ABSTRACT

The fatigue behavior of 2024 aluminum alloy is strongly influenced by heat treatment conditions, particularly T6 and retrogression and re-ageing (RRA) processes. In this study, specimens obtained from 2024 alloy plates were solution heat-treated at 520°C /2 h and subsequently aged to the T4 condition at 120°C/24 h. All samples were then subjected to a natural ageing (shelf life) period of 15 days before undergoing retrogression at approximately 220°C/3 min, followed by re-ageing at 165°C for 2h. The heat-treated samples were evaluated using tensile testing, electrical conductivity in %IACS and high cycle fatigue testing after all proposed heat treatment cycles. The samples were further tested under high-cycle fatigue conditions. The results indicate that both tensile properties and electrical conductivity were adversely affected after the 15-day shelf life. Distinct differences in fatigue behavior were observed between the retrogression and T6 (re-ageing) treated alloys. The retrogression treatment for a short time for the samples after 15 days, exhibited an improvement of mechanical strength and electrical conductivity. However, re-aging of these samples for 165/2hr shows beak strength with decrease in electrical conductivity. Although, T6 condition provides superior strength, the Retrogression treatment offers high fatigue performance by improving crack growth resistance, making it a more suitable choice for applications requiring enhanced fatigue durability. Keywords: Retrogression and re-aging, Fatigue, Electrical conductivity, crack growth, Strength 

abstract

The present study aimed to assess the knowledge of diabetic patients regarding diabetes-related systemic and oral

complications and to evaluate their attitudes toward maintaining good oral health and their oral hygiene practices,

including regular dental visits. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Gharyan Educational Hospital, Gharyan,

Libya, between November 2025 and January 2026. A total of 134 diabetic patients attending scheduled outpatient

clinics were enrolled. The study found that 60.5% of participants were aware that diabetes increases the risk of

oral disease, with a high awareness of xerostomia (91%). However, knowledge of specific complications was lower;

only 46.2% identified dental caries and 42.6% identified oral fungal infections as related risks. Regarding systemic

health, patients showed higher awareness of diabetic foot and eye complications than of nerve or kidney

complications. While 73.9% of participants reported brushing their teeth, only 41.8% did so twice daily.

Furthermore, 44.8% visited the dentist less than once a year, and 41% could not remember their last visit. The

primary sources of information were diabetologists (52.9%) and various media (50%), with 98.5% of participants

expressing a desire for more education on this topic. Diabetic patients in Gharyan demonstrated a moderate level

of knowledge regarding diabetes-related oral health. While attitudes toward oral hygiene are generally positive,

there are significant gaps in knowledge regarding specific oral complications. The findings suggest an urgent need

to integrate oral health education into routine diabetic care and to strengthen collaboration between physicians and

dentists to improve overall patient outcomes.

Keywords. Diabetes mellitus, Oral Health, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Libya.

• Several types of steroids are a class of medications used worldwide to treat pain. Despite significant differences in their use across various age groups, particularly among young people, including university students, steroids offer a significant health benefit when used without a prescription and with guidance from a pharmacist. 425 new Libyan students from various colleges in Gharyan University (Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, Arts, etc.). The data were collected using a structured self-designed questionnaire consisting of 32 items. Descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) were applied to assess internal consistency, and the Chi-squared test and ANOVA. The analysis revealed that 90.4% of students do not use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for pain, 94.1% do not use them for headaches, and 94.6% do not use them without a prescription. 6.1% reported experiencing stomach pain after use, and 1.6% indicated that they needed a larger dose to achieve the same effect. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.81, indicating good internal consistency. This study found significant differences in eight question items (29.6%) between genders and in three items between age groups. Thus, students at Gharyan University have a high level of awareness regarding the safe use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and avoiding their use without a prescription.

ABSTRACT

Background: Incisional hernia is a common complication following abdominal surgery, and mesh reinforcement has become

the standard of care. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of sublay versus onlay mesh repair in patients with

incisional her

nia.

