Search results for "41"
showing 10 items of 3365 documents
Why do Third Sector Employees Intend to Remain or Leave their Workplace?
2016
Third sector employees have claimed to enjoy high job satisfaction and low turnover intentions because their work is considered intrinsically rewarding. Employees have strong motivation for public service and they consider the organization’s goals as their own. This makes work meaningful and thus reduces turnover intentions. Changes in the third sector institutional environment, however, have intensified the working environment. This probably undermines job quality and thus increases turnover intentions. The analysis conducted among Finnish third sector employees showed that third sector employees report more turnover intentions than their counterparts in the public or private sector. This …
The Antiviral Activity of Bacterial, Fungal, and Algal Polysaccharides as Bioactive Ingredients: Potential Uses for Enhancing Immune Systems and Prev…
2021
Viral infections may cause serious human diseases. For instance, the recent appearance of the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19, has spread globally and is a serious public health concern. The consumption of healthy, proper, functional, and nutrient-rich foods has an important role in enhancing an individual's immune system and preventing viral infections. Several polysaccharides from natural sources such as algae, bacteria, and fungi have been considered as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration. They are safe, low-toxicity, biodegradable, and have biological activities. In this review, the bioactive polysaccharides derived from various microorga…
Green Extraction Strategies for Sea Urchin Waste Valorization
2021
Commonly known as “purple sea urchin,” Paracentrotus lividus occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. This species is a highly appreciated food resource and Italy is the main consumer among the European countries. Gonads are the edible part of the animal but they represent only a small fraction (10–30%) of the entire sea urchin mass, therefore, the majority ends up as waste. Recently, an innovative methodology was successfully developed to obtain high-value collagen from sea urchin by-products to be used for tissue engineering. However, tissues used for the collagen extraction are still a small portion of the sea urchin waste (<20%) and the remaining part, main…
The effects of muscle mass and muscle quality on cardio-metabolic risk in peripubertal girls: a longitudinal study from childhood to early adulthood.
2017
Increased cardio-metabolic risk is well documented in children and adolescents with obesity and normal weight obesity (NWO). However, the associations of muscle mass and muscle quality with cardio-metabolic risk, independent of weight status from childhood to adulthood, has not been examined. A total of 236 girls were followed from pre-puberty to early adulthood. Fat mass (FM) and lean mass (LM) of the whole body were assessed by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; muscle cross-sectional area (mCSA), muscle density (mDen; skeletal muscle fat content) of the lower leg by the peripheral quantitative computerized tomography; and blood glucose, insulin, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotei…
An antihypertensive lactoferrin hydrolysate inhibits angiotensin I-converting enzyme, modifies expression of hypertension-related genes and enhances …
2015
This study was aimed to explore whether an antihypertensive lactoferrin hydrolysate (LFH) can inhibit angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity and modify the expression of genes related to hypertension in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). LFH induced significant inhibition of ACE activity but it did not affect ACE mRNA levels after 24 h of exposure. LFH treatment significantly affected the expression of genes encoding for proteins involved in nitric oxide pathway such as soluble guanylate cyclase 1 α3 subunit (GUCY1A3; 4.42-fold increase) and nitric oxide synthase trafficking (NOSTRIN; 2.45-fold decrease). Furthermore, expression of the PTGS2/COX-2 gene encoding prostagl…
Lipase maturation factor 1 is required for endothelial lipase activity
2011
Lipase maturation factor 1 (Lmf1) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein involved in the posttranslational folding and/or assembly of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic lipase (HL) into active enzymes. Mutations in Lmf1 are associated with diminished LPL and HL activities ("combined lipase deficiency") and result in severe hypertriglyceridemia in mice as well as in human subjects. Here, we investigate whether endothelial lipase (EL) also requires Lmf1 to attain enzymatic activity. We demonstrate that cells harboring a (cld) loss-of-function mutation in the Lmf1 gene are unable to generate active EL, but they regain this capacity after reconstitution with the Lmf1 wild type. Fur…
The Identification of Convex Function on Riemannian Manifold
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: Mathematical Problems in Engineering. Also available from the publisher at: http://10.1155/2014/273514 The necessary and sufficient condition of convex function is significant in nonlinear convex programming. This paper presents the identification of convex function on Riemannian manifold by use of Penot generalized directional derivative and the Clarke generalized gradient. This paper also presents a method for judging whether a point is the global minimum point in the inequality constraints. Our objective here is to extend the content and proof the necessary and sufficient condition of convex function to Riemannian manifolds. © 2014 Li Zou e…
Model reduction of fuzzy logic systems
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: Mathematical Problems in Engineering. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/874530 This paper deals with the problem of l 2 - l ∞ model reduction for continuous-time nonlinear uncertain systems. The approach of the construction of a reduced-order model is presented for high-order nonlinear uncertain systems described by the T-S fuzzy systems, which not only approximates the original high-order system well with an l 2 - l ∞ error performance level γ but also translates it into a linear lower-dimensional system. Then, the model approximation is converted into a convex optimization problem by using a linearization p…
Observer-Based Robust Control for Hydraulic Velocity Control System
2013
Published version of an article in the journal: Mathematical Problems in Engineering. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/689132 Open access This paper investigates the problems of robust stabilization and robust control for the secondary component speed control system with parameters uncertainty and load disturbance. The aim is to enhance the control performance of hydraulic system based on Common Pressure Rail (CPR). Firstly, a mathematical model is presented to describe the hydraulic control system. Then a novel observer is proposed, and an observed-based control strategy is designed such that the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and satisfies …
Seeking the Important Nodes of Complex Networks in Product R&D Team Based on Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS
2013
Published version of article in the journal: Mathematical Problems in Engineering. Alo available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/327592 Open Access How to seek the important nodes of complex networks in product research and development (R&D) team is particularly important for companies engaged in creativity and innovation. The previous literature mainly uses several single indicators to assess the node importance; this paper proposes a multiple attribute decision making model to tentatively solve these problems. Firstly, choose eight indicators as the evaluation criteria, four from centralization of complex networks: degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness…