AN OBJECT-ORIENTED EXPERT SYSTEM FOR TROUBLESHOOTING REFINERY DISTILLATION COLUMNS

An object-oriented prototype expert system ORDEES for off-line trouble-shooting of refinery distillation columns is developed. It is found that highly modular knowledge base can be designed, and different types of data (e.g., graphs, numberical data, and algorithms) may be manipulated, by using object-oriented knowledge representation. In addition, a method termed Object-Oriented Multifunction Switcher is proposed for building multifunction expert systems. The results of the study are expected to be useful for designing multifunction expert systems for complex petroleum refining and petro-chemical processes with many kinds of equipment.

Mutual Information-Based Modified Randomized Weights Neural Networks

Randomized weights neural networks have fast learning speed and good generalization performance with one single hidden layer structure. Input weighs of the hidden layer are produced randomly. By employing certain activation function, outputs of the hidden layer are calculated with some randomization. Output weights are computed using pseudo inverse. Mutual information can be used to measure mutual dependence of two variables quantitatively based on the probability theory. In this paper, these hidden layer’s outputs that relate to prediction variable closely are selected with the simple mutual information based feature selection method. These hidden nodes with high mutual information values are maintained as a new hidden layer. Thus, the size of the hidden layer is reduced. The new hidden layer’s output weights are learned with the pseudo inverse method. The proposed method is compared with the original randomized algorithms using concrete compressive strength benchmark dataset.

EQUIVALENCY THEOREM FOR “SADDLE-POINT” FINITE ELEMENT SCHEMES AND TWO CRITERIA OF STRONG BABUSKA-BREZZI CONDITION

This paper is concerned with the general study in the existence,uniqueness and error estimationof finite element solutions for a larger class of 'saddle-point' schemes. The established theory inthe form of Lax-like equivalency theorem includes Brezzi’s theory that has been treated as a specialcase.Two criteria are presented so as to help the practical verification of S-Babuska condition.

The role and clinical implications of microRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is common and one of the most aggressive of all human cancers. Recent studies have indicated that miRNAs, a class of small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally, directly contribute to HCC by targeting many critical regulatory genes. Several miRNAs are involved in hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus replication and virus-induced changes, whereas others participate in multiple intracellular signaling pathways that modulate apoptosis, cell cycle checkpoints, and growth-factor-stimulated responses. When disturbed, these pathways appear to result in malignant transformation and ultimately HCC development. Recently, miRNAs circulating in the blood have acted as possible early diagnostic markers for HCC. These miRNA also could serve as indicators with respect to drug efficacy and be prognostic in HCC patients. Such biomarkers would assist stratification of HCC patients and help direct personalized therapy. Here, we summarize recent advances regarding the role of miRNAs in HCC development and progression. Our expectation is that these and ongoing studies will contribute to the understanding of the multiple roles of these small noncoding RNAs in liver tumorigenesis.

Source-to-Source Conversion Based on Formal Definition

This paper proposes the idea of source-to-source conversion between two heterogeneous high-level programming languages.The conversion is based on formal definition and oriented to multi-pairs of lan- guages.The issues in conversion from PASCAL to C are also discussed.