Human pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells: Truly immature islet β cells for type 1 diabetes therapy?

A century has passed since the Nobel Prize winning discovery of insulin, which still remains the mainstay treatment for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) to this day. True to the words of its discoverer Sir Frederick Banting, “insulin is not a cure for diabetes, it is a treatment”, millions of people with T1DM are dependent on daily insulin medications for life. Clinical donor islet transplantation has proven that T1DM is curable, however due to profound shortages of donor islets, it is not a mainstream treatment option for T1DM. Human pluripotent stem cell derived insulin-secreting cells, pervasively known as stem cell-derived β cells (SC-β cells), are a promising alternative source and have the potential to become a T1DM treatment through cell replacement therapy. Here we briefly review how islet β cells develop and mature in vivo and several types of reported SC-β cells produced using different ex vivo protocols in the last decade. Although some markers of maturation were expressed and glucose stimulated insulin secretion was shown, the SC-β cells have not been directly compared to their in vivo counterparts, generally have limited glucose response, and are not yet fully matured. Due to the presence of extra-pancreatic insulin-expressing cells, and ethical and technological issues, further clarification of the true nature of these SC-β cells is required

Existence and asymptotic behavior of C1C^1 solutions to the multidimensional compressible Euler equations with damping

In this paper, the existence and asymptotic behavior of $C^1$ solutions to the multidimensional compressible Euler equations with damping on the framework of Besov space are considered. We weaken the regularity requirement of the initial data, and improve the well-posedness results of Sideris-Thomases-Wang (Comm.P.D.E. 28 (2003) 953). The global existence lies on a crucial a-priori estimate which is proved by the spectral localization method. The main analytic tools are the Littlewood-Paley decomposition and Bony's para-product formula.Comment: 18 page

Doubly Heavy Baryon Production at A High Luminosity e+e−e^+ e^- Collider

Within the framework of nonrelativistic QCD, we make a detailed discussion on the doubly heavy baryon production through the $e^+ e^-$ annihilation channel, $e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow\gamma/Z^0 \rightarrow \Xi_{QQ^{\prime}} +\bar{Q} +\bar{Q^{\prime}}$, at a high luminosity $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider. Here $Q^{(\prime)}$ stands for the heavy $b$ or $c$ quark. In addition to the channel through the usually considered diquark state $(QQ^{\prime})[^3S_1]_{\bf\bar{3}}$, contributions from the channels through other same important diquark states such as $(QQ^{\prime})[^1S_0]_{\bf 6}$ have also been discussed. Uncertainties for the total cross sections are predicted by taking $m_c=1.80\pm0.30$ GeV and $m_b=5.10\pm0.40$ GeV. At a super $Z$-factory running around the $Z^0$ mass and with a high luminosity up to ${\cal L} \propto 10^{34}\sim 10^{36}{\rm cm}^{-2} {\rm s}^{-1}$, we estimate that about $1.1\times10^{5 \sim 7}$ $\Xi_{cc}$ events, $2.6\times10^{5 \sim 7}$ $\Xi_{bc}$ events and $1.2\times 10^{4 \sim 6}$ $\Xi_{bb}$ events can be generated in one operation year. Such a $Z$-factory, thus, will provide a good platform for studying the doubly heavy baryons in comparable to the CERN large hadronic collider.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Phys.Rev.

A description of the transverse momentum distributions of charged particles produced in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies

By assuming the existing of memory effects and long-range interactions in the hot and dense matter produced in high energy heavy ion collisions, the nonextensive statistics together with the relativistic hydrodynamics including phase transition is used to discuss the transverse momentum distributions of charged particles produced in heavy ion collisions. It is shown that the combined contributions from nonextensive statistics and hydrodynamics can give a good description to the experimental data in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN )= 200 GeV and in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN) )= 2.76 TeV for pi^(+ -) , K^(+ -) in the whole measured transverse momentum region, and for p(p-bar) in the region of p_T<= 2.0 GeV/c. This is different from our previous work, where, by using the conventional statistics plus hydrodynamics, the describable region is only limited in p_T<= 1.1 GeV/c.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Uniaxial Compression Fractal Damage Constitutive Model of Rock Subjected to Freezing and Thawing

Mechanical properties of the rock in the cold regions are often affected by freeze-thaw cycles and loads. It is of great theoretical significance and engineering value to establish a uniaxial compression damage constitutive model of the rock under freeze-thaw cycles that can reflect the relationship between macroscopic and mesoscopic structural damage. In this paper, macroscopic and mesoscopic methods are combined with statistical methods to quantitatively analyze the damage degree of rock under freeze-thaw cycles and loads. Combined with the fractal features of the macroscopic image of the section, a fractal damage constitutive model considering the residual strength of rock is established. In addition, the model is subsequently verified by the experiment. The experiment shows that the mechanical properties of rocks subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and loads are determined by freeze-thaw damage variables, load damage variables, and their coupling effects. As the number of freeze-thaw cycles increases, the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of rocks decrease, and peak strain increases. By using the fractal dimension of the compression fracture surface as a bridge considering the residual strength of the rock, the constitutive model can better reflect the compaction stage, elastic deformation stage and plastic deformation stage of the uniaxial compression process of the freeze-thaw rocks