Donald Brown

Donald Brown

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

35Years (1992-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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23 April 2019 in Information
Verified
Journal Article
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Kamran KowsariKamran Kowsari
Kamran Kowsari
KMKiana Jafari Meimandi
Kiana Jafari Meimandi
MHMojtaba Heidarysafa
Mojtaba Heidarysafa
SMSanjana Mendu
Sanjana Mendu
LBLaura Barnes
Laura Barnes
DBDonald Brown
Donald Brown
In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the number of complex documents and texts that require a deeper understanding of machine learning methods to be able to accurately classify texts in many applications. Many machine learning approaches have achieved surpassing results in natural language processing. The success of these learning algorithms relies on their capacity to understand complex models and non-linear relationships within data. However, finding suitable structures, architectures, and techniques for text classification is a challenge for researchers. In this paper, a brief overview of text classification algorithms is discussed. This overview covers different text feature extractions, dimensionality reduction methods, existing algorithms and techniques, and evaluations methods. Finally, the limitations of each technique and their application in real-world problems are discussed.

12 June 2020 in Information
Verified
Journal Article
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Kamran KowsariKamran Kowsari
Kamran Kowsari
RSRasoul Sali
Rasoul Sali
LELubaina Ehsan
Lubaina Ehsan
WAWilliam Adorno
William Adorno
SASyed Asad Ali
Syed Asad Ali
DBDonald Brown
Donald Brown
Image classification is central to the big data revolution in medicine. Improved information processing methods for diagnosis and classification of digital medical images have shown to be successful via deep learning approaches. As this field is explored, there are limitations to the performance of traditional supervised classifiers. This paper outlines an approach that is different from the current medical image classification tasks that view the issue as multi-class classification. We performed a hierarchical classification using our Hierarchical Medical Image classification (HMIC) approach. HMIC uses stacks of deep learning models to give particular comprehension at each level of the clinical picture hierarchy. For testing our performance, we use biopsy of the small bowel images that contain three categories in the parent level (Celiac Disease, Environmental Enteropathy, and histologically normal controls). For the child level, Celiac Disease Severity is classified into 4 classes (I, IIIa, IIIb, and IIIC).

25 October 2023 in BMC Public Health
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Journal Article
Open access
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EHElaine L Hill
Elaine L Hill
HMHemalkumar B. Mehta
Hemalkumar B. Mehta
SSSuchetha Sharma
Suchetha Sharma
KMKlint Mane
Klint Mane
SSSharad Kumar Singh
Sharad Kumar Singh
TBTellen D. Bennett
Tellen D. Bennett
Background: More than one-third of individuals experience post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, which includes long-COVID). The objective is to identify risk factors associated with PASC/long-COVID diagnosis. Methods: This was a retrospective case–control study including 31 health systems in the United States from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). 8,325 individuals with PASC (defined by the presence of the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 code U09.9 or a long-COVID clinic visit) matched to 41,625 controls within the same health system and COVID index date within ± 45 days of the corresponding case's earliest COVID index date. Measurements of risk factors included demographics, comorbidities, treatment and acute characteristics related to COVID-19. Multivariable logistic regression, random forest, and XGBoost were used to determine the associations between risk factors and PASC. Results: Among 8,325 individuals with PASC, the majority were > 50 years of age (56.6%), female (62.8%), and non-Hispanic White (68.6%). In logistic regression, middle-age categories (40 to 69 years; OR ranging from 2.32 to 2.58), female sex (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.33–1.48), hospitalization associated with COVID-19 (OR 3.8, 95% CI 3.05–4.73), long (8–30 days, OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.31–2.17) or extended hospital stay (30 + days, OR 3.38, 95% CI 2.45–4.67), receipt of mechanical ventilation (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.18–1.74), and several comorbidities including depression (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.40–1.60), chronic lung disease (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.53–1.74), and obesity (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.16–1.3) were associated with increased likelihood of PASC diagnosis or care at a long-COVID clinic. Characteristics associated with a lower likelihood of PASC diagnosis or care at a long-COVID clinic included younger age (18 to 29 years), male sex, non-Hispanic Black race, and comorbidities such as substance abuse, cardiomyopathy, psychosis, and dementia. More doctors per capita in the county of residence was associated with an increased likelihood of PASC diagnosis or care at a long-COVID clinic. Our findings were consistent in sensitivity analyses using a variety of analytic techniques and approaches to select controls. Conclusions: This national study identified important risk factors for PASC diagnosis such as middle age, severe COVID-19 disease, and specific comorbidities. Further clinical and epidemiological research is needed to better understand underlying mechanisms and the potential role of vaccines and therapeutics in altering PASC course.

