Innovating Feature Selection in Data Science

Data science is a rapidly growing industry permeating throughout every aspect of society. Everything collects data these days, and people use this data to find meaningful patterns leading to benefits ranging from more intuitive marketing to better cancer detection. However, increased data collection also leads to increased complexity, and data science works to manage this complexity through various techniques and machine learning/artificial intelligence models. But data science faces two significant issues: too many features in a dataset and long model training times. To help combat these issues, the author developed a tool called Ensemble Feature Importance Ranker (EFIR). This paper analyzes the accuracies and limitations of this innovative tool through a series of experiments on linear regression datasets. Preliminary results and metrics show high accuracy in finding the most impactful features, overall proving that EFIR identifies the key features in linear regression datasets. In short, EFIR leads to better data and faster model training times under various conditions

Tailored Rabbit Antithymocyte Globulin Induction Dosing for Kidney Transplantation.

Background: Rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG) is the most widely used kidney transplant induction immunotherapy in the United States. It was recently Food and Drug Administration approved for this indication with typical dose recommendations of 1.5 mg/kg for up to 7 days given via a central line. Methods: We theorized that reduced rATG dosing when compared with conventional dosing (6-10.5 mg/kg) is safe and effective, leading to development of a risk-stratified treatment protocol. Five-year data from a retrospective cohort of 224 adult kidney transplants (2008-2013) with follow-up through 2015 is presented. Cumulative rATG doses of 3 mg/kg were administered peripherally to nonsensitized living donor recipients, 4.5 mg/kg to nonsensitized deceased donor recipients. A subset of higher immunologic risk recipients (defined as history of prior transplant, panel reactive antibody greater than 20%, or flow cytometry crossmatch positivity) received 6 mg/kg. Results: There were no differences in patient or graft survival between the 3 groups. One-year rejection rates in the first 2 groups were 8.3% and 8.8%, respectively, comparable to contemporaneous rates reported to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Dose tailoring permitted substantial cost savings estimated at US $1 091 502. Mean length of stay fell by almost 3 days as the protocol was refined. There were no episodes of phlebitis. Infection rates were comparable with those reported to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Conclusions: The novel findings of the current study include peripheral administration, reduced dosing, favorable safety, excellent allograft outcomes, and clear associative data regarding reduced costs and length of stay