Feature Papers in Algorithms and Mathematical Models for Computer-Assisted Diagnostic Systems

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Department of Mathematics, Escola d’Enginyeria de Barcelona Est (EEBE), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Campus Diagonal-Besòs (CDB), Eduard Maristany, 16, 08019 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: structural health monitoring; condition monitoring; piezoelectric transducers; PZT; data science; wind turbines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

Machine learning, deep learning, algorithms and mathematical models have recently seen broad use in computer-assisted diagnostic systems due to their dramatic advance in image analysis, computer vision, and time-series analysis. Algorithms and mathematical models have demonstrated their considerable potential to transform computer-aided diagnosis in a wide variety of areas. These areas range from medical disease diagnostics and classification, through mechanical systems condition monitoring, to diagnosis for chemical industries. Similarly, the structural health diagnosis of different structures such as bridges, buildings, oil platforms, wind turbines, or rails and railroad switches can be considered.

The aim of this Topical Collection is to illustrate innovative work and frontier research that explores recent advances, prospects, and challenges in algorithms and mathematical model applications to reduce the chances of either missing, misclassifying, or over-diagnosing suspicious targets on diagnostic systems. Similarly, we expect to propel the path into computer-assisted prognostics. It is noteworthy that the keyword “diagnostic” has to be understood in a wide sense: medical, mechanical systems, civil engineering, chemical processes, and so on. The targeted audience includes both academic researchers and industrial practitioners. The purpose is to provide a platform to enhance interdisciplinary research and collaborations, and to share the most innovative ideas in various related fields.

Dr. Francesc Pozo
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Algorithms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • algorithms
  • mathematical models
  • artificial intelligence
  • fault diagnosis
  • damage diagnosis
  • disease diagnosis
  • medical decision making
  • real-time diagnostics
  • prognosis

Published Papers (12 papers)