Methods: This prospective randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at the General Surgery Department, Faculty

of Medicine, ..... Hospitals. A total of 60 patients diagnosed with incisional hernia and scheduled for elective surgical repai

r

were recr

uited from general surgery outpatient clinics and the emergency department. Patients were randomly assigned into

two equal groups: Group A (Onlay Group, n=30) underwent onlay mesh repair, and Group B (Sublay Group, n=30)

underwent sublay (retrorectus) mesh

repair. Baseline demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics were

recorded. Operative parameters, postoperative pain scores (Visual Analogue Scale), hospital stay, return to normal activity,

postoperative complications (seroma, hem

atoma, surgical site infection), and hernia recurrence at 12 months were compared

between the two groups.

Results: Operative time was significantly shorter in the onlay group (88.93 ± 7.93 minutes) compared to the sublay group

(99.67 ± 7.74 minutes) (p < 0.001). Postoperative pain scores were significantly lower in the sublay group at day 1 (4.70 ±

0.76 vs. 6.

10 ± 0.79), 1 week (2.39 ± 0.75 vs. 3.99 ± 0.82), 1 month (0.85 ± 0.74 vs. 2.41 ± 0.88), 3 months (0.30 ± 0.49 vs.

1.41 ± 0.86), 6 months (0.16 ± 0.36 vs. 1.02 ± 0.82), and 12 months (0.14 ± 0.48 vs. 0.82 ± 0.86) (p < 0.001 for all). Hospit

al

stay was sign

ificantly shorter in the sublay group (3.47 ± 1.11 days vs. 4.40 ± 0.93 days, p < 0.001), and return to normal

activity was significantly earlier (21.53 ± 3.41 days vs. 26.07 ± 4.73 days, p < 0.001). No significant difference was found

in drain removal day

(p = 0.257). Postoperative complications including seroma (10.0% vs. 23.3%, p = 0.299), hematoma

(3.3% vs. 6.7%, p = 1.000), and surgical site infection (6.7% vs. 16.7%, p = 0.424) were directionally lower in the sublay

group but did not reach statistical

significance. Hernia recurrence at 12 months was 3.3% in the sublay group versus 10.0%

in the onlay group (p = 0.612). All patients completed the 12

-

month follow

-

up.

Conclusion: Sublay (retrorectus) mesh repair offers significant clinical advantages over onlay mesh repair for incisional

hernia, including superior postoperative pain control, shorter hospital stay, and earlier return to normal activity. Postoper

ative

com

plications and recurrence showed consistent trends favoring sublay repair. These findings support sublay mesh repair as

the preferred technique for elective incisional hernia repair in appropriately selected patients.

.

Keywords

: Incisional hernia, mesh repair, sublay, retrorectus, onlay, postoperative pain, randomized controlled trial.

Hereditary cancer syndromes (i.e. BRCA1/2-breast cancer) represent a small portion of around 6% of the population worldwide with genetic diseases, but their histopathological diagnosis is still difficult. In this paper, we present a clinical decision support system that combines an improved XGBoost classifier with SHapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) to provide high predictive accuracy and interpretable AI (XAI) in breast cancer diagnosis based on nuclear morphological features. The proposed approach employs a five-stage framework, namely: (1) Data collection from the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Diagnostic (WDBC) dataset, (2) missing value treatment by using multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE), (3) feature normalization, (4) biomarker selection using recursive feature elimination with cross validation (RFECV), and (5) class imbalance addressing by synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE). Hyperparameter tuning was done with Optuna using the Tree-structured Parzen Estimator (TPE) for 300 trials. The XGBoost model, evaluated on a test data consisting of 114 samples (20% of the total 569 samples), attained the highest accuracy of 96% and recall of 97% for class malignant, with a close to perfection ROC AUC of 0.99. SHAP results demonstrated that morphological characteristics (convex points and concavity, in particular) were the most important features, which is in line with histopathological understanding of nuclear alterations in hereditary cancer syndromes. Local waterfall plots ensured case-specific interpretability by breaking down single predictions into additive feature contributions. Although the WDBC dataset does not contain direct labels of genotype, the designed framework acts as a reproducible proof-of-concept for transparent, high-performance diagnosis of breast cancer with potential for application to hereditary syndromes, and veterinary histopathology incorporating appropriate species specific validation.