Occurrence of Bacillus cereus in Beef Burger Marketed in Tehran, Capital of Iran

Background: Beef burgers made in Iran contain various compounds such as meat, cereals flour, as well as some spices which can be contaminated to Bacillus cereus, causing gastroenteritis in the consumer. This study is focused onoccurrence of B. cereus in beef burgers marketed in Tehran, capital of Iran. Methods: &nbsp;In this cross-sectional study, a total of 80 samples of different types of beef burgers marketed in Tehran, Iran were randomly collected based on their percentage of meat content, including 30% (n=25), 60% (n=40) as well as 90% (n=15). The samples were analyzed microbiologically by routine culture assay and biochemical tests to find B. cereus. Data were analyzed statistically by Microsoft Office Excel 2010. Results: Twenty-five out of 80 (31.25%) beef burger samples were contaminated by B. cereus. Based on the percentage of meat content in the samples, the beef burger with 90% meat were significantly (p<0.05) more contaminated than the others. Also, the contamination rate was significantly (p<0.05) higher in summer compared to winter. Conclusion: This survey showed that the beef burgers supplied in Iran markets is main source of B. cereus that can cause disease in Iranian consumers. More attempts must be focused on cold-chain maintenance in production, distribution, and storage of the meat products

The concentration and health risk assessment of radionuclides in the muscle of tuna fish: A worldwide systematic review and meta-analysis

Exposure to radionuclides, especially in food, can endanger the health of consumers. In this study, a systematic review and meta-analysis were performed regarding the concentration of radionuclides in tuna fish muscle. International databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Embase were searched to find articles regarding the concentration of radionuclides in tuna fish muscle from 1 January 2000 to 20 February 2021. The lowest and highest concentration of radionuclides was related to Caesium-137 (137Cs) and Potassium-40 (4 K), respectively. The rank order of radionuclides based on their pooled concentration was 4 K (370.157 Bq/kg) &gt; 210Po Polonium-210 (26.312 Bq/kg) &gt; 210Pb (5.339 Bq/kg) &gt; 226Ra (4.005 Bq/kg) &gt; 137Cs (0.415 Bq/kg). The health risk assessment based on annual effective dose indicates that consumers are at the safe range of health risk (H &lt; 1 mSv/y). The continuous monitoring concentration of radionuclides in seafood and health risk assessment should be recommended. © 2021 Elsevier Lt

The application of cluster analysis in geophysical data interpretation

A clustering algorithm which is based on density and adaptive density-reachable is developed and presented for arbitrary data point distributions in some real world applications, especially in geophysical data interpretation. Through comparisons of the new algorithm and other algorithms, it is shown that the new algorithm can reduce the dependency of domain knowledge and the sensitivity of abnormal data points, that it can improve the effectiveness of clustering results in which data are distributed in different shapes and different density, and that it can get a better clustering efficiency. The application of the new clustering algorithm demonstrates that data mining techniques can be used in geophysical data interpretation and can get meaningful and useful results, and that the new clustering algorithm can be used in other real world applications.Science Foundation Irelan