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Machine learning classifiers are increasingly widely used. This research note explores how a particular widely used classifier, the Random Forest, performs when faced with samples which are imbalanced and noisy data. Both are known to affect accuracy, but if their effects are independent or not has not been explored. Based on an experiment using synthetic data generated for the study we find that the effects of noise and sample balance interact with each other; classification accuracy is worse when faced with both noisy data and sample imbalance. This has implications for the use of RF in market research, but also for how methods to address either sample imbalance or noise are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competition among Food & Beverage companies has substantially increased in today's age of digitization. Sales forecasting is one of their main challenges. Due to space limitations, employee shortages, and rising online demand, retail sales forecasting became extremely important for Food and Beverage companies. This research analyzed the sales data of a multinational Food & Beverage Company. It proposed a framework using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) clustering, Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC), and Random Forest algorithm for forecasting sales. This model analyzes the impact of the weekends, holidays, promotional activities, customer sentiments, festivals, and socio-economic situations in sales data and is able to forecast sales ranging from one to 15 months. An investigation of the suggested model's performance compared to numerous cutting-edge sales forecasting techniques is carried out to show its efficacy. Here, we demonstrate that the proposed hybrid model surpasses current predicting and computing efficiency methods. The results of this study can help retail managers to allocate resources and manage inventories in well-informed ways. The findings suggest that combining many strategies may produce the most precise forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an important treatment option for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. It is important to identify predictors of excellent outcomes (good clinical outcomes, more time spent at home) after TAVR that are potentially amenable to improvement. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to use machine learning to identify potentially modifiable predictors of clinically relevant patient-centered outcomes after TAVR. METHODS: We used data from 8,332 TAVR cases (January 2016-December 2021) from 21 hospitals to train random forest models with 57 patient characteristics (demographics, comorbidities, surgical risk score, lab values, health status scores) and care process parameters to predict the end point, a composite of parameters that designated an excellent outcome and included no major complications (in-hospital or at 30 days), post-TAVR length of stay of 1 day or less, discharge to home, no readmission, and alive at 30 days. We used recursive feature elimination with cross-validation and Shapley Additive Explanation feature importance to identify parameters with the highest predictive values. RESULTS: The final random forest model retained 29 predictors (15 patient characteristics and 14 care process components); the area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.77, 0.67, and 0.73, respectively. Four potentially modifiable predictors with relatively high Shapley Additive Explanation values were identified: type of anesthesia, direct movement to stepdown unit post-TAVR, time between catheterization and TAVR, and preprocedural length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified four potentially modifiable predictors of excellent outcome after TAVR, suggesting that machine learning combined with hospital-level data can inform modifiable components of care, which could support better delivery of care for patients undergoing TAVR.

UNLABELLED: Small sample sizes and loss of sequencing reads during the microbiome data preprocessing can limit the statistical power of differentiating fresh produce phenotypes and prevent the detection of important bacterial species associated with produce contamination or quality reduction. Here, we explored a machine learning-based k-mer hash analysis strategy to identify DNA signatures predictive of produce safety (PS) and produce quality (PQ) and compared it against the amplicon sequence variant (ASV) strategy that uses a typical denoising step and ASV-based taxonomy strategy. Random forest-based classifiers for PS and PQ using 7-mer hash data sets had significantly higher classification accuracy than those using the ASV data sets. We also demonstrated that the proposed combination of integrating multiple data sets and leveraging a 7-mer hash strategy leads to better classification performance for PS and PQ compared to the ASV method but presents lower PS classification accuracy compared to the feature-selected ASV-based taxonomy strategy. Due to the current limitation of generating taxonomy using the 7-mer hash strategy, the ASV-based taxonomy strategy with remarkably less computing time and memory usage is more efficient for PS and PQ classification and applicable for important taxa identification. Results generated from this study lay the foundation for future studies that wish and need to incorporate and/or compare different microbiome sequencing data sets for the application of machine learning in the area of microbial safety and quality of food. IMPORTANCE: Identification of generalizable indicators for produce safety (PS) and produce quality (PQ) improves the detection of produce contamination and quality decline. However, effective sequencing read loss during microbiome data preprocessing and the limited sample size of individual studies restrain statistical power to identify important features contributing to differentiating PS and PQ phenotypes. We applied machine learning-based models using individual and integrated k-mer hash and amplicon sequence variant (ASV) data sets for PS and PQ classification and evaluated their classification performance and found that random forest (RF)-based models using integrated 7-mer hash data sets achieved significantly higher PS and PQ classification accuracy. Due to the limitation of taxonomic analysis for the 7-mer hash, we also developed RF-based models using feature-selected ASV-based taxonomic data sets, which performed better PS classification than those using the integrated 7-mer hash data set. The RF feature selection method identified 480 PS indicators and 263 PQ indicators with a positive contribution to the PS and PQ classification.

In this study, we develop a machine-learning (ML)-enabled strategy for selecting hillslope-scale ecohydrological monitoring sites within snow-dominated mountainous watersheds, with a particular focus on snow-soil–plant interactions. Data layers rely on spatial data layers from both remote sensing and hydrological model simulations. Specifically, a Landsat-based foresummer drought sensitivity index is used to define the dependency of the annual peak plant productivity on the Palmer drought severity index in the early growing season. Hydrological simulations provide the spatiotemporal dynamics of near-surface soil moisture and snow depth. In this framework, a regression analysis identifies the key hydrological variables relevant to the spatial heterogeneity of drought sensitivity. We then apply unsupervised clustering to these key variables, using the Gaussian mixture model, to group hillslopes into several zones that have divergent relationships regarding soil moisture, snow dynamics, and drought sensitivity. Using the datasets collected in the East River Watershed (Crested Butte, Colorado, United States), results show that drought sensitivity is significantly correlated with model-derived soil moisture and snow-free timing over space and time. The relationship is, however, non-linear, such that the correlation decreases above a threshold elevation and in a heavy snow year due to large snowpacks, lateral flow, and soil storage limitations. Clustering is then able to define the zones that have high or low sensitivity to drought, as well as the mid-elevation regions where sensitivity is associated with the topographic aspect and net potential radiation. In addition, the algorithm identifies the most representative hillslopes with road/trail access within each zone for installing monitoring sites. Our method also aims to significantly increase the use of ML and model-simulation results to guide critical zone and watershed monitoring activities.

