Nutrition

The "Nutrition Facts" table indicates the amounts of nutrients which experts recommend
you limit or consume in adequate amounts.

Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms,
of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health
problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.

The diet of an organism is what it eats, and is largely determined by the perceived
palatability of foods. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in human
nutrition, meal planning, economics, and preparation. They are trained to provide safe,
evidence-based dietary advice and management to individuals (in health and disease), as
well as to institutions.

A poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as
scurvy, beriberi, and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity and
metabolic syndrome, and such common chronic systemic diseases as cardiovascular
disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Animal nutrition
Overview

Nutritional science investigates the metabolic and physiological responses of the body to
diet. With advances in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, the
study of nutrition is increasingly concerned with metabolism and metabolic pathways: the
sequences of biochemical steps through which substances in living things change from
one form to another.

The human body contains chemical compounds, such as water, carbohydrates (sugar,
starch, and fiber), amino acids (in proteins), fatty acids (in lipids), and nucleic acids
(DNA and RNA). These compounds in turn consist of elements such as carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese,
and so on. All of these chemical compounds and elements occur in various forms and
combinations (e.g. hormones, vitamins, phospholipids, hydroxyapatite), both in the
human body and in the plant and animal organisms that humans eat.

The human body consists of elements and compounds ingested, digested, absorbed, and
circulated through the bloodstream to feed the cells of the body. Except in the unborn
fetus, the digestive system is the first system involved[vague]. In a typical adult, about seven
liters of digestive juices enter the lumen of the digestive tract.[citation needed][clarification needed]
These break chemical bonds in ingested molecules, and modulate their conformations and
energy states. Though some molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream unchanged,
digestive processes release them from the matrix of foods. Unabsorbed matter, along with
some waste products of metabolism, is eliminated from the body in the feces.
Studies of nutritional status must take into account the state of the body before and after
experiments, as well as the chemical composition of the whole diet and of all material
excreted and eliminated from the body (in urine and feces). Comparing the food to the
waste can help determine the specific compounds and elements absorbed and
metabolized in the body. The effects of nutrients may only be discernible over an
extended period, during which all food and waste must be analyzed. The number of
variables involved in such experiments is high, making nutritional studies time-
consuming and expensive, which explains why the science of human nutrition is still
slowly evolving.

In general, eating a wide variety of fresh, whole (unprocessed), foods has proven
favorable compared to monotonous diets based on processed foods.[citation needed] In
particular, the consumption of whole-plant foods slows digestion and allows better
absorption, and a more favorable balance of essential nutrients per Calorie, resulting in
better management of cell growth, maintenance, and mitosis (cell division), as well as
better regulation of appetite and blood sugar[citation needed]. Regularly scheduled meals (every
few hours) have also proven more wholesome than infrequent or haphazard ones.[citation
needed]

Nutrients Main article: Nutrient

There are major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, fiber, minerals, protein, vitamin,
and water.

These nutrient classes can be categorized as either macronutrients (needed in relatively

large amounts) or micronutrients (needed in smaller quantities). The macronutrients are
carbohydrates, fats, fiber, proteins, and water. The micronutrients are minerals and
vitamins.

The macronutrients (excluding fiber and water) provide structural material (amino acids
from which proteins are built, and lipids from which cell membranes and some signaling
molecules are built), energy. Some of the structural material can be used to generate
energy internally, and in either case it is measured in Joules or kilocalories (often called
"Calories" and written with a capital C to distinguish them from little 'c' calories).
Carbohydrates and proteins provide 17 kJ approximately (4 kcal) of energy per gram,
while fats provide 37 kJ (9 kcal) per gram.[1], though the net energy from either depends
on such factors as absorption and digestive effort, which vary substantially from instance
to instance. Vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water do not provide energy, but are required
for other reasons. A third class dietary material, fiber (ie, non-digestible material such as
cellulose), seems also to be required, for both mechanical and biochemical reasons,
though the exact reasons remain unclear.
 Earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of
energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a
seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude (or the related and
mostly obsolete Richter magnitude) of an earthquake is conventionally reported, with
magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing
serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified
Mercalli scale.

