The Impact of Screen Time and Mobile Dependency on Cognition, Socialization and Behaviour Among Early Childhood Students During the Covid Pandemic- Perception of the Parents

Digital technology systems are adopted rapidly throughout the globe for the virtual learning process especially with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital screen-based gadgets are integrated to provide a seamless interactive medium of learning even before the initiation of formal education. Studies on the technology use of younger children are critical as uncontrolled gadget use affects their developmental stages yet these studies are still in the infancy stage. This study analyses the psychoeducational impact of extended use of digital gadgets and mobile dependency on early childhood manifested through their cognition, socialization and behaviour. This descriptive study is based on the random responses of 511 parents about their young children of 3-6 years distributed at five civil districts of Kerala State. From the analysis, it is found that the extended use of digital gadgets influenced young children’s mobile dependency, socialization process, cognition and behaviour patterns. The young children exhibited alienation tendencies and behavioural deviations which are correlated to their screen time. Both male and female reported similar results.  Significant differences were observed with respect to the age of the children and their parental characteristics. Their mobile dependency mediated their extended digital Screen Time to the Behaviour. Significant relation was predicted by extended Screen Time on Behaviour of the students with a partial sequential path through mobile Dependency, Cognition and Socialization. The study shed light on the urgency of parental care and implementation of a balanced gadget usage system to reduce the detrimental impacts of psychoeducational factors

Assessment of dimorphic growth of the cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis (Cephalopoda: Sepiidae) using cuttlebone markings from the south-eastern Arabian Sea

The pharaoh cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis Ehrenberg, 1831, is one of the most important species exploited along the Eastern Arabian Sea. A study on the relationships between dorsal mantle length (DML) and number of cuttlebone septa (or chambers) and between total body weight and number of cuttlebone septa were carried out in S. pharaonis collected from the south-eastern Arabian Sea. The cuttlefish samples were collected from Cochin Fisheries Harbour (133 males and 67 females). Dorsal mantle length-at-chamber count and weight-at-chamber count were statistically higher in males than in females. The available literature suggests that females of S. pharaonis are heavier than males while males are found to attain greater ultimate lengths throughout the lifecycle. Literature also suggests that the rate of cuttlebone septum formation is the same in both sexes of Sepia species, however in the present study, S. pharaonis males have slightly higher growth rates than females (Fig. 1 & 2). The study indicates that there is considerable scope to use cuttlebone chamber counts as a means of determining actual age of cuttlefishe

Genetic cataloguing of Octopus species from coastal waters of Kerala using molecular markers

Octopuses are one of the commercially important fishery resource form the Indian coast and there is a targeted fishery for octopus in many fish landing centres in Kerala. There are lot of taxonomic ambiguities within the octopus species and the accurate identification of species is of prior importance in conserving such vulnerable species. With a view to identify and genetically catalogue the octopus species of Kerala coast, specimens were collected from different landing centres of the region. Molecular characterization was done with partial sequence information of mitochondrial gene Cytochrome C oxidase-I (COI) gene. Total 17 specimens of 7 species were collected from 4 locations and COI sequences were generated (650 bp). 7 species included viz, three ocellate octopus, belonging to the genus Amphioctopus; (Amphioctopus neglectus. A. marginatus and A. rex), two from genus Cistopus: (Cistopus Indicus and C. taiwanicus), one each from Octopus vulgaris and Callistoctopus macropus. Both genus of Cistopus and Amphioctopus showed the intra and inter specific distance ranging from 0.0-1.0 % and 7.0-21.0 %, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood approach revealed that all the genera of the family Octopodidae are monophyletic

Hawaiian flying squid Nototodarus hawaiiensis (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) in the Arabian Sea: range extension, age, and growth

The oceanic cephalopod fauna of the Arabian Sea has not been well studied. The Hawaiian flying squid Nototodarus hawaiiensis (Oegopsida: Ommastrephidae) is known to have a very broad, disjunct distribution in tropical to subtropical waters. In the present study, the squid Nototodarus hawaiiensis is reported for the first time from the Arabian Sea. Five females ranging in size from 62 to 128 mm dorsal mantle length (DML) were collected. Age estimates based on the statolith-increment analysis ranged from 79 to 132 days, with growth rates ranging from 0.78 to 0.99 (mean = 0.93) mm DML/day. Back-calculated hatch dates occurred from November to January. Stomach-content analysis revealed that the dominant prey was crustaceans