The immune system is exquisitely sensitive to environmental changes. Diet constitutes one of the major environmental factors that exerts a profound effect on immune system development and function. Epigenetics is the study of mitotically heritable, yet potentially reversible, molecular modifications to DNA and chromatin without alteration to the underlying DNA sequence. Nutriepigenomics is an e...

Chitosan, a polyaminosaccharide obtained by alkaline deacetylation of chitin, possesses useful properties including biodegradability, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and good miscibility with other polymers. It is extensively used in many applications in biology, medicine, agriculture, environmental protection, and the food and pharmaceutical industries. The amino and hydroxyl groups present in...

Exogenous noise has deleterious effects on the developing fetus and infant. The aim of this quality improvement project was to lower the mean ambient noise level within a level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) by 10% from the baseline in one year. Multiple noise reduction strategies were tested through Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement model for im...

The main objective of an ecosystem sustainable management is to preserve itscapacity to respond and adapt to current disturbances and/or future changes, and maintain theprovision of environmental goods and services. Two very important properties linked to thisobjective are the ecosystem resilience and resistance to disturbance factors. The objective ofthis paper is to recommend conceptual modif...

T he term " epigenetics " is rapidly becoming one of the more important watchwords in the field of alcohol research. Put simply, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene function that occur without a change in the body's genetic code, instead relying on epigenetic markers on, among others, the DNA and certain nuclear proteins to turn genes " on " and " off. " Epigenetic changes also are brou...

This paper presents a case study on the enhancement of environmental sustainability in a petroleum refining process based on an exergetic diagnostic approach. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) pinpointed crude oil production and electricity generating systems as the main sources of environmental unsustainability. The existing hot utility demand of the process is 78.4 MW with a temperature differe...