Control Charts for Mean for Non-Normally Correlated Data

Traditionally, quality control methodology is based on the assumption that serially-generated data are independent and normally distributed. On the basis of these assumptions the operating characteristic (OC) function of the control chart is derived after setting the control limits. But in practice, many of the basic industrial variables do not satisfy both the assumptions and hence one may doubt the validity of the inferences drawn from the control charts. In this paper the power of the control chart for the mean is examined when both the assumptions of independence and normality are not tenable. The OC function is calculated and compared with the normal population

Utilization of Kinnow peel for candy production: A study on quality attributes and storage stability

Kinnow fruit processing generates millions of tonnes of citrus waste yearly. This waste, predominantly of bitter-tasting peels, contributes significantly to environmental pollution when discarded. In this regard, the present study utilized kinnow peel waste for making candy, aiming to track down the straightforward, easy method of preparing the kinnow peel candies with extended shelf life. Additionally, it compared physical and chemical processes for removing bitterness from peels to create valuable food industry products, minimizing waste and enhancing fruit value, thus promoting food security with beneficial ingredients. In this laboratory investigation, the peel was treated with nine different treatments (T1: Single boiling, T2: Multiple boiling, T3: Soaking in baking soda, T4: Soaking in Vinegar, T5: Soaking in Alum, T6: Boiling in Salt solution, T7: Boiling in bottle gourd juice, T8: Boiling in cucumber juice, T9: Control-No boiling). The resulting product was analysed for proximate, physicochemical, and organoleptic attributes at 15-day intervals for up to 45 days. The results showed an increase in crude fibre content (4.54-4.61 g/100g), total soluble solids (TSS) (75.14-75.40 0B), pH (2.92-3.07 %), reducing sugar (20.17-20.77 %), total solids (86.67-87.07 %), and total sugar (62.84-63.58 %). At the same time, the decrease was recorded in ash content (0.75-0.59 g/100g), moisture content (13.37-12.60 %), titratable acidity (0.43-0.38 %), ascorbic acid content (11.23-8.97mg/100g), tannins (55.90-55.27 mg/100g), antioxidant activity (44.50-40.71 %), total phenolic content (25.43-22.62 mg GAE 100 g−1), carotenoid content (1.39-1.32 mg/100g), and pectin content (1.50-1.34 mg/100g). The best treatment was T2, which involved multiple boiling, cooking in 75 0B sugar syrup solution, and saturating with sugar syrup for 24 hours. It had desirable proximate, physicochemical and organoleptic properties and was stable for up to a minimum of 45 days for storage.

Academic stress and life satisfaction as social sustainability among university students

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between academic stress and life satisfaction among university students in Sabah, Malaysia. A total of 400 students were selected as respondents and data were collected using questionnaires. Academic stress was measured using the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PAS), which has four subscales: i) Performance stress; ii) Workload perception of workload and examinations; iii) Academic self-perception; and iv) Time constraints. Meanwhile, the Satisfaction with Life Scale was used to study student’s life satisfaction. The data obtained were analyzed using Pearson correlation and t-test. The results showed that performance stress is negatively associated with life satisfaction, while academic self-perception is positively associated with life satisfaction. The result also showed that perception of workload and examinations and time constraints not associated with life satisfaction. All in all, academic self-perception and performance stress have an association with life satisfaction

Differential microRNA expression and identification of putative miRNA targets and pathways in head and neck cancers.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that involved in various cancer-related cellular processes. Diverse studies on expression profiling of miRNAs have been performed and the data showed that some miRNAs are up-regulated or down-regulated in cancer. Until now, there are no data published on the miRNA expression in head and neck cancers from Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to investigate potentially crucial miRNAs in head and neck cancer patients from Malaysian populations. A global miRNA profiling was performed on 12 samples of head and neck cancer tissue using microarray analysis followed by validation using real-time RT-PCR Microarray analysis identified 10 miRNAs that could distinguish malignant head and neck cancer lesions from normal tissues; 7 miRNAs (hsa-miR-181a-2*, hsa-miR-29b-1*, hsa-miR-181a, hsa-miR-181b, hsa-miR-744, hsa-miR-1271 and hsa-miR-221*) were up-regulated while 3 miRNAs (hsa-miR-141, hsa-miR-95 and hsa-miR-101) were down-regulated. These miRNAs may contribute in a simple profiling strategy to identify individuals at higher risk of developing head and neck cancers, thus helping in the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms involved in head and neck cancer pathogenesis

