Items where Author is "Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí"

Article Subjects > Nutrition Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Epidemiological studies consistently link higher fish intake with slower rates of cognitive decline and lower dementia incidence. The aim of the present study was to systematically review existing observational studies investigating the association between fish consumption and cognitive function in older adults. A total of 25 studies (8 cross-sectional and 17 prospective including mainly healthy older adults, age range of participants ranging from 18 to 30 years at baseline in prospective studies to 65 to 91 years, representing the upper limit of the age spectrum) were reviewed. Cognitive functions currently investigated in most published studies included various domains, such as global cognition, memory (episodic, working), executive function (planning, inhibition, flexibility), attention and processing speed. Existing studies greatly vary in terms of design (cross-sectional and prospective), geographical area, number of participants involved, and tools used to assess the outcomes of interest. The main findings across studies are not univocal, with some studies reporting stronger evidence of association between fish consumption and various cognitive domains, while others addressed rather null findings. The most consistently responsive domains were processing speed, executive functioning, semantic memory, and global cognitive ability among individuals consuming fish at least weekly, which are highly relevant to both neurodegenerative and vascular forms of cognitive impairment. Positive associations were also observed for verbal memory and general memory, though these were less uniform and often attenuated after multivariable adjustment. In contrast, associations with reaction time, verbal-numerical reasoning, and broad composite scores were inconsistent, and several fully adjusted models showed null results. In conclusion, the evidence suggests that regular fish intake (typically ≥1–2 servings per week) is linked to preserved cognitive performance, although some inconsistent findings require further investigations. metadata Godos, Justyna; Caruso, Giuseppe; Micek, Agnieszka; Dolci, Alberto; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Frias-Toral, Evelyn; Di Giorgio, Jason; Veronese, Nicola; Lehoczki, Andrea; Siervo, Mario; Ungvari, Zoltan and Grosso, Giuseppe mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED (2026) Fish consumption and cognitive function in aging: a systematic review of observational studies. GeroScience. ISSN 2509-2723

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production
University of La Romana > Research > Scientific Production Open English Epileptic seizures are neurological events characterized by sudden and excessive electrical discharges in the brain, leading to disruptions in brain function. Epileptic seizures can lead to life-threatening situations such as status epilepticus, which is characterized by prolonged or recurrent seizures and may lead to respiratory distress, aspiration pneumonia, and cardiac arrhythmias. Therefore, there is a need for an automated approach that can efficiently diagnose epileptic seizures at an early stage. The primary objective of this study is to develop a highly accurate approach for the early diagnosis of epileptic seizures. We use electroencephalography (EEG) signal data based on different brain activities to conduct experiments for epileptic seizure detection. For this purpose, a novel transfer learning technique called random forest-gated recurrent unit (RFGR) is proposed. The EEG brain activity signal data is fed into the RFGR model to generate a new feature set. The newly generated features are based on the class prediction probabilities extracted by the RFGR and are utilized to train models. Extensive experiments are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed approach. Results demonstrate that the RFGR, when used with the random forest model, outperforms state-of-the-art techniques, achieving a high accuracy of 99.00 %. Additionally, explainable artificial intelligence analysis is utilized to provide transparent and understandable explanations of the decision-making processes of the proposed approach. metadata Kına, Erol; Raza, Ali; Are, Prudhvi Chowdary; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Brito Ballester, Julién; Diez, Isabel de la Torre; Butt, Naveed Anwer and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, julien.brito@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED (2025) Enhancing detection of epileptic seizures using transfer learning and EEG brain activity signals. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 27. pp. 5182-5193. ISSN 20010370

Article Subjects > Biomedicine
Subjects > Nutrition Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production
University of La Romana > Research > Scientific Production Open English Polyphenols are naturally occurring compounds that can be found in plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, and beverages, the use of which has been linked to enhanced brain health and cognitive function. These natural molecules are broadly classified into two main groups: flavonoids and non-flavonoid polyphenols, the latter including phenolic acids, stilbenes, and tannins. Flavonoids are primarily known for their potent antioxidant properties, which help neutralize harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the brain, thereby reducing oxidative stress, a key contributor to neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to their antioxidant effects, flavonoids have been shown to modulate inflammation, enhance neuronal survival, and support neurogenesis, all of which are critical for maintaining cognitive function. Phenolic acids possess strong antioxidant properties and are believed to protect brain cells from oxidative damage. Neuroprotective effects of these molecules can also depend on their ability to modulate signaling pathways associated with inflammation and neuronal apoptosis. Among polyphenols, hydroxycinnamic acids such as caffeic acid have been shown to enhance blood-brain barrier permeability, which may increase the delivery of other protective compounds to the brain. Another compound of interest is represented by resveratrol, a stilbene extensively studied for its potential neuroprotective properties related to its ability to activate the sirtuin pathway, a molecular signaling pathway involved in cellular stress response and aging. Lignans, on the other hand, have shown promise in reducing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress, which could help slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive decline. Polyphenols belonging to different subclasses, such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, stilbenes, and lignans, exert neuroprotective effects by regulating microglial activation, suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokines, and mitigating oxidative stress. These compounds act through multiple signaling pathways, including NF-κB, MAPK, and Nrf2, and they may also influence genetic regulation of inflammation and immune responses at brain level. Despite their potential for brain health and cognitive function, polyphenols are often characterized by low bioavailability, something that deserves attention when considering their therapeutic potential. Future translational studies are needed to better understand the right dosage, the overall diet, the correct target population, as well as ideal formulations allowing to overcome bioavailability limitations. metadata Godos, Justyna; Carota, Giuseppe; Caruso, Giuseppe; Micek, Agnieszka; Frias-Toral, Evelyn; Giampieri, Francesca; Brito Ballester, Julién; Battino, Maurizio; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Quiles, José L. mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, francesca.giampieri@uneatlantico.es, julien.brito@uneatlantico.es, maurizio.battino@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, jose.quiles@uneatlantico.es (2025) Molecular mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective effects of polyphenols: implications for cognitive function. EXCLI journal, 24. pp. 1262-1294. ISSN 1611-2156

Article Subjects > Nutrition Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production
University of La Romana > Research > Scientific Production Open English Background/Objectives. Traditional dietary patterns are being abandoned in Mediterranean countries, especially among younger generations. This study aimed to investigate the potential lifestyle determinants that can increase adherence to the Mediterranean diet in children and adolescents. Methods. This study is a cross-sectional analysis of data from five Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, and Lebanon) within the context of the EU-funded project DELICIOUS (UnDErstanding consumer food choices & promotion of healthy and sustainable Mediterranean Diet and LIfestyle in Children and adolescents through behavIOUral change actionS). This study comprised information on 2011 children and adolescents aged 6–17 years old collected during 2023. The main background characteristics of both children and parents, including age, sex, education, and family situation, were collected. Children’s eating (i.e., breakfast, place of eating, etc.) and lifestyle habits (i.e., physical activity level, sleep, and screen time) were also investigated. The level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using the KIDMED index. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test for likelihood of higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Results. Major determinants of higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet were younger age, higher physical activity level, adequate sleep duration, and, among dietary habits, having breakfast and eating with family members and at school. Parents’ younger age and higher education were also determinants of higher adherence. Multivariate adjusted analyses showed that an overall healthier lifestyle and parents’ education were the factors independently associated with higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Conclusions. Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet in children and adolescents living in the Mediterranean area is part of an overall healthy lifestyle possibly depending on parents’ cultural background. metadata Rosi, Alice; Scazzina, Francesca; Giampieri, Francesca; Álvarez-Córdova, Ludwig; Abdelkarim, Osama; Ammar, Achraf; Aly, Mohamed; Frias-Toral, Evelyn; Pons, Juancho; Vázquez-Araújo, Laura; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Brito Ballester, Julién; Monasta, Lorenzo; Mata, Ana; Chacón, Adrián; Busó, Pablo and Grosso, Giuseppe mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, francesca.giampieri@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, julien.brito@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED (2024) Lifestyle Factors Associated with Children’s and Adolescents’ Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet Living in Mediterranean Countries: The DELICIOUS Project. Nutrients, 17 (1). p. 26. ISSN 2072-6643