In the era of advanced cyber developments, intrusions becomes a common event in any network. Although there are research studies and developers found ways to improve the detection models, there is some problem that persists in the intrusion models such as extracting key features from a large dataset, and delayed detection is a critical issue that needs to be addressed. Hence the proposed study aimed to develop a model that could extract key features from the dataset and use them effectively in the detection of threats. The study incorporates two approaches, one is feature extraction by the K-Nearest Neighbourhood, and feature selection by the K-Best approach. And the other is the balanced Gini-Entropy approach for the Random Forest (RF) classifier. This combined approach by KNN, K-best, and RF is referred to as (KK-RF). This combined approach of feature extraction, selection, and classification results in an effective threat detection model with high accuracy of about 99.61%. Moreover the proposed model has achieved precision and the recall rates of 97.3 and 96.6% respectively. Concurrently, the model attained markable F1-score of 96.6 respectively. Also, from the comparison results, it is observed that the proposed model had higher performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the intricate pathways of protein secretion in bacteria is crucial for advancing research on bacterial diseases and their potential treatments, particularly in the case of non-classical protein secretion pathways. These pathways pose unique challenges due to the complex signaling mechanisms involved. To address this, we employed advanced machine learning techniques and gathered physical–chemical characteristics of amino acids from the AA index site. Through a meticulous six-step methodology, we curated a comprehensive dataset by filtering raw genome data and juxtaposing it with a positive dataset comprising 141 proteins from authoritative literature sources. Leveraging a conventional Random Forest machine learning algorithm, we achieved an impressive accuracy rate of approximately 91% in classifying non-classical secreted proteins. This validation was conducted on a dataset of 14 positive and 92 negative proteins, resulting in a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 86%. Notably, our study distinguishes itself by its rapid execution of non-classical secretion pathway analyses, rendering it particularly suitable for large datasets. This speed does not compromise accuracy, allowing for comprehensive Omics analyses. Consequently, our research underscores the significance of carefully selecting appropriate descriptors and constructing a robust training dataset to enhance Omics analyses of bacterial protein secretion via non-classical pathways. For further details, please refer to the complete study available at https://github.com/santosardr/non-CSPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface ablation temperature and linear ablation rate are two crucial indicators for ceramic coatings under ultrahigh temperatures service, yet the results collection of such two indicators in the process is difficult due to the long‐period material preparation and the high‐cost test. In this work, four kinds of machine learning models are applied to predict the above two indicators. The Random Forest (RF) model exhibits a high accuracy of 87% in predicting surface ablation temperature, while a low accuracy of 60% in linear ablation rate. To optimize the model, the novel features are constructed based on the original features by the sum of the importance weights in the model. Thereafter, the importance of the newly constructed features increases significantly, and the accuracy of the optimized RF model is improved by 11%, exceeding 70% in accuracy. By validation with available data and experiments, the optimized model demonstrates precise predictions of the target variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This study employs advanced data mining techniques to investigate the DASS‐42 questionnaire, a widely used psychological assessment tool. Administered to 680 students at Necmettin Erbakan University's Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education, the DASS‐42 comprises three distinct subscales—depression, anxiety and stress—each consisting of 14 items. Departing from traditional statistical methodologies, the study harnesses the power of the WEKA data mining program to analyse the dataset. Employing Naive Bayes (NB), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms, the research unveils novel insights. The ANN method emerges as a standout performer, achieving remarkable distinctiveness scores for all subscales: depression (99.26%), anxiety (98.67%) and stress (97.35%). The study highlights the potential of data mining in enhancing psychological assessment and showcases the ANN's prowess in capturing intricate patterns within complex psychological dimensions. By charting a course beyond conventional statistical methods, this research pioneers a new frontier for employing data mining within the realm of social sciences. As a result of the study, it is recommended that teacher candidates in the teacher education process should have knowledge about depression, anxiety and stress, and relevant courses on these topics should be added to the curriculum of teacher education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperparameters play a critical role in analyzing predictive performance in machine learning models. They serve to strike a balance between overfitting and underfitting of research-independent features to prevent extremes. Manual tuning and automated techniques are employed to identify the optimal combination and permutation to achieve the best model performance. This study explores the pursuit of the best fit through various hyperparameters. Following Logistic Regression analysis, this research compared Random Forest, Randomized search, Grid search, Genetic, Bayesian, and Optuna machine learning model tuning for the best accuracy of prediction the student The model accuracy was further assessed using confusion matrices and Receiver Operating Characteristic—Area Under the Curve (ROC-AUC) curves for student grade classification. The genetic algorithm's recommended hyperparameter tuning yielded the highest accuracy (82.5%) and AUC-ROC score (90%) for student result classification. Manual tuning with an estimator of 300, criterion entropy, max features of sqrt, and a minimum sample leaf of 10 achieved an accuracy of 81.1%, which closely resembled the performance randomized search cross-validation algorithm. The default random forest model scored the least accuracy (78%). However, this manual tuning process took a lesser time (3.66 s) to fit the model while grid search CV tuned 941.5 s. Hence, this research made significant contributions to optimizing various machine learning models using a range of hyperparameters for grade classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long COVID shares a number of clinical features with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), including post-exertional malaise, severe fatigue, and neurocognitive deficits. Utilizing validated assessment tools that accurately and efficiently screen for these conditions can facilitate diagnostic and treatment efforts, thereby improving patient outcomes. In this study, we generated a series of random forest machine learning algorithms to evaluate the psychometric properties of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-Short Form (DSQ-SF) in classifying large groups of adults with Long COVID, ME/CFS (without Long COVID), and healthy controls. We demonstrated that the DSQ-SF can accurately classify these populations with high degrees of sensitivity and specificity. In turn, we identified the particular DSQ-SF symptom items that best distinguish Long COVID from ME/CFS, as well as those that differentiate these illness groups from healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common cancer that causes millions of deaths worldwide each year. At present, numerous studies have confirmed that intestinal microbes play a crucial role in the process of CRC. Additionally, studies have shown that CRC can be divided into several consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) based on tumor gene expression, and CRC microbiomes have been reported related to CMS. However, most previous studies on intestinal microbiome of CRC have only compared patients with healthy controls, without classifying of CRC patients based on intestinal microbial composition. Results: In this study, a CRC cohort including 339 CRC samples and 333 healthy controls was selected as the discovery set, and the CRC samples were divided into two subgroups (234 Subgroup1 and 105 Subgroup2) using PAM clustering algorithm based on the intestinal microbial composition. We found that not only the microbial diversity was significantly different (Shannon index, p-value < 0.05), but also 129 shared genera altered (p-value < 0.05) between the two CRC subgroups, including several marker genera in CRC, such as Fusobacterium and Bacteroides. A random forest algorithm was used to construct diagnostic models, which showed significantly higher efficiency when the CRC samples were divided into subgroups. Then an independent cohort including 187 CRC samples (divided into 153 Subgroup1 and 34 Subgroup2) and 123 healthy controls was chosen to validate the models, and confirmed the results. Conclusions: These results indicate that the divided CRC subgroups can improve the efficiency of disease diagnosis, with various microbial composition in the subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat is a very vital cereal crop in the development of a nation’s economy and agricultural sector. A crucial element that profoundly affects the growth and productivity of wheat is the soil temperature. As an insulating layer, straw mulch controls the soil temperature. Field measurement of the soil temperature is time-consuming and costly; therefore, the present study investigates the applicability of random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) models for estimating soil temperature in wheat fields covered with straw mulch using meteorological, soil cover and agronomical parameters. A field study was conducted on the wheat cultivar with two soil cover treatments for measuring the soil temperature at three depths (5, 50 and 80 cm). Soil plant analysis development value; soil cover and depth; daily meteorological data such as average air temperature, average relative humidity, sunshine hours and vapor pressure were used as inputs for machine learning models in training and testing. Statistical performance indicators showed applicability of three models with a root mean square error (RMSE) ranging from 0.245–0.595°C, 0.867–0.886°C and 0.557–0.812°C, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) ranging from 0.917–0.987, 0.823–0.836 and 0.804–0.935 and Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) ranging from 0.949–0.991, 0.887–0.897 and 0.881–0.957 for the RF, SVM and GRNN, respectively. Results indicated better performance of the RF model for predicting the soil temperature at different depths in the case of both crop and soil cover conditions. Also, the uncertainty analysis indicated the better performance of RF with R-factor and P-factor value of 0.40 and 0.84, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial node in the East Asia–Australasia migratory bird network, the Liaohe River Estuary Wetland (LREW) contributes significantly to coastal ecological balance and biodiversity. Accurate and timely mapping of the LREW is essential for monitoring ecological changes and understanding shifts in the wetland's ecosystem structure and functions. In this study, an innovative approach that integrates radar (Sentinel-1), optical (Sentinel-2), and DEM data on Google Earth Engine (GEE) is proposed to achieve a more optimized and accurate wetland mapping. Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) is employed to improve feature collection, facilitating the construction of an optimal feature set for Random Forest (RF) classification to extract detailed LREW information. Mapping conducted from 2017 to 2023 using the proposed approach demonstrates its effectiveness and stability in mapping the LREW, achieving overall accuracies ranging from 89.84% to 93.73% and Kappa from 0.85 to 0.91. Compared to single-source methods, the integration of multi-source data substantially enhances mapping accuracy, while RF-RFE effectively eliminates redundant features, further refining classification precision. Texture features (Sum Average, SAVG) and the Water Index 2019 (WI2019) were found to significantly influence wetland mapping. The importance of different feature types is ranked as follows: spectral features > vegetation/water body index > PCA features > SAR texture features > red-edge index > other spectral index > spectral texture features > backscatter coefficient > H-Alpha. During the study period, the wetland area increased from 849.60 km2 to 979.49 km2. This expansion was caused primarily by wetland protection policies that led to the dismantling of coastal aquaculture ponds, resulting in a reduction of 90.28 km2 in waterbodies over 7 years, with many areas transitioning to tidal flats and Suaeda salsa habitats. In conclusion, the proposed method is effective in mapping the LRE wetlands and provides reliable data support for wetland ecological protection and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring agricultural land over vast geographical areas presents challenges due to the absence of accurate, comprehensive and precise data, which has become a complex process that is difficult to do in terms of both timespans and consistency. Hence, this study presents an improved approach for the identification of agricultural land by utilizing the capabilities of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites with a variety of vegetation and non-vegetation indices and machine learning algorithms. The Multispectral Correlation Mapper (MCM) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms are adopted to train different agricultural lands, crop types and sowing and cultivation seasons. The 45-bands mega-file data cube (MFDC) fusion for each season incorporates essential indices and features derived from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 datasets for both seasons, i.e. Rabi (winter-spring season) and Kharif (summer-autumn season). The proposed method demonstrated resilience when applied to satellite datasets while effectively reducing the impact of non-agricultural elements such as shrubs, grass, bare soil and orchards. The results demonstrate a notable ability to differentiate between the Rabi and Kharif seasons, resulting in a high level of precision in measuring the extent of cultivated land during the Rabi and Kharif seasons with an area of 626,947 acres and 590,858 acres, respectively. The total land area, ascertained from the observation of the comprehensive cropping pattern and agricultural modifications during the entire year (June 2021–May 2022) is 635,655 acres. The validation exercise shows the higher accuracy of this method for cropland, with an overall accuracy of 98.8%, kappa of 0.97, user accuracy of 98.69% and producer accuracy of 99.13%. Additionally, it was spatially compared with the ESRI, ESA and MODIS cropland layers and government statistical data. Furthermore, the research investigates the temporal dynamics of agricultural growth phases using spectral bands and indices. This approach improves the accuracy of precise cropland identification and provides useful insights into crop phenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterial absorbers (MMAs) have tremendous potential for controlling and modulating Terahertz electromagnetic (EM) waves. It is challenging to design MMAs for optimal performance using conventional methods due to their time-consuming and computationally demanding nature. Machine learning (ML) regressor approaches have emerged as potential tools for optimizing the predictive modeling of MMAs in recent years. This article examined different regression techniques, such as Decision Tree, k-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest, Extra Trees (ET), Extreme Gradient Boosting, Bagging, and Categorical Boosting. The primary goal is to assess the effectiveness of each regressor technique in forecasting the performance of MMAs using various performance metrics. The study focuses on a representative spectrum of MMAs, chosen for its key features that are common across a wide range of MMAs. The extra tree Regressor outperforms other models in the comparative analysis due to its capacity to integrate multiple decision trees and include randomness into the feature selection process, resulting in improved predictive skills. The ET regressor forecasts MMA performance remarkably well for a 70 % test size, with a Root Mean Squared Error of 0.0251, a Mean Absolute Error of 0.0074, a Mean Squared Error of 0.006, and an Adjusted R-squared of 0.9873. These findings can assist researchers in optimizing metamaterial absorber designs for Terahertz applications using ML regressor techniques and provide insights into how these methods can be generalized to other spectra with similar characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer prediction and diagnosis are critical for timely and effective treatment, significantly impacting patient outcomes. Machine learning algorithms have become powerful tools for improving the prediction and diagnosis of breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Prediction and Diagnosis Model (BCPM), which utilises machine learning techniques to improve the precision and efficiency of breast cancer diagnosis and prediction, is presented in this paper. BCPM collects comprehensive and high-quality data from diverse sources, including electronic medical records, clinical trials, and public datasets. Through rigorous pre-processing, the data is cleaned, inconsistencies are addressed, and missing values are handled. Feature scaling techniques are applied to normalize the data, ensuring fair comparison and equal importance among different features. Furthermore, feature-selection algorithms are utilized to identify the most relevant features that contribute to breast cancer projection and diagnosis, optimizing the model's efficiency. The BCPM employs numerous machine learning methods, such as logistic regression, random forests, decision trees, support vector machines, and neural networks, to generate accurate models. Area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are only some of the metrics used to assess a model's performance once it has been trained on a subset of data. The BCPM holds promise in improving breast cancer prediction and diagnosis, aiding in personalized treatment planning, and ultimately taming patient results. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, the BCPM contributes to ongoing efforts in combating breast cancer and saving lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytotoxicity evaluation of nanoparticles (NPs) is regarded as a crucial step for their successful application in the biomedical industry. However, conventional experimental methodologies for cytotoxicity measurements are often expensive, time-consuming, and demand intense training in cell culture. In this study, we developed generalized machine learning (ML) models for both qualitative and quantitative prediction of cytotoxicity across a wide variety of NPs. In particular, a meta-analysis of cytotoxicity data was conducted from published literature on metallic, metal oxide, polymer, and carbon-based NPs, leading to the development of random forest-based regression and classification models for predicting cell viability from physicochemical properties of NPs, cellular attributes, and testing conditions. Our feature importance analysis showed that accurately predicting the cytotoxicity of NPs using the regression model requires knowledge of their composition, concentration, zeta potential, and size, as well as exposure time, toxicity assay, and tissue type. Interestingly, among these attributes, the information about composition of NPs or tissue type was not needed for achieving high accuracy in the qualitative prediction of cytotoxicity using the classification model, indicating its superior robustness compared to the regression model. These findings may encourage future researchers to employ ML models more effectively and frequently to reliably assess the safety of NPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word recognition has garnered significant attention due to its wide-ranging real-time applications, including postal automation, signature verification, bank check processing and writer identification. Handwritten word recognition poses a formidable challenge in computer vision, primarily due to the diverse writing styles exhibited by individuals. Presently, researchers are increasingly focused on developing holistic word recognition approaches. This holistic approach treats entire words as single, indivisible entities for the purpose of feature extraction and recognition, rendering it well-suited for identifying words with overlapping characters. In this study, authors have proposed a holistic approach for recognizing offline handwritten words in the Devanagari script, employing VGG16 (Visual Geometry Group) as a versatile feature extractor. Three classifiers, namely Gaussian Naive Bayes (Gaussian NB), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Random Forest (RF), are considered for classifying these word images. Based on the extracted features and the aforementioned classifiers, words are categorized into one of 50 distinct word classes. Various performance evaluation