Hepatocyte growth factor enhances the generation of high-purity oligodendrocytes from human embryonic stem cells

Generation of homogeneous oligodendrocytes as donor cells is essential for human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based cell therapy for demylinating diseases. Herein we present a novel method for efficiently obtaining mature oligodendrocytes from hESCs with high purity (79.7 +/- 6.9%), using hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and G5 supplement(containing insulin, transferrin, selenite, biotin, hydrocortisone, basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor) in a four-step method. We induced hESCs into neural progenitors (NP) with HGF (5 ng/ml) and G5 (1 x) supplemented medium in an adherent differentiation system. The purified NPs were amplified in suspension as neurospheres for 1 month, and terminal oligodendrocyte differentiation was then induced by G5 supplement withdrawal and HGF treatment (20 ng/ml). The cells generated displayed typical morphologies of mature oligodendrocytes and expressed oligodendrocyte markers O4 and myelin basic protein (MBP). Our result revealed that HGF significantly enhanced the proliferation of hESC-derived NPs and promoted the differentiation as well as the maturation of oligodendrocytes from NPs. Further studies suggest that HGF/c-Met signaling pathway might play an important role in oligodendrocyte differentiation in our system. Our studies provide a means for generating the clinically relevant cell type and a platform for deciphering the molecular mechanisms that control oligodendrocyte differentiation. (C) 2009 International Society of Differentiation. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measurements and calculations of transport AC loss in second generation high temperature superconducting pancake coils

Theoretical and experimental AC loss data on a superconducting pancake coil wound using second generation (2 G) conductors are presented. An anisotropic critical state model is used to calculate critical current and the AC losses of a superconducting pancake coil. In the coil there are two regions, the critical state region and the subcritical region. The model assumes that in the subcritical region the flux lines are parallel to the tape wide face. AC losses of the superconducting pancake coil are calculated using this model. Both calorimetric and electrical techniques were used to measure AC losses in the coil. The calorimetric method is based on measuring the boil-off rate of liquid nitrogen. The electric method used a compensation circuit to eliminate the inductive component to measure the loss voltage of the coil. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical calculations thus validating the anisotropic critical state model for loss estimations in the superconducting pancake coil. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.

Study of second generation, high-temperature superconducting coils: Determination of critical current

This paper presents the modeling of second generation (2 G) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) pancake coils using finite element method. The axial symmetric model can be used to calculate current and magnetic field distribution inside the coil. The anisotropic characteristics of 2 G tapes are included in the model by direct interpolation. The model is validated by comparing to experimental results. We use the model to study critical currents of 2 G coils and find that 100μV/m is too high a criterion to determine long-term operating current of the coils, because the innermost turns of a coil will, due to the effect of local magnetic field, reach their critical current much earlier than outer turns. Our modeling shows that an average voltage criterion of 20μV/m over the coil corresponds to the point at which the innermost turns' electric field exceeds 100μV/m. So 20μV/m is suggested to be the critical current criterion of the HTS coil. The influence of background field on the coil critical current is also studied in the paper. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Alternating current loss of second-generation high-temperature superconducting coils with magnetic and non-magnetic substrate

It is widely believed that the second-generation high-temperature superconducting (2G HTS) tapes with magnetic substrates suffer higher transport loss compared to those with non-magnetic substrates. To test this, we prepared two identical coils with magnetic and non-magnetic substrates, respectively. The experimental result was rather surprising that they generated roughly the same amount of transport loss. We used finite element method to understand this result. It is found that, unlike in the single tape where the magnetic field-dependent critical current characteristic can be neglected and the effect of magnetic substrate dominates, the magnetic field-dependent critical current characteristic of 2G tape plays as an equally important role as magnetic substrate in terms of HTS coils. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Role of a high gain of the medium in superradiance generation and in observation of coherent effects in semiconductor lasers

A theoretical model of superradiant pulse generation in semiconductor laser structures is developed. It is shown that a high optical gain of the medium can overcome phase relaxation and results in a built-up superradiant state (macroscopic dipole) in an assembly of electron - hole pairs on a time scale much longer than the characteristic polarisation relaxation time T2. A criterion of the superradiance generation is the condition acmT2 > 1, where α is the gain coefficient and cm is the speed of light in the medium. The theoretical model describes both qualitatively and quantitatively the author's own experimental results.

High power, low-jitter encoded picosecond pulse generation using an rf-locked self-q-switched multicontact GaAs/GaAlAs diode laser

The RF locking of a self-Q-switching diode laser is shown to reduce the jitter of a 2.48 GHz train of 1 W peak power picosecond pulses to less than 300 fs. By using direct modulation of the loss in the Q-switched laser, direct encoding of data has been achieved at rates in excess of 2 Gbit/s.

Narrow line high power picosecond pulse generation in a multicontact distributed feedback laser using modified Q switching

High power bandwidth-limited picosecond pulses with peak powers in excess of 200 mW have been generated using multi-contact distributed feedback laser diodes for the first time. The pulses have widths typically less than 10 ps, time-bandwidth products of as little as 0·24, and can be generated on demand at generator limited repetition rates of up to 140 MHz.

Generation of the high efficiency high peak-power femtosecond blue optical pulse

The analysis and calculation of the compensation for the phase mismatch of the frequency-doubling using the frequency space chirp introduced from prisms are made. The result shows that suitable lens can compensate the phase mismatch in a certain extent resulting from wide femtosecond spectrum when the spectrum is space chirped. By means of this method, the experiment of second harmonic generation is carried out using a home-made femtosecond KLM Ti:sapphire laser and BBO crystal. The conversion efficiency of SHG is 63 %. The average output power of blue light is 320 mW. The central wavelength is 420 nm. The spectrum bandwidth is 5.5 nm. It can sustain the pulse width of 33.6 fs. The tuning range of blue light is 404-420 nm,when the femtosecond Ti:sapphire optical pulse is tuned using the prisms in the cavity.