Application of machine learning for hematological diagnosis

Quick and accurate medical diagnosis is crucial for the successful treatment of a disease. Using machine learning algorithms, we have built two models to predict a hematologic disease, based on laboratory blood test results. In one predictive model, we used all available blood test parameters and in the other a reduced set, which is usually measured upon patient admittance. Both models produced good results, with a prediction accuracy of 0.88 and 0.86, when considering the list of five most probable diseases, and 0.59 and 0.57, when considering only the most probable disease. Models did not differ significantly from each other, which indicates that a reduced set of parameters contains a relevant fingerprint of a disease, expanding the utility of the model for general practitioner's use and indicating that there is more information in the blood test results than physicians recognize. In the clinical test we showed that the accuracy of our predictive models was on a par with the ability of hematology specialists. Our study is the first to show that a machine learning predictive model based on blood tests alone, can be successfully applied to predict hematologic diseases and could open up unprecedented possibilities in medical diagnosis.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Marius Popa, Le roman français au XIXe siècle : Microanalyses d’une galerie de portraits, Brașov, Creator, 2022, 91 p.

L’ouvrage de Marius Popa, Le roman français au XIXe siècle : Microanalyses d’une galerie de portraits, propose la radiographie critique d’une « galerie de personnages » qui représentent des archétypes actantiels du XIXe siècle français. Le livre insiste sur la façon dont les personnages des romans ont assimilé, dans leur identité propre, la « forma mentis » du siècle en question (p. 10). Ces « archétypes du jeune romantique » (p. 10) ou du héros réaliste et naturaliste sont étroitement liés aux mouvements politiques, historiques, économiques et philosophiques de l’époque. L’auteur propose une recherche approfondie sur les « paradigmes » (p. 5) qui finissent par conditionner la conformation des personnages

Feminist Scholarship Review: Women in Theater and Film

Published from 1991 through 2007 at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, the Feminist Scholarship Review is a literary journal that describes women\u27s experiences around the world. FSR began as a review of feminist scholarly material, but evolved into a journal for poetry and short storie

Social and Emotional Learning: Meeting and Addressing Educator and Student Concerns While Providing Benefits for All Involved

Guided by the social-emotional learning framework, this article establishes and discusses the associations between students’ perceptions of five core social emotional learning (SEL) competencies (i.e., responsible decision-making, social awareness, self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills) and their effect on overall student learning and educational experiences. Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students’ ability to succeed in school, careers, and life. Educators have many concerns regarding various social and emotional needs of the students they serve including absenteeism, behavior, student achievement, higher order thinking, problem solving and overall student mental health. SEL initiatives within the classroom prove to show results in: greater academic success, fewer behavioral issues, less emotional distress, positive social behavior, improved teacher-student relationships, less bullying, improved career readiness, increased graduation rates, decreased teacher stress, and an overall positive school climate

COVID-19 diagnosis by routine blood tests using machine learning

Physicians taking care of patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have described different changes in routine blood parameters. However, these changes, hinder them from performing COVID-19 diagnosis. We constructed a machine learning predictive model for COVID-19 diagnosis. The model was based and cross-validated on the routine blood tests of 5,333 patients with various bacterial and viral infections, and 160 COVID-19-positive patients. We selected operational ROC point at a sensitivity of 81.9% and specificity of 97.9%. The cross-validated area under the curve (AUC) was 0.97. The five most useful routine blood parameters for COVID19 diagnosis according to the feature importance scoring of the XGBoost algorithm were MCHC, eosinophil count, albumin, INR, and prothrombin activity percentage. tSNE visualization showed that the blood parameters of the patients with severe COVID-19 course are more like the parameters of bacterial than viral infection. The reported diagnostic accuracy is at least comparable and probably complementary to RT-PCR and chest CT studies. Patients with fever, cough, myalgia, and other symptoms can now have initial routine blood tests assessed by our diagnostic tool. All patients with a positive COVID-19 prediction would then undergo standard RT-PCR studies to confirm the diagnosis. We believe that our results present a significant contribution to improvements in COVID-19 diagnosis.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: WHICH INCLUSION MODEL PROVIDES ACADEMIC GAINS FOR STUDENTS WITH MILD TO SEVERE DISABILITIES IN THE SECONDARY SETTING?

A major premise of inclusive education for students with mild-severe disabilities is to provide skills, which enable them to live, work, and participate in an integrated community of life-long learners. Inclusive education would lead these students to greater independence and opportunity to be educated together in age appropriate general education classrooms. Three inclusion models were compared to determine which model would produce higher gains, both academically and socially in a high school multi-disability classroom. All three groups were their own control groups. Students were assigned to groups based on intellectual functioning and individual needs. Each group consisted of students that were relatively higher functioning, relatively lower functioning and students with severe needs. The settings included a general education classroom with adult/paraprofessional interaction, a general education setting with peer interactions or a small group instructional classroom with peer directed instructional activities. A constant comparison methodology was used to analyze the data across three groups and role of stakeholders. Findings revealed the benefits of inclusive education for all students, but the gains varied depending on the setting/inclusion model used.  Article visualizations

Disease Severity in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia Patients Is Mainly Affected by Negative Symptoms, Which Mediate the Effects of Cognitive Dysfunctions and Neurological Soft Signs

This post-hoc study was aimed at assessing whether disease severity was higher in a sample of Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia patients (TRS) compared to schizophrenia patients responsive to antipsychotics (non-TRS). Determinants of disease severity were also investigated in these groups. Eligible patients were screened by standardized diagnostic algorithm to categorize them as TRS or non-TRS. All patients underwent the following assessments: CGI-S; PANSS; DAI; NES; a battery of cognitive tests. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were also recorded. TRS patients exhibited significantly higher disease severity and psychotic symptoms, either as PANSS total score or subscales' scores. A preliminary correlation analysis ruled out clinical and cognitive variables not associated with disease severity in the two groups. Hierarchical linear regression showed that negative symptoms were the clinical variable explaining the highest part of variation in disease severity in TRS, while in non-TRS patients PANSS-General Psychopathology was the variable explaining the highest variation. Mediation analysis showed that negative symptoms mediate the effects of verbal fluency dysfunctions and high-level neurological soft signs (NSS) on TRS' disease severity. These results show that determinants of disease severity sharply differ in TRS and non-TRS patients, and let hypothesize that TRS may stem from cognitive disfunctions and putatively neurodevelopmental aberrations