metrics, including Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1-score and Area Under the Curve (AUC), are employed to assess the effectiveness of the proposed system. It is worth noting that the Random Forest (RF) based classification technique achieved exceptional accuracy, with impressive recall, high precision and a remarkable F1-score. Additionally, the XGBoost based classification exhibited comparable performance, achieving the highest possible AUC in this study. Furthermore, to underscore the significance of this work, authors have presented a comparative analysis of the proposed approach with existing state-of-the-art methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, every human being has been busy keeping pace with fast changes and is unable to put his attention on a healthy lifestyle. This unhealthy lifestyle leads to several fatal diseases like heart disease (HD), cancer disease, allergies, asthma, breast cancer, etc. These diseases are increasing the morbidity and mortality rate every year, and out of these HD is more fetal. Earlier/Timely prediction of HD is regarded as one of the most crucial tasks in the medical field. In the healthcare industry, a big collection of datasets is available free of cost. Motivated by existing challenges, the authors proposed two intelligent models i.e., HyOPTRF (Model 1), and HyOPTXGBoost Classifier (Model 2), implemented on the Statlog HD dataset with default and hyper-tuned parameters. Both the models recorded maximum Accuracy of 92.59%, Specificity 100%, Precision 100%, Negative Predicted Value 100%, Geometric mean 93.93% F1 Score 93.75%, Training Time 0.02s, and Testing Time 0.005s for the HyOPTRF on Trial no. 2nd and Accuracy of 96.30%, Specificity 100%, Precision 100%, Negative Predicted Value 100%, Geometric mean 96.82%, F1 Score 96.77%, Training Time 0.009s, and Testing Time 0.002s for the HyOPTXGBoost Classifier on Trial no. 33rd. The proposed models were validated by the Stratify Kfold Cross-Validation technique and compared with the other existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is widely used in medical decision support systems because of its similarity to human reasoning. Despite the effectiveness of the latter, its performance can be improved when reinforced by other automatic learning techniques. This is what induced us to propose a hybrid model 3FS-CBR-IRF (Three feature selection- Case based reasoning- Improved random forest) that combines case-based reasoning and random forests. Firstly, a feature selection step is used by three techniques such as: Correlation, Dropping Constant Features and Chi-square to select the relevant features. Secondly, we have modeled the retrieval phase of the CBR system by the modified random forests; in this step two pruning methods (Pre-pruning and Post-pruning) are applied only to the highly ranked features to improve the performance of the CBR system. Thirdly, the adaptation phase of the retrieval cases based on the adaptation rules is proposed. The developed approach is evaluated on 13 medical databases using the precision and several other performance criteria, the results obtained are satisfactory with an average precision of 91% for the first model (CBR-FS-RF) which improves the CBR system by feature selection techniques with classic random forest, 97% for the model (CBR-FS-IRF) which improve the CBR system by feature selection techniques with improved random forests and 98% for the second model (CBR-FS-IRF) with adaptation. The results showed that the proposed pruning method selects the best tree in less time and with better precision than hybridization with classical random forest that means an improvement of the performance of the CBR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridge construction collapse is one of the most common bridge safety accidents. At present, evaluation results are often affected by the ability and experience of the assessor. Therefore, it is difficult to quickly, accurately and effectively evaluate the risk in the process of bridge construction. Moreover, key factors that can prevent accidents can hardly find from the existing bridge construction safety management and evaluation method. This paper analyzes and classifies the artificial and environmental risk factors that affect the bridge construction stage, and establishes 26 risk factors in 5 categories according to the characteristics of bridge construction and the actual situation of the project. Random forest (RF) algorithm is a non-parametric machine learning method based on decision tree, which does not need to be scored by experts in advance and avoids the influence of subjective factors. Compared with other analysis methods, random forest algorithm has the advantages of accurate and robust risk assessment results. Based on the advantages of random forest algorithm and the characteristics of bridge construction risk, this paper uses random forest algorithm to evaluate the bridge construction risk, and ranks the importance of indicators, and identify the index that has a greater influence on the risk. In order to verify the applicability and feasibility of the proposed method, a typical urban complex pedestrian bridge was taken as an example for actual engineering evaluation and verification. The results obtained are basically consistent with the actual risk assessment results of the pedestrian bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species of fishes around the world are soniferous. The types of sounds fishes produce vary among species and regions but consist typically of low-frequency (< 1.5 kHz) pulses and grunts. These sounds can potentially be used to monitor fishes non-intrusively and could complement traditional monitoring techniques. However, the significant time required for human analysts to manually label fish sounds in acoustic recordings does not yet allow passive acoustics to be used as a viable tool for monitoring fishes. In this paper, we compare two different approaches to automatically detect fish sounds. One is a more traditional machine learning technique based on the detection of acoustic transients in the spectrogram and the classification using Random Forest (RF). The other is using a deep learning approach and is based on the classification of overlapping segments (0.2 s) of spectrogram using a ResNet18 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Both algorithms were trained using 21,950 manually annotated fish and non-fish sounds collected from 2014 to 2019 at five different locations in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. The performance of the detectors was tested on part of the data from the Strait of Georgia that was withheld from the training phase, data from Barkley Sound, British Columbia, and data collected in the Port of Miami, Florida, United States. The CNN performed up to 1.9 times better than the RF (F1 score: 0.82 vs. 0.43). In some cases, the CNN was able to find more faint fish sounds than the analyst and performed well in environments different from the one it was trained in (Miami F1 score: 0.88). Noise analysis in the 20--1,000 Hz frequency band shows that the CNN is still reliable in noise levels greater than 130 dB re 1 μPa in the Port of Miami but becomes less reliable in Barkley Sound past 100 dB re 1 μPa due to mooring noise. The proposed approach can efficiently monitor (unidentified) fish sounds in a variety of environments and can also facilitate the development of species-specific detectors. We provide the software FishSound Finder, an easy-to-use open-source implementation of the CNN detector with detailed documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The knowledge about forest growth, influenced by factors such as tree species, tree age, and environmental conditions, is a key for future forest preservation. Height and age data can be combined to describe forest growth and used to infer known environmental effects. Methods: In this study, we built 14 height growth curves for stands composed of monospecific or mixed species using ground measurements and satellite data. We built a random forest height model from tree species, age, area of disturbance, and 125 environmental parameters (climate, altitude, soil composition, geology, stand ownership, and proximity to road and urban areas). Using feature elimination and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis, we identified six key features explaining the forest growth and investigated how they affect the height. Results: The agreement between satellite and ground data justifies their simultaneous exploitation. Age and tree species are the main predictors of tree height (49% and 10%, respectively). The disturbed patch area, revealing the regeneration method, impacts post-disturbance growth at 19%. The soil pH, altitude, and climatic water budget in summer impact tree height differently depending on the age and tree species. Discussion: Methods integrating satellite and field data show promise for analyzing future forest evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning has gained attention due to its ongoing advancements and diverse applications. Within the field of homogeneous catalysis, a prominent area of research in machine learning revolves around predicting reaction yield in Pd‐catalyzed Buchwald–Hartwig amination reactions. This study sought to determine the optimal descriptors for representing the both structural and physical information associated with the reaction, particularly focusing on product details. To achieve this, we assessed the utilization of product extended molecular fingerprints (PEMF) and selected physical parameters (SPP). The utilization of a random forest model incorporating these descriptors yielded promising results in the prediction of reaction yields in Pd‐catalyzed Buchwald–Hartwig amination reactions. The model achieved an impressive R2 value of 0.943. Data preprocessing on PEMF and sorting preprocessing on physical parameters resulted in a significant reduction in data size to 259 bits PEMF+2 SPPs per prediction, much less than the two previous random forest models which utilized 480 physical parameters and 21,073 bits molecular fingerprints. Although