Article Subjects > Biomedicine
Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production
University of La Romana > Research > Scientific Production Open English Objective Epileptic seizures are neurological events that pose significant risks of physical injuries characterized by sudden, abnormal bursts of electrical activity in the brain, often leading to loss of consciousness and uncontrolled movements. Early seizure detection is essential for timely treatments and better patient outcomes. To address this critical issue, there is a need for an advanced artificial intelligence approach for the early detection of epileptic seizure disorder. Methods This study primarily focuses on designing a novel ensemble approach to perform early detection of epileptic seizure disease with high performance. A novel ensemble approach consisting of a fast, independent component analysis random forest (FIR) and prediction probability is proposed, which uses electroencephalography (EEG) data to investigate the efficacy of the proposed approach for early detection of epileptic seizures. The FIR model extracts independent components and class prediction probability features, creating a new feature set. The proposed model combined integrated component analysis (ICA) with predicting probability to enhance seizure recognition accuracy scores. Extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate that FIR assists machine learning models to obtain superior results compared to original features. Results The research gap is addressed using combined features to improve the performance of epileptic seizure detection compared to a single feature set. In particular, the ensemble model FIR with support vector machine (FIR + SVM) outperforms other methods, achieving an accuracy of 98.4% for epileptic seizure detection. Conclusions The proposed FIR has the potential for early diagnosis of epileptic seizures and can significantly help the medical industry with enhanced detection and timely interventions. metadata Khalid, Madiha; Raza, Ali; Akhtar, Adnan; Rustam, Furqan; Brito Ballester, Julién; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Díez, Isabel de la Torre and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, julien.brito@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED (2024) Diagnosing epileptic seizures using combined features from independent components and prediction probability from EEG data. DIGITAL HEALTH, 10. ISSN 2055-2076

Article Subjects > Education Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open Spanish Esta investigación tuvo por objetivo valorar la utilización de un Instrumento para la evaluación de Entornos Virtuales de Aprendizaje (EVA), específicamente el DELES (Distance Education Learning Environments Survey) para el Proyecto Europeo de Educación Inclusiva denominado LOVEDISTANCE (Learning Optimization and Academic Inclusion Via Equitative Distance Teaching and Learning). El supuesto inicial es que el instrumento puede ser útil, pero está desactualizado y no necesariamente enfocado a los objetivos del proyecto LOVEDISTANCE, en particular al de Educación Inclusiva. El ejercicio académico se llevó a cabo en la Universidad de Levinsky, en Tel Aviv, Israel, y el análisis de la información se hizo con un enfoque cuanti-cualitativo, donde se utilizó, en una primera parte, la medida del consenso entre expertos para medir la fiabilidad estadística de las respuestas de los expertos, y después se realizó un análisis de la varianza (ANOVA) para determinar si existían diferencias significativas entre las medias de los grupos; posteriormente, se hizo un análisis cualitativo pormenorizado de las observaciones a partir de tres ejes de análisis: consideraciones del ejercicio investigativo, perfil de los investigadores y análisis de cada escala del instrumento. Algunas de las conclusiones más relevantes fueron que el instrumento es, en su mayoría, útil para los propósitos del proyecto LOVEDISTANCE, pero precisa mejoras en lo referido a las siguientes escalas: relevancia del aprendizaje para el alumno, apoyo por parte del instructor y la medición en la autonomía del estudiante. metadata Garat de Marin, Mirtha Silvana; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Prola, Thomas and Soriano Flores, Emmanuel mail silvana.marin@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, thomas.prola@uneatlantico.es, emmanuel.soriano@uneatlantico.es (2024) Readaptación de un instrumento para la evaluación de entornos virtuales de aprendizaje en el proyecto europeo de educación inclusiva denominado LOVEDISTANCE. MLS Educational Research, 8 (1). ISSN 2603-5820