2024

Jump to: 2023, 2022

15 pages, 2689 KiB  
Article
Sensor Fusion Architecture for Fault Diagnosis with a Predefined-Time Observer
by Ofelia Begovich, Adrián Lizárraga and Antonio Ramírez-Treviño
Algorithms 2024, 17(6), 270; https://doi.org/10.3390/a17060270 - 20 Jun 2024
Viewed by 743
Abstract
This study focuses on generating reliable signals from measured noisy signals through an enhanced sensor fusion method. The main contribution of this research is the development of a novel sensor fusion architecture that creates virtual sensors, improving the system’s redundancy. This architecture utilizes [...] Read more.
This study focuses on generating reliable signals from measured noisy signals through an enhanced sensor fusion method. The main contribution of this research is the development of a novel sensor fusion architecture that creates virtual sensors, improving the system’s redundancy. This architecture utilizes an input observer to estimate the system input, then it is introduced to the system model, the output of which is the virtual sensor. Then, this virtual sensor includes two filtering stages, both derived from the system’s dynamics—the input observer and the system model—which effectively diminish noise in the virtual sensors. Afterwards, the same architecture includes a classical sensor fusion scheme and a voter to merge the virtual sensors with the real measured signals, enhancing the signal reliability. The effectiveness of this method is shown by applying merged signals to two distinct diagnosers: one utilizes a high-order sliding mode observer, while the other employs an innovative extension of a predefined-time observer. The findings indicate that the proposed architecture improves diagnostic results. Moreover, a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot equipped with noisy sensors serves as a case study, confirming the approach’s efficacy in an actual noisy setting and highlighting its principal characteristics. Importantly, the diagnostic systems can manage several simultaneous actuator faults. Full article
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23 pages, 1916 KiB  
Article
Strategic Machine Learning Optimization for Cardiovascular Disease Prediction and High-Risk Patient Identification
by Konstantina-Vasiliki Tompra, George Papageorgiou and Christos Tjortjis
Algorithms 2024, 17(5), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/a17050178 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 2137
Abstract
Despite medical advancements in recent years, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a major factor in rising mortality rates, challenging predictions despite extensive expertise. The healthcare sector is poised to benefit significantly from harnessing massive data and the insights we can derive from it, underscoring [...] Read more.
Despite medical advancements in recent years, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a major factor in rising mortality rates, challenging predictions despite extensive expertise. The healthcare sector is poised to benefit significantly from harnessing massive data and the insights we can derive from it, underscoring the importance of integrating machine learning (ML) to improve CVD prevention strategies. In this study, we addressed the major issue of class imbalance in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2021 heart disease dataset, including personal lifestyle factors, by exploring several resampling techniques, such as the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), Adaptive Synthetic Sampling (ADASYN), SMOTE-Tomek, and SMOTE-Edited Nearest Neighbor (SMOTE-ENN). Subsequently, we trained, tested, and evaluated multiple classifiers, including logistic regression (LR), decision trees (DTs), random forest (RF), gradient boosting (GB), XGBoost (XGB), CatBoost, and artificial neural networks (ANNs), comparing their performance with a primary focus on maximizing sensitivity for CVD risk prediction. Based on our findings, the hybrid resampling techniques outperformed the alternative sampling techniques, and our proposed implementation includes SMOTE-ENN coupled with CatBoost optimized through Optuna, achieving a remarkable 88% rate for recall and 82% for the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) metric. Full article
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22 pages, 1533 KiB  
Article
Pediatric Ischemic Stroke: Clinical and Paraclinical Manifestations—Algorithms for Diagnosis and Treatment
by Niels Wessel, Mariana Sprincean, Ludmila Sidorenko, Ninel Revenco and Svetlana Hadjiu
Algorithms 2024, 17(4), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/a17040171 - 22 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1221
Abstract
Childhood stroke can lead to lifelong disability. Developing algorithms for timely recognition of clinical and paraclinical signs is crucial to ensure prompt stroke diagnosis and minimize decision-making time. This study aimed to characterize clinical and paraclinical symptoms of childhood and neonatal stroke as [...] Read more.
Childhood stroke can lead to lifelong disability. Developing algorithms for timely recognition of clinical and paraclinical signs is crucial to ensure prompt stroke diagnosis and minimize decision-making time. This study aimed to characterize clinical and paraclinical symptoms of childhood and neonatal stroke as relevant diagnostic criteria encountered in clinical practice, in order to develop algorithms for prompt stroke diagnosis. The analysis included data from 402 pediatric case histories from 2010 to 2016 and 108 prospective stroke cases from 2017 to 2020. Stroke cases were predominantly diagnosed in newborns, with 362 (71%, 95% CI 68.99–73.01) cases occurring within the first 28 days of birth, and 148 (29%, 95% CI 26.99–31.01) cases occurring after 28 days. The findings of the study enable the development of algorithms for timely stroke recognition, facilitating the selection of optimal treatment options for newborns and children of various age groups. Logistic regression serves as the basis for deriving these algorithms, aiming to initiate early treatment and reduce lifelong morbidity and mortality in children. The study outcomes include the formulation of algorithms for timely recognition of newborn stroke, with plans to adopt these algorithms and train a fuzzy classifier-based diagnostic model using machine learning techniques for efficient stroke recognition. Full article
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22 pages, 2752 KiB  
Article
GPU Adding-Doubling Algorithm for Analysis of Optical Spectral Images
by Matija Milanic and Rok Hren
Algorithms 2024, 17(2), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/a17020074 - 7 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1644
Abstract
The Adding-Doubling (AD) algorithm is a general analytical solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE). AD offers a favorable balance between accuracy and computational efficiency, surpassing other RTE solutions, such as Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, in terms of speed while outperforming approximate solutions [...] Read more.
The Adding-Doubling (AD) algorithm is a general analytical solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE). AD offers a favorable balance between accuracy and computational efficiency, surpassing other RTE solutions, such as Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, in terms of speed while outperforming approximate solutions like the Diffusion Approximation method in accuracy. While AD algorithms have traditionally been implemented on central processing units (CPUs), this study focuses on leveraging the capabilities of graphics processing units (GPUs) to achieve enhanced computational speed. In terms of processing speed, the GPU AD algorithm showed an improvement by a factor of about 5000 to 40,000 compared to the GPU MC method. The optimal number of threads for this algorithm was found to be approximately 3000. To illustrate the utility of the GPU AD algorithm, the Levenberg–Marquardt inverse solution was used to extract object parameters from optical spectral data of human skin under various hemodynamic conditions. With regards to computational efficiency, it took approximately 5 min to process a 220 × 100 × 61 image (x-axis × y-axis × spectral-axis). The development of the GPU AD algorithm presents an advancement in determining tissue properties compared to other RTE solutions. Moreover, the GPU AD method itself holds the potential to expedite machine learning techniques in the analysis of spectral images. Full article
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2023