Efficiently Quantifying Individual Agent Importance in Cooperative MARL

Measuring the contribution of individual agents is challenging in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). In cooperative MARL, team performance is typically inferred from a single shared global reward. Arguably, among the best current approaches to effectively measure individual agent contributions is to use Shapley values. However, calculating these values is expensive as the computational complexity grows exponentially with respect to the number of agents. In this paper, we adapt difference rewards into an efficient method for quantifying the contribution of individual agents, referred to as Agent Importance, offering a linear computational complexity relative to the number of agents. We show empirically that the computed values are strongly correlated with the true Shapley values, as well as the true underlying individual agent rewards, used as the ground truth in environments where these are available. We demonstrate how Agent Importance can be used to help study MARL systems by diagnosing algorithmic failures discovered in prior MARL benchmarking work. Our analysis illustrates Agent Importance as a valuable explainability component for future MARL benchmarks.Comment: 8 pages, AAAI XAI4DRL workshop 2023; references updated, figure 8 style updated, typo

IgE-Mediated Hypersensitivity Reactions to Cannabis in Laboratory Personnel

Background: There have been sporadic reports of hypersensitivity reactions to plants of the Cannabinaceae family (hemp and hops), but it has remained unclear whether these reactions are immunologic or nonimmunologic in nature. Objective: We examined the IgE-binding and histamine-releasing properties of hashish and marijuana extracts by CAP-FEIA and a basophil histamine release test. Methods: Two workers at a forensic laboratory suffered from nasal congestion, rbinitis, sneezing and asthmatic symptoms upon occupational contact with hashish or marijuana, which they had handled frequently for 25 and 16 years, respectively. Neither patient had a history of atopic disease. Serum was analyzed for specific IgE antibodies to hashish or marijuana extract by research prototype ImmunoCAP, and histamine release from basophils upon exposure to hashish or marijuana extracts was assessed. Results were matched to those of 4 nonatopic and 10 atopic control subjects with no known history of recreational or occupational exposure to marijuana or hashish. Results: Patient 1 had specific IgE to both hashish and marijuana (CAP class 2), and patient 2 to marijuana only (CAP class 2). Controls proved negative for specific IgE except for 2 atopic individuals with CAP class 1 to marijuana and 1 other atopic individual with CAP class 1 to hashish. Stimulation of basophils with hashish or marijuana extracts elicited histamine release from basophils of both patients and 4 atopic control subjects. Conclusions: Our results suggest an IgE-related pathomechanism for hypersensitivity reactions to marijuana or hashish. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

How much can change in a year? Revisiting Evaluation in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Establishing sound experimental standards and rigour is important in any growing field of research. Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) is one such nascent field. Although exciting progress has been made, MARL has recently come under scrutiny for replicability issues and a lack of standardised evaluation methodology, specifically in the cooperative setting. Although protocols have been proposed to help alleviate the issue, it remains important to actively monitor the health of the field. In this work, we extend the database of evaluation methodology previously published by containing meta-data on MARL publications from top-rated conferences and compare the findings extracted from this updated database to the trends identified in their work. Our analysis shows that many of the worrying trends in performance reporting remain. This includes the omission of uncertainty quantification, not reporting all relevant evaluation details and a narrowing of algorithmic development classes. Promisingly, we do observe a trend towards more difficult scenarios in SMAC-v1, which if continued into SMAC-v2 will encourage novel algorithmic development. Our data indicate that replicability needs to be approached more proactively by the MARL community to ensure trust in the field as we move towards exciting new frontiers.Comment: 6 pages, AAAI XAI4DRL workshop 2023; typos corrected, images updated, page count update