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English The wheat crop that fulfills 35% of human food demand is facing several problems due to a lack of transparency, security, reliability, and traceability in the existing agriculture supply chain. Many systems have been developed for the agriculture supply chain to overcome such issues, however, monopolistic centralized control is the biggest hurdle to realizing the use of such systems. It has eventually gained consumers’ trust in branded products and rejected other products due to the lack of traceable supply chain information. This study proposes a blockchain-based framework for supply chain traceability which provides trustable, transparent, secure, and reliable services for the wheat crop. A crypto token called wheat coin (WC) has been introduced to keep track of transactions among the stakeholders of the wheat supply chain. Moreover, an initial coin offering (ICO) of WC, crypto wallets, and an economic model are proposed. Furthermore, a smart contract-based transaction system has been devised for the transparency of wheat crop transactions and conversion of WC to fiat and vice versa. We have developed the interplanetary file system (IPFS) to improve data availability, security, and transparency which stores encrypted private data of farmers, businesses, and merchants. Lastly, the results of the experiments show that the proposed framework shows better performance as compared to previous crop supply chain solutions in terms of latency to add-blocks, per-minute transactions, average gas charge for the transaction, and transaction verification time. Performance analysis with Bitcoin and Ethereum shows the superior performance of the proposed system. metadata Alam, Shadab; Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Ansari, Zain Khalid; Alvi, Atif; Rustam, Furqan; Díez, Isabel De La Torre; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2024) Blockchain based transparent and reliable framework for wheat crop supply chain. PLOS ONE, 19 (1). e0295036. ISSN 1932-6203

Article Subjects > Biomedicine
Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Fundación Universitaria Internacional de Colombia > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Objective This study aims to develop a lightweight convolutional neural network-based edge federated learning architecture for COVID-19 detection using X-ray images, aiming to minimize computational cost, latency, and bandwidth requirements while preserving patient privacy. Method The proposed method uses an edge federated learning architecture to optimize task allocation and execution. Unlike in traditional edge networks where requests from fixed nodes are handled by nearby edge devices or remote clouds, the proposed model uses an intelligent broker within the federation to assess member edge cloudlets' parameters, such as resources and hop count, to make optimal decisions for task offloading. This approach enhances performance and privacy by placing tasks in closer proximity to the user. DenseNet is used for model training, with a depth of 60 and 357,482 parameters. This resource-aware distributed approach optimizes computing resource utilization within the edge-federated learning architecture. Results The experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in various performance metrics. The proposed method reduces training time by 53.1%, optimizes CPU and memory utilization by 17.5% and 33.6%, and maintains accurate COVID-19 detection capabilities without compromising the F1 score, demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of the lightweight convolutional neural network-based edge federated learning architecture. Conclusion Existing studies predominantly concentrate on either privacy and accuracy or load balancing and energy optimization, with limited emphasis on training time. The proposed approach offers a comprehensive performance-centric solution that simultaneously addresses privacy, load balancing, and energy optimization while reducing training time, providing a more holistic and balanced solution for optimal system performance. metadata Alvi, Sohaib Bin Khalid; Nayyer, Muhammad Ziad; Jamal, Muhammad Hasan; Raza, Imran; de la Torre Diez, Isabel; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Breñosa, Jose and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, josemanuel.brenosa@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2023) A lightweight deep learning approach for COVID-19 detection using X-ray images with edge federation. DIGITAL HEALTH, 9. ISSN 2055-2076

Article Subjects > Engineering
Subjects > Education Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English The purpose of this research article was to contrast the benefits of the optimal probability threshold adjustment technique with other imbalanced data processing techniques, in its application to the prediction of post-graduate students’ late dropout from distance learning courses in two universities in the Ibero-American space. In this context, the optimization of the Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Neural Network classifiers, together with different techniques, attributes, and algorithms (Hyperparameters, SMOTE, SMOTE_SVM, and ADASYN) resulted in a set of metrics for decision-making, prioritizing the reduction of false negatives. The best model was the Neural Network model in combination with SMOTE_SVM, obtaining a recall index of 0.75 and an f1-Score of 0.60. Likewise, the robustness of the Random Forest classifier for imbalanced data was demonstrated by achieving, with an optimal threshold of 0.427, very similar metrics to those obtained by the consensus of the three best models found. This demonstrates that, for Random Forest, the optimal prediction probability threshold is an excellent alternative to resampling techniques with different optimal thresholds. Finally, it is hoped that this research paper will contribute to boost the application of this simple but powerful technique, which is highly underrated with respect to data resampling techniques for imbalanced data. metadata Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; García Villena, Eduardo; Brito Ballester, Julién; Durántez Prados, Frigdiano Álvaro; Silva Alvarado, Eduardo René and Crespo Álvarez, Jorge mail carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, eduardo.garcia@uneatlantico.es, julien.brito@uneatlantico.es, durantez@uneatlantico.es, eduardo.silva@funiber.org, jorge.crespo@uneatlantico.es (2023) Forecasting of Post-Graduate Students’ Late Dropout Based on the Optimal Probability Threshold Adjustment Technique for Imbalanced Data. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 18 (04). pp. 120-155. ISSN 1863-0383

