## 2 Materials and Methods
### Dataset Description  
As already stated this investigation is based on a publicly available dataset which can be downloaded from Kaggle [19]. The original dataset consists of 14 variables (columns) and 615 samples (observations) of healthy patients (\"blood donors\") and Hepatitis C patients (categories: hepatitis C, fibrosis, cirrhosis). Each sample in the dataset has the following features Unnamed-0, Category, Age, Sex, ALP, ALB, ALT, AST, CHE, BIL, CHOL, CREA, GGT, and PROT. However, Unnamed-0 represents the patient ID./No. so it was omitted from further investigation. In the original dataset for some samples, the features were missing so these samples were omitted from the dataset. After cleaning the dataset the total number of samples is 589. In the following paragraphs, a short description of each parameter and transformation to numeric format will be given. The age parameter represents the age of the patient whose blood sample is collected. The sex variable has two values \"m\" for males and \"f\" for females which are converted to 0 for \"m\" and 1 for \"f\". The conversion to numeric format was done so that the dataset could be used in the GPSC algorithm. The statistical information about \"age\" and \"sex\" parameters are given in Table 1.  
Figure 1: The schematic view of research methodology process. The alkaline phosphate enzyme (ALP) [20] is a liver enzyme that is primarily found in the liver, although a smaller quantity can be found in bones. The level of ALP is measured through the ALP test and the normal range is considered from 44 to 147 [IU/L] (international units per liter), although some organizations recommend a range of 30 to 120 [IU/L] [21]. Very high values of ALP in the blood may indicate liver disease (cholesterols of pregnancy, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis, biliary atresia/stricture/obstruction due to cancer, mononucleosis) or bone disorders (bone metastasis, osteitis deformans, osteogenic sarcoma, healing fractures, Hyperparathyroidismrodisim, hyperhyroidism, and osteomalacia). In case the ALP is way below the previously mentioned ranges it can indicate conditions such as malnutrition, zinc deficiency, magnesium deficiency, hypothyroidism, and Wilson disease. Albumin (ALB) is a protein that is developed in the liver and the quantity in the patient's blood is measured using an albumin blood test [22]. The normal ALB range in the blood is considered from 3.4 to 5.3 [g/dL] (34 to 54 [g/L]) [23]. The low levels of ALB in the blood may indicate infections, and inflammation due to sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease, kidney disease, cirrhosis, fatty liver disease, liver cancer, or hepatitis (A/B/C). However, higher values of ALB indicate dehydration and severe diarrhea. The alanine transaminase (ALT) enzyme is an enzyme that can be found in the liver [24]. According to [25], the normal range of ALT is between 4 and 36 [U/L], although the normal value range may vary slightly among different laboratories. The increased ALT value may indicate a sign of liver disease i.e., scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) death of liver tissue, swollen and inflamed liver (hepatitis), hemochromatosis, fatty liver, liver ischemia, liver tumor or cancer, mononucleosis, and a swollen and inflamed pancreas. Cholinesterase (CHE) is an enzyme that helps the proper functioning of the nervous system [26]. Serum cholinesterase is a blood test that looks at the concentration of two substances acetylcholinesteraseerase and pseudocholinesterase. Acetylcholinesteraseerase can be found in nerve tissue and red blood cells while pseudocholinesterase is found in the liver. The normal pseudocholinesterase values are in the range 8-18 [U/L] or 8-18 [kU/L] [27]. The decreased pseudocholinesterase levels may indicate chronic infection, malnutrition, heart attack, liver damage, metastasis, and inflammation that accompanies some diseases. Bilirubin (BIL) is a red/orange compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates.