Automated Attribute Extraction from Legal Proceedings

The escalating number of pending cases is a growing concern world-wide. Recent advancements in digitization have opened up possibilities for leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the processing of legal documents. Adopting a structured representation for legal documents, as opposed to a mere bag-of-words flat text representation, can significantly enhance processing capabilities. With the aim of achieving this objective, we put forward a set of diverse attributes for criminal case proceedings. We use a state-of-the-art sequence labeling framework to automatically extract attributes from the legal documents. Moreover, we demonstrate the efficacy of the extracted attributes in a downstream task, namely legal judgment prediction.Comment: Presented in Mining and Learning in the Legal Domain (MLLD) workshop 202

Common variants in CLDN2 and MORC4 genes confer disease susceptibility in patients with chronic pancreatitis

A recent Genome-wide Association Study (GWAS) identified association with variants in X-linked CLDN2 and MORC4 and PRSS1-PRSS2 loci with Chronic Pancreatitis (CP) in North American patients of European ancestry. We selected 9 variants from the reported GWAS and replicated the association with CP in Indian patients by genotyping 1807 unrelated Indians of Indo-European ethnicity, including 519 patients with CP and 1288 controls. The etiology of CP was idiopathic in 83.62% and alcoholic in 16.38% of 519 patients. Our study confirmed a significant association of 2 variants in CLDN2 gene (rs4409525—OR 1.71, P = 1.38 x 10-09; rs12008279—OR 1.56, P = 1.53 x 10-04) and 2 variants in MORC4 gene (rs12688220—OR 1.72, P = 9.20 x 10-09; rs6622126—OR 1.75, P = 4.04x10-05) in Indian patients with CP. We also found significant association at PRSS1-PRSS2 locus (OR 0.60; P = 9.92 x 10-06) and SAMD12-TNFRSF11B (OR 0.49, 95% CI [0.31–0.78], P = 0.0027). A variant in the gene MORC4 (rs12688220) showed significant interaction with alcohol (OR for homozygous and heterozygous risk allele -14.62 and 1.51 respectively, P = 0.0068) suggesting gene-environment interaction. A combined analysis of the genes CLDN2 and MORC4 based on an effective risk allele score revealed a higher percentage of individuals homozygous for the risk allele in CP cases with 5.09 fold enhanced risk in individuals with 7 or more effective risk alleles compared with individuals with 3 or less risk alleles (P = 1.88 x 10-14). Genetic variants in CLDN2 and MORC4 genes were associated with CP in Indian patients

MicroRNA-15b Modulates Molecular Mediators of Blood Induced Arthropathy in Hemophilia Mice

The development of arthropathy is a major co-morbidity in patients with hemophilia. The present study was designed to study the role of a microRNA biomarker (miR-15b) in the development of joint disease. To investigate the expression profile of miR-15b during the development of arthropathy, we first isolated and studied small RNA from the acute and chronic hemarthrosis model of hemophilia A mice. We observed that miR-15b was consistently repressed (~1- to 4-fold) from the onset of joint bleeding (1, 3, 7 and 24 h) until six bleeding episodes (up to 90 days). To test if reconstitution of miR-15b modulates biomarkers of joint damage in a chronic hemarthrosis model, we administered an adeno-associated virus (AAV) 5-miR-15b vector intra-articularly alone or in combination with systemic administration of AAV2-factor VIII. miR-15b overexpression downregulated markers of angiogenesis and hypoxia (vascular epithelial growth factor α (VEGF-α) and hypoxia inducing factor 2α (HIF-2α), ~70% and ~34%, respectively) in the affected joints. In addition, the co-administration of miR-15b and factor VIII vectors reduced the levels of the chondrodegenerative matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs) 1, 3, 9 and 14 (~14% to 60%) in the injured joints. These data demonstrate for the first time the role of a miR-15b in the development of hemophilic arthropathy and has implications in development of miR based therapies for joint disease

d-Alanine 2, Leucine 5 Enkephaline (DADLE)-mediated DOR activation augments human hUCB-BFs viability subjected to oxidative stress via attenuation of the UPR

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) although being potent in repairing injured or ischemic tissues, their success regarding tissue-regenerative approaches are hindered by the paucity in their viability. The elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in damaged sites provoke the pernicious effects of donor MSC survival. In the present study, the effect of delta-opioid receptor (DOR) activation on human umbilical cord-blood borne fibroblasts (hUCB-BFs) survival under oxidative stress (H2O2) was evaluated. Oxidative stress which is known to trigger pathological conditions of the unfolded protein response (UPR) leads to endoplasmic reticulum stress. Upon its activation by D-Alanine 2, Leucine 5 Enkephaline (DADLE, selective DOR agonist) in hUCB-BFs under oxidative stress, a significant down regulation (~2 folds) of key UPR genes was observed as determined by qPCR, Thioflavin-T protein aggregation assay and western blot analysis. Concomitantly, the oxidative stress-mediated cell-death was ameliorated and the viable-cells' percentage was enhanced following DOR activation. The intracellular ROS production upon H2O2 treatment as determined by CM-H2DCFDA staining was repressed, the anti-apoptotic marker Bcl-2 was upregulated along with a significant suppression in the expression levels of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and Bad upon DOR activation. Upon subsequent treatment with naltrindole, the effects of DADLE-induced cytoprotection were reverted significantly. These results propound the role of DADLE-mediated DOR-activation on improvement of the viability, which might succour successful hUCB-BFs transplants and greatly absolve the inefficacy of tissue-specific engineered transplants

