Educational institutions are the principle pillars for establishment of sustainable human development which leads to community progress. Therefore, it is essentially important to develop their infrastructure, programs, and financial resources and assure the quality of their outcome to effectively respond and fulfill community needs. With current unprecedented scientific advancement in all aspects of life, it is becoming a formidable task to stay internationally competent. Continuous development and improving educational programs are therefore a must. The future requirements of education are choosing quality over quantity and adopting modern, reliable teaching methods in order to acquire knowledge, develop skills and attitudes that comply with good professional practice to meet the challenge of globalization. Education in Libya is free for everyone from elementary school up to university level but the general decline in the quality of Libyan higher educational system within the last four decades is well recognized. The efficiency of its product has been proven to be inconsistent with the national economical and developmental needs. Internal challenges of the higher educational system in Libya that affecting its own performance are presented in this paper, even though this does not under estimate the effect of other external threats, but they just remain beyond the scope of this paper. These challenges include; lack of a national strategic plan, poor primary and secondary school output, excessive students' admission, structural problems, poor infrastructure, administrative and legal problems, poor academic staff performance, outdated curricula and teaching methods, poor financial resources, poor research and postgraduate programs. Inevitably, the first step in treatment of such situation is to adopt a national strategy for higher education to know where we stand and to decide where to go and how to reach there. This of course in addition to linking educational programs to local, national and international market needs and promoting investment in education.

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Introduction: Breast cancer in women is the commonest type of cancer worldwide. However, in Libya, ordinary systematic screening for breast cancer is neglected. Aim: The present study was aimed to evaluate the women's knowledge towards breast cancer and its risk factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey, using self-administered questionnaire and face-to-face interviews was conducted at different places in Tripoli city along a period of nine months, from April-December 2013. Results: The mean age (±bSD) of the participating women was 48±b5 years and out of 284 contributors 84.5% were married. One hundred and eighty women (63.4%) stated that long-term use of contraceptive pills (> 5 years) increases the incidence rate of breast cancer. Besides, more than half of participants (157 women) specified that breast cancer is treated by surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, although 50.7% of women reported that mammography and ultrasound are used for early detection, more than 60% of women believed that mammogram can cause cancer. In addition, our data demonstrate that increased knowledge was associated with women who know how to do self-examination and living in urban area. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that Libyan women have acceptable level of knowledge regarding breast cancer. However, improvement of the health systems and awareness regarding breast cancer is needed.

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This work was aimed at the use of dissolution testing and similarity factor to assess the level of damage taken by active drug microspheres during compression in tablet dosage form. To achieve that, combinations of suitable excipients were used to protect drug microspheres during compression. The excipients were used in the form of powders, granules or placebo pellets prepared by extrusion-spheronization technology. The excipients were evaluated alone, in combinations and post-compression into compacts. Preliminary experiments included assessing density, hardness, friability and disintegration of all the selected excipients. Based on such experiments it was found that the flowability of combination of powders was more acceptable than individual excipients. Two combinations of microcrystalline -starch and microcrystalline cellulose -calcium carbonate granules were selected to be compressed with pellets of the active pharmaceutical ingredient ketoprofen. In all the combinations used there was a significant amount of damage to drug pellets. The kinetics of drug release appears to follow the zero-order rate, which remained unchanged even when a significant degree of damage to pellets occurs. It was found that a high level of excipients is required in order to prepare microspheres as a rapid disintegrating tablet.

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Introduction: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is a clinical picture characterized by severe proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, edema and hypercholesterolemia. A retrospective study was carried out in order to describe disease pattern in newly diagnosed NS of children admitted to Tripoli children hospital during the year 2014. Methods: The medical data of 56 patients aged between 1 year and 11 years diagnosed with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome were analysed using SPSS software. The data included gender differences, sensitivity to steroid therapy, relapses withen six months of follow up and the effect of variable factors such as family history, hypertension, hematuria, serum urea on the degree of relapse. Results: Out of 56 patients with newly diagnosed NS, 60.7% were boys and 39.3% were girls, with a mean age 4.2±2.2 years. Age was related significantly to the response to steroid therapy, where 79.5% of patients aged between 2-8 years (group 1) had steroid sensitive NS (SSNS) compared with only 41.7% of patients aged less than 2 years or more than 8 years (group 2) (P<0.001). Although girls relapsed more than boys (70.5% versus 57.1%) during six months of therapy, this difference was not statistically significant. Similarly, no other factors measured such as family history of NS, hypertension, hematuria, serum complement and urea had any effect on the percentage of relapse in patients with newly diagnosed NS. Conclusion: NS is one of the commonest reasons for admission to nephrology ward. It is more common in boys than girls. The age at presentation related significantly to the response to steroidal therapy. Regarding relapses, girls seems to relapse more frequent than boys and relapses was seen more in age group 1 than group 2, however, these differences were not significant. Other factors studied seems to have no effect on the relapse rate of children with newly diagnosed NS.

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Introduction: Tricyclic antidepressant have been shown to be effective in treatment of pain of varying etiology, monoaminergic system seems to be implicated in this phenomena. This research examines the role of beta-adrenergic receptor blockers on the antinociceptive effect of imipramine in albino mice using thermal model of pain. Methods: Different groups of five animals each were injected intraperitoneal by different doses of imipramine only (2.5, 7.5,15, 30 mg/kg), atenolol (2 mg/kg), propranolol (6mg/kg), or the combination of the different doses of imipramine with the fixed dose of atenolol or propranolol. The degree of analgesia was measured as an increase in reaction time to pain in the hot plate one hour after drugs injections. Results: Imipramine produced dose dependent increase in reaction time from 129% with the lowest dose to 196% with the highest dose. One-way ANOVA analysis has shown that the addition of a fixed dose of propranolol antagonized significantly the increase in reaction time to 75% with the lowest dose and 118.9% with the highest dose of imipramine. On the other hand, atenolol failed to antagonize significantly the increase in reaction time induced by imipramine. Conclusion: Imipramine has a significant analgesic effect on albino mice in the hot plate test. The antinociceptive action of imipramine seems to be of central origin and possibly mediated, at least in part, by beta adrenergic receptors, as this analgesic effect can be blocked by propranolol, a centrally acting non-selective beta adrenergic receptor antagonist, but not with atenolol which blocks only the peripheral beta receptors.

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Introduction: Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most frequently performed procedures in surgery and many different techniques have been suggested. This report reviews our experience with 39 transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) hernia repairs in 37 patients. Methods: Thirty-seven patients have been admitted for inguinal hernia repair in Benghazi Medical Center and in Aljala hospital, Benghazi-Libya. Laparoscopic TAPP repair was considered for all reducible inguinal hernias aged (18–70 years). Data was prospectively collected from January 2009 to December 2013,including age, sex, BMI, hernia characteristics, complications, mean operative time and mean hospital stay. Patients with irreducible, obstructed or scrotal hernias, previous lower abdominal surgery, BMI more than thirty fiveand an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade higher than II were excluded. Results: There were 34 males and 3 females, with a mean age of 33.4 ± 13.0 years and BMI of 24.6± 1.9. Mean operative time was 75 ±18.6 minutes .The mean hospital stay was one day ± 0.27. There was no conversion, mesh infection, bladder or vascular injury, death or recurrence after a median follow up for six months. Four minor complications occurred with two seroma formation, one wound bruising and one chronic groin pain due to tackers treated conservatively. Median return to normal activities was 10 days. One fourth of patients required no postoperative analgesia. Conclusion: Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair was found in our study to be feasible, safe, with less postoperative pain, shorter hospital stay, and early return to normal activities.

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