Anthropological Study of Bread Baking in Tehran and Its Evolution Over Time

Wheat is the main ingredient of hundreds of different food, medicine and industrial products, and bread, as the most important product of wheat, has been recognized as a salubrious food such that each one of us may eat bread several times a day during our lives, and each time enjoy it more profoundly than ever before. Being known as a vital dietary product, bread has been investigated from various viewpoints. In the present sturdy, attempts are made to investigate the evolution of bread baking process in Tehran (District 1) from an anthropological perspective and explore its overt and covert functions and its role in everyday life of people. As for methodology, the present research falls within the category of ethnographic studies. In the present study, bread has been investigated from the viewpoint of functionalism school (due to its function in our everyday life) and the structuralism school (due to its impact on various structures in society). The findings of documentary studies as well as in-depth interviews and observations indicate that bread, as the staple food of Iranian people, can play a cultural and dogmatic role in many social, cultural and economic structures. Keywords: Bread - Baker - classic bread - Industrial bread - Anthropology - Tehran DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-14-01 Publication date:July 31st 202

Biodegradable and Non-Biodegradable Biomaterials and Their Effect on Cell Differentiation

Biomaterials for tissue scaffolds are key components in modern tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Targeted reconstructive therapies require a proper choice of biomaterial and an adequate choice of cells to be seeded on it. The introduction of stem cells, and the transdifferentiation procedures, into regenerative medicine opened a new era and created new challenges for modern biomaterials. They must not only fulfill the mechanical functions of a scaffold for implanted cells and represent the expected mechanical strength of the artificial tissue, but furthermore, they should also assure their survival and, if possible, affect their desired way of differentiation. This paper aims to review how modern biomaterials, including synthetic (i.e., polylactic acid, polyurethane, polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene terephthalate, ceramics) and natural (i.e., silk fibroin, decellularized scaffolds), both non-biodegradable and biodegradable, could influence (tissue) stem cells fate, regulate and direct their differentiation into desired target somatic cells