Enhancing competitive island cooperative neuro - evolution through backpropagation for pattern classification

Cooperative coevolution is a promising method for training neural networks which is also known as cooperative neuro-evolution. Cooperative neuro-evolution has been used for pattern classification, time series prediction and global optimisation problems. In the past, competitive island based cooperative coevolution has been proposed that employed different instances of problem decomposition methods for competition. Neuro-evolution has limitations in terms of training time although they are known as global search methods. Backpropagation algorithm employs gradient descent which helps in faster convergence which is needed for neuro-evolution. Backpropagation suffers from premature convergence and its combination with neuro-evolution can help eliminate the weakness of both the approaches. In this paper, we propose a competitive island cooperative neuro-evolutionary method that takes advantage of the strengths of gradient descent and neuro-evolution. We use feedforward neural networks on benchmark pattern classification problems to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results show improved performance when compared to related methods

Reducción de los requerimientos de hemoderivados en el trasplante hepático con aprotinina

Prophylactic use of aprotinin during surgery has a beneficial effect on hemostatic mechanisms, reducing the need for blood products. A reduction in fibrinolysis seems to contribute to this effect

A Neuro-Evolutionary Approach to Electrocardiographic Signal Classification

International audienceThis chapter presents an evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) classifier system as a heartbeat classification algorithm designed according to the rules of the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2011 (Moody, Comput Cardiol Challenge 38:273-276, 2011), whose aim is to develop an efficient algorithm able to run within a mobile phone that can provide useful feedback when acquiring a diagnostically useful 12-lead Electrocardiography (ECG) recording. The method used to solve this problem is a very powerful natural computing analysis tool, namely evolutionary neural networks, based on the joint evolution of the topology and the connection weights relying on a novel similarity-based crossover. The chapter focuses on discerning between usable and unusable electrocardiograms tele-medically acquired from mobile embedded devices. A preprocessing algorithm based on the Discrete Fourier Transform has been applied before the evolutionary approach in order to extract an ECG feature dataset in the frequency domain. Finally, a series of tests has been carried out in order to evaluate the performance and the accuracy of the classifier system for such a challenge

Rate and duration of hospitalisation for acute pulmonary embolism in the real-world clinical practice of different countries : Analysis from the RIETE registry

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Prototype generation on structural data using dissimilarity space representation

Data reduction techniques play a key role in instance-based classification to lower the amount of data to be processed. Among the different existing approaches, prototype selection (PS) and prototype generation (PG) are the most representative ones. These two families differ in the way the reduced set is obtained from the initial one: While the former aims at selecting the most representative elements from the set, the latter creates new data out of it. Although PG is considered to delimit more efficiently decision boundaries, the operations required are not so well defined in scenarios involving structural data such as strings, trees, or graphs. This work studies the possibility of using dissimilarity space (DS) methods as an intermediate process for mapping the initial structural representation to a statistical one, thereby allowing the use of PG methods. A comparative experiment over string data is carried out in which our proposal is faced to PS methods on the original space. Results show that the proposed strategy is able to achieve significantly similar results to PS in the initial space, thus standing as a clear alternative to the classic approach, with some additional advantages derived from the DS representation.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte through a FPU fellowship (AP2012–0939), Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de la Universidad de Alicante through FPU program (UAFPU2014–5883), and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through Project TIMuL (No. TIN2013-48152-C2-1-R supported by EU FEDER funds)

The management of acute venous thromboembolism in clinical practice. Results from the European PREFER in VTE Registry

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Europe. Data from real-world registries are necessary, as clinical trials do not represent the full spectrum of VTE patients seen in clinical practice. We aimed to document the epidemiology, management and outcomes of VTE using data from a large, observational database. PREFER in VTE was an international, non-interventional disease registry conducted between January 2013 and July 2015 in primary and secondary care across seven European countries. Consecutive patients with acute VTE were documented and followed up over 12 months. PREFER in VTE included 3,455 patients with a mean age of 60.8 ± 17.0 years. Overall, 53.0 % were male. The majority of patients were assessed in the hospital setting as inpatients or outpatients (78.5 %). The diagnosis was deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in 59.5 % and pulmonary embolism (PE) in 40.5 %. The most common comorbidities were the various types of cardiovascular disease (excluding hypertension; 45.5 %), hypertension (42.3 %) and dyslipidaemia (21.1 %). Following the index VTE, a large proportion of patients received initial therapy with heparin (73.2 %), almost half received a vitamin K antagonist (48.7 %) and nearly a quarter received a DOAC (24.5 %). Almost a quarter of all presentations were for recurrent VTE, with >80 % of previous episodes having occurred more than 12 months prior to baseline. In conclusion, PREFER in VTE has provided contemporary insights into VTE patients and their real-world management, including their baseline characteristics, risk factors, disease history, symptoms and signs, initial therapy and outcomes

Differential clinical characteristics and prognosis of intraventricular conduction defects in patients with chronic heart failure

Intraventricular conduction defects (IVCDs) can impair prognosis of heart failure (HF), but their specific impact is not well established. This study aimed to analyse the clinical profile and outcomes of HF patients with LBBB, right bundle branch block (RBBB), left anterior fascicular block (LAFB), and no IVCDs. Clinical variables and outcomes after a median follow-up of 21 months were analysed in 1762 patients with chronic HF and LBBB (n = 532), RBBB (n = 134), LAFB (n = 154), and no IVCDs (n = 942). LBBB was associated with more marked LV dilation, depressed LVEF, and mitral valve regurgitation. Patients with RBBB presented overt signs of congestive HF and depressed right ventricular motion. The LAFB group presented intermediate clinical characteristics, and patients with no IVCDs were more often women with less enlarged left ventricles and less depressed LVEF. Death occurred in 332 patients (interannual mortality = 10.8%): cardiovascular in 257, extravascular in 61, and of unknown origin in 14 patients. Cardiac death occurred in 230 (pump failure in 171 and sudden death in 59). An adjusted Cox model showed higher risk of cardiac death and pump failure death in the LBBB and RBBB than in the LAFB and the no IVCD groups. LBBB and RBBB are associated with different clinical profiles and both are independent predictors of increased risk of cardiac death in patients with HF. A more favourable prognosis was observed in patients with LAFB and in those free of IVCDs. Further research in HF patients with RBBB is warranted

Reducción de los requerimientos de hemoderivados en el trasplante hepático con aprotinina

Prophylactic use of aprotinin during surgery has a beneficial effect on hemostatic mechanisms, reducing the need for blood products. A reduction in fibrinolysis seems to contribute to this effect