This study applied supervised machine learning with multi-modal data to predict remission of major depressive disorder (MDD) after psychotherapy. Genotyped adult patients (n = 894, 65.5% women, age 18–75 years) diagnosed with mild-to-moderate MDD and treated with guided Internet-based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (ICBT) at the Internet Psychiatry Clinic in Stockholm were included (2008–2016). Predictor types were demographic, clinical, process (e.g., time to complete online questionnaires), and genetic (polygenic risk scores). Outcome was remission status post ICBT (cut-off ≤10 on MADRS-S). Data were split into train (60%) and validation (40%) given ICBT start date. Predictor selection employed human expertise followed by recursive feature elimination. Model derivation was internally validated through cross-validation. The final random forest model was externally validated against a (i) null, (ii) logit, (iii) XGBoost, and (iv) blended meta-ensemble model on the hold-out validation set. Feature selection retained 45 predictors representing all four predictor types. With unseen validation data, the final random forest model proved reasonably accurate at classifying post ICBT remission (Accuracy 0.656 [0.604, 0.705], P vs null model = 0.004; AUC 0.687 [0.631, 0.743]), slightly better vs logit (bootstrap D = 1.730, P = 0.084) but not vs XGBoost (D = 0.463, P = 0.643). Transparency analysis showed model usage of all predictor types at both the group and individual patient level. A new, multi-modal classifier for predicting MDD remission status after ICBT treatment in routine psychiatric care was derived and empirically validated. The multi-modal approach to predicting remission may inform tailored treatment, and deserves further investigation to attain clinical usefulness. © 2022, The Author(s).

Modern mobile networks are increasingly complex from a resource management perspective, with diverse combinations of software, infrastructure elements and services that need to be configured and tuned for correct and efficient operation. It is well accepted in the communications community that appropriately dimensioned, efficient and reliable configurations of systems like 5G or indeed its predecessor 4G is a massive technical challenge. One promising avenue is the application of machine learning methods to apply a data-driven and continuous learning approach to automated system performance tuning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of policy-gradient reinforcement learning as a way to learn and apply complex interleaving patterns of radio resource block usage in 4G and 5G, in order to automate the reduction of cell edge interference. We show that our method can increase overall spectral efficiency up to 25% and increase the overall system energy efficiency up to 50% in very challenging scenarios by learning how to do more with less system resources. We also introduce a flexible phased and continuous learning approach that can be used to train a bootstrap model in a simulated environment after which the model is transferred to a live system for continuous contextual learning.

A learning machine, in the form of a gating network that governs a finite number of different machine learning methods, is described at the conceptual level with examples of concrete prediction subtasks. A historical data set with data from over 5000 patients in Internet-based psychological treatment will be used to equip healthcare staff with decision support for questions pertaining to ongoing and future cases in clinical care for depression, social anxiety, and panic disorder. The organizational knowledge graph is used to inform the weight adjustment of the gating network and for routing subtasks to the different methods employed locally for prediction. The result is an operational model for assisting therapists in their clinical work, about to be subjected to validation in a clinical trial.

Permission-less blockchains can realise trustless trust, albeit at the cost of limiting the complexity of computation tasks. To explain the implications for scalability, we have implemented a trust model for smart contracts, described as agents in an open multi-agent system. Agent intentions are not necessarily known and autonomous agents have to be able to make decisions under risk. The ramifications of these general conditions for scalability are analysed for Ethereum and then generalised to other current and future platforms. Finally, mechanisms from the trust model are applied to a verifiable computation algorithm and implemented in the Ethereum blockchain. We show in experiments that the algorithm needs at most six semi-honest verifiers to detect false submission.

We formulate, using the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation (DNLS), a general approach to encode and process information based on reservoir computing. Reservoir computing is a promising avenue for realizing neuromorphic computing devices. In such computing systems, training is performed only at the output level by adjusting the output from the reservoir with respect to a target signal. In our formulation, the reservoir can be an arbitrary physical system, driven out of thermal equilibrium by an external driving. The DNLS is a general oscillator model with broad application in physics, and we argue that our approach is completely general and does not depend on the physical realization of the reservoir. The driving, which encodes the object to be recognized, acts as a thermodynamic force, one for each node in the reservoir. Currents associated with these thermodynamic forces in turn encode the output signal from the reservoir. As an example, we consider numerically the problem of supervised learning for pattern recognition, using as a reservoir a network of nonlinear oscillators.

The objective of this study is to critically assess the possible roles of information and communications technology (ICT) in supporting global health goals. This is done by considering privilege and connectibility. In short, ICT can contribute by providing health information via four different kinds of access, each with its own history and prospective future. All four are analyzed here, in two perspectives: business-as-usual and disruptive. Health data analytics is difficult since the digital representation of past, current, and future health information is lacking. The flow of analytics that may prove beneficial to the individual and not just meet abstract population-level goals or ambitions is analyzed in detail. Sensemaking is also needed, to meet the minimum requirement of making prospective future services understandable to policymakers. Drivers as well as barriers for areas in which policy decisions have the potential to drive positive developments for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals are identified. © 2017 The Author(s).

A systemic model for making sense of health data is presented, in which networked foresight complements intelligent data analytics. Data here serves the goal of a future systems medicine approach by explaining the past and the current, while foresight can serve by explaining the future. Anecdotal evidence from a case study is presented, in which the complex decisions faced by the traditional stakeholder of results—the policymaker—are replaced by the often mundane problems faced by an individual trying to make sense of sensor input and output when self-tracking wellness. The conclusion is that the employment of our systemic model for successful sensemaking integrates not only data with networked foresight, but also unpacks such problems and the user practices associated with their solutions.

Resting on our experience of computational epidemiology in practice and of industrial projects on analytics of complex networks, we point to an innovation opportunity for improving the digital services to epidemiologists for monitoring, modeling, and mitigating the effects of communicable disease. Artificial intelligence and intelligent analytics of syndromic surveillance data promise new insights to epidemiologists, but the real value can only be realized if human assessments are paired with assessments made by machines. Neither massive data itself, nor careful analytics will necessarily lead to better informed decisions. The process producing feedback to humans on decision making informed by machines can be reversed to consider feedback to machines on decision making informed by humans, enabling learning machines. We predict and argue for the fact that the sensemaking that such machines can perform in tandem with humans can be of immense value to epidemiologists in the future.