Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has become increasingly popular in biomedical applications due to its favorable biocompatibility, biostability, mechanical strength, and elastic modulus, all of which are similar to those of natural bones. This paper investigates the effects of annealing on the behavior of PEEK ternary composites. PEEK samples were annealed and characterized by mechanical tests, Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and physical property testing. Results showed that annealing has an appositive effect on the properties of PEEK. The properties of the ternary composites were also compared with those of pure PEEK and Ti as a control.

Objectives: As very few studies were done on the freezability of pure Egyptian cattle bull sperm. So, we designed this study to evaluate the individual variations in freezability of native bull semen extended in Tris based diluent and sodium citrate-based diluent. Methods:Semen was collected by artificial vagina, examined at once in farm laboratory. Only semen samples fit the minimum parameters are extended in two extenders first the universal one (TRIS) and second modified Sodium citrate extender by adding glycerol (CU-16) which created at Cornell University to evaluate the individual bull variation and interaction between extender and bull.Results: Post-Thawing individual sperm motility, live, abnormal, acrosome integrity percentage was evaluated in addition to Hypo-Osmotic Swelling test (HOS). The highest value for motility, live abnormal and acrosome percentage were 44.00 ± 1.12, 52.25 ± 1.60, 21.25 ± 0.81 and 62.80 ± 2.58 from bull 2, 1, 3 and 2, respectively for semen extended in TRIS, and 42.25 ± 1.61, 52.00 ± 1.76, 22.15 ± 0.85 and 57.40 ± 3.07, from bull 1, 1, 4, 3, respectively for semen extended in CU-16. The results of HOS were 59.25 ± 1.76 and 55.95 ± 2.13 from bull 1 extended in TRIS and CU-16, respectively. Conclusion:A significant variation (p<0.05) in tested parameter was clear when semen extended in TRIS extender with the absence of such variation when semen extended in CU-16 except in live sperm percentage. With ignoring the extender effect a clear significant variations were detected between bulls in all tested parameters.

Introduction: Community pharmacy settings provide places for promoting the effective and safe use of medicines all over the world. This study explored pharmacy students’ perceptions of the barriers they had faced during their community pharmacy training as well as the factors affecting the training process outcome and their satisfaction with the training programme. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among pharmacy students who had received their training in community settings and studied at academic institutions across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A well-designed and validated questionnaire was employed. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of the students’ satisfaction with their training experience. Results: A total of 250 (83.3%) pharmacy students responded to the questionnaire. The results showed that the students were satisfied with their training experiences. However, they faced some barriers, such as not being able to respond to drug information inquiries from patients and/or interact with other healthcare providers and/or patients. Additionally, these factors were identified as independent predictors of the students’ satisfaction with the training programme - that is, having a BSc. in Pharmacy as an academic major (p=0.001), a student being in his/her fourth year of study (p=0.003), increasing the average number of prescriptions per day at the pharmacy site (p=0.004), having used prescription software at the pharmacy site (p=0.049), and increasing the number of pharmacy preceptors in the pharmacy site per day (p=0.002). Conclusion: This study confirmed that a training programme will help equip pharmacy students with the required knowledge and skills to practice the pharmacy profession effectively. However, the trainees reported barriers and problems that they had faced throughout their training.

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Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) materials belong to a group of high-performance thermoplastic polymers thermoplastic that has been proposed as a substitute for metals in biomaterials. In this research, in order to improve the performances of PEEK, nano titanium dioxide (n-TiO2) and nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HAp) were incorporated into PEEK loading up to (1.5 wt%) to fabricate PEEK composites by using a method of melt-blending and hot compressing. Properties, such as compression, density, the morphology of fracture, and element analysis were examined for preparing samples. The results showed that the compression and density properties improved with increased weight fraction for two types of reinforcement, but the higher values obtained at (1.5 wt%) for two types of powders. It was found the higher compression strength and compression modulus obtained when reinforced with (1.5% n-HAp) which equal to (107.632 MPa and 3.991 GPa) respectively, than for samples reinforced with (1.5% n-TiO2) which equal to (91.579 MPa and 3.123GPa) respectively, while the density results have opposite behavior, it was found the higher values obtained when reinforced with (n-TiO2) than for samples reinforced with (n-HAp) and at (1.5% n-TiO2) the higher density, which equal to (1.3656) while at (1.5% n-HAp) which equal to (1.3425). Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) manifested, that the fracture morphology transferred from brittle to ductile when reinforced with nano particles. Also, EDS analysis elucidated an identically uniform distribution of n-TiO2 and n-HAp.