Jožef Stefan Institute

About: Jožef Stefan Institute is a facility organization based out in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Liquid crystal & Dielectric. The organization has 3828 authors who have published 12614 publications receiving 291025 citations.

Materials perspective on Casimir and van der Waals interactions

Abstract: Electromagnetic fluctuation-induced interactions known as van der Waals, Casimir, and Casimir-Polder forces are an active and exciting area of research. This review summarizes recent progress in this field with emphasis on theoretical and computational developments and their applications to materials including molecular structures, Dirac-like systems, optical metamaterials, composites with nontrivial boundary conditions, and biological matter.

Text-learning and related intelligent agents: a survey

Abstract: In surveying current research in the development of text-learning intelligent agents, the author focuses on three key criteria: what representation the particular application uses for documents, how it selects features, and what learning algorithm it uses. She then describes Personal WebWatcher, a content-based intelligent agent that uses text-learning for user-customized Web browsing.

Ultrafast optical spectroscopy of strongly correlated materials and high-temperature superconductors: a non-equilibrium approach

Abstract: In the last two decades non-equilibrium spectroscopies have evolved from avant-garde studies to crucial tools for expanding our understanding of the physics of strongly correlated materials. The possibility of obtaining simultaneously spectroscopic and temporal information has led to insights that are complementary to (and in several cases beyond) those attainable by studying the matter at equilibrium. From this perspective, multiple phase transitions and new orders arising from competing interactions are benchmark examples where the interplay among electrons, lattice and spin dynamics can be disentangled because of the different timescales that characterize the recovery of the initial ground state. For example, the nature of the broken-symmetry phases and of the bosonic excitations that mediate the electronic interactions, eventually leading to superconductivity or other exotic states, can be revealed by observing the sub-picosecond dynamics of impulsively excited states. Furthermore, recent experimental...

Cystatins: biochemical and structural properties, and medical relevance.

Abstract: The cystatin superfamily comprises a large group of the cystatin domain containing proteins, present in a wide variety of organisms, including humans. Cystatin inhibitory activity is vital for the delicate regulation of normal physiological processes by limiting the potentially highly destructive activity of their target proteases such as the papain (C1) family, including cysteine cathepsins. Some of the cystatins also inhibit the legumain (C13) family of enzymes. Failures in biological mechanisms controlling protease activities result in many diseases such as neurodegeneration, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, arthritis, and cancer. Cystatins have been classified into three types: the stefins, the cystatins and the kininogens, although other cystatin-related proteins, such as CRES proteins, are emerging. The stefins are mainly intracellular proteins, whereas the cystatins and the kininogens are extracellular. The cystatins are tight binding and reversible inhibitors. The basic mechanism of interaction between cystatins and their target proteases has been established, based mainly on the crystal structures of various cathepsins, stefins and cystatins and their enzyme-inhibitor complexes. Cystatins, as rather non-selective inhibitors, discriminate only slightly between endo- and exopeptidases. They are also prone to form amyloids. The levels of some stefins and cystatins in tissue and body fluids can serve as relatively reliable markers for a variety of diseases. In this review we summarize present knowledge about cystatins and their role in some diseases.