On the Implementation of HealthAgents: Agent-Based Brain Tumour Diagnosis
This paper introduces HealthAgents, an EC-funded research project to improve the classification of brain tumours through multi-agent decision support over a secure and distributed network of local databases or Data Marts. HealthAgents will not only develop new pattern recognition methods for distributed classification and analysis of in vivo MRS and ex vivo/in vitro HRMAS and DNA data, but also define a method to assess the quality and usability of a new candidate local database containing a set of new cases, based on a compatibility score. Using its Multi-Agent architecture, HealthAgents intends to apply cutting-edge agent technology to the Biomedical field and develop the HealthAgents net…
Market Impact and Trading Profile of Hidden Orders in Stock Markets
We empirically study the market impact of trading orders. We are specifically interested in large trading orders that are executed incrementally, which we call hidden orders. These are statistically reconstructed based on information about market member codes using data from the Spanish Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange. We find that market impact is strongly concave, approximately increasing as the square root of order size. Furthermore, as a given order is executed, the impact grows in time according to a power law; after the order is finished, it reverts to a level of about 0.5-0.7 of its value at its peak. We observe that hidden orders are executed at a rate that more or less m…
Ranking of Brain Tumour Classifiers Using a Bayesian Approach
This study presents a ranking for classifers using a Bayesian perspective. This ranking framework is able to evaluate the performance of the models to be compared when they are inferred from different sets of data. It also takes into account the performance obtained on samples not used during the training of the classifiers. Besides, this ranking assigns a prior to each model based on a measure of similarity of the training data to a test case. An evaluation consisting of ranking brain tumour classifiers is presented. These multilayer perceptron classifiers are trained with 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) signals following a multiproject multicenter evaluation approach. We demonstr…
Incremental Gaussian Discriminant Analysis based on Graybill and Deal weighted combination of estimators for brain tumour diagnosis
In the last decade, machine learning (ML) techniques have been used for developing classifiers for automatic brain tumour diagnosis. However, the development of these ML models rely on a unique training set and learning stops once this set has been processed. Training these classifiers requires a representative amount of data, but the gathering, preprocess, and validation of samples is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, for a classical, non-incremental approach to ML, it is necessary to wait long enough to collect all the required data. In contrast, an incremental learning approach may allow us to build an initial classifier with a smaller number of samples and update it incrementally…
Accurate classification of childhood brain tumours by in vivo H-1 MRS - A multi-centre study
Aims: To evaluate the accuracy of single-voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-MRS) as a non-invasive diagnostic aid for pediatric brain tumours in a multi-national study. Our hypotheses are (1) that automated classification based on 1H-MRS provides an accurate non-invasive diagnosis in multi-centre datasets and (2) using a protocol which increases the metabolite information improves the diagnostic accuracy. Methods: 78 patients under 16 years old with histologically proven brain tumours from 10 international centres were investigated. Discrimination of 29 medulloblastomas, 11 ependymomas and 38 pilocytic astrocytomas was evaluated. Single-voxel MRS was undertaken prior to diagnosis (1.…