Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Neural-Network-Based Model of Charge Prediction via the Judicial Interpretation of Crimes

The neural-network-based charge prediction, which is to predict the defendants’ charges from the criminal case documents via neural network, has been a development-potential affair in artificial intelligence (AI) based legal assistant system and made some achievements. Neural network is playing important role to capture deep information in current work. However, charge prediction suffers from serious data imbalance in real-world situation. Only high-frequency charges are easy to be predicted whereas plenty of low-frequency ones are hard to be hold. Furthermore, the presence of confusing charges makes prediction worse. Here, we propose a novel model of charge prediction via the judicial interpretation of crimes (CPJIC) to provide more accurate charge prediction. The concept of crime interpretation is introduced into CPJIC, which alleviates the problems resulted from data imbalance and confusing charges. With the technique of embedding, both fact description and crime interpretation are embedded into a low-dimensional vector space as well as a neural network, delivering implemented computable charge prediction. The experimental results demonstrate that CPJIC can identify the low-frequency and confusing charges better than previous work.
Advances in pancreatic cancer stem cells, tumor- associated macrophages, and their interplay

Cancer stem cells are currently considered to contribute to the aggressiveness and therapeutic resistance of pancreatic cancer, providing new hope for the cure of this disease and resulting in a growing body of mechanistic research. Solid tumors are heterogeneous cellular entities that contain malignant cells and a surrounding nonmalignant stroma. An abundant tumor stroma with a high density of tumor-associated macrophages is a distinguishing characteristic of pancreatic cancer. Accumulating evidence has indicated that tumor-associated macrophages can promote pancreatic cancer progression by inducing angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, and immune suppression. However, there is limited information about the interactions between tumor-associated macrophages and pancreatic cancer stem cells. In this article, we review the current understanding of the biology of pancreatic cancer stem cells and tumor-associated macrophages and their molecular interplay.
Propofol Specifically Inhibits Mitochondrial Membrane Potential but Not Complex I NADH Dehydrogenase Activity, Thus Reducing Cellular ATP Biosynthesis and Migration of Macrophages

Abstract: Propofol is a widely used intravenous anesthetic agent. Our previous study showed that a therapeutic concentration of propofol can modulate macrophage functions. Mitochondria play critical roles in the maintenance of macrophage activities. This study attempted to evaluate further the effects of mitochondria on the propofol‐induced suppression of macrophage functions using mouse macrophage‐like Raw 264.7 cells as the experimental model. Macrophages were exposed to a clinically relevant concentration of propofol for 1, 6, and 24 h. Analysis by the Trypan blue exclusion method revealed that propofol was not cytotoxic to macrophages. Exposure of macrophages to propofol did not affect mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase activity of complex I. However, analysis of flow cytometry showed that propofol significantly decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential of macrophages. Cellular levels of ATP in macrophages were significantly reduced after propofol administration. In parallel with the dysfunction of mitochondria, the chemotactic analysis showed that exposure to propofol significantly inhibited the migration of macrophages. This study shows that a therapeutic concentration of propofol can specifically reduce the mitochondrial membrane potential, but there is no such effect on complex I NADH dehydrogenase activity. Modulation of the mitochondrial membrane potential may decrease the biosynthesis of cellular ATP and thus reduce the chemotactic activity of macrophages. This study provides in vitro data to validate mitochondrial dysfunction as a possible critical cause for propofol‐induced immunosuppression of macrophage functions.
A Model-driven Middleware Integration Approach for Performance-Sensitive Distributed Simulations

Complex simulation systems often comprise multiple distributed simulators that need to interoperate and synchronize states and events. In many cases, the simulation logics which are developed by different teams with specific expertise, need to be integrated to build a complete simulation system. Thus, supporting composability and reusability of simulation functionalities with minimal integration and performance overhead is a challenging but required capability. Middleware for game engines are promising to realize both the modular and reusable development criteria as well as the high performance requirements, while data-centric publish/subscribe middleware can support seamless integration and synchronization of the distributed artifacts. However, differences in the level of abstraction at which these middleware operate and the semantic differences in their underlying ontologies make it hard and challenging for simulation application developers and system integrators to realize a complete, operational system. To that end this paper presents a model-driven approach to blending the two middleware, wherein the modeling capabilities provide intuitive and higher-level abstractions for developers to reason about the composition and validation of the complete system, and the generative capabilities address the inherent and accidental complexities incurred in reconciling the semantic differences between the gaming and pub/sub middleware. We present a concrete implementation of our approach and illustrate its use and performance results using simple use cases.
Heavy metal contamination of Ganga river at Varanasi in relation to atmospheric deposition