establishing definitive correlations between SPPs and reaction yield presented challenges, our findings indicate that the presence of heavier atoms in the aryl halides may have a beneficial impact within the examined Pd‐catalyzed Buchwald–Hartwig amination reactions, as compared to their analogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Musculoskeletal injuries are one of the primary causes of Soldiers' inability to be medically ready, comprising over 80% of such causes. The electronic profile (e-Profile) is the way that musculoskeletal injuries are documented so that commanders will know the type of injury as well as the length of the time that the Soldier will need limited duty. A previous study of e-Profiles in an Army MTF Integrated Pain Management Center showed that the median length of an e-Profile was 30 days. It is in the best interest of the Army to have the Soldier out of the fight the minimum amount of time for recovery to ensure the unit readiness. The goal of this study was to utilize e-Profile data to see if a machine learning model can be developed to determine the appropriate time a Soldier needs to be on profile for a given diagnoses. Materials and Methods Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from the USAMRDC (protocol #M-10966). The initial dataset provided to the research team consisted of a single pipe delimited ("|") text file containing 2.9 million rows of e-Profile data. Linear regression, decision trees, and random forests (RFs) were evaluated to see which model would best predict the number of days needed for an e-Profile. Results Linear regression had an adjusted R-squared of 0.165. The positive predictive value of decision trees (0-to-30-day range of e-Profiles) was 73.6%, and the negative predictive value (30-90 days) was 60.9% with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.694 for the model. The positive predictive value of RFs was 85.3% (for the 0-30 range), and the negative predictive value was 58.7% (for the 30-90 range) with an AUC of 0.794. An AUC that approaches 1 indicates a more accurate prediction. Conclusions The 3 models (linear regression, decision trees, and RF) studied as part of this project did not predict the days on e-Profile with a high degree of certainty. Future research will focus on adding additional data to the e-Profile dataset in order to improve model accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater is a primary source of drinking water for billions worldwide. It plays a crucial role in irrigation, domestic, and industrial uses, and significantly contributes to drought resilience in various regions. However, excessive groundwater discharge has left many areas vulnerable to potable water shortages. Therefore, assessing groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) is essential for implementing sustainable management practices to ensure the availability of groundwater for present and future generations. This study aims to delineate areas with high groundwater potential in the Bankura district of West Bengal using four machine learning methods: Random Forest (RF), Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Voting Ensemble (VE). The models used 161 data points, comprising 70% of the training dataset, to identify significant correlations between the presence and absence of groundwater in the region. Among the methods, Random Forest (RF) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) proved to be the most effective in mapping groundwater potential, suggesting their applicability in other regions with similar hydrogeological conditions. The performance metrics for RF are very good with a precision of 0.919, recall of 0.971, F1-score of 0.944, and accuracy of 0.943. This indicates a strong capability to accurately predict groundwater zones with minimal false positives and negatives. Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) demonstrated comparable performance across all metrics (precision: 0.919, recall: 0.971, F1-score: 0.944, accuracy: 0.943), highlighting its effectiveness in predicting groundwater potential areas accurately; whereas, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) outperformed the other models slightly, with higher values in all metrics: precision (0.944), recall (0.971), F1-score (0.958), and accuracy (0.957), suggesting a more refined model performance. The Voting Ensemble (VE) approach also showed enhanced performance, mirroring XGBoost's metrics (precision: 0.944, recall: 0.971, F1-score: 0.958, accuracy: 0.957). This indicates that combining the strengths of individual models leads to better predictions. The groundwater potentiality zoning across the Bankura district varied significantly, with areas of very low potentiality accounting for 41.81% and very high potentiality at 24.35%. The uncertainty in predictions ranged from 0.0 to 0.75 across the study area, reflecting the variability in groundwater availability and the need for targeted management strategies. In summary, this study highlights the critical need for assessing and managing groundwater resources effectively using advanced machine learning techniques. The findings provide a foundation for better groundwater management practices, ensuring sustainable use and conservation in Bankura district and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance plays an important role in the financial system, impacting various financial variables and vice versa. Many studies have analyzed the long- and short-term relationship between insurance and financial variables, particularly economic growth, using classical and benchmark methods. Given its impact on financial indicators, it is critical for policymakers to predict the insurance penetration rate, which can, in turn, forecast trends in other financial variables. This paper uses decision trees, random forests, and XGBoost to predict the insurance penetration rates for 30 OECD countries, identifying the most effective method for each country. The mean squared error for predicting the total insurance penetration rate with the decision tree and XGBoost is 2.32, and 1.461, respectively, while the loss function decreases to 1.1 with random forest. Additionally, XGBoost outperforms the other models in predicting non-life insurance penetration rate with an RMSE of 0.92, while for life insurance penetration rate, the random forest model has the highest accuracy, with an RMSE of 1.8. Using the prediction, for countries where the insurance penetration rate is going to decrease, policymakers could implement strategies that foster growth in the insurance sector and, consequently, boost other financial variables, particularly economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme (SHIPS) is a multiple linear regression model for predicting tropical cyclone (TC) intensity. It has been widely used in operational centers because of forecast stability, high accuracy, easy interpretation, and low computational cost. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) version of SHIPS is called the Typhoon Intensity Forecasting scheme based on SHIPS (TIFS) and predicts both maximum wind speed and central pressure. Although the addition of new predictors to SHIPS and TIFS has improved its accuracy, predicting TC intensity with a single regression model has limitations. In this study, a new TIFSbased forecasting scheme is developed using data from 2000 to 2021, in which three TIFS regression models corresponding to the intensifying, steady-state, and weakening stages of TCs are introduced and in which the weighted mean of the three TIFS forecasts based on random forest (RF) decision trees is computed as a final intensity forecast. Compared to the conventional TIFS model, the new scheme (TIFS-RF) has better accuracy with improvement rates of up to 12 % at forecast times from 1 to 4 days. The improvement is particularly significant for steady-state TCs, tropical depressions, and TCs undergoing extratropical transition within five days. The accuracy of TIFS-RF forecasts is generally better than that of conventional TIFS forecasts for rapidly intensifying TCs, but much worse for rapidly weakening TCs. This study also confirms that a consensus forecast of the TIFSRF and Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting models can overcome the weaknesses of each model used alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Pasture dieback has emerged as a significant threat to the health and productivity of sown pastures in eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales, Australia. Aims: We aimed to address knowledge gaps on spatial spread patterns, recovery trajectories and floristic changes using remote sensing and ground surveys. Methods: We used a time series of high-resolution (12–25 cm) aerial imagery to quantify and compare pasture dieback spread over 7 years in three land-use areas: ungrazed pasture, grazed pasture and rehabilitation following mining. The green leaf index was applied using supervised random forest algorithms to classify areas affected between 2015 and 2021. Flora surveys were conducted to compare impacted and unimpacted areas for the three land uses and validate classifications. Key results: The first emergence of pasture dieback was in ungrazed pasture, and these areas recorded the highest rate of dieback spread at 1.88 ha month−1, compared with 0.54 and 0.19 ha month−1 in rehabilitated and grazed pastures respectively. Field validation showed that dieback-impacted pastures shifted from buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.), to forb-dominated communities with significantly different species mix, biomass and cover conditions. An analysis of local climate data showed that winter night-time temperatures and rainfall were notably higher than long-term means in the year preceding the first detection of pasture dieback. Conclusions: High resolution aerial imagery and ground surveys can be used to monitor pasture health by employing vegetation indices and random forest classifiers. Implications: Ungrazed pastures and roadside areas should be managed to protect the region from further outbreaks. Pasture dieback has been affecting the health and productivity