SECaps: A Sequence Enhanced Capsule Model for Charge Prediction

Automatic charge prediction aims to predict appropriate final charges according to the fact descriptions for a given criminal case. Automatic charge prediction plays a critical role in assisting judges and lawyers to improve the efficiency of legal decisions, and thus has received much attention. Nevertheless, most existing works on automatic charge prediction perform adequately on high-frequency charges but are not yet capable of predicting few-shot charges with limited cases. In this paper, we propose a Sequence Enhanced Capsule model, dubbed as SECaps model, to relieve this problem. Specifically, following the work of capsule networks, we propose the seq-caps layer, which considers sequence information and spatial information of legal texts simultaneously. Then we design a attention residual unit, which provides auxiliary information for charge prediction. In addition, our SECaps model introduces focal loss, which relieves the problem of imbalanced charges. Comparing the state-of-the-art methods, our SECaps model obtains 4.5% and 6.4% absolutely considerable improvements under Macro F1 in Criminal-S and Criminal-L respectively. The experimental results consistently demonstrate the superiorities and competitiveness of our proposed model.Comment: 13 pages, 3figures, 5 table

Transcriptome pathways unique to dehydration tolerant relatives of modern wheat

Among abiotic stressors, drought is a major factor responsible for dramatic yield loss in agriculture. In order to reveal differences in global expression profiles of drought tolerant and sensitive wild emmer wheat genotypes, a previously deployed shock-like dehydration process was utilized to compare transcriptomes at two time points in root and leaf tissues using the Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Wheat Genome Array hybridization. The comparison of transcriptomes reveal several unique genes or expression patterns such as differential usage of IP(3)-dependent signal transduction pathways, ethylene- and abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent signaling, and preferential or faster induction of ABA-dependent transcription factors by the tolerant genotype that distinguish contrasting genotypes indicative of distinctive stress response pathways. The data also show that wild emmer wheat is capable of engaging known drought stress responsive mechanisms. The global comparison of transcriptomes in the absence of and after dehydration underlined the gene networks especially in root tissues that may have been lost in the selection processes generating modern bread wheats

Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation patients without previous oral anticoagulants or stable under warfarin: a nationwide cohort study.

AimsInvestigations on non-VKA oral anticoagulants (NOACs) for atrial fibrillation (AF) patients without taking any oral anticoagulants (OACs) or staying well on warfarin were limited. We aimed to investigate the associations between stroke prevention strategies and clinical outcomes among AF patients who were previously well without taking any OACs or stayed well on warfarin for years.Methods and resultsThe retrospective analysis included a total of 54 803 AF patients who did not experience an ischaemic stroke or intra-cranial haemorrhage (ICH) for years after AF was diagnosed. Among these patients, 32 917 patients who did not receive OACs were defined as the 'original non-OAC cohort' (group 1), and 8007 patients who continuously received warfarin were defined as the 'original warfarin cohort' (group 2). In group 1, compared to non-OAC, warfarin showed no significant difference in ischaemic stroke (aHR 0.979, 95%CI 0.863-1.110, P = 0.137) while those initiated NOACs were associated with lower risk (aHR 0.867, 95%CI 0.786-0.956, P = 0.043). When compared to warfarin, the composite of 'ischaemic stroke or ICH' and 'ischaemic stroke or major bleeding' was significantly lower in the NOAC initiator with an aHR of 0.927 (95%CI 0.865-0.994; P = 0.042) and 0.912 (95%CI 0.837-0.994; P ConclusionsThe NOACs should be considered for AF patients who were previously well without taking OACs and those who were free of ischaemic stroke and ICH under warfarin for years

Prognostic factors and monomicrobial necrotizing fasciitis: gram-positive versus gram-negative pathogens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Monomicrobial necrotizing fasciitis is rapidly progressive and life-threatening. This study was undertaken to ascertain whether the clinical presentation and outcome for patients with this disease differ for those infected with a gram-positive as compared to gram-negative pathogen.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-six patients with monomicrobial necrotizing fasciitis were examined retrospectively from November 2002 to January 2008. All patients received adequate broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy, aggressive resuscitation, prompt radical debridement and adjuvant hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Eleven patients were infected with a gram-positive pathogen (Group 1) and 35 patients with a gram-negative pathogen (Group 2).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Group 2 was characterized by a higher incidence of hemorrhagic bullae and septic shock, higher APACHE II scores at 24 h post-admission, a higher rate of thrombocytopenia, and a higher prevalence of chronic liver dysfunction. Gouty arthritis was more prevalent in Group 1. For non-survivors, the incidences of chronic liver dysfunction, chronic renal failure and thrombocytopenia were higher in comparison with those for survivors. Lower level of serum albumin was also demonstrated in the non-survivors as compared to those in survivors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pre-existing chronic liver dysfunction, chronic renal failure, thrombocytopenia and hypoalbuminemia, and post-operative dependence on mechanical ventilation represent poor prognostic factors in monomicrobial necrotizing fasciitis. Patients with gram-negative monobacterial necrotizing fasciitis present with more fulminant sepsis.</p