We investigated the mid stream water quality of Ganga river as influenced by aerially - driven heavy metals at Varanasi, India. Twelve sampling stations were selected along a 20 km long stretch of the river. Mid stream sub-surface water samples collected at fortnightly intervals from all the sites were acid digested and analyzed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn. The data revealed that the mid-stream water of river Ganga at Varanasi is invariably contaminated by heavy metals. Highest concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb were recorded during winter and that of Zn during summer season. The overall concentration of heavy metals in water showed the trend : Zn > Ni > Cr > Pb > Cu > Cd. Concentrations of all the heavy metals were high in down - stream sampling stations. Correlation analysis showed that heavy metal concentration in mid-stream water had significant positive relationship with rate of atmospheric deposition at respective sites. Although the concentrations of these metals in water remained below the permissible limits of Indian standards for drinking water, levels of Cd, Ni and Pb at three stations, were above the internationally recommended (WHO) maximum admissible concentrations (MAC). These observations suggest that use of such water for drinking may lead to potential health risk in long-run. The study has further relevance in understanding the atmosphere - water interaction in polluted environment and for management of water bodies even those situated away from direct anthropogenic discharge.
Internationalization Strategies of Chinese IT Service Suppliers

With China emerging as a new frontier of global IT outsourcing, many Chinese IT service suppliers are actively expanding in three major markets: Asia, especially Japan, the West, especially the United States, and the Chinese domestic market. Compared to multinational suppliers and established Indian suppliers, Chinese IT service firms are at a relatively early, but rapidly growing stage, which offers a unique opportunity to explore an understudied topic in the information systems literature: internationalization strategies of IT service suppliers from emerging economies. Through a three-part qualitative case study of 13 China-based IT service firms, including almost all of the Chinese suppliers recognized globally, this study elaborates the internationalization behavior and decision rationale of these suppliers. The findings show that these major Chinese suppliers include both firms that incrementally internationalize and firms that are "born global. " For both types of firms, the entry and growth in different markets is a highly dynamic activity combining a strategically planned, resource-seeking process and a flexible, opportunistic bricolage process based on existing operation capabilities and client relationships. The suppliers dynamically oscillate between these processes to exploit and create opportunities while expanding in multiple markets.
EEG Telemetry with Closely Spaced Electrodes in Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

The use of additional electrodes (other than standard 10-20 electrodes) has proved to be extremely useful in the investigation of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The development of 32- and 64-channel EEG machines, along with the reformatting capabilities of digital EEG has greatly increased the possibilities in the number of electrodes and recording montages. The authors wanted to determine whether the use of closely spaced electrodes designed to increase the coverage of frontocentral regions is of benefit in the investigation of patients with frontocentral epilepsy. Patients investigated for frontocentral epilepsy underwent EEG telemetry with closely spaced electrodes based on the 10-10 nomenclature. Twenty-three patients were studied. An additional 30 minutes was required by technicians to create the montage. Unilateral frontal or frontocentral epileptic abnormalities were observed in 10 patients, independent bifrontal in 5 patients, synchronous bifrontal in 4 patients, and no EEG changes in 4 patients. In no patient did the addition of closely spaced electrodes lead to a change in the classification of the EEG. Closely spaced electrodes did not reveal focal abnormalities, which were not already apparent with 10-20 electrodes, nor did they demonstrate evidence of laterality in bilaterally synchronous discharges.
Endoscopic circumferential esophageal mucosectomy in a porcine model: an assessment of technical feasibility, safety, and outcome.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Endoscopic mucosectomy has been performed for early cancers and dysplastic lesions < or = 2 cm in diameter. The feasibility and safety of mucosectomy for circumferential lesions of the esophagus is uncertain. The aim of this study was to determine the technical feasibility, as well as the short and long-term complication rates, with circumferential endoscopic mucosectomy of the distal esophagus in the pig. MATERIALS AND METHODS Circumferential endoscopic mucosectomy of the distal 3 cm of the esophagus was performed in four pigs, using a cap mucosectomy device. The animals were sacrificed after 30, 50, 70, and 90 days to assess mucosal regeneration and stricture formation. RESULTS The procedure time for circumferential endoscopic mucosectomy was 15-30 min. Circumferential endoscopic mucosectomy was technically feasible and without short-term complications. Videotapes of all resections were reviewed to ensure that complete removal of the mucosa was achieved. All mucosectomy specimens underwent histological evaluation. The specimens included the mucosa alone in three of the pigs. Some of the specimens in the fourth pig included a superficial layer of muscularis propria. This pig failed to thrive. Macroscopic examination of the dissected esophageal specimens from the healthy pigs revealed a well-healed, normal-appearing esophagus, whereas a stenosis of 4 x 10 mm was observed in the distal esophagus of the pig that failed to thrive. CONCLUSIONS Circumferential endoscopic mucosectomy of the porcine distal esophagus is feasible and safe. An adequate submucosal saline cushion is essential to prevent stenosis due to deep injury.
Establishment of a variety of human bone marrow stromal cell lines by the recombinant SV40‐adenovirus vector

Various human bone marrow stromal cell lines were established from the adherent cell populations by introduction of the recombinant SV40‐adenovirus vector with an infection or electric poration procedure. As compared with DMA transfection, the vector introduction was able to immortalize the cells with more than 100 times higher efficiency. Morphological and cytochemical analyses indicated that various cloned cell lines with different properties were isolated by the vector introduction. All the established cell lines expressed SV40 large T antigen. These results provided the evidence indicating that the recombinant SV40‐adenovirus vector was a useful tool to establish a variety of cell lines with different biological activities from human bone marrow stroma.
Realistic Interaction System for Human Hand in Virtual Environments

In order to enhance the diversity of interaction between human hands and virtual objects, we adopt a physics-based method. Using the Coulomb friction model, we can interact with the virtual objects in a variety of ways, such as pushing, pulling, grasping manipulation without any predefined data. We define two interaction states, non-interactive state and interactive state. We adopt different update strategies of virtual hand posture in the two interaction states to effectively solve the problem of virtual hand penetrating the virtual object in the interaction process. In interactive state, we use inverse kinematics method to adjust the virtual hand posture. According to the physiological constraints of the real hand, we establish the motion constraints of the virtual finger which makes the posture of the virtual hand is natural and real. At last, an interaction system is developed. Experiments has shown that proposed method can satisfy real-time interaction and support diversity interactive operations. The virtual hand posture presented during interaction is natural and realistic.
Un nuevo cálculo de la tasa de cambio real de equilibrio para Colombia: Enfoque de Balance Macroeconómico

En este documento se presenta una nueva estimacion del desalineamiento de la tasa de cambio real para Colombia, mediante el enfoque de balance macroeconomico. Se presentan estimaciones para la cuenta corriente normativa (o sostenible) de acuerdo a una serie de determinantes, utilizando una metodologia de panel cointegrado para 21 paises de America Latina y el Caribe, y para la cuenta corriente subyacente, obtenida a traves de una estimacion de series de tiempo para Colombia. Los resultados indican que, para 2016, el desalineamiento estimado de la tasa de cambio real no fue estadisticamente significativo, debido a que tampoco lo fue el desbalance entre la cuenta corriente normativa y la subyacente.
Pornographic images detection using High-Level Semantic features

The pornographic images recognition can be seen as a special kind of object recognition task,but current pornographic images filtering algorithms using BoVF approaches have some problems,such as the high false positive rate toward the bikinis images and insufficiency of filtering pornographic images with pornographic actions. The paper proposes a novel pornographic image filtering model using High-level Semantic features. Firstly, we optimize BoVW model to minimize semantic gap between low-level features and high-level semantic features and then high-level semantic dictionary is constructed by fusing the context of the visual vocabularies and spatial-related high-level semantic features of pornographic images. Experimental results show that the model has an accuracy up to 87.6% when testing the multi-person pornographic images, which is significantly higher than the existing pornographic images filtering algorithm based on Bag-Of-Visual-Words.
Transplant immunobiology: a crucial role for heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans?

After allotransplantation, a solid organ can suffer a number of injurious processes that result in a functional deficit. These include responses to stress associated with brain death of the donor; ischemia-reperfusion injury inflicted before, during, and immediately after surgery; and, potentially, local binding of preformed antidonor antibodies. These insults result in endothelial cell activation, local shedding of anticoagulant factors from the endothelial cell surface (1), and immediate release of granule-stored E-selectin molecules and chemokines such as interleukin (IL)-8 (2). This causes local immobilization of leukocytes on the surface of the graft endothelium and, if sufficiently severe, can generate a procoagulant intravascular environment, leading to thrombosis and hyperacute graft failure. Grafts that survive the perioperative period are susceptible to specific T-cell–mediated immune responses, which are orchestrated by a range of cytokines including graftand immune-cell–generated chemokines such as interferon (IFN)-inducible protein 10, proinflammatory cytokines such as IFN, and a range of T-cell growth factors including IL-2 and IL-4 (3). After the main phase of T-cell–mediated rejection, grafts often show a gradual deterioration in function associated with interstitial fibrosis and vascular occlusion (4). This process is relatively poorly understood but is likely to involve excessive activity of locally produced growth factors, such as transforming growth factor(5). Glycosaminoglycans (GAG) are complex polysaccharides involved in the preservation of the critical anticoagulant surface of vascular endothelial cells and in binding and regulating the function of many cytokines, including those involved in every stage of graft damage. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider GAG as central molecular components of the posttransplant response and, therefore, as excellent targets for immunomodulatory intervention. This review considers the role of GAG as regulators of the graft rejection process through their interactions with a variety of proteins. In addition, it surveys the prospect of using these molecules for specific anti-inflammatory therapy after transplantation.
A collaborative model for tracking optima in dynamic environments

