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.

Influence of synthesis method on structural and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Abstract: The Co–ferrite nanoparticles having a relatively uniform size distribution around 8 nm were synthesized by three different methods. A simple co-precipitation from aqueous solutions and a co-precipitation in an environment of microemulsions are low temperature methods (50 °C), whereas a thermal decomposition of organo-metallic complexes was performed at elevated temperature of 290 °C. The X-ray diffractometry (XRD) showed spinel structure, and the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) a good crystallinity of all the nanoparticles. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) showed the composition close to stoichiometric (~CoFe2O4) for both co-precipitated nanoparticles, whereas the nanoparticles prepared by the thermal decomposition were Co-deficient (~Co0.6Fe2.4O4). The X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis showed Co valence of 2+ in all the samples, Fe valence 3+ in both co-precipitated samples, but average Fe valence of 2.7+ in the sample synthesized by thermal decomposition. The variations in cation distribution within the spinel lattice were observed by structural refinement of X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). Like the bulk CoFe2O4, the nanoparticles synthesized at elevated temperature using thermal decomposition displayed inverse spinel structure with the Co ions occupying predominantly octahedral lattice sites, whereas co-precipitated samples showed considerable proportion of cobalt ions occupying tetrahedral sites (nearly 1/3 for the nanoparticles synthesized by co-precipitation from aqueous solutions and almost 1/4 for the nanoparticles synthesized in microemulsions). Magnetic measurements performed at room temperature and at 10 K were in good agreement with the nanoparticles’ composition and the cation distribution in their structure. The presented study clearly shows that the distribution of the cations within the spinel lattice of the ferrite nanoparticles, and consequently their magnetic properties are strongly affected by the synthesis method used.

Dynamics of directed graphs: the world-wide Web

Abstract: We introduce and simulate a growth model of the world-wide Web based on the dynamics of outgoing links that is motivated by the conduct of the agents in the real Web to update outgoing links (re)directing them towards constantly changing selected nodes. Emergent statistical correlation between the distributions of outgoing and incoming links is a key feature of the dynamics of the Web. The growth phase is characterized by temporal fractal structures which are manifested in the hierarchical organization of links. We obtain quantitative agreement with the recent empirical data in the real Web for the distributions of in- and out-links and for the size of the connected component. In a fully grown network of N nodes, we study the structure of connected clusters of nodes that are accessible along outgoing links from a randomly selected node. The distributions of size and depth of the connected clusters with a giant component exhibit supercritical behavior. By decreasing the control parameter – average fraction β of updated and added links per time step – towards βc(N)<10% the Web can resume a critical structure with no giant component in it. We find a different universality class when the updates of links are not allowed, i.e., for β≡0, corresponding to the network of science citations.

Reduced blood flow and oxygenation in SA-1 tumours after electrochemotherapy with cisplatin.

Abstract: Electrochemotherapy is an antitumour treatment that utilises locally delivered electric pulses to increase cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs. Besides increased drug delivery, application of electric pulses affects tumour blood flow. The aim of this study was to determine tumour blood flow modifying effects of electrochemotherapy with cisplatin, its effects on tumour oxygenation and to determine their relation to antitumour effectiveness. Electrochemotherapy of SA-1 subcutaneous tumours was performed by application of electric pulses to the tumours, following administration of cisplatin. Tumour blood flow modifying effects of electrochemotherapy were determined by measurement of tumour perfusion using the Patent blue staining technique, determination of tumour blood volume, and microvascular permeability using contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, and tumour oxygenation using electron paramagnetic resonance oximetry. Antitumour effectiveness was determined by tumour growth delay and the extent of tumour necrosis and apoptosis. Tumour treatment by electrochemotherapy induced 9.4 days tumour growth delay. Tumour blood flow was reduced instantaneously and persisted for several days. This reduction in tumour blood flow was reflected in reduced tumour oxygenation. The maximal reduction in partial oxygen pressure (pO2) levels was observed at 2 h after the treatment, with steady recovery to the pretreatment level within 48 h. The reduced tumour blood flow and oxygenation correlated well with the extent of tumour necrosis and tumour cells apoptosis induced by electrochemotherapy with cisplatin. Therefore, the data indicate that antitumour effectiveness of electrochemotherapy is not only due to increased cytotoxicity of cisplatin due to electroporation of tumour cells, but also due to anti-vascular effect of electrochemotherapy, which resulted in reduced tumour blood flow and oxygenation.

Field cooled and zero field cooled 207Pb NMR and the local structure of relaxor PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3.

Abstract: An isotropic 2 0 7 Pb NMR spectrum corresponding to the glassy matrix with spherical shell type Pb shifts from the cubic sites, as well as an anisotropic spectral component corresponding to polar nanoclusters with a Pb shift parallel to the [111] direction, have been observed in a PbMg 1 / 3 Nb 2 / 3 O 3 (PMN) single crystal. This represents a microscopic confirmation of the model of relaxors first proposed by Burns and Dacol. A sudden increase in the intensity of the anisotropic cluster line is seen for electric fields larger than the critical field around 210 K. This demonstrates the occurrence of an orientational percolation type transition to the field-induced ferroelectric phase with about 50% of the Pb nuclei still remaining in the spherical glass matrix. A similar though smaller increase of the intensity of this line is also seen in the zero field cooled data, demonstrating that relaxor PMN is an incipient ferroelectric.