Bayesian networks (BNs) are probabilistic graphical models that leverage Bayes’ theorem to portray dependencies and cause-and-effect relationships between variables. These networks have gained prominence in the field of health sciences, particularly in diagnostic processes, by allowing the integration of medical knowledge into models and addressing uncertainty in a probabilistic manner. Objectives: This review aims to provide an exhaustive overview of the current state of Bayesian networks in disease diagnosis and prognosis. Additionally, it seeks to introduce readers to the fundamental methodology of BNs, emphasising their versatility and applicability across varied medical domains. Employing a meticulous search strategy with MeSH descriptors in diverse scientific databases, we identified 190 relevant references. These were subjected to a rigorous analysis, resulting in the retention of 60 papers for in-depth review. The robustness of our approach minimised the risk of selection bias. Results: The selected studies encompass a wide range of medical areas, providing insights into the statistical methodology, implementation feasibility, and predictive accuracy of BNs, as evidenced by an average area under the curve (AUC) exceeding 75%. The comprehensive analysis underscores the adaptability and efficacy of Bayesian networks in diverse clinical scenarios. The majority of the examined studies demonstrate the potential of BNs as reliable adjuncts to clinical decision-making. The findings of this review affirm the role of Bayesian networks as accessible and versatile artificial intelligence tools in healthcare. They offer a viable solution to address complex medical challenges, facilitating timely and informed decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. The extensive exploration of Bayesian networks presented in this review highlights their significance and growing impact in the realm of disease diagnosis and prognosis. It underscores the need for further research and development to optimise their capabilities and broaden their applicability in addressing diverse and intricate healthcare challenges.

This research is in response to the question of which aspects of package design are more relevant to consumers, when purchasing educational toys. Neuromarketing techniques are used, and we propose a methodology for predicting which areas attract the attention of potential customers. The aim of the present study was to propose a model that optimizes the communication design of educational toys’ packaging. The data extracted from the experiments was studied using new analytical models, based on machine learning techniques, to predict which area of packaging is observed in the first instance and which areas are never the focus of attention of potential customers. The results suggest that the most important elements are the graphic details of the packaging and the methodology fully analyzes and segments these areas, according to social circumstance and which consumer type is observing the packaging.

In the machine learning literature we can find numerous methods to solve classification problems. We propose two new performance measures to analyze such methods. These measures are defined by using the concept of proportional reduction of classification error with respect to three benchmark classifiers, the random and two intuitive classifiers which are based on how a non-expert person could realize classification simply by applying a frequentist approach. We show that these three simple methods are closely related to different aspects of the entropy of the dataset. Therefore, these measures account somewhat for entropy in the dataset when evaluating the performance of classifiers. This allows us to measure the improvement in the classification results compared to simple methods, and at the same time how entropy affects classification capacity. To illustrate how these new performance measures can be used to analyze classifiers taking into account the entropy of the dataset, we carry out an intensive experiment in which we use the well-known J48 algorithm, and a UCI repository dataset on which we have previously selected a subset of the most relevant attributes. Then we carry out an extensive experiment in which we consider four heuristic classifiers, and 11 datasets.

Measuring credit risk is essential for financial institutions because there is a high risk level associated with incorrect credit decisions. The Basel II agreement recommended the use of advanced credit scoring methods in order to improve the efficiency of capital allocation. The latest Basel agreement (Basel III) states that the requirements for reserves based on risk have increased. Financial institutions currently have exhaustive datasets regarding their operations; this is a problem that can be addressed by applying a good feature selection method combined with big data techniques for data management. A comparative study of selection techniques is conducted in this work to find the selector that reduces the mean square error and requires the least execution time.