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
Antioxidant Molecules from Plant Waste
The fruit, vegetable, legume, and cereal industries generate many wastes, representing an environmental pollution problem. However, these wastes are a rich source of antioxidant molecules such as terpenes, phenolic compounds, phytosterols, and bioactive peptides with potential applications mainly in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and they exhibit multiple biological properties including antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antihypertensive, anticancer, and antibacterial properties. The aforementioned has increased studies on the recovery of antioxidant compounds using green technologies to value plant waste, since they represent more efficient and sustainable processes. In this review, the main antioxidant molecules from plants are briefly described and the advantages and disadvantages of the use of conventional and green extraction technologies used for the recovery and optimization of the yield of antioxidant naturals are detailed; finally, recent studies on biological properties of antioxidant molecules extracted from plant waste are presented here.
  • 1.4K
  • 14 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Immigrant Experiences of Primary Health-Care
Access to primary health care (PHC) services is a right for all individuals and communities. Adequate access to quality care in PHC is crucial to everyone, however, equal and equitable access to healthcare for all individuals in society is still a matter of great concern in many countries across the world. Immigrants in particular face unique challenges in accessibility and usability of basic healthcare services, especially when moving to a more developed nation. These challenges are often driven by factors such as differing culture, language, economy, literacy, social relations, and exposure to a new and unknown healthcare structure. Understanding these social and cultural determinants of health is a necessary foundation for developing an effective and efficient primary healthcare system. This study explores patient experiences in primary care from the perspective of immigrant communities and identifies areas for further research and improvement.
  • 1.8K
  • 12 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Radioprotective Effect of Flavonoids
Flavonoids are plant-derived compounds with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and radio-neuro-protective effects. Flavonoids and their metabolites can cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which is made up of capillary endothelial cells and basement membrane, neuroglial membrane and glial podocytes, i.e., projections of astrocytes, and reach brain cells to reduce brain damage and alleviate neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive impairment.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Cadmium and Lead Exposure
This entry provides information relevant to public health policy regarding advisable exposure limits for cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) that have no biologic role in humans. All of their perceptible effects are toxic. These metals exist in virtually all foodstuffs. Foods which are frequently consumed in large quantities such as cereals, rice, potatoes and vegetables contribute the most to total intake of these metals. Because Cd and Pb exposure are highly prevalent, even a small increase in disease risk can result in a large number of people affected by a disease that is preventable. Public measures to minimize environmental pollution and the food-chain transfer of Cd and Pb are required to prevent Cd- and Pb- related ailments and mortality as are risk reduction measures that set a maximally permissible concentration of Cd and Pb in staple food to the lowest achievable levels.
  • 2.9K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Ethnic Differences in Vitamin-D Metabolism
Vitamin D requirements vary from one human population to another. This is because the capacity to synthesize vitamin D in the skin also varies as a result of differences in solar UV or skin pigmentation. There has consequently been natural selection to use this vitamin more efficiently in populations that live at higher latitudes or are darker-skinned.
  • 1.8K
  • 26 Oct 2020
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.
  • 2.6K
  • 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
  • 2.0K
  • 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.
  • 911
  • 23 Dec 2020
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