Portal Vein Aneurysm in a Patient with Cirrhosis Type C Controlled by Direct-Acting Antiviral Treatment

Introduction: Portal vein aneurysm (PVA) is a rare saccular or fusiform portal vein dilatation. The management and optimal treatment of PVA remain unknown. Case Presentation: A 53-year-old man with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was diagnosed with PVA measuring 28 mm in diameter. Under observation, his liver fibrosis progressed, and the PVA diameter gradually increased to 52 mm. The patient was treated with elbasvir-grazoprevir for 12 weeks, and HCV disappeared. After achieving sustained virological response, liver fibrosis improved and the PVA progression ceased. Conclusion: HCV clearance by direct-acting antiviral treatment not only regressed liver fibrosis but may have also restrained the progression of PVA in a patient with cirrhosis type C and PVA

C9orf72-derived arginine-rich poly-dipeptides impede phase modifiers

Nuclear import receptors (NIRs) not only transport RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) but also modify phase transitions of RBPs by recognizing nuclear localization signals (NLSs). Toxic arginine-rich poly-dipeptides from C9orf72 interact with NIRs and cause nucleocytoplasmic transport deficit. However, the molecular basis for the toxicity of arginine-rich poly-dipeptides toward NIRs function as phase modifiers of RBPs remains unidentified. Here we show that arginine-rich poly-dipeptides impede the ability of NIRs to modify phase transitions of RBPs. Isothermal titration calorimetry and size-exclusion chromatography revealed that proline:arginine (PR) poly-dipeptides tightly bind karyopherin-β2 (Kapβ2) at 1:1 ratio. The nuclear magnetic resonances of Kapβ2 perturbed by PR poly-dipeptides partially overlapped with those perturbed by the designed NLS peptide, suggesting that PR poly-dipeptides target the NLS binding site of Kapβ2. The findings offer mechanistic insights into how phase transitions of RBPs are disabled in C9orf72-related neurodegeneration

Information criteria for non-normalized models

Many statistical models are given in the form of non-normalized densities with an intractable normalization constant. Since maximum likelihood estimation is computationally intensive for these models, several estimation methods have been developed which do not require explicit computation of the normalization constant, such as noise contrastive estimation (NCE) and score matching. However, model selection methods for general non normalized models have not been proposed so far. In this study, we develop information criteria for non-normalized models estimated by NCE or score matching. They are approximately unbiased estimators of discrepancy measures for non-normalized models. Simulation results and applications to real data demonstrate that the proposed criteria enable selection of the appropriate non-normalized model in a data-driven manner.Peer reviewe

Imputation estimators for unnormalized models with missing data

We propose estimation methods for unnormalized models with missing data. The key concept is to combine a modern imputation technique with estimators for unnormalized models including noise contrastive estimation and score matching. Further, we derive asymptotic distributions of the proposed estimators and construct the confidence intervals. The application to truncated Gaussian graphical models with missing data shows the validity of the proposed methods.This pre-print is made available through arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.03630.</p

Magnetic and transport properties of single crystalline RCoxSn2 (R = Ce and La)

In this study, single crystals of CeCo0.39Sn2 and LaCo0.43Sn2 were grown by the Czochralski pulling method for the first time. These compounds crystallize to the orthorhombic CeNiSi2 type structure with the space group Cmcm. The inverse magnetic susceptibility χ−1 of CeCo0.39Sn2 obeys a Curie-Weiss law above 100 K. The effective magnetic moment is close to the value expected for the Ce3+ ion, indicating that the Ce 4f electrons in CeCo0.39Sn2 are well localized. No magnetic transition is observed down to 2 K. However, the specific heat exhibits an upturn upon cooling below 8 K, suggesting that a magnetic order would occur below 2 K