Abstract Background To classify chest computed tomography (CT) images as positive or negative for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly and accurately, researchers attempted to develop effective models by using medical images. Results A convolutional neural network (CNN) ensemble model was developed for classifying chest CT images as positive or negative for COVID-19. To classify chest CT images acquired from COVID-19 patients, the proposed COVID19-CNN ensemble model combines the use of multiple trained CNN models with a majority voting strategy. The CNN models were trained to classify chest CT images by transfer learning from well-known pre-trained CNN models and by applying their algorithm hyperparameters as appropriate. The combination of algorithm hyperparameters for a pre-trained CNN model was determined by uniform experimental design. The chest CT images (405 from COVID-19 patients and 397 from healthy patients) used for training and performance testing of the COVID19-CNN ensemble model were obtained from an earlier study by Hu in 2020. Experiments showed that, the COVID19-CNN ensemble model achieved 96.7% accuracy in classifying CT images as COVID-19 positive or negative, which was superior to the accuracies obtained by the individual trained CNN models. Other performance measures (i.e., precision, recall, specificity, and F1-score) obtained bythe COVID19-CNN ensemble model were higher than those obtained by individual trained CNN models. Conclusions The COVID19-CNN ensemble model had superior accuracy and excellent capability in classifying chest CT images as COVID-19 positive or negative.

Abstract Background Researchers have attempted to apply deep learning methods of artificial intelligence for rapidly and accurately detecting acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in microscopic images. Results A Resnet101-9 ensemble model was developed for classifying ALL in microscopic images. The proposed Resnet101-9 ensemble model combined the use of the nine trained Resnet-101 models with a majority voting strategy. Each trained Resnet-101 model integrated the well-known pre-trained Resnet-101 model and its algorithm hyperparameters by using transfer learning method to classify ALL in microscopic images. The best combination of algorithm hyperparameters for the pre-trained Resnet-101 model was determined by Taguchi experimental method. The microscopic images used for training of the pre-trained Resnet-101 model and for performance tests of the trained Resnet-101 model were obtained from the C-NMC dataset. In experimental tests of performance, the Resnet101-9 ensemble model achieved an accuracy of 85.11% and an F 1 -score of 88.94 in classifying ALL in microscopic images. The accuracy of the Resnet101-9 ensemble model was superior to that of the nine trained Resnet-101 individual models. All other performance measures (i.e., precision, recall, and specificity) for the Resnet101-9 ensemble model exceeded those for the nine trained Resnet-101 individual models. Conclusion Compared to the nine trained Resnet-101 individual models, the Resnet101-9 ensemble model had superior accuracy in classifying ALL in microscopic images obtained from the C-NMC dataset.

BACKGROUND: To diagnose key pathologies of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) quickly and accurately, researchers attempted to develop effective artificial intelligence methods by using medical images. RESULTS: A convolutional neural network (CNN) with transfer learning capability is proposed and appropriate hyperparameters are selected for classifying optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of AMD and DME. To perform transfer learning, a pre-trained CNN model is used as the starting point for a new CNN model for solving related problems. The hyperparameters (parameters that have set values before the learning process begins) in this study were algorithm hyperparameters that affect learning speed and quality. During training, different CNN-based models require different algorithm hyperparameters (e.g., optimizer, learning rate, and mini-batch size). Experiments showed that, after transfer learning, the CNN models (8-layer Alexnet, 22-layer Googlenet, 16-layer VGG, 19-layer VGG, 18-layer Resnet, 50-layer Resnet, and a 101-layer Resnet) successfully classified OCT images of AMD and DME. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results further showed that, after transfer learning, the VGG19, Resnet101, and Resnet50 models with appropriate algorithm hyperparameters had excellent capability and performance in classifying OCT images of AMD and DME.

BACKGROUND: Researchers have tried to identify and count different blood cells in microscopic smear images by using deep learning methods of artificial intelligence to solve the highly time-consuming problem. RESULTS: The three types of blood cells are platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. This study used the Resnet50 network as a backbone network of the single shot detector (SSD) for automatically identifying and counting different blood cells and, meanwhile, proposed a systematic method to find a better combination of algorithm hyperparameters of the Resnet50 network for promoting accuracy for identifying and counting blood cells. The Resnet50 backbone network of the SSD with its optimized algorithm hyperparameters, which is called the Resnet50-SSD model, was developed to enhance the feature extraction ability for identifying and counting blood cells. Furthermore, the algorithm hyperparameters of Resnet50 backbone networks of the SSD were optimized by the Taguchi experimental method for promoting detection accuracy of the Resnet50-SSD model. The experimental result shows that the detection accuracy of the Resnet50-SSD model with 512 × 512 × 3 input images was better than that of the Resnet50-SSD model with 300 × 300 × 3 input images on the test set of blood cells images. Additionally, the detection accuracy of the Resnet50-SSD model using the combination of algorithm hyperparameters got by the Taguchi method was better than that of the Resnet50-SSD model using the combination of algorithm hyperparameters given by the Matlab example. CONCLUSION: In blood cell images acquired from the BCCD dataset, the proposed Resnet50-SSD model had higher accuracy in identifying and counting blood cells, especially white blood cells and red blood cells.

BACKGROUND: Dengue epidemics is affected by vector-human interactive dynamics. Infectious disease prevention and control emphasize the timing intervention at the right diffusion phase. In such a way, control measures can be cost-effective, and epidemic incidents can be controlled before devastated consequence occurs. However, timing relations between a measurable signal and the onset of the pandemic are complex to be discovered, and the typical lag period regression is difficult to capture in these complex relations. This study investigates the dynamic diffusion pattern of the disease in terms of a probability distribution. We estimate the parameters of an epidemic compartment model with the cross-infection of patients and mosquitoes in various infection cycles. We comprehensively study the incorporated meteorological and mosquito factors that may affect the epidemic of dengue fever to predict dengue fever epidemics. RESULTS: We develop a dual-parameter estimation algorithm for a composite model of the partial differential equations for vector-susceptible-infectious-recovered with exogeneity compartment model, Markov chain Montel Carlo method, and boundary element method to evaluate the epidemic periodicity under the effect of environmental factors of dengue fever, given the time series data of 2000-2016 from three cities with a population of 4.7 million. The established computer model of "energy accumulation-delayed diffusion-epidemics" is proven to be effective to predict the future trend of reported and unreported infected incidents. Our artificial intelligent algorithm can inform the authority to cease the larvae at the highest vector infection time. We find that the estimated dengue report rate is about 20%, which is close to the number of official announcements, and the percentage of infected vectors increases exponentially yearly. We suggest that the executive authorities should seriously consider the accumulated effect among infected populations. This established epidemic prediction model of dengue fever can be used to simulate and evaluate the best time to prevent and control dengue fever. CONCLUSIONS: Given our developed model, government epidemic prevention teams can apply this platform before they physically carry out the prevention work. The optimal suggestions from these models can be promptly accommodated when real-time data have been continuously corrected from clinics and related agents.