scholarly journals Changing patterns of shark attacks in Australian waters

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 744 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. West

Although infrequent, shark attacks attract a high level of public and media interest, and often have serious consequences for those attacked. Data from the Australian Shark Attack File were examined to determine trends in unprovoked shark attacks since 1900, particularly over the past two decades. The way people use the ocean has changed over time. The rise in Australian shark attacks, from an average of 6.5 incidents per year in 1990–2000, to 15 incidents per year over the past decade, coincides with an increasing human population, more people visiting beaches, a rise in the popularity of water-based fitness and recreational activities and people accessing previously isolated coastal areas. There is no evidence of increasing shark numbers that would influence the rise of attacks in Australian waters. The risk of a fatality from shark attack in Australia remains low, with an average of 1.1 fatalities year–1 over the past 20 years. The increase in shark attacks over the past two decades is consistent with international statistics of shark attacks increasing annually because of the greater numbers of people in the water.

Author(s):  
Patricia Albjerg Graham

Schools in America have danced to different drummers during their long history. Sometimes the drumbeat demanded rigidity in all programs; sometimes it wanted academic learning for only a few. Sometimes it encouraged unleashing children’s creativity, not teaching them facts. Sometimes it wanted children to solve the social problems, such as racial segregation, adults could not handle. Sometimes it tacitly supported some schools as warehouses, not instructional facilities. Sometimes it sought schooling to be the equalizer in a society in which the gap between rich and poor was growing. Sometimes the principal purpose of schooling seemed to be teaching citizenship and developing habits of work appropriate for a democratic society, while at other times its purpose seemed to be preparation for employment, which needed the same habits of work but also some academic skills. Now, the drumbeat demands that all children achieve academically at a high level and the measure of that achievement is tests. The rhythm and tempo of the drumbeats have shifted relatively frequently, but the schools have not adjusted to the new musical scores with alacrity. They are typically just beginning to master the previous drummers’ music when new drummers appear. Many, though not all, of the new beats have been improvements both for the children and for the nation. All drummers have sought literacy in English for American children, though very modest literacy levels have been acceptable in the past. Drummers have always sought a few students who attained high levels of academic achievement, including children from disparate social, economic, and racial backgrounds. Beyond that consensus, however, what we have wanted from schooling has changed dramatically over time. These expectations for schools typically have been expressed through criticisms—often virulent—of current school practices, and the responses that followed inevitably were slower and less complete than the most ardent critics demanded. These are the shifting assignments given to schools. The following chapters of this book describe these shifting assignments given to schools and then to colleges during the last century: “Assimilation: 1900– 1920”; “Adjustment: 1920–1954”; “Access: 1954–1983”; and “Achievement: 1983–Present.”


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN BREWER ◽  
SILVIA SEBASTIANI

According to Michel de Certeau, distance is the indispensable prerequisite for historical knowledge and the very characteristic of modern historiography. The historian speaks, in the present, about the absent, the dead, as Certeau labels the past, thus emphasizing the performative dimension of historical writing: “the function of language is to introduce through saying what can no longer be done.” As a consequence, the heterogeneity of two non-communicating temporalities becomes the challenge to be faced: the present of the historian, as a moment du savoir, is radically separated from the past, which exists only as an objet de savoir, the meaning of which can be restored by an operation of distantiation and contextualization. In Evidence de l’histoire: Ce que voient les historiens, François Hartog takes up the question of history writing and what is visible, or more precisely the modalities historians have employed to narrate the past, opening up the way to a reflection on the boundaries between the visible and the invisible: the mechanisms that have contributed to establish these boundaries over time, and the questions that have legitimized the survey of what has been seen or not seen. But, as Mark Phillips points out, it is the very ubiquity of the trope of distance in historical writings that has paradoxically rendered it almost invisible to historians, so that “it has become difficult to distinguish between the concept of historical distance and the idea of history itself.”


