Attitudes of Different Religions Toward Surrogacy: Analysis of 11 Countries' Situation Using Machine Learning Approach and Artificial Neural Networks.

Individuals may develop different attitudes on bioethics in general and reproductive ethics in particular, due to the effects of different sociocultural environments. Individuals' attitudes toward surrogacy are affected positively or negatively depending on religious and cultural environments. This study was conducted to determine and compare the attitudes of different religions toward surrogacy. This study is cross-sectional and collected from individuals living in Turkey, India, Iran, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Madagascar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Mexico, England, and Japan between May 2022 and December 2022. The study was conducted with individuals belonging to Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Atheism. The study was conducted with 1177 individuals from different religions who agreed to participate in the study by snowball sampling method. The introductory Information Form and "Attitude Questionnaire Toward Surrogacy" were used as data collection tools. R programming language 4.1.3 was used for regression analysis with machine learning approach and artificial neural networks, and SPSS-25 was used for other statistical analyses. There was a significant difference between the total mean score of the individuals' Attitudes toward Surrogacy Questionnaire and their religious beliefs (p < 0.05). When the results of the analysis of the regression model with the dummy variable, which was carried out with the aim of revealing the effects of religious belief on the attitude toward surrogacy, are examined, statistical estimates of the regression model show that the model is significant and usable F(4,1172) = 5.005, p = 0.001). It explains 1.7% of the total variance of the level of religious belief's attitude toward surrogacy. In the regression model, when the t-test results regarding the significance of the regression coefficient are examined, among the participants, it was determined that the mean score of those who believed in Islam (t = - 3.827, p < 0.001) and those who believed in Christianity (t = - 2.548, p < 0.001) was lower than the mean score of those who believed in Hinduism (Constant) (p < 0.05). Individuals' attitudes toward surrogacy differ according to their religion. The best performing algorithm for the prediction model was random forest (RF) regression. The contributions of the variables to the model were calculated with Shapley values (Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP)). The SHAP values of the variables in the best performing model were examined to avoid bias in terms of comparison in the performance criterion. SHAP values (Shapley Additive Explanations) show the contribution or importance of each variable in the estimation of the model. It is determined that the most important variable that should be in the model to predict the Attitude Toward Surrogacy Survey variable is the Nationality variable. It is recommended that studies on attitudes toward surrogacy should be conducted by taking religious and cultural values into consideration.

Study of Antibacterial Activity of Root Bark, Leaves, and Pericarp Extracts of Diploknema butyracea and Evaluation of Prospective Antioxidant Activity.

This study was aimed to determine the antibacterial activity of root bark, leaves, and pericarp extract of Diploknema butyracea and to evaluate the prospective antioxidant activity, total flavonoid, polyphenol, and carbohydrate content. The plant parts were collected and extracted by cold maceration, using hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and distilled water. Phytochemical screening of different samples of D. butyracea in different solvents revealed the presence of varied extent of alkaloid, saponin, terpenoid, anthraquinones, tannin, cardiac glycoside, flavonoid, carbohydrate, polyphenol, protein and amino acid, resin, and phytosterol. Our study showed that methanolic root bark extract exhibited the potent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Klebsiella pneumonia with an average zone of inhibition of 17.33 mm, 14.33 mm, and 13.0 mm, respectively. Surprisingly, all of the extracts were insensitive to Escherichia coli. The lowest minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), 4.6 mg/ml, was observed with the aqueous pericarp extract against S. epidermidis and the highest was of 50 mg/ml shown by ethyl acetate pericarp against K. pneumonia. Our results showed that both the polar and nonpolar components present in the different parts of D. butyracea exhibit prominent antibacterial activities against different bacterial strains. The in vitro 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity showed that the methanol extract of root barks displayed the most potent antioxidant activity (IC50 : 6.1 µg/ml). The total polyphenol content of the plant part extracts was observed between 19.48 ± 0.23 and 123.48 ± 1.84 µg gallic acid equivalent/mg of dry extract weight. Likewise, flavonoid content ranged from 40.63 ± 1.28 µg to 889.72 ± 3.40 µg quercetin equivalent/mg of dry extract weight and total carbohydrate content ranged from 11.92 ± 0.60 µg to 174.72 ± 0.60 µg glucose equivalent per/mg dry extract weight. Overall, our study showed that the root bark, pericarp, and leaves extract of D. butyracea evinced prominent antibacterial properties against various pathogenic bacterial strains.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on learning status of student in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning status of students from different educational boards and universities of Nepal. An online survey was conducted from tenth to twentieth of September 2020 to record the data. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A self-designed questionnaire link, using "Google form" was sent to the students via social networks. A total of 589 participants shared their complete information. The simple percentage distribution was employed to evaluate the learning status of the students. RESULTS: During the lockdown period, >70% of the students were engaged in online classes, most commonly by using the Zoom app. The majority of the students were using WIFI as an internet source to attend online classes. Students have been suffering from various problems related to anxiety, stress, economic crises, poor internet connectivity, deprivation of study materials, required e-learning accessories, and an unsuitable study environment. Mainly, students from remote areas and middle income families suffered enormously. Among those participants, who were able to attend the online classes, the majority of students (70%) were dissatisfied with the ongoing online classes. Only 23.3% of the participants suggested the feasibility of online classes in the near future. CONCLUSION: Our study recommended that training teachers and students about online classes might create effectiveness toward e-learning. The government needs to provide free internet services to the remote areas and the poor students since in the current scenario, huge numbers of the population are struggling with the economic burden.

Primary Immune Response Provides Protective Efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection.

While there is absolutely no evidence to ensure recovered patients are either likely or unlikely to get reinfected. But studies in non-human primates indicate that reinfection of recovered patients is highly unlikely. It is also clear that primary immune responses or induced immunity to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 remain in circulation for several months and at least temporarily confer immunity to protect from reinfection. In addition, negative virus culture analysis of re-positive suggests that positive reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions in recovered patients are more likely to be false-positive, or detection of genetic remnants of virus discharged from lesions of lungs or better sampling at the time of repeat analysis. However, emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants are likely to be causing the infections observed in some of the recovered patients.