of pastures in eastern Queensland and northern NSW. We used aerial imagery to map and compare pasture dieback spread patterns in three land use areas: grazed pasture, ungrazed pasture and rehabilitated pasture following coal mining. The fastest rate of spread was recorded in ungrazed pasture followed by rehabilitation and grazed pastures. Flora surveys showed that dieback-impacted sites shifted from buffel grass to forb dominated pastures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the complex phenomenon of nanofluid flow boiling and its associated heat transfer characteristics. Employing advanced numerical simulations and machine learning techniques, we explore the behavior of dimensionless heat transfer correlations in subcooled flow boiling scenarios using water and SiO2/water nanofluids. The study begins with an adaptive design of experiment, yielding a comprehensive dataset of nearly 250 simulations. In the numerical simulation phase, the extracted data are examined, and the grid independence of the modeling process is confirmed, ensuring robustness and reliability. The data, validated against experimental results, provides critical insights into the intricate interplay of dimensionless numbers influencing Nusselt number behavior. Subsequently, the extracted dataset from the numerical simulations underwent a two-stage feature selection process, incorporating Pearson correlation and iterative techniques, to identify the most influential dimensionless parameters for the calculation of the Nusselt number. Later, the data are randomly split into training and testing sets (70–30%), and predictive models are developed using Python, leveraging libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, and Keras. A tenfold cross-validation approach is employed to ensure model stability and accuracy. Through response surface methodology (RSM), we establish regression equations for average and local Nusselt numbers, achieving minimal mean absolute error (MAE) and high R-squared ( R 2 ) values, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. Further enhancing predictive capabilities, we explore random forest, support vector machine, and artificial neural network (ANN) models. The ANN model emerges as the top performer, offering exceptional accuracy with MAE below 2.21% and R 2 above 0.95 for both average and local Nusselt numbers. Notably, the machine learning algorithms, from data preprocessing to the final model evaluation, required only about 10% of the time invested in the numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reveal the evolution characteristics of vegetation cover in Nanchang City and identify the main climate drivers affecting its change trends, in order to provide guidance for its long-term stable and benign development and active response to the subsequent climate change. In this paper, NDVI monthly data and ten meteorological driving factors such as temperature, precipitation and pressure of Nanchang City from 2000 to 2020 were used to study the importance of different drivers by using single sample K-S test, Friedmann test, Kendall harmony coefficient test and random forest analysis. The results showed that, 1) the NDVI of Nanchang City showed a fluctuating downward trend from 2000 to 2020, the peak appeared in 2000, while the trough occurred in 2010. 2) The overall vegetation cover of the city showed a spatial distribution pattern of high perimeter and low center, with the NDVI values in the north and the west being relatively high and decreasing at a slow rate, and the NDVI values of the central areas of the city such as the East Lake District and the Castle Peak Lake District being relatively low and with an obvious downward trend. 3) The great average value of the vegetation cover appeared in August each year, which was most significantly affected by temperature and least affected by wind direction, with a certain time lag influenced by precipitation, so the study of vegetation cover change should be determined by combining the driving effect of multiple elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual information affects static postural control, but how it affects dynamic postural control still needs to be fully understood. This study investigated the effect of proprioception weighting, influenced by the presence or absence of visual information, on dynamic posture control during voluntary trunk movements. We recorded trunk movement angle and angular velocity, center of pressure (COP), electromyographic, and electroencephalography signals from 35 healthy young adults performing a standing trunk flexion–extension task under two conditions (Vision and No-Vision). A random forest analysis identified the 10 most important variables for classifying the conditions, followed by a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results showed lower maximum forward COP displacement and trunk flexion angle, and faster maximum flexion angular velocity in the No-Vision condition. Additionally, the alpha/beta ratio of the POz during the switch phase was higher in the No-Vision condition. These findings suggest that visual deprivation affects cognitive- and sensory-integration-related brain regions during movement phases, indicating that sensory re-weighting due to visual deprivation impacts motor control. The effects of visual deprivation on motor control may be used for evaluation and therapeutic interventions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a comparative analysis of various Machine Learning (ML) techniques for predicting water consumption using a comprehensive dataset from Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Accurate prediction of water consumption is crucial for effective water resource management and planning, especially considering the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on water usage patterns. A total of four ML models, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM), were evaluated. Additionally, optimization techniques such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and the Second-Order Optimization (SOO) Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm were employed to enhance the performance of the ML models. These models incorporate historical data from previous months to enhance model accuracy and generalizability, allowing for robust predictions that account for both short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. The performance of each model was assessed using cross-validation. The R2 and correlation values obtained in this study for the best-performing models are highlighted in the results section. For instance, the GBM model achieved an R2 value of 0.881, indicating a strong capability in capturing the underlying patterns in the data. This study is one of the first to conduct a comprehensive analysis of water consumption prediction using machine learning algorithms on a large-scale dataset of 5000 subscribers, including the unique conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results highlight the strengths and limitations of each technique, providing insights into their applicability for water consumption prediction. This study aims to enhance the understanding of ML applications in water management and offers practical recommendations for future research and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common challenge for exoskeleton control is discerning operator intent to provide seamless actuation of the device with the operator. One way to accomplish this is with joint angle estimation algorithms and multiple sensors on the human–machine system. However, the question remains of what can be accomplished with just one sensor. The objective of this study was to deploy a modular testing approach to test the performance of two joint angle estimation models—a kinematic extrapolation algorithm and a Random Forest machine learning algorithm—when each was informed solely with kinematic gait data from a single potentiometer on an ankle exoskeleton mock-up. This study demonstrates (i) the feasibility of implementing a modular approach to exoskeleton mock-up evaluation to promote continuity between testing configurations and (ii) that a Random Forest algorithm yielded lower realized errors of estimated joint angles and a decreased actuation time than the kinematic model when deployed on the physical device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is a critical environmental issue that has significant effects on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate change. This study examines the land-use and land-cover (LULC) spatiotemporal dynamics across a three-decade period (1998–2023) in a district area. In order to forecast the LULCC patterns, this study suggests a hybrid strategy that combines the random forest method with multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and Markov chain analysis. To predict the dynamics of LULC changes for the year 2035, a hybrid technique based on multi-layer perceptron and Markov chain model analysis (MLP-MCA) was employed. The area of developed land has increased significantly, while the amount of bare land, vegetation, and forest cover have all decreased. This is because the principal land types have changed due to population growth and economic expansion. This study also discovered that between 1998 and 2023, the built-up area increased by 468 km2 as a result of the replacement of natural resources. It is estimated that 25.04% of the study area's urbanization will increase by 2035. The performance of the model was confirmed with an overall accuracy of 90% and a kappa coefficient of around 0.89. It is important to use advanced predictive models to guide sustainable urban development strategies. The model provides valuable insights for policymakers, land managers, and researchers to support sustainable land-use planning, conservation efforts, and climate change mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Performance Simulation extensively uses statistical learning techniques for quicker insights and improved accessibility. These techniques help understand the relationship between input variables and the desired outputs, and they can predict unknown