Search results for "Unsaturated"
showing 10 items of 439 documents
Effect of Exercise on Fatty Acid Metabolism and Adipokine Secretion in Adipose Tissue
2019
Increased physical activity is an optimal way to maintain a good health. During exercise, triacylglycerols, an energy reservoir in adipose tissue, are hydrolyzed to free fatty acids (FAs) which are then released to the circulation, providing a fuel for working muscles. Thus, regular physical activity leads to a reduction of adipose tissue mass and improves metabolism. However, the reduction of lipid reservoir is also associated with many other interesting changes in adipose tissue FA metabolism. For example, a prolonged exercise contributes to a decrease in lipoprotein lipase activity and resultant reduction of FA uptake. This results in the improvement of mitochondrial function and upregul…
Life cycle environmental assessment of retaining walls in unsaturated soils
2022
Abstract Retaining structures above groundwater level support soils that are usually in a state of partial saturation and subject to the actions of atmospheric agents. The current design approach considers the possible extremes of soil conditions – either totally dry or totally saturated – but it neglects matric suction’s contribution to soil shear strength. This work aims to describe how unsaturated-soil mechanics of can positively influence the sustainability of retaining structures through a holistic, multidisciplinary, geotechnical, and environmental analysis. The geotechnical analysis allows to estimate the lateral earth pressure of a geostructure in both unsaturated and extreme soil c…
Unsaturated sand in the stability of the cuesta of the Temple of Hera (Agrigento)
2013
In the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento seven Doric temples stand lengthwise the crest of a rigid calcarenite cuesta over a layer of carbonate sand which lies along a thick stratum of clays. The environment is highly prone to landslides since topplings of calcarenite blocks often occur. The rock slopes are moving back and the slope edge draw near to the foundation of the Temple of Hera Lacinia contributing to increase their perilous condition. To assess the role of unsaturated sands in the instability processes, after the compositional and textural analysis of the material, direct shear tests and oedometer tests have been carried out on sand samples initially at the natural state, with low or …
Immunity and Nutrition: The Right Balance in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
2022
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an increasingly urgent medical problem that strongly impairs quality of life for patients. A global rise in incidence has been observed over the last few decades, with the highest incidence rates recorded in North America and Europe. Still, an increased incidence has been reported in the last ten years in newly industrialized countries in Asia, including China and India, both with more than one billion inhabitants. These data underline that IBD is an urgent global health problem. In addition, it is estimated that between 20% and 30% of IBD patients will develop colorectal cancer (CRC) within their lifetime and CRC mortality is approximately 50% amongst IB…
NOT ALL FATS ARE UNHEALTHY
2018
You don't need to remove all fats from your diet because some of them actually help to promote good health. Fats are needed to build cell membranes, nerve covers, healthy hair and skin, and to absorb some vitamins and other nutrients. They also prevent muscle breakage during fasting or food shortage. However, it’s clever to choose the healthier types of fats and enjoy them in moderation instead of picking truly bad fats, which should be avoided. Good fats comprise monounsaturated found in olive oil, avocados, and most nuts, and polyunsaturated, contained in vegetable oils and fatty fish. Trans fat, found in margarine, shortenings, snacks, and industrial baked products are the worst fats for…
The clinical relevance of low-density-lipoproteins size modulation by statins.
2006
The predominance of small, dense low density lipoproteins (LDL) has been accepted as an emerging cardiovascular risk factor by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III; in fact, LDL size seems to be an important predictor of cardiovascular events and progression of coronary heart disease. Several studies have also shown that the therapeutical modulation of LDL size is of great benefit in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events. Hypolipidemic treatment is able to alter LDL subclass distribution and statins are currently the most widely used lipid-lowering agents. Statins are potent inhibitors of hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, the rate-limiting en…
Identification and quantification of phosphatidylcholines containing very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid in bovine and human retina using liqu…
2010
The retina is one of the vertebrate tissues with the highest content in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). A large proportion of retinal phospholipids, especially those found in photoreceptor membranes, are dipolyunsaturated molecular species. Among them, dipolyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) molecular species are known to contain very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFA) from the n-3 and n-6 series having 24-36 carbon atoms (C24-C36) and four to six double bonds. Recent interest in the role played by VLC-PUFA arose from the findings that a protein called elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids 4 (ELOVL4) is involved in their biosynthesis and that mutations in the ELOVL…
A theoretical study of carbon-carbon bond formation by a Michael-type addition.
2012
A theoretical study of the Michael-type addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds has been performed in the gas phase by means of the AM1 semiempirical method and by density functional theory (DFT) calculations within the B3LYP and M06-2X hybrid functionals. A molecular model has been selected to mimic the role of a base, which is traditionally used as a catalyst in Michael reactions, an acetate moiety to modulate its basicity, and point charges to imitate the stabilization of the negative charge developed in the substrate during the reaction when taking place in enzymatic environments. Results of the study of six different reactions obtained at the three di…
Shear strength of a compacted scaly clay in variable saturation conditions
2015
Scaly clays are stiff and highly fissured clays often used as construction materials. This paper presents the results of triaxial compression tests carried out on saturated and unsaturated samples of a compacted scaly clay. Complementary investigation on the microstructural features and their evolution with the amount of water stored into the material are also presented in order to shed light on the evolution of the micro- and macroporosity with suction. The water retention behaviour of the compacted scaly clay is also addressed. The results from the controlled suction triaxial tests are used to discuss the applicability of a single-shear strength criterion to compacted double-structured cl…
Stress path dependence of hydromechanical behaviour of compacted scaly clay in wetting and drying suction controlled oedometer tests at constant vert…
2008
The results are presented of an experimental programme devoted to investigating the volumetric strain and water ratio (volume of water to volume of solids) evolution of a compacted scaly clay stressed by wetting and drying cycles in suction-controlled oedometer tests. The stress paths applied included loading and unloading cycles at constant matric suction and suction controlled wetting-drying cycles at constant vertical net stress. The test results show that during wetting and drying cycles the samples experienced irreversible shrinkage or swelling strains depending on the stress path applied. Irreversible water ratio increases were always observed in these cycles. However, a quasi-reversi…