Stem Cell Therapeutics: Exploring Newer Alternatives to Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Stem cells therapeutics has come a long way since stem cells and their potential was discovered for the first time. Intense research into cellular biology of stem cells has revealed that they possess immense potential for curing many human diseases. Research done in last couple of decades revealed that a particular class of stem cells called, “Human embryonic stem cells (HESCs)” possessed exceptional self-renewal and pluripotency properties. There ability to differentiate into specialized cell lineages of all three embryonic germ layers contributed further towards their popularity. However, in recent times HESCs have come under the cross-hairs of critics, politicians and religious groups due to certain technical and ethical concerns related to them. Such problems with HESCs research have forced stem cell researchers to start exploring the prospects of using alternatives to HESCs for regenerative medicine and therapeutics. In the present review, various sources of stem cells have been described, which in near future, have the potential to replace HESCs in regenerative medicine

Palladium-catalyzed acetylation of arenes.

A simple method for the preparation of aryl methyl ketones is reported. The transformation involves the Pd-catalyzed coupling of an acyl anion equivalent, acetyltrimethylsilane, with aryl bromides to afford the corresponding acetylated arenes in synthetically useful yields. The methodology is tolerant of heterocycles and provides a new method for arene functionalization

Optimal cooperative control synthesis of active displays

A technique is developed that is intended to provide a systematic approach to synthesizing display augmentation for optimal manual control in complex, closed-loop tasks. A cooperative control synthesis technique, previously developed to design pilot-optimal control augmentation for the plant, is extended to incorporate the simultaneous design of performance enhancing displays. The technique utilizes an optimal control model of the man in the loop. It is applied to the design of a quickening control law for a display and a simple K/s(2) plant, and then to an F-15 type aircraft in a multi-channel task. Utilizing the closed loop modeling and analysis procedures, the results from the display design algorithm are evaluated and an analytical validation is performed. Experimental validation is recommended for future efforts

Quantum phase interference (Berry phase) in single-molecule magnets of Mn12

Magnetization measurements of a molecular clusters Mn12 with a spin ground state of S = 10 show resonance tunneling at avoided energy level crossings. The observed oscillations of the tunnel probability as a function of the magnetic field applied along the hard anisotropy axis are due to topological quantum phase interference of two tunnel paths of opposite windings. Mn12 is therefore the second molecular clusters presenting quantum phase interference.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, MMM'01 conference (12-16 Nov.

Spin Tunneling in Magnetic Molecules: Quasisingular Perturbations and Discontinuous SU(2) Instantons

Spin coherent state path integrals with discontinuous semiclassical paths are investigated with special reference to a realistic model for the magnetic degrees of freedom in the Fe8 molecular solid. It is shown that such paths are essential to a proper understanding of the phenomenon of quenched spin tunneling in these molecules. In the Fe8 problem, such paths are shown to arise as soon as a fourth order anisotropy term in the energy is turned on, making this term a singular perturbation from the semiclassical point of view. The instanton approximation is shown to quantitatively explain the magnetic field dependence of the tunnel splitting, as well as agree with general rules for the number of quenching points allowed for a given value of spin. An accurate approximate formula for the spacing between quenching points is derived

Quantum Lightning Never Strikes the Same State Twice

Public key quantum money can be seen as a version of the quantum no-cloning theorem that holds even when the quantum states can be verified by the adversary. In this work, investigate quantum lightning, a formalization of "collision-free quantum money" defined by Lutomirski et al. [ICS'10], where no-cloning holds even when the adversary herself generates the quantum state to be cloned. We then study quantum money and quantum lightning, showing the following results: - We demonstrate the usefulness of quantum lightning by showing several potential applications, such as generating random strings with a proof of entropy, to completely decentralized cryptocurrency without a block-chain, where transactions is instant and local. - We give win-win results for quantum money/lightning, showing that either signatures/hash functions/commitment schemes meet very strong recently proposed notions of security, or they yield quantum money or lightning. - We construct quantum lightning under the assumed multi-collision resistance of random degree-2 systems of polynomials. - We show that instantiating the quantum money scheme of Aaronson and Christiano [STOC'12] with indistinguishability obfuscation that is secure against quantum computers yields a secure quantum money schem