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Fundación Universitaria Internacional de Colombia > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Breast cancer is prevalent in women and the second leading cause of death. Conventional breast cancer detection methods require several laboratory tests and medical experts. Automated breast cancer detection is thus very important for timely treatment. This study explores the influence of various feature selection technique to increase the performance of machine learning methods for breast cancer detection. Experimental results shows that use of appropriate features tend to show highly accurate prediction metadata Shafique, Rahman; Rustam, Furqan; Choi, Gyu Sang; Díez, Isabel de la Torre; Mahmood, Arif; Lipari, Vivian; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, vivian.lipari@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2023) Breast Cancer Prediction Using Fine Needle Aspiration Features and Upsampling with Supervised Machine Learning. Cancers, 15 (3). p. 681. ISSN 2072-6694

Article Subjects > Biomedicine
Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Asthma is a deadly disease that affects the lungs and air supply of the human body. Coronavirus and its variants also affect the airways of the lungs. Asthma patients approach hospitals mostly in a critical condition and require emergency treatment, which creates a burden on health institutions during pandemics. The similar symptoms of asthma and coronavirus create confusion for health workers during patient handling and treatment of disease. The unavailability of patient history to physicians causes complications in proper diagnostics and treatments. Many asthma patient deaths have been reported especially during pandemics, which necessitates an efficient framework for asthma patients. In this article, we have proposed a blockchain consortium healthcare framework for asthma patients. The proposed framework helps in managing asthma healthcare units, coronavirus patient records and vaccination centers, insurance companies, and government agencies, which are connected through the secure blockchain network. The proposed framework increases data security and scalability as it stores encrypted patient data on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and keeps data hash values on the blockchain. The patient data are traceable and accessible to physicians and stakeholders, which helps in accurate diagnostics, timely treatment, and the management of patients. The smart contract ensures the execution of all business rules. The patient profile generation mechanism is also discussed. The experiment results revealed that the proposed framework has better transaction throughput, query delay, and security than existing solutions metadata Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Suhail, Maryam; Qureshi, Junaid Nasir; Rustam, Furqan; de la Torre Díez, Isabel; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) Consortium Framework Using Blockchain for Asthma Healthcare in Pandemics. Sensors, 22 (21). p. 8582. ISSN 1424-8220

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Fundación Universitaria Internacional de Colombia > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Facial emotion recognition (FER) is an important and developing topic of research in the field of pattern recognition. The effective application of facial emotion analysis is gaining popularity in surveillance footage, expression analysis, activity recognition, home automation, computer games, stress treatment, patient observation, depression, psychoanalysis, and robotics. Robot interfaces, emotion-aware smart agent systems, and efficient human–computer interaction all benefit greatly from facial expression recognition. This has garnered attention as a key prospect in recent years. However, due to shortcomings in the presence of occlusions, fluctuations in lighting, and changes in physical appearance, research on emotion recognition has to be improved. This paper proposes a new architecture design of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the FER system and contains five convolution layers, one fully connected layer with rectified linear unit activation function, and a SoftMax layer. Additionally, the feature map enhancement is applied to accomplish a higher detection rate and higher precision. Lastly, an application is developed that mitigates the effects of the aforementioned problems and can identify the basic expressions of human emotions, such as joy, grief, surprise, fear, contempt, anger, etc. Results indicate that the proposed CNN achieves 92.66% accuracy with mixed datasets, while the accuracy for the cross dataset is 94.94%. metadata Qazi, Awais Salman; Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Rustam, Furqan; Gracia Villar, Mónica; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, monica.gracia@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) Emotion Detection Using Facial Expression Involving Occlusions and Tilt. Applied Sciences, 12 (22). p. 11797. ISSN 2076-3417

