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Students pursuing different professional courses at the higher education level during 2021–2022 saw the first-time occurrence of a pandemic in the form of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and their mental health was affected. Many works are available in the literature to assess mental health severity. However, it is necessary to identify the affected students early for effective treatment.

Predictive analytics, a part of machine learning (ML), helps with early identification based on mental health severity levels to aid clinical psychologists. As a case study, engineering and medical course students were comparatively analysed in this work as they have rich course content and a stricter evaluation process than other streams. The methodology includes an online survey that obtains demographic details, academic qualifications, family details, etc. and anxiety and depression questions using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The responses acquired through social media networks are analysed using ML algorithms – support vector machines (SVMs) (robust handling of health information) and J48 decision tree (DT) (interpretability/comprehensibility). Also, random forest is used to identify the predictors for anxiety and depression.

The results show that the support vector classifier produces outperforming results with classification accuracy of 100%, 1.0 precision and 1.0 recall, followed by the J48 DT classifier with 96%. It was found that medical students are affected by anxiety and depression marginally more when compared with engineering students.

The entire work is dependent on the social media-displayed online questionnaire, and the participants were not met in person. This indicates that the response rate could not be evaluated appropriately. Due to the medical restrictions imposed by COVID-19, which remain in effect in 2022, this is the only method found to collect primary data from college students. Additionally, students self-selected themselves to participate in this survey, which raises the possibility of selection bias.

The responses acquired through social media networks are analysed using ML algorithms. This will be a big support for understanding the mental issues of the students due to COVID-19 and can taking appropriate actions to rectify them. This will improve the quality of the learning process in higher education in Oman.

Furthermore, this study aims to provide recommendations for mental health screening as a regular practice in educational institutions to identify undetected students.

Comparing the mental health issues of two professional course students is the novelty of this work. This is needed because both studies require practical learning, long hours of work, etc.

The stock market generates massive databases of various financial companies that are highly volatile and complex. To forecast daily stock values of these companies, investors frequently use technical analysis or fundamental analysis. Data mining techniques coupled with fundamental and technical analysis types have the potential to give satisfactory results for stock market prediction. In the current paper, an effort is made to investigate the accuracy of stock market predictions by using the combined approach of variables from technical and fundamental analysis for the creation of a data mining predictive model.

We chose 381 companies from the National Stock Exchange of India's CNX 500 index and conducted a two-stage data analysis. The first stage is identifying key fundamental variables and constructing a portfolio based on that study. Artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machines (SVM) and decision tree J48 were used to build the models. The second stage entails applying technical analysis to forecast price movements in the companies included in the portfolios. ANN and SVM techniques were used to create predictive models for all companies in the portfolios. We also estimated returns using trading decisions based on the model's output and then compared them to buy-and-hold returns and the return of the NIFTY 50 index, which served as a benchmark.

The results show that the returns of both the portfolios are higher than the benchmark buy-and-hold strategy return. It can be concluded that data mining techniques give better results, irrespective of the type of stock, and have the ability to make up for poor stocks. The comparison of returns of portfolios with the return of NIFTY as a benchmark also indicates that both the portfolios are generating higher returns as compared to the return generated by NIFTY.

As stock prices are influenced by both technical and fundamental indicators, the current paper explored the combined effect of technical analysis and fundamental analysis variables for Indian stock market prediction. Further, the results obtained by individual analysis have also been compared. The proposed method under study can also be utilized to determine whether to hold stocks for the long or short term using trend-based research.

Machine learning (ML) analytical tools are increasingly being considered as an alternative quantitative methodology in management research. This paper proposes a new approach for uncovering the antecedents behind product and product–service innovation (PSI).

The ML approach is novel in the field of innovation antecedents at the country level. A sample of the Equatorian National Survey on Technology and Innovation, consisting of more than 6,000 firms, is used to rank the antecedents of innovation.

The analysis reveals that the antecedents of product and PSI are distinct, yet rooted in the principles of open innovation and competitive priorities.

The analysis is based on a sample of Equatorian firms with the objective of showing how ML techniques are suitable for testing the antecedents of innovation in any other context.

The novel ML approach, in contrast to traditional quantitative analysis of the topic, can consider the full set of antecedent interactions to each of the innovations analyzed.