Tumor cell nuclei soften during transendothelial migration

During cancer metastasis, tumor cells undergo significant deformation in order to traverse through endothelial cell junctions in the walls of blood vessels. As cells pass through narrow gaps, smaller than the nuclear diameter, the spatial configuration of chromatin must change along with the distribution of nuclear enzymes. Nuclear stiffness is an important determinant of the ability of cells to undergo transendothelial migration, yet no studies have been conducted to assess whether tumor cell cytoskeletal or nuclear stiffness changes during this critical process in order to facilitate passage. To address this question, we employed two non-contact methods, Brillouin confocal microscopy (BCM) and confocal reflectance quantitative phase microscopy (QPM), to track the changes in mechanical properties of live, transmigrating tumor cells in an in vitro collagen gel platform. Using these two imaging modalities to study transmigrating MDA-MB-231, A549, and A375 cells, we found that both the cells and their nuclei soften upon extravasation and that the nuclear membranes remain soft for at least 24 h. These new data suggest that tumor cells adjust their mechanical properties in order to facilitate extravasation

Tumor cell nuclei soften during transendothelial migration

During cancer metastasis, tumor cells undergo significant deformation in order to traverse through endothelial cell junctions in the walls of blood vessels. As cells pass through narrow gaps, smaller than the nuclear diameter, the spatial configuration of chromatin must change along with the distribution of nuclear enzymes. Nuclear stiffness is an important determinant of the ability of cells to undergo transendothelial migration, yet no studies have been conducted to assess whether tumor cell cytoskeletal or nuclear stiffness changes during this critical process in order to facilitate passage. To address this question, we employed two non-contact methods, Brillouin confocal microscopy (BCM) and confocal reflectance quantitative phase microscopy (QPM), to track the changes in mechanical properties of live, transmigrating tumor cells in an in vitro collagen gel platform. Using these two imaging modalities to study transmigrating MDA-MB-231, A549, and A375 cells, we found that both the cells and their nuclei soften upon extravasation and that the nuclear membranes remain soft for at least 24 h. These new data suggest that tumor cells adjust their mechanical properties in order to facilitate extravasation

Kesan kerjasama dalam aktiviti berkumpulan terhadap kualiti perhubungan pelajar berbilang etnik di Universiti Putra Malaysia

Kepelbagaian dan kerencaman dari segi budaya, etnik dan agama sememangnya menjadi kebanggaan rakyat Malaysia. Namun begitu, Malaysia masih tidak lekang daripada isu-isu etnik dan agama yang sensitif. Contoh terkini adalah isu pergaduhan antara etnik di Plaza Low Yat pada tahun 2015. Kejadian ini telah menimbulkan persoalan samada hubungan antara etnik di Malaysia kian rapuh? Jika benar, apakah mekanisme untuk memperbaiki hubungan ini? Menurut Teori Perhubungan (Contact Theory) yang diperkenalkan oleh Gordon Allport (1954), hubungan antara etnik dapat diperbaiki sekiranya sesuatu perhubungan itu memenuhi empat syarat iaitu persamaan status, persamaan matlamat, keizinan pihak berkuasa dan interaksi yang melibatkan kerjasama. Justeru, kajian ini adalah satu percubaan untuk mengaplikasikan Teori Perhubungan ini dalam aktiviti berkumpulan pelajar di Universiti Putra Malaysia dengan memberikan tumpuan pada aspek kerjasama. Untuk tujuan ini, sebuah eksperimen telah dijalankan dalam kalangan pelajar yang mengambil kursus (Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia) TITAS dan Hubungan Etnik. Pelajar telah dibahagikan kepada satu kumpulan eksperimen, satu kumpulan kawalan dan dua kumpulan perbandingan. Kumpulan eksperimen dan kumpulan perabandingan telah diberikan tugasan yang mempunyai sifat dan tahap kerjasama yang berbeza. Menurut hasil analisis ANOVA, tahap integrasi yang tinggi dan kerjasama antara pelajar yang berbilang etnik mempunyai kesan terhadap kualiti perhubungan. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa sesuatu perhubungan yang berkualiti dan baik itu perlu disertai dengan empat elemen yang dicadangkan dan sebaliknya akan berlaku jika sesuatu perhubungan itu tidak disertai empat elemen tersebut