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Food poisoning risk related to the consumption of contaminated food with known foodborne pathogens or antibiotic‐resistant bacteria is currently a serious threat for public health. Thus, pathogenic methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus strains are considered as one of the major cause of foodborne diseases in hospitals. The present study aims to determine the prevalence and the antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus in various types of hospital food samples, work surfaces and its carriage by food handlers. A total of 608 collected samples including 300 food samples, 238 food contact surfaces and 70 nasal and hand samples were tested. The identified Staphylococcus and their antibiotic resistance patterns were analysed using the agar disk‐diffusion and PCR method was used for mecA resistance gene amplification. The prevalence of S. aureus and the coagulase‐negative staphylococci were 17·33 and 23·33%, respectively. The antibiotic resistance reached 100% towards oxacillin and Penicillin G for both S. aureus and CoNs. The mecA gene was detected in 5·71% (4/70) and 7·69% (4/52) of S. aureus and CoNs strains, respectively. The outcome of this study enlightens isolation of MRSA strains and resistant CoNs from food, food contact surfaces and food handlers. The presence of this resistant species in this critical setting, where products were intended to vulnerable and immunocompromised patients, represents a serious threat to this community. It can be a source of nosocomial infection and more precautions must be taken to prevent staphylococci food contamination mainly in hospitals. Significance and Impact of the Study: This is the first study describing the antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase‐negative Staphylococcus isolated from hospital food, food contact surfaces and food handlers samples in a Moroccan hospital kitchen. High levels of multi‐resistance were reported. The alarming outcome of this study emphasizes the crucial need of implementing an approach to fight multidrug‐resistant staphylococci mainly in healthcare settings, where the community have already compromised health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-flax-fibre-composite materials are appealing for technical applications thanks to renewability, biodegradability but also potentially high ratio rigidity/density of flax fibres, in particular. However, the significant variability of technical flax fibres' constitutive, geometrical and mechanical properties and especially lack of quantitative knowledge about its real impact on composite behaviour still prevent a widespread use of such composites. To overcome this obstacle, this study gives qualitative and quantitative information about impact of variability of flax fibre properties on numerically assessed tensile behaviour of short-flax-fibre-reinforced polypropylene, with particular attention paid to the determination of lower bound of composite behaviour. Different fibre contents and orientations, including in-plane random and distributed orientations, are considered. Results reveal that range of variation of composite behaviour strongly depends on weight of fibre contribution to composite response. It is therefore directly related to fibre content and orientation but also indirectly to manufacturing process, since this latter governs fibre orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicobacter pylori infection is the etiologic agent of various gastric pathologies. The severity of disease outcome has been attributed to some H. pylori genotypes, which varies geographically. In Morocco, there are no data regarding the pattern of H. pylori genotypes; therefore, this is the first prospective study conducted in our country to investigate the genotype profiles ( vacA and cagA) of H. pylori in patients with gastric pain. Endoscopic biopsies were obtained in patients attending the gastroenterology department of the Hospital University Hassan II of Fez for gastric pain and were directly used for H. pylori detection and genotyping by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The SPSS software program was used to study the genotype correlation to different clinical outcomes. A total of 429 patients were included in this study, with an infection rate of 69.9%. cagA was detected in 42.3% of cases. However, vacA genotyping reveal a large predominance of s2m2. Infection with multiple strains was detected in 10.8% of cases and incomplete vacA was observed in 31.5%. In Morocco, vacA s1m1 was significantly associated to peptic ulcer diseases, while s2m2 was associated to gastritis. Moroccan H. pylori vacA genotype profiles differ from the Latin American, European, and South African profiles, with more similarities to the North African profile. Because of the small number of cases with gastric cancer, no correlations with H. pylori have been studied, so, further studies will be required in order to highlight the effects of those genes on this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of structural adhesives in industry encourages the need for a detailed description of their mechanical behaviour. In this paper, a structural adhesive, named BETAMATE 1496V™, which has been specially designed for applications in the automotive industry (crashworthiness) has been studied. The propose is to obtain as near a possible, a complete description of the mechanical behaviour by means of new measurement techniques, applied over a large range of strain rates using different kinds of loading devices. These results lead to important findings which we believe will have an impact on finite element modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A radial return algorithm is developed for large strain elasto-plastic struc tures in order to easily compute microvoid volume fraction rates. The basic feature subroutines are described in detail and forwards four typical problems are analysed: Q4 element tensile test, Q4 element compression test, notched cylinder tensile test and pipe bulging. The influence of microvoids volume fraction is clearly enhanced, mainly in regard to hydrostatic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the experimental protocol to measure the elastic properties and the damage evolution of appendicular bone under loading. It states the use of an embalming technique to examine the sample cut from humeral bone of a male polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS). It also mentions that the material parameters are used in a solid mechanics model to simulate finite element model of the behaviour of appendicular bone until rupture.

The article presents a study which investigates the mechanical characterisation of the cycling loading of humerus cortical bone and to tests the compression and tension within the bone to avoid intra-variability. The study used longitudinal method, clamping devices, and cycling tests. Results show that the compressive and tensile longitudinal elastic moduli of the humerus cortical bone were determined between 0.01% and 0.03% strain.

Background: This systematic review was conducted to explain the association between dairy products and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in Middle Eastern and North African countries (MENA).Methods: The database consulted were PubMed, Clinical Trials, and Cochrane to extract the relevant studies published till the 31stof December 2016, using inclusion and exclusion criteria according to Prisma Protocol. The characteristics of these studies comprised the consumption of all types of dairy products in relation to CRC risk.Results: Seven studies were included in this review. For dairy products overall, no significant association was found. Regarding modern dairy products, included studies found controversial results with OR = 9.88 (95% CI: 3.80-24.65) and ORa = 0.14 (95% CI: 0.02-0.71). A positive association was reported between traditional dairy products and CRC risk, to OR = 18.66 (95% CI: 3.06-113.86) to OR = 24 (95% CI: 1.74-330.82) to ORa = 1.42 (95% CI: 0.62-3.25), ptrend = 0.03. Calcium was inversely associated with the CRC risk with ORa = 0.08 (95% CI: 0.04-0.17).Conclusion: This is the first systematic review which illustrated the association between dairy consumption and CRC risk in MENA region. The results were inconsistent and not always homogeneous. Further specified studies may be warranted to address the questions about the association between CRC and dairy products in a specific context of MENA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Prevalence and distribution of Helicobacter pylori cagA and vacA genotypes in the Moroccan population with gastric disease," by S. Alaoui Boukhris and colleagues, that was published online on May 1, 2013, is presented.