observations. Prediction becomes more informative with uncertainty quantification, which involves computing prediction intervals. Conformal prediction has emerged over the past 25 years as a flexible and rigorous method for estimating uncertainty. This approach can be applied to any pre-trained model, creating statistically rigorous uncertainty sets or intervals for model predictions. This study uses data from simulated buildings to demonstrate the powerful applications of conformal prediction in Building Performance Simulation (BPS) and, consequently, to the broader energy sector. Results show that conformal prediction can be applied when any assumptions about input and output variables are made, enhancing understanding and facilitating informed decision-making in energy system design and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil nutrient content varies spatially across agricultural fields in hard-to-predict ways, particularly in floodplains with complex fluvial depositional history. Satellite reflectance data from the Sentinel-2 (S2) mission provides spatially continuous land reflectance data that can aid model development when used with point observations of nutrients. Reflectance from vegetation is assumed to obstruct land reflectance of bare soil, such that researchers have masked vegetation in models. We developed a routine for masking vegetation within Google Earth Engine (GEE) using Random Forest classification for iterative application to libraries of S2-images. Using gradient boosting, we then developed soil nutrient models for surface soils at a 250-ha agricultural site using S2 images. Soils were sampled at 2145 point locations to a 23-cm depth and analyzed for Ca, K, Mg, P, pH, S, and Zn. Results showed that masking vegetation improved model performance for models from subsets of the data (80% of samples used for model development, 20% validation), but full data sets did not require masking to achieve accuracy. Models of Ca, K, Mg, and S were successful (validation R2 > 0.60 to 0.96), but models for pH, P, and Zn failed. Bare soil composite images from S2 data are helpful in predicting soil fertility in low-relief floodplains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of lake surface water temperature (LSWT) is essential for understanding the impacts of climate change on aquatic ecosystems and for guiding environmental management strategies. Predictions of LSWT for two prominent lakes in northern China, Qinghai Lake and Hulun Lake, under various future climate scenarios, were conducted in the present study. Utilizing historical hydrometeorological data and MODIS satellite observations (MOD11A2), we employed three advanced machine learning models—Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, and Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN)—to predict monthly average LSWT across three future climate scenarios (ssp119, ssp245, ssp585) from CMIP6 projections. Through the comparison of training and validation results of the three models across both lake regions, the RF model demonstrated the highest accuracy, with a mean MAE of 0.348 °C and an RMSE of 0.611 °C, making it the most optimal and suitable model for this purpose. With this model, the predicted LSWT for both lakes reveals a significant warming trend in the future, particularly under the high-emission scenario (ssp585). The rate of increase is most pronounced under ssp585, with Hulun Lake showing a rise of 0.55 °C per decade (R2 = 0.72) and Qinghai Lake 0.32 °C per decade (R2 = 0.85), surpassing trends observed under ssp119 and ssp245. These results underscore the vulnerability of lake ecosystems to future climate change and provide essential insights for proactive climate adaptation and environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate river ice mapping is crucial for predicting and managing floods caused by ice jams and for the safe operation of hydropower and water resource facilities. Although satellite multispectral images are widely used for river ice mapping, atmospheric contamination limits their effectiveness. This study developed river ice mapping models for the Han River in South Korea using atmospherically uncorrected Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) multispectral reflectance data, addressing atmospheric influences with a Random Forest (RF) classification approach. The RF-based river ice mapping models were developed by implementing various combinations of input variables, incorporating the Landsat-8 multispectral top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance, normalized difference indices for snow, water, and bare ice, and atmospheric factors such as aerosol optical depth, water vapor content, and ozone concentration from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer observations, as well as surface elevation from the GLO-30 digital elevation model. The RF model developed using all variables achieved excellent performance in the classification of snow-covered ice, snow-free ice, and water, with an overall accuracy and kappa coefficient exceeding 98.4% and 0.98 for test samples, and higher than 83.7% and 0.75 when compared against reference river ice maps generated by manually interpreting the Landsat-8 images under various atmospheric conditions. The RF-based river ice mapping model for the atmospherically corrected Landsat-8 multispectral surface reflectance was also developed, but it showed very low performance under atmospheric conditions heavily contaminated by aerosol and water vapor. Aerosol optical depth and water vapor content were identified as the most important variables. This study demonstrates that multispectral reflectance data, despite atmospheric contamination, can be effectively used for river ice monitoring by applying machine learning with atmospheric auxiliary data to mitigate atmospheric effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and climate change are significantly impacting local climates, causing more intense heat during the summer season, which poses risks to individuals with pre-existing health conditions and negatively affects overall human health. While various studies have examined the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) phenomenon, these studies often focus on small to large geographic regions using low-to-moderate-resolution data, highlighting general thermal trends across large administrative areas. However, there is a growing need for methods that can detect microscale thermal patterns in environments familiar to urban residents, such as streets and alleys. The temperature-humidity index (THI), which incorporates both temperature and humidity data, serves as a critical measure of human-perceived heat. However, few studies have explored microscale THI variations within urban settings and identified potential THI hotspots at a local level where SUHI effects are pronounced. This research aims to address this gap by estimating THI at a finer resolution scale using data from multiple sensor platforms. We developed a model with the random forest algorithm to assess THI trends at a resolution of 0.5 m, utilizing various variables from different sources, including Landsat 8 land surface temperature (LST), unmanned aerial system (UAS)-derived LST, Sentinel-2 NDVI and NDMI, a wind exposure index, solar radiation modeled from aircraft and UAS-derived Digital Surface Models, and vehicle density and building floor area from social big data. Two models were constructed with different variables: Modelnatural, which includes variables related to only natural factors, and Modelmix, which includes all variables, including anthropogenic factors. The two models were compared to reveal how each source contributes to the model development and SUHI effects. The results show significant improvements, as Modelnatural had a fitting R2 = 0.5846, a root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.5936 and a mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.4294. Moreover, when anthropogenic factors were introduced, Modelmix performed even better, with R2 = 0.9638, RMSE = 0.1751, and MAE = 0.1065 (n = 923). This study contributes to the future of microscale SUHI analysis and offers important insights into urban planning and smart city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate, detailed, and long-term urban land use mapping is crucial for urban planning, environmental assessment, and health evaluation. Despite previous efforts, mapping essential urban land use categories (EULUCs) across multiple periods remains challenging, primarily due to the scarcity of enduring consistent socio-geographical data, such as the widely used Point of Interest (POI) data. Addressing this issue, this study presents an experimental method for mapping the time-series of EULUCs in Dalian city, China, utilizing Local Climate Zone (LCZ) data as a substitute for POI data. Leveraging multi-source geospatial big data and the random forest classifier, we delineate urban land use distributions at the parcel level for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2018, and 2020. The results demonstrate that the generated EULUC maps achieve promising classification performance, with an overall accuracy of 78% for Level 1 and 71% for Level 2 categories. Features derived from nighttime light data, LCZ, Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, and topographic data play leading roles in our land use classification process. The importance of LCZ data is second only to nighttime light data, achieving comparable classification accuracy to that when using POI data. Our subsequent correlation analysis reveals a significant correlation between POI and LCZ data (p = 0.4), which validates the rationale of the proposed framework. These findings offer valuable insights for long-term urban land use mapping, which can facilitate effective urban planning and resource management in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients are at a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) at an estimated annual rate above 10%. It is clinically and practically important to accurately predict MCI-to-dementia conversion time. Objective: It is clinically and