Breast cancer is the highest public detected cancer among female population in the majority of countries worldwide. Breast self-examination (BSE) is a useful screening tool to empower women and raise awareness about their breast tissues and help detect any breast abnormalities when they occur. This study aimed to assess the level of female university students’ knowledge and practice of BSE. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge about breast cancer and related items, and an observation checklist was used to test practicing BSE using a breast simulator. Eighty-six students participated in the study, 58.1% studying nursing and 41.9% studying clinical nutrition in the third (40.7%) or the fourth level (59.3%). Of them, 24.4% had previous family history of breast cancer. The majority of the students (80.2%) had previous information about breast cancer acquired from different sources, university studies (57%), the Internet (45%), and social media (41%). Findings showed good scores (≥70%) regarding signs and symptoms and risk factors of breast cancer; however, low knowledge scores (<70%) were detected regarding general knowledge about breast cancer disease, methods of early detection and management, and applying steps of practicing BSE. Roughly all the students (96.5%) have heard about BSE, and 69.8% knew the time to do BSE; however, only 31.4% practice it regularly. Three barriers to practice were dominant among students who do not have a breast problem (39.7%), do not know how to do it (37.9%), and being busy 31%. On the other hand, breast cancer early detection purpose and the presence of family history of breast cancer were considered facilitators to regular practice BSE. A statistically significant relationship existed between knowledge about the steps of applying the BSE and regular practicing. A training program should be implemented to increase the level of awareness about BC and practicing BSE.

We explore a new glassy material for radiation shielding applications. Novel transparent and non-toxic Bi₂O₃–B₂O₃ glasses including different concentrations of CdO were prepared by the conventional melt quenching method. The prepared samples were characterized and analyzed by using various analytical tools (XRD, FTIR, Raman, DSC, and UV-Vis-NIR). Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to create structural models of the materials, and these were compared to our measurements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the vibrations obtained experimentally with the vibrational density of states obtained from an ab initio computer model for these materials. The radiation shielding properties were measured for the photon energy range (10^−3–10⁵ MeV): both mass attenuation coefficient (μ/p) and effective atomic number (Z_eff) showed a gradual increase with an increase in the CdO content. The mean-free-path, tenth value layer, half-value layer, and electron density for all prepared glasses were estimated. Promising results were achieved with the new glasses for radiation shielding purposes such as nuclear reactor and medical applications. The structural, electronic, and vibrational properties of the computer models revealed a topologically disordered, but chemically ordered network, and our vibrational computations provide direct insight into several Raman peaks observed for the materials.