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The relative contribution of foodstuffs to intake of heavy metal is still equivocal, and thus, available data are rare. Here, the concentration of ten heavy metals and arsenic were measured in the content of hen egg from five strains of commercial laying hens to evaluate contamination level and potential health risk among local and international consumers in Iran. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of all heavy metals was significantly lower than the provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI) and respective tolerable daily intake (TDI). The non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk values for eating eggs were in the safe range for all consumers, indicating that the no health risk for consumers due to the daily intake of either arsenic or heavy metals. Therefore, intake of heavy metal exposure through the consumption of commercial egg product in Iran is completely safe for both national and international consumers.

Etiological investigations showed that vibrio is a Gram-negative, comma-shaped and facultative anaerobic bacterium, which is naturally found in marine environment. Vibrio causes many human diseases and often comes with foodborn gastroenteritis or diarrhea. Most of these foodborne infections are caused by V. Cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus and to a lesser extent create by V. vulnificus. Infection with these species is mostly due to the consumption of raw, improperly handled, under-processed and contaminated seafood like fish, shellfish and oyster. One of the biggest threats to public health is antibiotic resistance, such as resistance of vibrio species to a large number of antibiotics. This review focused on antibacterial activity of the world’s medicinal plants against vibrio species. Published articles were obtained from scientific databases including PubMed, Google scholar, Springer, Science Direct and scientific information database (SID) using following key words: vibrio, medicinal plant, essential oil and extract. Results of this literature have introduced some of the most important plants effective on vibrio spp., such as Thymus vulgaris (Thyme), Syzygium aromaticum (Clove), Zataria multiflora (Avishan shirazi), Zingiber officinale (Ginger), Punica granatum (Pomegranate), Satureja bachtiarica Bunge (Bakhtiari Savory), Mentha spicata (Spearmint), Cuminum cyminum (Cumin), Eucalyptus globulus (Blue gum), Camellia sinensis (Green tea), Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) and Allium sativum (Garlic). Hence, phyto-therapy could be a suitable way to overcome the problem of development of the bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

A tunable stiffness bone rod was designed, optimized, and 3D printed to address the shortcomings of existing bone fixation devices, such as stress shielding and bone nonunion in the healing of fractured bones. Current bone plates/rods have constant and high stiffness. High initial stiffness prevents the micromotion of newly formed bone and results in poor bone healing. Our novel design framework provides surgeons with a ready-for-3D-printing, patient-specific design, optimized to have the desired force-displacement response with a stopping mechanism for preventing further deformation under higher-than-normal loads, such as falling. The computational framework is a design optimization based on the multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) optimization with the FE simulation to quantify the objectives: tuning the varied stiffness while minimizing the maximum von Mises stress of the model to avoid plastic and permanent deformation of the bone rod. The computational framework for optimum design of tunable stiffness metamaterial presented in this paper is not specific for a tibia bone rod, and it can be used for any application where bilinear stiffness is desirable.

Low back pain is the most prevalent orthopedic disorder and the first main cause of poor working functionality in developed as wells as many developing countries. In Absence of noninvasive in vivo measurement approaches, biomechanical models are used to estimate mechanical loads on human joints during physical activities. To estimate joint loads via musculoskeletal models, the calculation of muscle forces are of importance. It is however difficult to estimate muscle forces as the number of muscles, i.e. unknown parameters, is far more than the existing degrees of freedom; the system is highly redundant. Therefore, in this study, instead of muscle forces estimation, their effects (i.e., rotations and displacements) is measured by medical imaging techniques and prescribed to a detailed finite element model of the L4-L5 spine segment to determine intervertebral disc pressure as a representative of compressive forces acting on the joint. A previously validated geometrically-detailed passive finite element model of the L4-L5 segment was used. Disc, facet joints, vertebrae, and ligaments were simulated with appropriate elements/material properties. Rotations and displacements of the L4 and L5 vertebrae from supine to upright and from upright to trunk flexion of 10° were measured via X-ray imaging. The kinematics were prescribed to the L4 and L5 centroids. Maximal intradiscal pressure of ~0.45 MPa was predicted for the simulated tasks that was in agreement with in vivo data in the literature. Preliminary results indicate feasibility of this kinematics-based approach to predict in vivo spine loads.