practically important to accurately predict MCI-to-dementia conversion time by using easily available clinical data. Methods: The dementia diagnosis often falls between two clinical visits, and such survival outcome is known as interval-censored data. We utilized the semi-parametric model and the random forest model for interval-censored data in conjunction with a variable selection approach to select important measures for predicting the conversion time from MCI to dementia. Two large AD cohort data sets were used to build, validate, and test the predictive model. Results: We found that the semi-parametric model can improve the prediction of the conversion time for patients with MCI-to-dementia conversion, and it also has good predictive performance for all patients. Conclusions: Interval-censored data should be analyzed by using the models that were developed for interval- censored data to improve the model performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of our report was to use a Random Forest classification approach to predict the association between transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and walking kinematics at the stride level when middle-aged and older adults performed the 6-min test of walking endurance. Methods: Data from 41 participants (aged 64.6 ± 9.7 yr) acquired in two previously published studies were analyzed with a Random Forest algorithm that focused on upper and lower limb, lumbar, and trunk kinematics. The four most predictive kinematic features were identified and utilized in separate models to distinguish between three walking conditions: burst TENS, continuous TENS, and control. SHAP analysis and linear mixed models were used to characterize the differences among these conditions. Results: Modulation of four key kinematic features--toe-out angle, toe-off angle, and lumbar range of motion (ROM) in coronal and sagittal planes--accurately predicted walking conditions for the burst (82%accuracy) and continuous (77% accuracy) TENS conditions compared with control. Linear mixed models detected a significant difference in lumbar sagittal ROM between the TENS conditions. SHAP analysis revealed that burst TENS was positively associated with greater lumbar coronal ROM, smaller toe-off angle, and less lumbar sagittal ROM. Conversely, continuous TENS was associated with less lumbar coronal ROM and greater lumbar sagittal ROM. Conclusions: Our approach identified four kinematic features at the stride level that could distinguish between the three walking conditions. These distinctions were not evident in average values across strides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall-triggered landslides pose a significant threat to both infrastructure and human lives, making it crucial to comprehend the factors that contribute to their occurrence. Specifically, understanding the relationship between these factors and the amount of rain that is necessary for triggering such events is essential for effective prediction and mitigation strategies. To address this issue, our study proposes a statistical modelling approach using machine learning, specifically the Random Forest algorithm, to investigate the connection between landslide predisposing factors and the daily rainfall intensity threshold necessary for the initiation of shallow landslides in Portugal. By leveraging a comprehensive dataset comprising historical landslide events, associated critical rainfall, and ten distinct landslide predisposing factors, we developed several models and used cross-validation technique to evaluate their performance. Our findings demonstrate that the Random Forest model effectively captures a relationship among landslide predisposing factors, critical daily rainfall intensity, and landslide occurrences. The models exhibit a satisfactory accuracy in assessing the spatial variation of critical daily rainfall intensity based on the predisposing factors, with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of around 17%. Furthermore, the models provide valuable insights into the relative importance of various predisposing factors in landslide triggering, highlighting the significance of each factor. It was found that it takes higher rainfall intensity to trigger shallow landslides in the north region of Portugal when considering critical rainfall events of 3 and 13 days. Slope aspect, slope angle, and clay content in the soil are among the main predisposing factors used for defining the spatial variation of the daily rainfall intensity threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most data-driven landslide-susceptibility assessment models heavily rely on statistical analyses based on geological and environmental similarity principles. These models often struggle to establish connections with landslide destruction processes and mechanisms effectively. In response to this challenge, this study introduces a hybrid approach that combines the transient rainfall infiltration, regional slope-stability physics–based model (TRIGRS) and the random forest (RF) model. Initially, to calculate the safety coefficients of the study area, the TRIGRS model was employed, and appropriate non-landslide samples were selected based on these coefficients. Subsequently, to enable learning and fitting of the nonlinear relationships between sample points and geological environmental factors, historical landslide data and safety coefficient-filtered non-landslide point data were input into the RF model, ultimately generating landslide probability values that represent the magnitude of landslide occurrences. The coupled model demonstrated excellent predictive performance using the landslides induced by the 2019 "Lekima" typhoon in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province, as a case study. The results indicated that the evaluation effect of the TRIGRS and RF coupled model was satisfactory, achieving an accuracy (ACC) rate of 77.6% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.873. Furthermore, the ACC and AUC of the TRIGRS and RF coupled model increased by 8.22% and 9.20%, respectively, compared with those of the traditional buffering sampling method. Therefore, the TRIGRS and RF coupled model better evaluates regional landslide susceptibility than the traditional buffering sampling method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eastern Himalayan syntaxis (EHS) region is characterized by steep topography, strong tectonic activity, and strong disaster activity, and the disaster activity has a temporal correlation with the change of seasonal climate factors. Different from other disaster-prone areas, the disasters in the EHS area are more destructive and more susceptible to changes in climate factors. However, previous studies on disaster susceptibility in the region mainly focused on geohazard samples, regional topography, and geological conditions and seldom considered the characteristics of disaster activity and the characteristics of seasonal temperature and rainfall changes, which often led to an underestimation of disaster susceptibility in this region. Therefore, in this study, SBAS-InSAR technology and the GEE (Google Earth Engine) platform were used to identify 317 geological disasters and construct the spatial–temporal motion field and spatial-temporal background information of disasters in the last 5 years. Based on the random forest and optimized evaluation data model, the disaster susceptibility in the EHS area was quantitatively evaluated. The AUC value of the model was 0.89, indicating that the results have high reliability. The results showed that the high-susceptibility areas were mainly distributed in the riverbank and high-altitude areas. The SHAP model revealed that the factors of temperature, precipitation, slope, and elevation in the EHS area had a great negative influence on the disaster. The quantitative results of the influence of seasonal temperature and precipitation on disaster susceptibility showed that the area of susceptibility in summer was significantly higher than that in winter, and the area of high and very high susceptibility increased by about 13%. Finally, the dynamic failure process of typical landslide and glacier disasters in highly susceptible areas was quantitatively predicted, which provides a scientific basis for disaster prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating climate instability and extreme weather events significantly jeopardize food security. The study assessed the impact of long-term climatic variables and extreme weather events on soybean and wheat yields in rainfed central India. To address inherent spatial variability, the study area was divided into homogeneous zones based on rainfall and soil parameters. Crop yields were correlated with a comprehensive set of driving variables at seasonal and monthly scales within each zone. Machine learning algorithms, including Random Forest Regression (RFR) and Neural Networks (NN), were employed to analyze crop yield anomalies caused by climate and weather extremes. The Sobol' index was utilized for global sensitivity analysis to identify key parameters. Results showed significant negative correlations between thermo-meteorological parameters and yields of both monsoon soybean and winter wheat across multiple districts. Soybean yield exhibited a notable positive correlation with hydro-meteorological parameters, while wheat yield displayed a significant positive correlation with cold temperature extremes. RFR and NN demonstrated similar performance, with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values ranging from 0.27 to 0.39 t/ha for soybean and 0.4 to 0.6 t/ha for wheat. The Sobol' index highlighted the high sensitivity of soybean yield to rainfall and rainy days during July and August, corresponding to the crop development and flowering stages. In contrast, wheat yield was primarily influenced by temperature extremes, particularly cold nights and hot days during the reproductive-maturity stage. These crop- and growth-stage-specific analyses of meteorological parameters are essential for devising effective strategies to adapt and mitigate climate emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]