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.

Targeting proteases: successes, failures and future prospects.

Abstract: Far from being simple degradative enzymes, proteases are now seen as key signalling molecules and desirable drug targets in several diseases. Turk discusses our success so far at targeting proteases and how these enzymes might be exploited therapeutically in the future. Until fairly recently, proteases were considered primarily to be protein-degrading enzymes. However, this view has dramatically changed and proteases are now seen as extremely important signalling molecules that are involved in numerous vital processes. Protease signalling pathways are strictly regulated, and the dysregulation of protease activity can lead to pathologies such as cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, cancer, osteoporosis and neurological disorders. Several small-molecule drugs targeting proteases are already on the market and many more are in development. The status of human protease research and prospects for future protease-targeted drugs are reviewed here, with reference to some key examples where protease drugs have succeeded or failed.

Thermally insulating and fire-retardant lightweight anisotropic foams based on nanocellulose and graphene oxide

Abstract: High-performance thermally insulating materials from renewable resources are needed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Traditional fossil-fuel-derived insulation materials such as expan ...

Hallmarks of mechanochemistry: From nanoparticles to technology

Abstract: The aim of this review article on recent developments of mechanochemistry (nowadays established as a part of chemistry) is to provide a comprehensive overview of advances achieved in the field of atomistic processes, phase transformations, simple and multicomponent nanosystems and peculiarities of mechanochemical reactions. Industrial aspects with successful penetration into fields like materials engineering, heterogeneous catalysis and extractive metallurgy are also reviewed. The hallmarks of mechanochemistry include influencing reactivity of solids by the presence of solid-state defects, interphases and relaxation phenomena, enabling processes to take place under non-equilibrium conditions, creating a well-crystallized core of nanoparticles with disordered near-surface shell regions and performing simple dry time-convenient one-step syntheses. Underlying these hallmarks are technological consequences like preparing new nanomaterials with the desired properties or producing these materials in a reproducible way with high yield and under simple and easy operating conditions. The last but not least hallmark is enabling work under environmentally friendly and essentially waste-free conditions (822 references).

The multi-purpose incremental learning system AQ15 and its testing application to three medical domains

Abstract: AQ15 is a multi-purpose inductive learning system that uses logic-based, user-oriented knowledge representation, is able to incrementally learn disjunctive concepts from noisy or overlapping examples, and can perform constructive induction (i.e., can generate new attributes in the process of learning). In an experimental application to three medical domains, the program learned decision rules that performed at the level of accuracy of human experts. A surprising and potentially significant result is the demonstration that by applying the proposed method of cover truncation and analogical matching, called TRUNC, one may drastically decrease the complexity of the knowledge base without affecting its performance accuracy.