Article Subjects > Biomedicine
Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production Open English White blood cell (WBC) type classification is a task of significant importance for diagnosis using microscopic images of WBC, which develop immunity to fight against infections and foreign substances. WBCs consist of different types, and abnormalities in a type of WBC may potentially represent a disease such as leukemia. Existing studies are limited by low accuracy and overrated performance, often caused by model overfit due to an imbalanced dataset. Additionally, many studies consider a lower number of WBC types, and the accuracy is exaggerated. This study presents a hybrid feature set of selective features and synthetic minority oversampling technique-based resampling to mitigate the influence of the above-mentioned problems. Furthermore, machine learning models are adopted for being less computationally complex, requiring less data for training, and providing robust results. Experiments are performed using both machine- and deep learning models for performance comparison using the original dataset, augmented dataset, and oversampled dataset to analyze the performances of the models. The results suggest that a hybrid feature set of both texture and RGB features from microscopic images, selected using Chi2, produces a high accuracy of 0.97 with random forest. Performance appraisal using k-fold cross-validation and comparison with existing state-of-the-art studies shows that the proposed approach outperforms existing studies regarding the obtained accuracy and computational complexity. metadata Rustam, Furqan; Aslam, Naila; De La Torre Díez, Isabel; Khan, Yaser Daanial; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) White Blood Cell Classification Using Texture and RGB Features of Oversampled Microscopic Images. Healthcare, 10 (11). p. 2230. ISSN 2227-9032

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English With rapid urbanization, high rates of industrialization, and inappropriate waste disposal, water quality has been substantially degraded during the past decade. So, water quality prediction, an essential element for a healthy society, has become a task of great significance to protecting the water environment. Existing approaches focus predominantly on either water quality or water consumption prediction, utilizing complex algorithms that reduce the accuracy of imbalanced datasets and increase computational complexity. This study proposes a simple architecture of neural networks which is more efficient and accurate and can work for predicting both water quality and water consumption. An artificial neural network (ANN) consisting of one hidden layer and a couple of dropout and activation layers is utilized in this regard. The approach is tested using two datasets for predicting water quality and water consumption. Results show a 0.96 accuracy for water quality prediction which is better than existing studies. A 0.99 R2 score is obtained for water consumption prediction which is superior to existing state-of-the-art approaches. metadata Rustam, Furqan; Ishaq, Abid; Kokab, Sayyida Tabinda; de la Torre Diez, Isabel; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) An Artificial Neural Network Model for Water Quality and Water Consumption Prediction. Water, 14 (21). p. 3359. ISSN 2073-4441

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Building energy consumption prediction has become an important research problem within the context of sustainable homes and smart cities. Data-driven approaches have been regarded as the most suitable for integration into smart houses. With the wide deployment of IoT sensors, the data generated from these sensors can be used for modeling and forecasting energy consumption patterns. Existing studies lag in prediction accuracy and various attributes of buildings are not very well studied. This study follows a data-driven approach in this regard. The novelty of the paper lies in the fact that an ensemble model is proposed, which provides higher performance regarding cooling and heating load prediction. Moreover, the influence of different features on heating and cooling load is investigated. Experiments are performed by considering different features such as glazing area, orientation, height, relative compactness, roof area, surface area, and wall area. Results indicate that relative compactness, surface area, and wall area play a significant role in selecting the appropriate cooling and heating load for a building. The proposed model achieves 0.999 R2 for heating load prediction and 0.997 R2 for cooling load prediction, which is superior to existing state-of-the-art models. The precise prediction of heating and cooling load, can help engineers design energy-efficient buildings, especially in the context of future smart homes metadata Chaganti, Rajasekhar; Rustam, Furqan; Daghriri, Talal; Díez, Isabel de la Torre; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) Building Heating and Cooling Load Prediction Using Ensemble Machine Learning Model. Sensors, 22 (19). p. 7692. ISSN 1424-8220