The traditional failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) has some limitations, such as the neglect of relevant historical data, subjective use of rating numbering and the less rationality and accuracy of the Risk Priority Number. The current study proposes a machine learning–enhanced FMEA (ML-FMEA) method based on a popular machine learning tool, Waikato environment for knowledge analysis (WEKA).

This work uses the collected FMEA historical data to predict the probability of component/product failure risk by machine learning based on different commonly used classifiers. To compare the correct classification rate of ML-FMEA based on different classifiers, the 10-fold cross-validation is employed. Moreover, the prediction error is estimated by repeated experiments with different random seeds under varying initialization settings. Finally, the case of the submersible pump in Bhattacharjee et al. (2020) is utilized to test the performance of the proposed method.

The results show that ML-FMEA, based on most of the commonly used classifiers, outperforms the Bhattacharjee model. For example, the ML-FMEA based on Random Committee improves the correct classification rate from 77.47 to 90.09 per cent and area under the curve of receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) from 80.9 to 91.8 per cent, respectively.

The proposed method not only enables the decision-maker to use the historical failure data and predict the probability of the risk of failure but also may pave a new way for the application of machine learning techniques in FMEA.

This study aims to develop a model to predict non-violent work behaviour (NVWB) among employees using machine learning techniques.

Four machine learning techniques (Naïve Bayes, decision tree, logistic regression and ensemble learning) were used to develop a prediction model for NVWB of employees. Also, 10-fold cross-validation method was used to validate the NVWB prediction models. The confusion matrix is used to derive various performance matrices to express the predictive capability of NVWB models quantitatively.

The model developed using random forest technique was identified as best NVWB prediction model, as it resulted in highest true positive rate and true negative rate, thereby resulting in the highest geometric mean, balance and area under receiver operator characteristics curve.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the pioneer studies that used machine learning techniques to develop a predictive model of NVBW.

This paper defines and assesses student learning patterns under the influence of problem-based learning (PBL) and their classification into a reasonable minimum number of classes. Study utilizes PBL implemented in an undergraduate Statistics and Operations Research course for techno-management students at a private university in India.

Study employs an in situ experiment using a conceptual model based on learning theory. The participant's end-of-semester GPA is Performance Indicator. Integrating PBL with classroom teaching is unique instructional approach to this study. An unsupervised and supervised data mining approach to analyse PBL impact establishes research conclusions.

The administration of PBL results in improved learning patterns (above-average) for students with medium attendance. PBL, Gender, Math background, Board and discipline are contributing factors to students' performance in the decision tree. PBL benefits a student of any gender with lower attendance.

This study is limited to course students from one institute and does not consider external factors.

Researchers can apply learning patterns obtained in this paper highlighting PBL impact to study effect of every innovative pedagogical study. Classification of students based on learning behaviours can help facilitators plan remedial actions.

1. Clustering is used to extract student learning patterns considering dynamics of student performances over time. Then decision tree is utilized to elicit a simple process of classifying students. 2. Data mining approach overcomes limitations of statistical techniques to provide knowledge impact in presence of demographic characteristics and student attendance.

The purpose of this study was to show how pro-gender public policies in the agricultural sectors can contribute to the reduction of gender inequalities in the labour market and the diversification of the Congolese economy.

Computable general equilibrium model that has been adapted to the Congolese economy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)'s SAM.

The results reveal that policies of increasing women's land allocation and government cash transfers to rural female households contribute to the reduction of inequalities in the labour market. However, only the policy of increasing women’s land allocation improves economic diversification.

The implementation of the policy of government cash transfers to rural women's households comes at a cost to the government. Future studies to look at the most effective mode of financing for this policy. Moreover, the policy of increasing women's land allocation is feasible in the DRC as there is a lot of unused arable land available.

In Pillar 1 of the National Strategic Development Plan (PNSD) on Economic Diversification and Transformation, the policy of increasing land allocation to women could be added to the objectives related to strengthening the contribution of agriculture to economic growth and employment creation. In Pillar 3 of the PNSD on Social Development and Human Resource Development, the policy of increasing land allocation to women as well as the policy of increasing government transfers to female rural households could be added to the objectives related to the promotion of employment of youth, women and vulnerable groups.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind for the DRC, which highlights the impact of pro-gender policies on women's employment, particularly in the agricultural sectors and in the diversification of the Congolese economy. This study contributes to policy orientation in DRC. The two policies (increasing land allocation to women and cash transfers to rural women) analysed in this study were chosen in light of the DRC's National Strategic Plan, the first phase of which focuses on promoting employment for vulnerable groups and economic diversification through the development of agricultural sectors.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, there are concerns whether economies are becoming farther from equality and competency. While this matters to every economy, it is more crucial for developing ones who already suffer from income inequalities and lack of competency. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

This study uses an administrative data from the Iran's Social Security Organization (ISSO) that provides insurance to workers entitled to the Labor Law of Iran. The data contain more than 7,000,000 workers. The authors assess heterogeneous impact of the first wave of the pandemic by firms' size and average payment.