Author(s):  
Ольга Борисовна Степанова

Традиционная игрушка северных селькупов, сегодня ими почти забытая, до сих пор никем не исследовалась. Между тем, она представляет собой яркий фрагмент традиционной селькупской культуры. Исследование ставило своей задачей вернуть селькупскому народу этот элемент его культуры в форме научного описания. На основе главным образом музейных материалов и отчасти полевых материалов автора были выявлены и рассмотрены пять типов игрушки северных селькупов, включая шесть видов куклы. Из-за нехватки селькупского материала в исследовании активно использовался метод научной реконструкции. Описания зафиксированных у селькупов типов и видов игрушки воссоздавались по материалам игрушки соседних народов. Попутно устанавливалось, какие традиции — западносибирские и восточносибирские — оказывали влияние на формирование облика того или иного типа/вида игрушки у селькупов. Был рассмотрен вопрос о связи североселькупской игрушки — вещи утилитарного значения — с сакральным или, иными словами, вопрос ее символических смыслов. Автор пришла к выводу, что все типы и виды селькупской игрушки в прошлом были сакральными обрядовыми предметами, и что в семиотическом статусе игрушки соотношение «знакового» и «вещного» со временем сдвинулось в сторону «вещного». Завершенный вид исследованию придали включенные в него материалы по современному состоянию традиционной североселькупской игрушки. The traditional toy of the northern Selkups, today almost forgotten by them, has not yet been studied by anyone. Meanwhile, it is a vivid fragment of the traditional Selkup culture. The research aimed to return this element of their culture to the Selkup people in the form of a scientific description. Based mainly on museum materials and partly from the author's field materials, five types of toys of the northern Selkups were identified and considered, including six types of dolls. Due to the lack of Selkup material, the method of scientific reconstruction was actively used in the study. Descriptions of the types and types of toys recorded by the Selkups were recreated based on the materials of toys of neighboring peoples. Along the way, it was established which traditions — West Siberian and East Siberian — influenced the formation of the appearance of a particular type / type of toy among the Selkups. The question of the connection between the North Selkup toy — a thing of utilitarian meaning — with the sacred, or, in other words, the question of its symbolic meanings, was considered. The author came to the conclusion that all types and types of Selkup toys in the past were sacred ritual objects, and that in the semiotic status of a toy, the ratio of “sign” and “thing” over time shifted towards the “thing”. The study was completed by the materials included in it on the current state of the traditional North Selkup toy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Evgen'evna Valiullina ◽  
Irina Sergeevna Reshetnikova

The study is devoted to the study of the structure of the interconnections of the components of the "I" -image of students with the various mental states they experience in the context of studying at a university. Students determined the severity of the components of the "I" -image in three time continua - in the past (1st year), in the present (3rd year), in the future (4th year). They also determined the frequency of occurrence of mental states during the first two years of study using a special questionnaire. Then a correlation analysis was carried out, which made it possible to find relationships with a high level of reliability between the components of the "I" -image of students and some mental states experienced in two educational situations, which differ qualitatively depending on the time continuum. Based on the results obtained, conclusions were drawn about the presence of relationships, thanks to which it is possible to exert a certain influence on the experienced mental sta


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay A. French ◽  
Stephen R. Midway ◽  
David H. Evans ◽  
George H. Burgess

Animals across taxa have shown behaviors linked to moon phase (or the proxy of lunar illumination), and marine organisms are well-documented to calibrate certain activities with the moon. Few studies have looked at a possible connection between moon phase and shark attacks on humans, and the results have been preliminary or lacking relationships. We used nearly 50 years of shark attack data from across the globe to test for a relationship between shark attacks and moon phase. We examined factors of geography, shark species, and outcome of attack. From 12 relationships that we tested (totaling 120 comparisons), we found 12 significant outcomes, of which five were positive (i.e., more attacks than expected) and seven were negative (i.e., fewer attacks than expected). Specifically, all the instances of more shark attacks than expected occurred at lunar illumination >50%, while all the instances of fewer shark attacks than expected occurred at lunar illumination of <50%. The findings presented here provide global evidence that shark attacks may be related to moon phase, and such information could be useful toward evaluating attack risk and developing recommendations for water-based recreational activities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Liu ◽  
Xu Huang

This study adopts the revised interpersonal model of metadiscourse to discover whether and to what extent Chinese authors employ a varying amount of Interactional Metadiscourse (IM) in the past decade in English abstracts of economics Research Articles (RAs). The data was drawn from a prestigious economics journal in China to compose a corpus of 289 abstracts. The analysis indicates that Chinese authors harmonize with English counterparts by capitalizing on more hedges, while the amount of boosters unexpectedly maintains at a high level over time, both of which can be attributed to the interaction of Chinese deep-seated cultural leanings and Anglo-American cultural preferences. Consistent with our prediction, attitude markers exhibit no significant difference along the years given the initial parallel with English counterparts. However, there are significant differences of self-mentions in the past decade regardless of English rhetorical conventions, which may be attributed to economical influences in China. With regards to engagement features, they remain relatively underused with no marked difference within the period resulting from the genre-specific factor which confines their use.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-202
Author(s):  
Serena Giunta ◽  
Giuseppe Mannino ◽  
Cinzia Bizzarri ◽  
Giuliana La Fiura