At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes

displacing the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed
sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes
can also trigger landslides and occasionally volcanic activity.

In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event —
whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans — that generates seismic
waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by
volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments. An earthquake's point
of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter refers to the point at
ground level directly above the hypocenter.

Naturally occurring earthquakes

Tectonic earthquakes will occur anywhere within the earth where there is sufficient
stored elastic strain energy to drive fracture propagation along a fault plane. In the case of
transform or convergent type plate boundaries, which form the largest fault surfaces on
earth, they will move past each other smoothly and aseismically only if there are no
irregularities or asperities along the boundary that increase the frictional resistance. Most
boundaries do have such asperities and this leads to a form of stick-slip behaviour. Once
the boundary has locked, continued relative motion between the plates leads to increasing
stress and therefore, stored strain energy in the volume around the fault surface. This
continues until the stress has risen sufficiently to break through the asperity, suddenly
allowing sliding over the locked portion of the fault, releasing the stored energy. This
energy is released as a combination of radiated elastic strain seismic waves, frictional
heating of the fault surface, and cracking of the rock, thus causing an earthquake. This
process of gradual build-up of strain and stress punctuated by occasional sudden
earthquake failure is referred to as the Elastic-rebound theory. It is estimated that only 10
percent or less of an earthquake's total energy is radiated as seismic energy. Most of the
earthquake's energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth or is converted into
heat generated by friction. Therefore, earthquakes lower the Earth's available elastic
potential energy and raise its temperature, though these changes are negligible compared
to the conductive and convective flow of heat out from the Earth's deep interior.[1]
Earthquakes away from plate boundaries

Where plate boundaries occur within continental lithosphere, deformation is spread out a
over a much larger area than the plate boundary itself. In the case of the San Andreas
fault continental transform, many earthquakes occur away from the plate boundary and
are related to strains developed within the broader zone of deformation caused by major
irregularities in the fault trace (e.g. the “Big bend” region). The Northridge earthquake
was associated with movement on a blind thrust within such a zone. Another example is
the strongly oblique convergent plate boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian plates
where it runs through the northwestern part of the Zagros mountains. The deformation
associated with this plate boundary is partitioned into nearly pure thrust sense movements
perpendicular to the boundary over a wide zone to the southwest and nearly pure strike-
slip motion along the Main Recent Fault close to the actual plate boundary itself. This is
demonstrated by earthquake focal mechanisms.[2]

All tectonic plates have internal stress fields caused by their interactions with
neighbouring plates and sedimentary loading or unloading (e.g. deglaciation). These
stresses may be sufficient to cause failure along existing fault planes, giving rise to
intraplate earthquakes.[3]

Shallow-focus and deep-focus earthquakes

The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at the ring of fire in depths not exceeding
tens of kilometers. Earthquakes occurring at a depth of less than 70 km are classified as
'shallow-focus' earthquakes, while those with a focal-depth between 70 and 300 km are
commonly termed 'mid-focus' or 'intermediate-depth' earthquakes. In subduction zones,
where older and colder oceanic crust descends beneath another tectonic plate, deep-focus
earthquakes may occur at much greater depths (ranging from 300 up to 700 kilometers).[4]
These seismically active areas of subduction are known as Wadati-Benioff zones. Deep-
focus earthquakes occur at a depth at which the subducted lithosphere should no longer
be brittle, due to the high temperature and pressure. A possible mechanism for the
generation of deep-focus earthquakes is faulting caused by olivine undergoing a phase
transition into a spinel structure.[5]

Earthquakes and volcanic activity

Earthquakes often occur in volcanic regions and are caused there, both by tectonic faults
and the movement of magma in volcanoes. Such earthquakes can serve as an early
warning of volcanic eruptions, like during the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980.[6]
Earthquake swarms can serve as markers for the location of the flowing magma
throughout the volcanoes. These swarms can be recorded by seismometers and tiltimeters
(a device which measures the ground slope) and used as sensors to predict imminent or
upcoming eruptions.[7]
 Fertilization
The acrosome reaction for a sea urchin, a similar process. Note that the picture shows
several stages of one and the same spermatozoon - only one penetrates the ovum

Human fertilization is the union of a human egg and sperm, usually occurring in the
ampulla of the uterine tube. It is also the initiation of prenatal development. Scientists
discovered the dynamics of human fertilization in the nineteenth century.[1]

Fertilization (also known as conception, fecundation and syngamy), is the fusion of

gametes to produce a new organism. The process involves a sperm fusing with an ovum,
which eventually leads to the development of an embryo.