The authors’ estimation results indicate that, following the initiation of the pandemic, the workers whose corresponding firms are smaller, overall, are more prone to the pandemic and are more likely to submit a request for unemployment benefits. However, the relation is neither homogeneous across sectors nor linear among micro-sized firms. Few sectors indicate a positive relationship between size and likelihood of request submission, including cultural activity, shoemaking and clothing sectors. Besides the size, the authors investigate whether pay grades could explain the probability of becoming unemployed after the pandemic. Results show that workers whose corresponding firms pay less are more likely to submit a request. This is robust within different sectors.

The ISSO dataset is not a panel, so the authors cannot employ methods of causal inferences. The authors’ results should be seen as correlation; however, due to exogeneity and sharpness of the pandemic the result infers to some degree of causality. The data does not cover the informal sector, so the estimates are at lower boundary.

Administrative data on unemployment benefits during COVID-19 show that the pandemic interferes with competition by forcing low-paid workers and small firms to exit the market. This is an alarm for the competition in every economy, specially developing ones.

This study has mainly aimed to compare and contrast two completely different image processing algorithms that are very adaptive for detecting prostate cancer using wearable Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Cancer in these modern times is still considered as one of the most dreaded disease, which is continuously pestering the mankind over a past few decades. According to Indian Council of Medical Research, India alone registers about 11.5 lakh cancer related cases every year and closely up to 8 lakh people die with cancer related issues each year. Earlier the incidence of prostate cancer was commonly seen in men aged above 60 years, but a recent study has revealed that this type of cancer has been on rise even in men between the age groups of 35 and 60 years as well. These findings make it even more necessary to prioritize the research on diagnosing the prostate cancer at an early stage, so that the patients can be cured and can lead a normal life.

The research focuses on two types of feature extraction algorithms, namely, scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) and gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) that are commonly used in medical image processing, in an attempt to discover and improve the gap present in the potential detection of prostate cancer in medical IoT. Later the results obtained by these two strategies are classified separately using a machine learning based classification model called multi-class support vector machine (SVM). Owing to the advantage of better tissue discrimination and contrast resolution, magnetic resonance imaging images have been considered for this study. The classification results obtained for both the SIFT as well as GLCM methods are then compared to check, which feature extraction strategy provides the most accurate results for diagnosing the prostate cancer.

The potential of both the models has been evaluated in terms of three aspects, namely, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. Each model’s result was checked against diversified ranges of training and test data set. It was found that the SIFT-multiclass SVM model achieved a highest performance rate of 99.9451% accuracy, 100% sensitivity and 99% specificity at 40:60 ratio of the training and testing data set.

The SIFT-multi SVM versus GLCM-multi SVM based comparison has been introduced for the first time to perceive the best model to be used for the accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer. The performance of the classification for each of the feature extraction strategies is enumerated in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity.

Purpose: The study aims to explore the wider acceptance of blockchain technology and growing faith in this technology among all business domains to mitigate the chances of fraud in various sectors.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors focus on studies conducted during 2015–2022 using keywords such as blockchain, fraud detection and financial domain for Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The SLR approach entails two databases, namely, Scopus and IEEE Xplore, to seek relevant articles covering the effectiveness of blockchain technology in controlling financial fraud.

Findings: The findings of the research explored different types of business domains using blockchains in detecting fraud. They examined their effectiveness in other sectors such as insurance, banks, online transactions, real estate, credit card usage, etc.

Practical Implications: The results of this research highlight (1) the real-life applications of blockchain technology to secure the gateway for online transactions; (2) people from diverse backgrounds with different business objectives can strongly rely on blockchains to prevent fraud.

Originality/Value: The SLR conducted in this study assists in the identification of future avenues with practical implications, making researchers aware of the work so far carried out for checking the effectiveness of blockchain; however, it does not ignore the possibility of zero to less effectiveness in some businesses which is yet to be explored.