Stock e-exchange prices forecasting is an important financial problem that is receiving increasing attention. This study proposes a novel three-stage nonlinear ensemble model. In the proposed model, three different types of neural-network based models, i.e. Elman network, generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and wavelet neural network (WNN) are constructed by three non-overlapping training sets and are further optimized by improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO). Finally, a neural-network-based nonlinear meta-model is generated by learning three neural-network based models through support vector machines (SVM) neural network. The superiority of the proposed approach lies in its flexibility to account for potentially complex nonlinear relationships. Three daily stock indices time series are used for validating the forecasting model. Empirical results suggest the ensemble ANNs-PSO-GA approach can significantly improve the prediction performance over other individual models and linear combination models listed in this study.

Surgery cancellations waste scarce operative resources and hinder patients’ access to operative services. In this study, the Wilcoxon and chi-square tests were used for predictor selection, and three machine learning models – random forest, support vector machine, and XGBoost – were used for the identification of surgeries with high risks of cancellation. The optimal performances of the identification models were as follows: sensitivity − 0.615; specificity − 0.957; positive predictive value − 0.454; negative predictive value − 0.904; accuracy − 0.647; and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve − 0.682. Of the three models, the random forest model achieved the best performance. Thus, the effective identification of surgeries with high risks of cancellation is feasible with stable performance. Models and sampling methods significantly affect the performance of identification. This study is a new application of machine learning for the identification of surgeries with high risks of cancellation and facilitation of surgery resource management.