Bitcoin has recently received a lot of attention from the media and the public due to its recent price surge and crash. Correspondingly, many researchers have investigated various factors that affect the Bitcoin price and the patterns behind its fluctuations, in particular, using various machine learning methods. In this paper, we study and compare various state-of-the-art deep learning methods such as a deep neural network (DNN), a long short-term memory (LSTM) model, a convolutional neural network, a deep residual network, and their combinations for Bitcoin price prediction. Experimental results showed that although LSTM-based prediction models slightly outperformed the other prediction models for Bitcoin price prediction (regression), DNN-based models performed the best for price ups and downs prediction (classification). In addition, a simple profitability analysis showed that classification models were more effective than regression models for algorithmic trading. Overall, the performances of the proposed deep learning-based prediction models were comparable.

To effectively maintain and analyze a large amount of real-time sensor data, one often uses a filtering technique that reflects characteristics of original data well. This paper proposes a novel method for recommending the measurement noise for Kalman filtering, which is one of the most representative filtering techniques. Kalman filtering corrects inaccurate values of input sensor data, and its filtering performance varies depending on the input noise parameters. In particular, if the noise parameters determined based on the user’s experience are incorrect, the accuracy of Kalman filtering may be reduced significantly. Based on this observation, this paper addresses how to determine the measurement noise variance, a major input parameter of Kalman filtering, by analyzing past sensor data and how to use the estimated noise to improve the filtering accuracy. More specifically, to estimate the measurement noise variance, two analytical methods are proposed: one a transform-based method using a wavelet transform and the other a learning-based method using a denoising autoencoder. Experimental results show that the proposed methods estimated the measurement noise variance accurately and were superior to the experience-based method in the filtering accuracy.

Machine learning (ML) and large-scale big data are key factors in developing an accurate prediction model for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the CVD risk often depends on the race and ethnicity, most previous studies considered only US or European populations for the CVD risk prediction. In this work, to complement previous researches, we analyzed the Korean National Health Insurance Service–National Health Sample Cohort (KNHSC) data and studied the characteristics of ML and big data for predicting the CVD risk. More specifically, we assessed the effectiveness of various ML methods in predicting the 2-year and 10-year risk of CVD such as atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and strokes. To develop prediction models, we considered the usual medical examination data, questionnaire survey results, comorbidities, and past medication information available in the KNHSC data. We developed various ML-based prediction models using logistic regression, deep neural networks, random forests, and LightGBM, and validated them using various metrics such as receiver operating characteristic curves, precision-recall curves, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score. Experimental results showed that all ML models outperformed the baseline method derived from the ACC/AHA guidelines for estimating the 10-year CVD risk, demonstrating the usefulness of ML methods. In addition, in our analysis, whether we included the past medication information as a feature or not, the prediction accuracy of all ML models was comparable to each other. Since the use of medications by the physicians provided important information on the occurrence of diseases, when we included it as a feature, all prediction models achieved a slightly higher prediction accuracy.

With the advent of multicore processors,it has become imperative to write parallel programs if one wishes to exploit the next generation of processors. This paper deals with skyline computation as a case study of parallelizing database operations on multicore architectures. We compare two parallel skyline algorithms: a parallel version of the branch-and-bound algorithm (BBS) and a new parallel algorithm based on skeletal parallel programming. Experimental results show despite its simple design, the new parallel algorithm is comparable to parallel BBS in speed. For sequential skyline computation, the new algorithm far outperforms sequential BBS when the density of skyline tuples is low.

Osteoporosis is a serious health concern in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Machine learning (ML) models have been increasingly incorporated into various clinical practices, including disease classification, risk prediction, and treatment response. However, only a few studies have focused on predicting osteoporosis using ML in patients with RA. We aimed to develop an ML model to predict osteoporosis using a representative Korean RA cohort database. The KORean Observational study Network for Arthritis (KORONA) database, established by the Clinical Research Center for RA in Korea, was used in this study. Among the 5077 patients registered in KORONA, 2374 patients were included in this study. Four representative ML algorithms were used for the prediction: logistic regression (LR), random forest, XGBoost (XGB), and LightGBM. The accuracy, F1 score, and area under the curve (AUC) of each model were measured. The LR model achieved the highest AUC value at 0.750, while the XGB model achieved the highest accuracy at 0.682. Body mass index, age, menopause, waist and hip circumferences, RA surgery, and monthly income were risk factors of osteoporosis. In conclusion, ML algorithms are a useful option for screening for osteoporosis in patients with RA.