children using online Rasch analysis to develop algorithms for parents: An APP development and usability study

BACKGROUND

Dengue fever (DF) is a significant public health concern in Asia. However, detecting the disease using traditional dichotomous criteria (i.e., absent vs present) can be extremely difficult. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), due to their use of a large number of parameters for modeling, have shown the potential to improve prediction accuracy (ACC). To date, there has been no research conducted to understand item features and responses using online Rasch analysis. To verify the hypothesis that a combination of CNN, ANN, K-nearest-neighbor algorithm (KNN), and logistic regression (LR) can improve the ACC of DF prediction for children, further research is required.

METHODS

We extracted 19 feature variables related to DF symptoms from 177 pediatric patients, of whom 69 were diagnosed with DF. Using the RaschOnline technique for Rasch analysis, we examined 11 variables for their statistical significance in predicting the risk of DF. Based on 2 sets of data, 1 for training (80%) and the other for testing (20%), we calculated the prediction ACC by comparing the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) between DF + and DF- in both sets. In the training set, we compared 2 scenarios: the combined scheme and individual algorithms.

RESULTS

Our findings indicate that visual displays of DF data are easily interpreted using Rasch analysis; the k-nearest neighbors algorithm has a lower AUC (<0.50); LR has a relatively higher AUC (0.70); all 3 algorithms have an almost equal AUC (=0.68), which is smaller than the individual algorithms of Naive Bayes, LR in raw data, and Naive Bayes in normalized data; and we developed an app to assist parents in detecting DF in children during the dengue season.

CONCLUSION

The development of an LR-based APP for the detection of DF in children has been completed. To help patients, family members, and clinicians differentiate DF from other febrile illnesses at an early stage, an 11-item model is proposed for developing the APP.

An app for predicting nurse intention to quit the job using artificial neural networks (ANNs) in Microsoft Excel

Background:

Numerous studies have identified factors related to nurses’ intention to leave. However, none has successfully predicted the nurse’s intention to quit the job. Whether the intention to quit the job can be predicted is an interesting topic in healthcare settings. A model to predict the nurse’s intention to quit the job for novice nurses should be investigated. The aim of this study is to build a model to develop an app for the automatic prediction and classification of nurses’ intention to quit their jobs.

Methods:

We recruited 1104 novice nurses working in 6 medical centers in Taiwan to complete 100-item questionnaires related to the nurse’s intention to quit the job in October 2018. The k-mean was used to divide nurses into 2 classes based on 5 items regarding leave intention. Feature variables were selected from the 100-item survey. Two models, including an artificial neural network (ANN) and a convolutional neural network, were compared across 4 scenarios made up of 2 training sets (n = 1104 and n = 804 ≅ 70%) and their corresponding testing (n = 300 ≅ 30%) sets to verify the model accuracy. An app for predicting the nurse’s intention to quit the job was then developed as a website assessment.

Results:

We observed that 24 feature variables extracted from this study in the ANN model yielded a higher area under the ROC curve of 0.82 (95% CI 0.80-0.84) based on the 1104 cases, the ANN performed better than the convolutional neural network on the accuracy, and a ready and available app for predicting the nurse’s intention to quit the job was successfully developed in this study.

Conclusions:

A 24-item ANN model with 53 parameters estimated by the ANN was developed to improve the accuracy of nurses’ intention to quit their jobs. The app would help team leaders take care of nurses who intend to quit the job before their actions are taken.

Key Points

An app to classify a 5-year survival in patients with breast cancer using the convolutional neural networks (CNN) in Microsoft Excel: Development and usability study

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant cancer in women. A predictive model is required to predict the 5-year survival in patients with BC (5YSPBC) and improve the treatment quality by increasing their survival rate. However, no reports in literature about apps developed and designed in medical practice to classify the 5YSPBC. This study aimed to build a model to develop an app for an automatically accurate classification of the 5YSPBC.

METHODS

A total of 1810 patients with BC were recruited in a hospital in Taiwan from the secondary data with codes on 53 characteristic variables that were endorsed by professional staff clerks as of December 31, 2019. Five models (i.e., revolution neural network [CNN], artificial neural network, Naïve Bayes, K-nearest Neighbors Algorithm, and Logistic regression) and 3 tasks (i.e., extraction of feature variables, model comparison in accuracy [ACC] and stability, and app development) were performed to achieve the goal of developing an app to predict the 5YSPBC. The sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curve (area under ROC curve) on models across 2 scenarios of training (70%) and testing (30%) sets were compared. An app predicting the 5YSPBC was developed involving the model estimated parameters for a website assessment.

RESULTS

We observed that the 15-variable CNN model yields higher ACC rates (0.87 and 0.86) with area under ROC curves of 0.80 and 0.78 (95% confidence interval 0.78-82 and 0.74-81) based on 1357 training and 540 testing cases an available app for patients predicting the 5YSPBC was successfully developed and demonstrated in this study.

CONCLUSION

The 15-variable CNN model with 38 parameters estimated using CNN for improving the ACC of the 5YSPBC has been particularly demonstrated in Microsoft Excel. An app developed for helping clinicians assess the 5YSPBC in clinical settings is required for application in the future.