Summary

Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today, it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. Environmental studies are incorporating more of the social sciences in order to understand human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. This entry collection features information about design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect.

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Topic Review
Calcium Phosphate Nanocluster Complexes
Calcium phosphate nanocluster complexes comprise a core of amorphous calcium phosphate and a sequestering shell of intrinsically disordered phosphopeptides or phosphoproteins. Solutions containing the nanocluster complexes can be thermodynamically stable or metastable due to a tendency to form a precipitate enriched in calcium phosphate. Theoretical and biophysical studies with native and recombinant phosphopeptides have shown how the radius of the core and the stability of the solution depend on the concentration of the sequestering peptide, its affinity for the calcium phosphate and its concentration in relation to the concentration of the calcium phosphate. The thickness of the sequestering shell depends on the conformation of the peptide on the core surface. A sequestering peptide is a flexible sequence including one or more short linear motifs, each of which usually contains several phosphorylated and other acidic residues.  These are the main binding sites to the core so that a peptide with several binding motifs can forms loops and trains on the core surface. Calcium phosphate nanocluster complexes were first identified as substructures of casein micelles in milk and have been prepared as individual particles from peptides derived from caseins and osteopontin. Stable biofluids containing nanocluster complexes cannot cause soft tissues to become mineralized whereas stable or metastable biofluids containing nanocluster complexes can help to mineralize hard tissues.
  • 1.7K
  • 09 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Updated Understanding of Cancer
       Cancer is a tumorigenesis process that forms a mass of cells that we call a tumor. During tumorigenesis, the cells that compose the tumor can be benign or malignant. When the cells in the tumor are normal but old, the tumor is termed benign. When the cells in the tumor are abnormal and can grow uncontrollably, the tumor is malignant. Sometimes a benign tumor can transform into a malign one if the normal old cells begin to develop abnormalities, such as DNA mutations, and grow rapidly. - by Cristian Muresanu
  • 1.3K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Ionising Radiation Induces Promoter DNA Hypomethylation
How chronic exposures to sublethal doses of pollutants affect wild life is still under schientific debate. In this paper we exposed fertilized zebrafish embryos to low to moderate dose rates of ionizing radiations, a well known physical stressor that induces DNA damages.  We assessed the molecular effects induced by ionizing radiations on gastrulation, a key developmental stage during embryogenesis, focusing on the transcriptome and DNA methylation patterns. An hypomethylation of the promoter of genes involved in ectoderm and mesoderm development was observed, and correlated with perturbation of transcriptional activity. Our data suggest that the early developmental perturbations in the morphogenesis of the neuroectoderm and the mesoderm might predict the functional defects in neurogenesis and muscle development observed at later stages.
  • 592
  • 23 Dec 2020
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