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Objectives. The study has a translational focus to examine the applicability of the Health Belief Model, the TriRisk model, and fatalism-belief in the context of the COVID-19 disease, specifically to test if they help us predict recommended compliance behavior. Another objective is to examine how the three components of the TriRisk model work together. Background. Amid a raging COVID-19 pandemic, governments everywhere need to deploy more targeted strategies to make social distancing effective and reduce human to human transmission of the virus. Study design. The study predicted the lockdown compliance behaviour from constructs of the TriRisk model and fatalism-belief, using multiple linear regression and mediation analysis. Participants. 357 Participants across India; age range: 15—78 years; 41.5% men and 58.5% women. Measurements. Components of the health belief model, fatalism, and recommended compliance behavior were assessed using Multi-item and single-item scales. Results. Experiential risk perception was the strongest predictor of compliance behavior, followed by perceived barriers and gender. Deliberative risk perception and affective risk perception were significantly positively correlated with compliance behavior, though not statistically significant predictors. Experiential risk perception mediated the path between cognitive risk assessment and compliance behavior. Conclusions. The present study has implications for designing and trying out compliance enhancement intervention through use of appropriate experiential risk content in designing public campaigns to increase compliance behavior.

Adolescence is the most dynamic and eventful period of human development. During this crucial period of life, adolescents encounter challenges in life and constantly adapting to the relationship dynamics with friends, family, school and society. There is tendency of adolescents to engage in antisocial or pro-social behaviour. Adolescents’ relationship with parents and guardian significantly influence their antisocial and prosocial behavior. Pro-social behavior is defined as a behavior that is primarily aimed at benefiting others. Some pro-social behaviour is extrinsically motivated whereas some are intrinsically motivated. The present study investigated the nature of prosocial behaviour among adolescents and impact of consistency and inconsistency of parenting style on prosocial behaviour. A group of 610 adolescents (310 boys and 300 girls) aged between 16—18 years (mean = 17.07 and standard deviation = 1.02) was selected for the present study. Pro-social Motivation Questionnaire and Parental Authority Questionnaire were used to measure pro-social motive and parenting style, respectively. The results indicate that adolescents generally show higher level of intrinsic pro-social motive. Adolescent girls prefer to display internalised and empathetic pro-social motives whereas adolescent boys tend to gain others’ approval by displaying heroic activities. Consistency in parenting style facilitates intrinsic pro-social motive only when both parents are authoritative in nature. The result interestingly reveals that inconsistent parenting style is not always bad. Authoritative and permissive dyad facilitates intrinsic pro-social motive among adolescents. Implications for parental socialisation in families and pro-social motive among adolescents are discussed.

The North American freshwater snail Physella acuta has invaded and colonized a wide range of freshwater habitats, globally. Resembling other invasive species, P. acuta has several negative impacts on the invaded freshwater ecosystems, which calls for its regulation, preferably through biological control. The malacophagous leech Glossiphonia weberi, native to West Bengal, India, had been previously reported as a potential biocontrol agent of P. acuta. In this experiment, we observed the predation potential and prey preference of G. weberi on P. acuta in the presence of a native snail, Gyraulus convexiusculus. The results suggest that in all instances, G. weberi consumed less G. convexiusculus compared to P. acuta. In complex habitats, G. weberi showed significant prey preference to P. acuta except in the habitat characterized by the presence of pebbles. The complex habitats bear a significant (p < 0.05) negative impact only in the case of predation on P. acuta when present with conspecific but not in heterospecific prey conditions. Therefore, G. weberi qualifies as a useful biological control agent that can affect the colonization and expansion of the invasive snail P. acuta, even in the presence of alternative prey.

Burn injury is one of the most common causes of unnatural death worldwide. While survival after occurrence of burn injury has drastically increased in past decades especially in developed countries, it has not made an impact in developing countries like India till now. Though both males and females may be victims of burn, females are more susceptible as they are more involved in household activities. Victims may die due to neurogenic shock, hypovolemic shock, suffocation, sepsis, renal failure, electrolyte imbalance and other reasons. Some victims die within short time and some survive longer. In this study we have tried to highlight period of survival and its relation with total body surface area (tbsa) involved among different age groups of 115 female victims of burn injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carnivorous snail Clea (Anentome) helena (von dem Busch, 1847) (Gastropoda: Nassariidae), commonly called as the “assassin snail” is sold worldwide including India for aesthetics and the ability to kill pest snails in aquaria. Assuming invasion as a fair possibility, the predation potential of C. helena on seven native freshwater snails was assessed. The exotic predator consumed all the native snail species provided in the experiment and prey consumption varied with the prey species identity, the prey density and the prey size class. Future colonization and establishment of C. helena in Indian freshwater ecosystems may reduce the abundance of the native gastropod snails, in absence of suitable intervention.