Crosstalk between Delta Opioid Receptor and Nerve Growth Factor Signaling Modulates Neuroprotection and Differentiation in Rodent Cell Models

Both opioid signaling and neurotrophic factor signaling have played an important role in neuroprotection and differentiation in the nervous system. Little is known about whether the crosstalk between these two signaling pathways will affect neuroprotection and differentiation. Previously, we found that nerve growth factor (NGF) could induce expression of the delta opioid receptor gene (Oprd1, dor), mainly through PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling in PC12h cells. In this study, using two NGF-responsive rodent cell model systems, PC12h cells and F11 cells, we found the delta opioid neuropeptide [D-Ala2, D-Leu5] enkephalin (DADLE)-mediated neuroprotective effect could be blocked by pharmacological reagents: the delta opioid antagonist naltrindole, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, MAPK inhibitor PD98059, and Trk inhibitor K252a, respectively. Western blot analysis revealed that DADLE activated both the PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways in the two cell lines. siRNA Oprd1 gene knockdown experiment showed that the upregulation of NGF mRNA level was inhibited with concomitant inhibition of the survival effects of DADLE in the both cell models. siRNA Oprd1 gene knockdown also attenuated the DADLE-mediated neurite outgrowth in PC12h cells as well as phosphorylation of MAPK and Akt in PC12h and F11 cells, respectively. These data together strongly suggest that delta opioid peptide DADLE acts through the NGF-induced functional G protein-coupled Oprd1 to provide its neuroprotective and differentiating effects at least in part by regulating survival and differentiating MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in NGF-responsive rodent neuronal cells

Process development for hydrolysate optimization from lignocellulosic biomass towards biofuel production

The renewable biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) through hydrolysis is a promising alternative of fossil fuel and it creates carbon balance of the ecosystem by recycling the emitted CO2 into biomass production. LCB mainly comprises of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin with a small percentage of pectin, protein, extractive and ash. Prior to hydrolysis of LCB, pretreatment can be performed by different methods namely physical (e.g. mechanical reduction, pyrolysis and extrusion), chemical (e.g. acid, alkaline, oxidative pretreatment and ozonolysis), physiochemical (e.g. steam pretreatment and ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX)) and biological pretreatment. The pretreatment process is one key step to remove lignin and hemicellulose attributing to an improvement in the LCB hydrolysis efficiency. Enzymatic hydrolysis is preferred over acid hydrolysis that produces inhibitory products (e.g. furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), acetic acid, formic acid and levulinic acid) of subsequent fermentation process. Different detoxification methods (physical, chemical and biological) are employed to remove the inhibitors. However, enzymatic hydrolysis rate and yield depend on several factors such as concentration and quality of substrate, pretreatment methods, cellulase enzymes and reaction conditions (e.g. temperature, pH and mixing). Upcoming amalgamated techniques with both hydrolysis and fermentation, such as separate enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF), simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), non isothermal simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (NSSF), simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF), simultaneous saccharification, filtration and fermentation (SSFF), two chamber bioreactor separated by a membrane filter, and consolidated bioprocessing are the key areas that require detailed analysis for further technology improvement prior to commercialization of hydrolysis process

Measuring and Comparing the Consistency of IR Models for Query Pairs with Similar and Different Information Needs

A widespread use of supervised ranking models has necessitated an investigation on how consistent their outputs align with user expectations. While a match between the user expectations and system outputs can be sought at different levels of granularity, we study this alignment for search intent transformation across a pair of queries. Specifically, we propose a consistency metric, which for a given pair of queries - one reformulated from the other with at least one term in common, measures if the change in the set of the top-retrieved documents induced by this reformulation is as per a user's expectation. Our experiments led to a number of observations, such as DRMM (an early interaction based IR model) exhibits better alignment with set-level user expectations, whereas transformer-based neural models (e.g., MonoBERT) agree more consistently with the content and rank-based expectations of overlap

Biogenic Ceria Nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) for Effective Photocatalytic and Cytotoxic Activity

Ceria nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) are generally considered in various functional applications, such as catalysts in fuel cells, sensors, and antioxidant and oxidase-like enzymes in the biological environment. The CeO2 NPs were synthesized using the E. globulus leaf extract-mediated hydrothermal technique. The synthesized NPs were characterized by various analytical instruments including powder X-ray diffractometer (PXRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. The XRD results showed an average NPs sizes of 13.7 nm. Cytotoxic study results showed an IC50 value of 45.5 µg/L for A549 and 58.2 µg/L for HCT 116, indicating that CeO2 NPs are more toxic to A549 compared to HCT116 cell lines. The generation of ROS was responsible for its cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines. Specific surface area (40.96 m2/g) and pore diameter (7.8 nm) were measured using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms. CeO2 NPs with a high surface area were used as photocatalyst in degrading sunset yellow (SY) dye under UV-irradiation and 97.3% of the dye was degraded within 90 min. These results suggest that the synthesized CeO2 NPs could be used as a good photocatalyst as well as a cytotoxic agent against human cancer cell lines