An Optimized Recursive General Regression Neural Network Oracle for the Prediction and Diagnosis of Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious, chronic disease that has been seeing a rise in the number of cases and prevalence over the past few decades. It can lead to serious complications and can increase the overall risk of dying prematurely. Data-oriented prediction models have become effective tools that help medical decision-making and diagnoses in which the use of machine learning in medicine has increased substantially. This research introduces the Recursive General Regression Neural Network Oracle (R-GRNN Oracle) and is applied on the Pima Indians Diabetes dataset for the prediction and diagnosis of diabetes. The R-GRNN Oracle (Bani-Hani, 2017) is an enhancement to the GRNN Oracle developed by Masters et al. in 1998, in which the recursive model is created of two oracles: one within the other. Several classifiers, along with the R-GRNN Oracle and the GRNN Oracle, are applied to the dataset, they are: Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN), Gaussian NaEF;ve Bayes (GNB), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Random Forest (RF). Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used for feature selection as well as the hyperparameter optimization of SVM and MLP, and Grid Search (GS) was used to optimize the hyperparameters of KNN and RF. The performance metrics accuracy, AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were recorded for each classifier. The R-GRNN Oracle was able to achieve the highest accuracy, AUC, and sensitivity (81.14%, 86.03%, and 63.80%, respectively), while the optimized MLP had the highest specificity (89.71%)

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population