AbstractOur empirical study aims at understanding and analyzing whether and how the way in which the “sons of Mafia” consider their own family and the society in general has changed over time. The psychological study is based on a sample of 11 subjects all sons of the Mafia men divided according to a generational variable, i.e. these two ranges of age: 17-28 and 39-62. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using the Grounded Theory method. From the comparison these elements emerged: first of all, the subjects have a distinct perception of these three different areas: - family, and especially the bond with their fathers; - society, represented mainly by the relationship with peers; - Mafia, specifically in relation to the value codes of this criminal organization. The analysis of these areas has allowed us to give a cross-reading of the Mafia phenomenon outlining the differences in the way in which the present generations and the past ones live and perceive it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (69) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Fabrino Mendonça ◽  
Selen A. Ercan ◽  
Umut Ozguc ◽  
Stephanie Lorraine Gomes Reis ◽  
Paula Guimarães Simões

Abstract Introduction: The concept of “event” offers a valuable lens to understand the discursive contestations in and around protests. Events create ruptures that disturb the logic of continuity and open up new way of thinking and talking about the past and the future. Drawing on this concept, this article analyzes the 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil. It investigates how the causes of these protests were framed and debated in each country and how these frames shifted over time by opening up new interpretations of the past and the future. Materials and Methods: Data is generated from four Facebook pages capturing the messages posted during the first 30 days of protests in each country. In the Brazilian case, we collected the posts of: (1) Passe Livre São Paulo (301,787 likes), the group that started the wave of protests; and (2) O Gigante Acordou (155,690 likes), a collective that emerged during the protests, representing nationalist perspectives. In total, 626 posts were collected from both pages. In the Turkish case, we analyzed posts that appeared on the pages of : (1) Taksim Dayanismasi (82,479 likes), an association that played a significant role in organizing and mobilizing Gezi Park protests; and (2) Recep Tayyip Erdogan (6,957,408 likes), a pro-government and inherently anti-protest page. We coded each post inductively focusing particularly on the way they framed the causes of the protests. We then identified the number of times each frame was mentioned during the first 30 days of the protests and explored whether and how frames changed over time. Results: Our analysis reveals a significant shift in the way the causes of the protests were framed over time in both countries, yet with different implications. While in Brazil, we observe a frame transformation undermining the initial rationale of the protests, in Turkey we see a frame extension and the emergence of broader issues as the real causes of protests, such as the authoritarian nature of the regime and the restriction of democratic rights in this country. Discussion: The article offers a way of analysing protests based on a conceptual lens of event. It sheds light on the role of social media as a platform for symbolic struggles over the protests. Furthermore, the article opens up a debate about the developments of democracy in both countries.


F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Brian L Diffey ◽  
Steven A Frank

Background:The overall incidence of melanoma has increased steadily for several years. The relative change in incidence at different ages has not been fully described. Objective:To describe how incidence at different ages has changed over time and to consider what aspects of tumour biology may explain the observed pattern of change in incidence. Methods:The slope of incidencevsage measures the acceleration of cancer incidence with age. We described the pattern of change over time in the overall incidence of melanoma, as well as in acceleration. We used data for males and females from 3 different countries in the 17 sequential 5-year birth-cohort categories from 1895-99 to 1975-79, from which we derived the incidence patterns. Results:Over time, there has been a tendency for the overall incidence of melanoma to increase and for the acceleration (slope) of the age-incidence curves to decline. The changing patterns of melanoma incidence and acceleration differ between males and females and between the countries analysed. Conclusions:The observed pattern in melanoma of rising incidence and declining acceleration occurs in other cancers in response to genetic knockouts of mechanisms that protect against cancer. Perhaps some protective mechanism with respect to melanoma may be less effective now than in the past, possibly because of more intense environmental challenges.


Author(s):  
Jan-Melissa Schramm

Sacred theatrical performance has always attracted the strong scrutiny of the state. Consequently, one focus of this study is the relationship between sacred aesthetics and the law: what practices are considered in need of legal protection (or proscription), and how does that agenda change over time? But another is the way in which tradition (in this case, the long history of sacred drama in England) is constantly contested and revised, involving a profound interrogation of the extent to which the inheritances of the past shape the present or indeed the present predetermines our reading of the past. The Introduction alerts the reader to both these dynamics—the persistence of certain forms in the face of state censorship, and the ways in which that very narrative of continuity must be subject to critical scrutiny.


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