It is when first of all the acrosome at the head tip produces enzymes, which cuts through
the outer jelly coat of the egg. After that has happened, the sperm plasma fuses with the
egg’s plasma membrane. Finally, the Head disconnects with the body, and the egg can
now travel down the Fallopian tube to reach the womb, where the baby grows.

Fertilization may or may not involve sexual intercourse. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a
process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the womb, in vitro. Sperm is
propelled through the female reproductive tract by flagellation and may get through the
jelly coat through a process called sperm activation. The oocyte and sperm fuse once the
sperm is through the corona radiata and the zona pellucida; two layers covering and
protecting the oocyte from fertilization by more than one sperm.

Corona radiata

The egg binds the sperm through the corona radiata, a layer of follicle cells on the outside
of the secondary oocyte. Fertilization is when the nuclei of a sperm and an egg fuse. The
successful fusion of gametes form a new organism..

Acrosome reaction

The acrosome reaction must occur to mobilise enzymes within the head of the
spermatozoon to degrade the zona pellucida.

Zona pellucida

The sperm then reaches the zona pellucida, which is an extra-cellular matrix of
glycoproteins. A special complementary molecule on the surface of the sperm head then
binds to a ZP2 glycoprotein in the zona pellucida. This binding triggers the acrosome to
burst, releasing enzymes that help the sperm get through the zona pellucida.
Some sperm cells consume their acrosome prematurely on the surface of the egg cell,
facilitating for other surrounding sperm cells, having on average 50% genome similarity,
to penetrate the egg cell.[2] It may be regarded as a mechanism of kin selection.

Cortical reaction

Once the sperm cells find their way past the zona pellucida, the cortical reaction occurs:
cortical granules inside the secondary oocyte fuse with the plasma membrane of the cell,
causing enzymes inside these granules to be expelled by exocytosis to the zona pellucida.
This in turn causes the glyco-proteins in the zona pellucida to cross-link with each other,
making the whole matrix hard and impermeable to sperm. This prevents fertilization of
an egg by more than one sperm.

Fusion
After the sperm enters the cytoplasm of the oocyte, the cortical reaction takes place,
preventing other sperm from fertilizing the same egg. The oocyte now undergoes its
second meiotic division producing the haploid ovum and releasing a polar body. The
sperm nucleus then fuses with the ovum, enabling fusion of their genetic material..

Transformations

Both the oocyte and the sperm go through transformations, as a reaction to the fusion of
cell membranes, preparing for the fusion of their genetic material.

The oocyte now completes its second meiotic division. This results in a mature ovum.
The nucleus of the oocyte is called a pronucleus in this process, to distinguish it from the
nuclei that are the result of fertilization.

The sperm's tail and mitochondria degenerate with the formation of the male pronucleus.
This is why all mitochondria in humans are of maternal origin

Replication

The pronuclei migrate toward the center of the oocyte, rapidly replicating their DNA as
they do so to prepare the new human for its first mitotic division.

Mitosis

The male and female pronuclei don't fuse, although their genetic material do so. Instead,
their membranes dissolve, leaving no barriers between the male and female
chromosomes. During this dissolution, a mitotic spindle forms around them to catch the
chromosomes before they get lost in the egg cytoplasm. By subsequently performing a
mitosis (which includes pulling of chromatids towards centrioles in anaphase) the cell
gathers genetic material from the male and female together. Thus, the first mitosis of the
union of sperm and oocyte is the actual fusion of their chromosomes.