Resurrection of an ancestral 5S rRNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In addition to providing phylogenetic relationships, tree making procedures such as parsimony and maximum likelihood can make specific predictions of actual historical sequences. Resurrection of such sequences can be used to understand early events in evolution. In the case of RNA, the nature of parsimony is such that when applied to multiple RNA sequences it typically predicts ancestral sequences that satisfy the base pairing constraints associated with secondary structure. The case for such sequences being actual ancestors is greatly improved, if they can be shown to be biologically functional.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A unique common ancestral sequence of 28 <it>Vibrio </it>5S ribosomal RNA sequences predicted by parsimony was resurrected and found to be functional in the context of the <it>E. coli </it>cellular environment. The functionality of various point variants and intermediates that were constructed as part of the resurrection were examined in detail. When separately introduced the changes at single stranded positions and individual double variants at base-paired positions were also viable. An additional double variant was examined at a different base-paired position and it was also valid.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show that at least in the case of the 5S rRNAs considered here, ancestors predicted by parsimony are likely to be realistic when the prediction is not overly influenced by single outliers. It is especially noteworthy that the phenotype of the predicted ancestors could be anticipated as a cumulative consequence of the phenotypes of the individual variants that comprised them. Thus, point mutation data is potentially useful in evaluating the reasonableness of ancestral sequences predicted by parsimony or other methods. The results also suggest that in the absence of significant tertiary structure constraints double variants that preserve pairing in stem regions will typically be accepted. Overall, the results suggest that it will be feasible to resurrect additional meaningful 5S rRNA ancestors as well as ancestral sequences of many different types of RNA.</p

Long-term effect of respiratory training for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients at an outpatient clinic: a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To assess the effect of respiratory training (RT ) on lung function, activity tolerance and acute exacerbation frequency with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Design: A randomised controlled trial. Setting: Outpatient clinic and home of the COPD patients, Zhengzhou City, China. Subjects: Sixty participants with COPD were randomised into two groups: an intervention group ( n = 30) which received the RT in self-management and a control group ( n = 30) that received an education program during the study. Intervention: Pulmonary function, activity tolerance and frequency of acute exacerbation of these COPD patients were evaluated before and after the program. The intervention and control programs were delivered at monthly out - patient clinic visits over a period of 12 months. The pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program was conducted by a physiotherapist (who delivered RT to the participant over a minimum of 1 h per visit) for the intervention group, whereas the control group received routine health education provided by physiotherapists. The intervention group patients were then instructed to perform exercises at home as taught in the RT at least 5 days per week at home. Results: After 12 months of RT, the lung function and the activity tolerance of the COPD patients in the intervention group were significantly improved and the exacerbation frequency was also decreased. Conclusion: Long-term RT can improve lung function and activity tolerance while decreasing the frequency of acute exacerbation for COPD patient

Report of the IAU/IAG Joint Working Group on Theory of Earth Rotation and Validation

This report focuses on some selected scientific outcomes of the activities developed by the IAU/IAG Joint Working Group on Theory of Earth rotation and validation along the term 2015–2019. It is based on its end-of-term report to the IAG Commission 3 published in the Travaux de l’IAG 2015–2019, which in its turn updates previous reports to the IAG and IAU, particularly the triennial report 2015–2018 to the IAU Commission A2, and the medium term report to the IAG Commission 3 (2015–2017). The content of the report has served as a basis for the IAG General Assembly to adopt Resolution 5 on Improvement of Earth rotation theories and models.JMF, AE, and JG were partially supported by Spanish Project AYA2016-79775-P (AEI/FEDER, UE). The work of RSG described in this paper was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Support for that work was provided by the Earth Surface and Interior Focus Area of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

Sexual knowledge, attitudes and activity of men conscripted into the military

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Military conscripts may experience a change in their attitude towards sex at times when sexual urges are at their peak during their physical growth. This study examines the experience, understanding, knowledge and attitudes regarding sexual activity of the military conscripts.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data was obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 1127 young adult military conscripts, and were evaluated in Southern Taiwan from January to July 2009, their demographic data, sexual knowledge, attitudes and activities were assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nearly 43% of the participants had performed penetrative vaginal intercourse at least once; 34% of the participants performed heterosexual oral sex at least once; almost 7% of participants had had homosexual intercourse, and 7.5% of participants had experienced homosexual oral sex in the past year. The mean sexual knowledge score based on 30 questions was 23.2 ± 4.0. The higher the educational level of the participants, the greater sexual knowledge they had obtained.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study found that 43% of unmarried young recruits had experienced premarital sexual activity. However, their sexual knowledge was insufficient and should be strengthened by sex education from an earlier age. College aged and adult learners also have sex education needs, especially with regard to integrating sexuality and life, being able to relate responsibly as sexual beings to others, the use of contraception, and about sexually transmitted disease.</p> <p>Keywords</p> <p>Young recruits, Sexual behavior, Sexual knowledge, Sex education</p