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Skin cancer has a significant impact on the lives of many individuals annually and is recognized as the most prevalent type of cancer. In the United States, an estimated annual incidence of approximately 3.5 million people receiving a diagnosis of skin cancer underscores its widespread prevalence. Furthermore, the prognosis for individuals afflicted with advancing stages of skin cancer experiences a substantial decline in survival rates. This paper is dedicated to aiding healthcare experts in distinguishing between benign and malignant skin cancer cases by employing a range of machine learning and deep learning techniques and different feature extractors and feature selectors to enhance the evaluation metrics. In this paper, different transfer learning models are employed as feature extractors, and to enhance the evaluation metrics, a feature selection layer is designed, which includes diverse techniques such as Univariate, Mutual Information, ANOVA, PCA, XGB, Lasso, Random Forest, and Variance. Among transfer models, DenseNet-201 was selected as the primary feature extractor to identify features from data. Subsequently, the Lasso method was applied for feature selection, utilizing diverse machine learning approaches such as MLP, XGB, RF, and NB. To optimize accuracy and precision, ensemble methods were employed to identify and enhance the best-performing models. The study provides accuracy and sensitivity rates of 87.72% and 92.15%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring food security in precision agriculture requires early prediction of soybean yield at various scales within the United States (U.S.), ranging from international to local levels. Accurate yield estimation is essential in preventing famine by providing insights into food availability during the growth season. Numerous deep learning (DL) algorithms have been developed to estimate soybean yield effectively using time-series remote sensing (RS) data to achieve this goal. However, the training data with short time spans can limit their ability to adapt to the dynamic and nuanced temporal changes in crop conditions. To address this challenge, we designed a 3D-ResNet-BiLSTM model to efficiently predict soybean yield at the county level across the U.S., even when using training data with shorter periods. We leveraged detailed Sentinel-2 imagery and Sentinel-1 SAR images to extract spectral bands, key vegetation indices (VIs), and VV and VH polarizations. Additionally, Daymet data was incorporated via Google Earth Engine (GEE) to enhance the model's input features. To process these inputs effectively, a dedicated 3D-ResNet architecture was designed to extract high-level features. These enriched features were then fed into a BiLSTM layer, enabling accurate prediction of soybean yield. To evaluate the efficacy of our model, its performance was compared with that of well-known models, including the Linear Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and 1D/2D/3D-ResNet models, as well as a 2D-CNN-LSTM model. The data from a short period (2019 to 2020) were used to train all models, while their accuracy was assessed using data from the year 2021. The experimental results showed that the proposed 3D-Resnet-BiLSTM model had a superior performance compared to the other models, achieving remarkable metrics (R2 = 0.791, RMSE = 5.56 Bu Ac−1, MAE = 4.35 Bu Ac−1, MAPE = 9%, and RRMSE = 10.49%). Furthermore, the 3D-ResNet-BiLSTM model showed a 7% higher R2 than the ResNet and RF models and an enhancement of 27% and 17% against the LR and 2D-CNN-LSTM models, respectively. The results highlighted our model's potential for accurate soybean yield predictions, supporting sustainable agriculture and food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a methodology based on web mining techniques for estimating furniture prices using e-commerce data. Data on different public e-commerce sites in the United States were collected and analyzed using web mining methods. Deep learning and random forest algorithms were used to predict the prices of different types of furniture. Bookcase and dresser type furniture, which are widely used in price estimation, were selected. The inquiry identified a collection of eight distinctive attributes linked to furniture items, spanning measurements such as width, depth, and height, alongside features encompassing frame material, partition count, drawer count, color, and price. In preparation for constructing predictive models, a dataset comprising 300 instances was compiled for comprehensive analysis. Models developed based on web mining to predict furniture prices gave satisfactory results. During the testing phase, the random forest algorithm outperformed deep learning, achieving high goodness of fit values of 0.89 and 0.94 for bookcase and dresser furniture, respectively. The results indicate that price estimation for dresser furniture was more accurate than for bookcases in all models. The findings demonstrate that web mining techniques can be used effectively in competitive furniture pricing, with potential to save time and cost in pricing for furniture purchasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac dysrhythmias (CD) affect millions of Americans in the United States (US), and are associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. New strategies to combat this growing problem are urgently needed. Objectives: Predicting CD using electronic health record (EHR) data would allow for earlier diagnosis and treatment of the condition, thus improving overall cardiovascular outcomes. The Guideline Advantage (TGA) is an American Heart Association ambulatory quality clinical data registry of EHR data representing 70 clinics distributed throughout the US, and has been used to monitor outpatient prevention and disease management outcome measures across populations and for longitudinal research on the impact of preventative care. Methods: For this study, we represented all time-series cardiovascular health (CVH) measures and the corresponding data collection time points for each patient by numerical embedding vectors. We then employed a deep learning technique–long-short term memory (LSTM) model–to predict CD from the vector of time-series CVH measures by 5-fold cross validation and compared the performance of this model to the results of deep neural networks, logistic regression, random forest, and Naïve Bayes models. Results: We demonstrated that the LSTM model outperformed other traditional machine learning models and achieved the best prediction performance as measured by the average area under the receiver operator curve (AUROC): 0.76 for LSTM, 0.71 for deep neural networks, 0.66 for logistic regression, 0.67 for random forest, and 0.59 for Naïve Bayes. The most influential feature from the LSTM model were blood pressure. Conclusions: These findings may be used to prevent CD in the outpatient setting by encouraging appropriate surveillance and management of CVH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion is driving an emerging cycle of increased fire frequency and irreversible loss of wildlife habitat in the western US. Yet, detailed spatial information about its occurrence is still lacking for much of its presumably invaded range. Deep learning (DL) has demonstrated success for remote sensing applications but is less tested on more challenging tasks like identifying biological invasions using sub-pixel phenomena. We compare two DL architectures and the more conventional Random Forest and Logistic Regression methods to improve upon a previous effort to map cheatgrass occurrence at >2% canopy cover. High-dimensional sets of biophysical, MODIS, and Landsat-7 ETM+ predictor variables are also compared to evaluate different multi-modal data strategies. All model configurations improved results relative to the case study and accuracy generally improved by combining data from both sensors with biophysical data. Cheatgrass occurrence is mapped at 30 m ground sample distance (GSD) with an estimated 78.1% accuracy, compared to 250-m GSD and 71% map accuracy in the case study. Furthermore, DL is shown to be competitive with well-established machine learning methods in a limited data regime, suggesting it can be an effective tool for mapping biological invasions and more broadly for multi-modal remote sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]