5 June 2019 in JAMA Network Open
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Journal Article
Open access
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SSana Syed
Sana Syed
MAMohammad Al-Boni
Mohammad Al-Boni
MKMarium N. Khan
Marium N. Khan
KSKamran Sadiq
Kamran Sadiq
NINajeeha T. Iqbal
Najeeha T. Iqbal
DBDonald Brown
Donald Brown
The interpretation of clinical biopsy images for disease diagnoses can be challenging when clinicians are faced with distinguishing between distinct but related conditions. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to methods in artificial intelligence that help clinicians to translate big data (ie, biomedical images and patient biosample data) into accurate and quantitative diagnostics.1 To our knowledge, most computer modeling enhancements in health care, particularly in image analysis, have focused on feature engineering, ie, asking a computer to evaluate prespecified, explicit image features to permit computational algorithms to detect disease or specified lesions. In contrast, deep learning or a convolutional neural network (CNN) is a form of artificial intelligence that includes machine learning techniques designed to process data and interpret it (eg, by detecting and segmenting multiple pixel intensities within a single image and labeling features at a pixel-by-pixel level).2,3

22 July 2019 in BMC Pediatrics
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Journal Article
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NINajeeha T. Iqbal
Najeeha T. Iqbal
SSana Syed
Sana Syed
KSKamran Sadiq
Kamran Sadiq
MKMarium N. Khan
Marium N. Khan
JIJunaid Iqbal
Junaid Iqbal
SASyed Asad Ali
Syed Asad Ali
Environmental Enteropathy (EE), characterized by alterations in intestinal structure, function, and immune activation, is believed to be an important contributor to childhood undernutrition and its associated morbidities, including stunting. Half of all global deaths in children < 5 years are attributable to under-nutrition, making the study of EE an area of critical priority. Community based intervention study, divided into two sub-studies, 1) Longitudinal analyses and 2) Biopsy studies for identification of EE features via omics analyses. Birth cohorts in Matiari, Pakistan established: moderately or severely malnourished (weight for height Z score (WHZ) < − 2) children, and well-nourished (WHZ > 0) children. Blood, urine, and fecal samples, for evaluation of potential biomarkers, will be collected at various time points from all participants (longitudinal analyses). Participants will receive appropriate educational and nutritional interventions; non-responders will undergo further evaluation to determine eligibility for further workup, including upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Histopathological changes in duodenal biopsies will be compared with duodenal biopsies obtained from USA controls who have celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, or who were found to have normal histopathology. RNA-Seq will be employed to characterize mucosal gene expression across groups. Duodenal biopsies, luminal aspirates from the duodenum, and fecal samples will be analyzed to define microbial community composition (omic analyses). The relationship between histopathology, mucosal gene expression, and community configuration will be assessed using a variety of bioinformatic tools to gain better understanding of disease pathogenesis and to identify mechanism-based biomarkers. Ethical review committees at all collaborating institutions have approved this study. All results will be made available to the scientific community. Operational and ethical constraints for safely obtaining intestinal biopsies from children in resource-poor settings have led to a paucity of human tissue-based investigations to understand and reverse EE in vulnerable populations. Furthermore, EE biomarkers have rarely been correlated with gold standard histopathological confirmation. The Study of Environmental Enteropathy and Malnutrition (SEEM) is designed to better understand the pathophysiology, predictors, biomarkers, and potential management strategies of EE to inform strategies to eradicate this debilitating pathology and accelerate progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Retrospectively registered; clinicaltrials.gov ID NCT03588013 .

23 September 2020 in Journal of Personalized Medicine
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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RSRasoul Sali
Rasoul Sali
NMNazanin Moradinasab
Nazanin Moradinasab
SGShan Guleria
Shan Guleria
LELubaina Ehsan
Lubaina Ehsan
PFPhilip Fernandes
Philip Fernandes
DBDonald Brown
Donald Brown
The gold standard of histopathology for the diagnosis of Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is hindered by inter-observer variability among gastrointestinal pathologists. Deep learning-based approaches have shown promising results in the analysis of whole-slide tissue histopathology images (WSIs). We performed a comparative study to elucidate the characteristics and behaviors of different deep learning-based feature representation approaches for the WSI-based diagnosis of diseased esophageal architectures, namely, dysplastic and non-dysplastic BE. The results showed that if appropriate settings are chosen, the unsupervised feature representation approach is capable of extracting more relevant image features from WSIs to classify and locate the precursors of esophageal cancer compared to weakly supervised and fully supervised approaches.