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Fundación Universitaria Internacional de Colombia > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Technology’s expansion has contributed to the rise in popularity of social media platforms. Twitter is one of the leading social media platforms that people use to share their opinions. Such opinions, sometimes, may contain threatening text, deliberately or non-deliberately, which can be disturbing for other users. Consequently, the detection of threatening content on social media is an important task. Contrary to high-resource languages like English, Dutch, and others that have several such approaches, the low-resource Urdu language does not have such a luxury. Therefore, this study presents an intelligent threatening language detection for the Urdu language. A stacking model is proposed that uses an extra tree (ET) classifier and Bayes theorem-based Bernoulli Naive Bayes (BNB) as the based learners while logistic regression (LR) is employed as the meta learner. A performance analysis is carried out by deploying a support vector classifier, ET, LR, BNB, fully connected network, convolutional neural network, long short-term memory, and gated recurrent unit. Experimental results indicate that the stacked model performs better than both machine learning and deep learning models. With 74.01% accuracy, 70.84% precision, 75.65% recall, and 73.99% F1 score, the model outperforms the existing benchmark study. metadata Mehmood, Aneela; Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Naseem, Ansar; Rustam, Furqan; Gracia Villar, Mónica; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, monica.gracia@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) Threatening URDU Language Detection from Tweets Using Machine Learning. Applied Sciences, 12 (20). p. 10342. ISSN 2076-3417

Article Subjects > Social Sciences Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Fundación Universitaria Internacional de Colombia > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English This article proposes a discussion on the form of coexistence of local Development Agencies in Uruguay, with local governments in the face of the new scenarios marked by the decentralization process, initiated in the country with the Constitutional Reform of 1996 and culminating in February 2009, with the Law of Political Decentralization and Citizen Participation. The discussion applies in particular to the local development agency of the city of Rivera (ADR), located in the northeast of the country. A descriptive, mixed, bibliographic, documentary investigation was carried out with primary data collection to internal and external references to ADR. The results show that the coexistence of both institutions has been difficult, without defining clear roles. Promoting dialogue to define the role of each seems to be the great challenge facing the sustainability of the agency metadata Garat de Marin, Mirtha Silvana; Soriano Flores, Emmanuel; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí; Silva Alvarado, Eduardo; Calderón Iglesias, Rubén; Álvarez, Roberto Marcelo and Gracia Villar, Santos mail silvana.marin@uneatlantico.es, emmanuel.soriano@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED, ruben.calderon@uneatlantico.es, roberto.alvarez@uneatlantico.es, santos.gracia@uneatlantico.es (2022) Development Agencies and Local Governments—Coexistence within the Same Territory. Social Sciences, 11 (9). p. 398. ISSN 2076-0760

Article Subjects > Engineering Europe University of Atlantic > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Scientific Production
Ibero-american International University > Research > Articles and Books
Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Research > Scientific Production Open English Thyroid disease prediction has emerged as an important task recently. Despite existing approaches for its diagnosis, often the target is binary classification, the used datasets are small-sized and results are not validated either. Predominantly, existing approaches focus on model optimization and the feature engineering part is less investigated. To overcome these limitations, this study presents an approach that investigates feature engineering for machine learning and deep learning models. Forward feature selection, backward feature elimination, bidirectional feature elimination, and machine learning-based feature selection using extra tree classifiers are adopted. The proposed approach can predict Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (primary hypothyroid), binding protein (increased binding protein), autoimmune thyroiditis (compensated hypothyroid), and non-thyroidal syndrome (NTIS) (concurrent non-thyroidal illness). Extensive experiments show that the extra tree classifier-based selected feature yields the best results with 0.99 accuracy and an F1 score when used with the random forest classifier. Results suggest that the machine learning models are a better choice for thyroid disease detection regarding the provided accuracy and the computational complexity. K-fold cross-validation and performance comparison with existing studies corroborate the superior performance of the proposed approach. metadata Chaganti, Rajasekhar; Rustam, Furqan; De La Torre Díez, Isabel; Vidal Mazón, Juan Luis; Rodríguez Velasco, Carmen Lilí and Ashraf, Imran mail UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED, juanluis.vidal@uneatlantico.es, carmen.rodriguez@uneatlantico.es, UNSPECIFIED (2022) Thyroid Disease Prediction Using Selective Features and Machine Learning Techniques. Cancers, 14 (16). p. 3914. ISSN 2072-6694