Jump to: 2024, 2022

19 pages, 523 KiB  
Article
Heart Disease Prediction Using Concatenated Hybrid Ensemble Classifiers
by Annwesha Banerjee Majumder, Somsubhra Gupta, Dharmpal Singh, Biswaranjan Acharya, Vassilis C. Gerogiannis, Andreas Kanavos and Panagiotis Pintelas
Algorithms 2023, 16(12), 538; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16120538 - 25 Nov 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2748
Abstract
Heart disease is a leading global cause of mortality, demanding early detection for effective and timely medical intervention. In this study, we propose a machine learning-based model for early heart disease prediction. This model is trained on a dataset from the UC Irvine [...] Read more.
Heart disease is a leading global cause of mortality, demanding early detection for effective and timely medical intervention. In this study, we propose a machine learning-based model for early heart disease prediction. This model is trained on a dataset from the UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository (UCI) and employs the Extra Trees Classifier for performing feature selection. To ensure robust model training, we standardize this dataset using the StandardScaler method for data standardization, thus preserving the distribution shape and mitigating the impact of outliers. For the classification task, we introduce a novel approach, which is the concatenated hybrid ensemble voting classification. This method combines two hybrid ensemble classifiers, each one utilizing a distinct subset of base classifiers from a set that includes Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbor, Logistic Regression, Adaboost and Naive Bayes. By leveraging the concatenated ensemble classifiers, the proposed model shows some promising performance results; in particular, it achieves an accuracy of 86.89%. The obtained results highlight the efficacy of combining the strengths of multiple base classifiers in the problem of early heart disease prediction, thus aiding and enabling timely medical intervention. Full article
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15 pages, 5285 KiB  
Article
Machine Learning-Based Approach for Predicting Diabetes Employing Socio-Demographic Characteristics
by Md. Ashikur Rahman, Lway Faisal Abdulrazak, Md. Mamun Ali, Imran Mahmud, Kawsar Ahmed and Francis M. Bui
Algorithms 2023, 16(11), 503; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16110503 - 29 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2815
Abstract
Diabetes is one of the fatal diseases that play a vital role in the growth of other diseases in the human body. From a clinical perspective, the most significant approach to mitigating the effects of diabetes is early-stage control and management, with the [...] Read more.
Diabetes is one of the fatal diseases that play a vital role in the growth of other diseases in the human body. From a clinical perspective, the most significant approach to mitigating the effects of diabetes is early-stage control and management, with the aim of a potential cure. However, lack of awareness and expensive clinical tests are the primary reasons why clinical diagnosis and preventive measures are neglected in lower-income countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. From this perspective, this study aims to build an automated machine learning (ML) model, which will predict diabetes at an early stage using socio-demographic characteristics rather than clinical attributes, due to the fact that clinical features are not always accessible to all people from lower-income countries. To find the best fit of the supervised ML classifier of the model, we applied six classification algorithms and found that RF outperformed with an accuracy of 99.36%. In addition, the most significant risk factors were found based on the SHAP value by all the applied classifiers. This study reveals that polyuria, polydipsia, and delayed healing are the most significant risk factors for developing diabetes. The findings indicate that the proposed model is highly capable of predicting diabetes in the early stages. Full article
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42 pages, 6014 KiB  
Review
A Review of Methods and Applications for a Heart Rate Variability Analysis
by Suraj Kumar Nayak, Bikash Pradhan, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Jayaraman Sivaraman, Sirsendu Sekhar Ray, Jolanta Wawrzyniak, Maciej Jarzębski and Kunal Pal
Algorithms 2023, 16(9), 433; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16090433 - 9 Sep 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5762
Abstract
Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as an essential non-invasive tool for understanding cardiac autonomic function over the last few decades. This can be attributed to the direct connection between the heart’s rhythm and the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. [...] Read more.
Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as an essential non-invasive tool for understanding cardiac autonomic function over the last few decades. This can be attributed to the direct connection between the heart’s rhythm and the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The cost-effectiveness and ease with which one may obtain HRV data also make it an exciting and potential clinical tool for evaluating and identifying various health impairments. This article comprehensively describes a range of signal decomposition techniques and time-series modeling methods recently used in HRV analyses apart from the conventional HRV generation and feature extraction methods. Various weight-based feature selection approaches and dimensionality reduction techniques are summarized to assess the relevance of each HRV feature vector. The popular machine learning-based HRV feature classification techniques are also described. Some notable clinical applications of HRV analyses, like the detection of diabetes, sleep apnea, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, hypertension, renal failure, psychiatric disorders, ANS Activity of Patients Undergoing Weaning from Mechanical Ventilation, and monitoring of fetal distress and neonatal critical care, are discussed. The latest research on the effect of external stimuli (like consuming alcohol) on autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity using HRV analyses is also summarized. The HRV analysis approaches summarized in our article can help future researchers to dive deep into their potential diagnostic applications. Full article
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13 pages, 2214 KiB  
Article
Ensemble Transfer Learning for Distinguishing Cognitively Normal and Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients Using MRI
by Pratham Grover, Kunal Chaturvedi, Xing Zi, Amit Saxena, Shiv Prakash, Tony Jan and Mukesh Prasad
Algorithms 2023, 16(8), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16080377 - 6 Aug 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2600
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that causes brain cells to degenerate, resulting in decreased physical and mental abilities and, in severe cases, permanent memory loss. It is considered as the most common and fatal form of dementia. Although mild cognitive impairment [...] Read more.
Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that causes brain cells to degenerate, resulting in decreased physical and mental abilities and, in severe cases, permanent memory loss. It is considered as the most common and fatal form of dementia. Although mild cognitive impairment (MCI) precedes Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it does not necessarily show the obvious symptoms of AD. As a result, it becomes challenging to distinguish between mild cognitive impairment and cognitively normal. In this paper, we propose an ensemble of deep learners based on convolutional neural networks for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The proposed approach utilises simple averaging ensemble and weighted averaging ensemble methods. The ensemble-based transfer learning model demonstrates enhanced generalization and performance for AD diagnosis compared to traditional transfer learning methods. Extensive experiments on the OASIS-3 dataset validate the effectiveness of the proposed model, showcasing its superiority over state-of-the-art transfer learning approaches in terms of accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. Full article
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20 pages, 1078 KiB  
Article
Low-Order Electrochemical State Estimation for Li-Ion Batteries
by Higuatzi Moreno and Alexander Schaum
Algorithms 2023, 16(2), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16020073 - 28 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1547
Abstract
Batteries are complex systems involving spatially distributed microscopic mechanisms on different time scales whose adequate interplay is essential to ensure a desired functioning. Describing these phenomena yields nonlinearly coupled partial differential equations whose numerical solution requires considerable effort and computation time, making it [...] Read more.
Batteries are complex systems involving spatially distributed microscopic mechanisms on different time scales whose adequate interplay is essential to ensure a desired functioning. Describing these phenomena yields nonlinearly coupled partial differential equations whose numerical solution requires considerable effort and computation time, making it an infeasible solution for real-time applications. Anyway, having information about the internal electrochemical states of the battery can pave the way for many different advanced monitoring and control strategies with a big potential for improving efficiency and longevity. For such purposes, in the present paper, a combination of a low-order representation of the essential dynamics associated to the internal electrochemical mechanisms based on Dynamic Mode Decomposition for control (DMDc) is proposed to obtain an improved equivalent circuit model (ECM) representation with continuously updated parameters and combined with an extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The model-order reduction step extensively exploits the model structure, yielding a well structured low-order representation without artificial numerical correlations. The performance of the proposed method is illustrated with numerical simulations based on a well-established reference model, showing its potential usefulness in real-time applications requiring knowledge of the internal electrochemical states besides the state-of-charge. Full article
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2022