A new hybrid approach to optimization in dynamic environments called collaborative evolutionary-swarm optimization (CESO) is presented. CESO is a simple method for tracking moving optima in a dynamic environment by combining the search abilities of an evolutionary algorithm for multimodal optimization and a particle swarm optimization algorithm. A collaborative mechanism is designed for the two methods. Numerical experiments indicate CESO to be an efficient method for the selected test problems compared with other evolutionary approaches.
Un estudio exploratorio de los factores y terminantes de la calidad de los servicios

El presente trabajo se centra en estudiar como influyen varias dimensiones en diferentes servicios y conocer si existen variables comunes en los distintos servicios. Los resultados obtenidos, del trabajo empirico realizado a una muestra de 223 usuarios de servicios no docentes universitarios y 1008 clientes procedentes de servicios ajenos a la universidad, indican que las categorias utilizadas influyen en los distintos servicios, siendo las dimensiones elementos tangibles y empatia las que mas impacto provocan en el analisis de calidad, con independencia del servicio evaluado. Finalizamos este estudio presentando sus principales conclusiones e implicaciones practicas.
Using stem cells to produce insulin

Introduction: Tremendous progress has been made in generating insulin-producing cells from pluripotent stem cells. The best outcome of the refined protocols became apparent in the first clinical trial announced by ViaCyte, based on the implantation of pancreatic progenitors that would further mature into functional insulin-producing cells inside the patient’s body. Areas covered: Several groups, including ours, have contributed to improve strategies to generate insulin-producing cells. Of note, the latest results have gained a substantial amount of interest as a method to create a potentially functional and limitless supply of β-cell to revert diabetes mellitus. This review analyzes the accomplishments that have taken place over the last few decades, summarizes the state-of-art methods for β-cell replacement therapies based on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into glucose-responsive and insulin-producing cells in a dish and discusses alternative approaches to obtain new sources of insulin-producing cells. Expert opinion: Undoubtedly, recent events preface the beginning of a new era in diabetes therapy. However, in our opinion, a number of significant hurdles still stand in the way of clinical application. We believe that the combination of the private and public sectors will accelerate the process of obtaining the desired safe and functional β-cell surrogates.
Postnatal development of micturition reflex in rats.

The postnatal development of the micturition reflex and factors related to its initiation have been investigated by means of cystometric techniques under urethan anesthesia. In rats less than 10 days of age, micturition is not elicited in response to bladder distension. In these animals voiding is triggered by application of a somatic stimulus in the perineal area. In rats greater than or equal to 15 days of age the response to bladder filling is similar to that observed in adults. In rats 10-15 days of age an intermediate pattern is frequently observed; i.e., bladder filling elicited micturition at high values of pressure threshold. The myogenic (tetrodotoxin insensitive) contractile activity of the bladder is absent at birth and developed postnatally, similar to that described in the isolated organ [C. A. Maggi, P. Santicioli, and A. Meli. Am. J. Physiol. 247 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 16): R972-R978, 1985]. The ability of topical capsaicin to induce tetrodotoxin-sensitive contractions of rat bladder (micturition reflex) appeared at day 10 and increases thereafter in parallel with ability of the bladder to respond to distension. These findings demonstrate that peripheral factors, such as myogenic contractile activity and sensory innervation, which are involved in the initiation of bladder voiding undergo a postnatal development in rats.
A seismologically consistent compositional model of Earth’s core

Significance It is well known that Earth’s core is made primarily of iron, alloyed with ∼5% nickel and some lighter elements, such as carbon, oxygen, silicon, or sulfur. The amount as well as the chemistry of the light elements is poorly known and still a matter of considerable debate. In this paper we calculate the seismic signature of iron-rich light-element alloys and compare them to the seismic properties of Earth’s core. We find that oxygen is required as a major light element in the core, whereas silicon, sulfur, and carbon are not required. We also find that silicon concentration in the core cannot be higher than 4.5%, and sulfur concentration cannot be higher than 2.4%. Earth’s core is less dense than iron, and therefore it must contain “light elements,” such as S, Si, O, or C. We use ab initio molecular dynamics to calculate the density and bulk sound velocity in liquid metal alloys at the pressure and temperature conditions of Earth's outer core. We compare the velocity and density for any composition in the (Fe–Ni, C, O, Si, S) system to radial seismological models and find a range of compositional models that fit the seismological data. We find no oxygen-free composition that fits the seismological data, and therefore our results indicate that oxygen is always required in the outer core. An oxygen-rich core is a strong indication of high-pressure and high-temperature conditions of core differentiation in a deep magma ocean with an FeO concentration (oxygen fugacity) higher than that of the present-day mantle.