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The authors looked at the ability of different machine learning algorithms to predict the level of financial corruption in different countries.

Given an association between nicotine addiction and gene expression, we hypothesized that expression of genes commonly associated with smoking status would have variable expression between smokers and non-smokers. To test whether gene expression varies between smokers and non-smokers, we analyzed two publicly-available datasets that profiled RNA gene expression from brain (nucleus accumbens) and lung tissue taken from patients identified as smokers or non-smokers. We discovered statistically significant differences in expression of dozens of genes between smokers and non-smokers. To test whether gene expression can be used to predict whether a patient is a smoker or non-smoker, we used gene expression as the training data for a logistic regression or random forest classification model. The random forest classifier trained on lung tissue data showed the most robust results, with area under curve (AUC) values consistently between 0.82 and 0.93. Both models trained on nucleus accumbens data had poorer performance, with AUC values consistently between 0.65 and 0.7 when using random forest. These results suggest gene expression can be used to predict smoking status using traditional machine learning models. Additionally, based on our random forest model, we proposed KCNJ3 and TXLNGY as two candidate markers of smoking status. These findings, coupled with other genes identified in this study, present promising avenues for advancing applications related to the genetic foundation of smoking-related characteristics.

Every year, around 40% of undergraduate students in the United States discontinue their studies, resulting in a loss of valuable education for students and a loss of money for colleges. Even so, colleges across the nation struggle to discover the underlying causes of these high dropout rates. In this paper, the authors discuss the use of machine learning to find correlations between the built environment factors and the retention rates of colleges. They hypothesized that one way for colleges to improve their retention rates could be to improve the physical characteristics of their campus to be more pleasing. The authors used image classification techniques to look at images of colleges and correlate certain features like colors, cars, and people to higher or lower retention rates. With three possible options of high, medium, and low retention rates, the probability that their models reached the right conclusion if they simply chose randomly was 33%. After finding that this 33%, or 0.33 mark, always fell outside of the 99% confidence intervals built around their models’ accuracies, the authors concluded that their machine learning techniques can be used to find correlations between certain environmental factors and retention rates.

Long hospital stays can be stressful for the patient for many reasons. We hypothesized that age would be the greatest predictor of hospital stay among patients who underwent orthopedic surgery. Through our models, we found that severity of illness was indeed the highest factor that contributed to determining patient length of stay. The other two factors that followed were the facility that the patient was staying in and the type of procedure that they underwent.

Using a convolution neural network, these authors show machine learning can clinically diagnose breast cancer with high accuracy.

Seeking to investigate the effects of ambient pollutants on human respiratory health, here the authors used machine learning to examine asthma in Lost Angeles County, an area with substantial pollution. By using machine learning models and classification techniques, the authors identified that nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels were significantly correlated with asthma hospitalizations. Based on an identified seasonal surge in asthma hospitalizations, the authors suggest future directions to improve machine learning modeling to investigate these relationships.

In this study, the impact of thermal effects on the orbit of an asteroid is investigated. This included determining if the asteroid's orbit would push into a region devoid of asteroids due to the gravitational pull of Jupiter.

Here, recognizing the difficulty associated with tracking the progression of dementia, the authors used machine learning models to predict between the presence of cognitive normalcy, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease, based on blood DNA methylation levels, sex, and age. With four machine learning models and two dataset dimensionality reduction methods they achieved an accuracy of 53.33%.

The authors looked at using genetic algorithms to look at the Indian labor market and what features might best explain any variation seen. They found that features such as economic growth and household consumption, among others, best explained variation.

Here the authors investigated air quality forecasting in India, comparing traditional time series models like SARIMA with deep learning models like LSTM. The research found that SARIMA models, which capture seasonal variations, outperform LSTM models in predicting Air Quality Index (AQI) levels across multiple Indian cities, supporting the hypothesis that simpler models can be more effective for this specific task.