Jump to: 2024, 2023

42 pages, 2225 KiB  
Review
A Review on Data-Driven Condition Monitoring of Industrial Equipment
by Ruosen Qi, Jie Zhang and Katy Spencer
Algorithms 2023, 16(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/a16010009 - 22 Dec 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4216
Abstract
This paper presents an up-to-date review of data-driven condition monitoring of industrial equipment with the focus on three commonly used equipment: motors, pumps, and bearings. Firstly, the general framework of data-driven condition monitoring is discussed and the utilized mathematical and statistical approaches are [...] Read more.
This paper presents an up-to-date review of data-driven condition monitoring of industrial equipment with the focus on three commonly used equipment: motors, pumps, and bearings. Firstly, the general framework of data-driven condition monitoring is discussed and the utilized mathematical and statistical approaches are introduced. The utilized techniques in recent literature are discussed. Then, fault detection, diagnosis, and prognosis on the three types of equipment are highlighted using a variety of popular shallow and deep learning models. Applications of these techniques in recent literature are summarized. Finally, some potential future challenges and research directions are presented. Full article
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16 pages, 6354 KiB  
Article
Detection and Localisation of Abnormal Parathyroid Glands: An Explainable Deep Learning Approach
by Dimitris J. Apostolopoulos, Ioannis D. Apostolopoulos, Nikolaos D. Papathanasiou, Trifon Spyridonidis and George S. Panayiotakis
Algorithms 2022, 15(12), 455; https://doi.org/10.3390/a15120455 - 1 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1949
Abstract
Parathyroid scintigraphy with 99mTc-sestamibi (MIBI) is an established technique for localising abnormal parathyroid glands (PGs). However, the identification and localisation of PGs require much attention from medical experts and are time-consuming. Artificial intelligence methods can offer an assisting solution. This retrospective study enrolled [...] Read more.
Parathyroid scintigraphy with 99mTc-sestamibi (MIBI) is an established technique for localising abnormal parathyroid glands (PGs). However, the identification and localisation of PGs require much attention from medical experts and are time-consuming. Artificial intelligence methods can offer an assisting solution. This retrospective study enrolled 632 patients who underwent parathyroid scintigraphy with double-phase and thyroid subtraction techniques. The study proposes a three-path approach, employing the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network called VGG19. Images input to the model involved a set of three scintigraphic images in each case: MIBI early phase, MIBI late phase, and 99mTcO4 thyroid scan. A medical expert’s diagnosis provided the ground truth for positive/negative results. Moreover, the visualised suggested areas of interest produced by the Grad-CAM algorithm are examined to evaluate the PG-level agreement between the model and the experts. Medical experts identified 545 abnormal glands in 452 patients. On a patient basis, the deep learning (DL) model attained an accuracy of 94.8% (sensitivity 93.8%; specificity 97.2%) in distinguishing normal from abnormal scintigraphic images. On a PG basis and in achieving identical positioning of the findings with the experts, the model correctly identified and localised 453/545 glands (83.1%) and yielded 101 false focal results (false positive rate 18.23%). Concerning surgical findings, the expert’s sensitivity was 89.68% on patients and 77.6% on a PG basis, while that of the model reached 84.5% and 67.6%, respectively. Deep learning in parathyroid scintigraphy can potentially assist medical experts in identifying abnormal findings. Full article
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30 pages, 2252 KiB  
Systematic Review
Machine Learning Approaches for Skin Cancer Classification from Dermoscopic Images: A Systematic Review
by Flavia Grignaffini, Francesco Barbuto, Lorenzo Piazzo, Maurizio Troiano, Patrizio Simeoni, Fabio Mangini, Giovanni Pellacani, Carmen Cantisani and Fabrizio Frezza
Algorithms 2022, 15(11), 438; https://doi.org/10.3390/a15110438 - 21 Nov 2022
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6217
Abstract
Skin cancer (SC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Clinical evaluation of skin lesions is necessary to assess the characteristics of the disease; however, it is limited by long timelines and variety in interpretation. As early and accurate diagnosis of SC [...] Read more.
Skin cancer (SC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Clinical evaluation of skin lesions is necessary to assess the characteristics of the disease; however, it is limited by long timelines and variety in interpretation. As early and accurate diagnosis of SC is crucial to increase patient survival rates, machine-learning (ML) and deep-learning (DL) approaches have been developed to overcome these issues and support dermatologists. We present a systematic literature review of recent research on the use of machine learning to classify skin lesions with the aim of providing a solid starting point for researchers beginning to work in this area. A search was conducted in several electronic databases by applying inclusion/exclusion filters and for this review, only those documents that clearly and completely described the procedures performed and reported the results obtained were selected. Sixty-eight articles were selected, of which the majority use DL approaches, in particular convolutional neural networks (CNN), while a smaller portion rely on ML techniques or hybrid ML/DL approaches for skin cancer detection and classification. Many ML and DL methods show high performance as classifiers of skin lesions. The promising results obtained to date bode well for the not-too-distant inclusion of these techniques in clinical practice. Full article
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