RELATIONSHIP OF LUNAR PHASES TO CRIMES COMMITTED IN ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE

Human behavior appeared to be influenced by lunar phase. Crimes still committed despite the government efforts to prevent and suppress it. Some authors claimed that the moon of the solar system affect the human body and the planet earth. The term lunacy derived from the idea that the lunar cycles affect human behavior and it is a widely believed phenomenon that a full moon can increase criminal behavior. This study aimed to determine the relationship between lunar phases and crimes committed in the two cities of Dipolog and Dapitan. Documentary analysis and unstructured interviews were conducted to gather information. The data were taken from the reported crimes in the two police stations. Statistical tools used were frequency count and chi-square test of both difference and relationships respectively. The most common index crimes were theft, physical injury and threat. Whereas, non-index crimes were malicious mischief and violations to RA 7610 and RA 9262. Results revealed that most of the index crimes happened during the first quarter and during new moon phase. Non-index crimes on the other hand, happened at any lunar phase. The occurrence of index and non-index crimes are likely to be influenced by the lunar phases. Philippine National Police might set-up additional preventive measures to prevent would be criminals from committing theft, physical injury and threat. Police presence be increased more during first quarter and new moon phases to prevent occurrence of crime as well as implement intensive community policing program to protect the community from untoward crime incidence.

Lunar Periodicity in Reproduction of Senatorial Scallop (Chlamys Senatoria Gmelin, 1791) in Asid Gulf, Masbate, Philippines

In Masbate, senatorial scallop Chlamys senatoria is one of the five commercially important species of scallop present in Asid Gulf, but its basic biology is poorly understood in the Philippines. To provide biological information for future conservation and management, the reproductive rhythm of senatorial scallop in relation to lunar phase was investigated from October 2016 to March 2017. Scallops were collected daily from the fishers’ catches and were measured, dissected, and processed for histological analysis; whereas, fecundity and size of eggs (diameter) were also determined. Ecological parameter such as bottom water temperature was monitored during the sampling period. Results showed that C. senatoria is a highly fecund species, which ranges from 8.3 X 105 to 2.1 X 106 oocytes per female and its sizes (oocytes) ranges from 53.8 µm to 72.5 µm while Gonado-somatic index (GSI) ranges from 3.2 to 7.1. Fecundity, egg diameter, and the GSI decreased during new moon (NM) and full moon (FM). GSI indicates that the onset of spawning activity commences during NM and FM. Environmental parameters that were monitored showed significant variations in relation to lunar phase. Spawning of scallop C. senatoria follows a lunar reproductive pattern, which was initiated and influenced by the variations of different factors such as temperature, water amplitude, and light as the effect of lunar/tidal cycles. These findings indicate that reproduction and necessarily spawning in the scallop are related to factors associated with lunar phases. Strategies for managing the resource can be formulated using the temporal dimension of lunar phases.

Relationship of lunar phases and sex of the foetus: a retrospective study

Background: The relation of lunar phases at the time of conception to the sex of the child at birth has been touted as a method of sex selection by various birth calendars with controversial results. It is made to believe that indeed there is a relation of lunar phase at the time of conception/intercourse which results in birth of a particular gender. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the lunar phase on the possible relationship between lunar position at EDD/LMP and the gender of the child.Methods: One thousand and five deliveries were retrospectively analysed from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology of military hospital, Gwalior (latitude and longitude coordinates: 26.218287, 78.182831). Females having regular menstrual periods history around conception and in general their periods have been normal and regular were included in the study. Females having irregular menstrual periods history or having oligomenorrhoea/polymenorrhoea, ART/IVF conceptions were excluded from the study. Exact lunar phases were determined at the time of EDD and not with their LMP since that would automatically corelate well with LMP because of regularity of their periods. The actual date of birth was not considered while corelating with moon phase because of obvious reason of unexpected timing of labour.Results: The analysis revealed no significant correlation of gender of the child to lunar phases at EDD. This would indirectly corelate well with the LMP since the inclusion criterion had females having normal and regular menstrual periods.Conclusions: There is no predictable influence of the lunar phase on the gender of the baby. As expected, and in agreement with some recent studies this pervasive myth is not evidence based.

Year-round high abundances of the world’s smallest marine vertebrate (Schindleria) in the Red Sea and worldwide associations with lunar phases

Very little is known about the ecology and biology of the smallest marine vertebrates, fishes in the genus Schindleria. Even though over half of named Schindleria species have been identified in the Red Sea, the collection of only very few specimens has been documented. Here, we assessed abundance patterns of nearly two thousand Red Sea long dorsal fin (LDF) adults and found evidence for putative seasonal and spatial differences, likely related to differing habitat and environmental conditions. The highest abundances were outside local seasonal temperature extremes and decoupled from peaks of coral reef fish recruitment. We also found evidence for global trends in abundances related to lunar cycles using our Red Sea data and that from a recently published large collection of specimens from the DANA Expedition (1928–1930). The abundance of adult LDF Schindleria in relation to lunar phases differed significantly, with most Schindleria caught outside the full moon, and mostly during the new moon in the Red Sea and the 3rd quarter moon in the DANA collection. We further suggest that the abundances of Schindleria at coral reefs may be related to reproductive cycles and that these cycles may be timed with the moon as back-calculations of hatch dates from otoliths from the Red Sea significantly resulted after the new moon, making Schindleria the fastest-lived coral reef fish with the shortest generation times. Schindleria could be the most numerous coral reef fish in the world, for which we encourage increased research.

Temporal patterns of roe deer traffic accidents: Effects of season, daytime and lunar phase

Wildlife-related accidents, especially deer-vehicle accidents, pose a serious problem for road safety and animal protection in many countries. Knowledge of spatial and temporal patterns of deer-vehicle accidents is inevitable for accident analysis and mitigation efforts with temporal deer-vehicle accident data being much more difficult to obtain in sufficient data quality. We described the temporal patterns of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) roadkills occurring in the period 2002–2006 in southeastern Austria. Using a comprehensive dataset, consisting of 11.771 data points, we examined the influence of different time units (i.e. season, month, day of week, day of year), illumination categories (coarse and fine temporal resolution) and lunar phases on deer-vehicle accidents by performing linear and generalized additive models. Thereby, we identified peak accident periods within the analyzed time units. Highest frequencies of deer-vehicle accidents occurred in November, May and October, on Fridays, and during nights. Relationships between lunar phases and roe deer-vehicle accidents were analysed, providing evidence for high frequencies of deer-vehicle accidents during full moon phases. We suggest that deer-vehicle accidents are dependent both on human activity in traffic and wildlife activity, which is in turn affected by phenology, intra- and interspecific competition, climatic and astronomical events. Our results highlight, that short-term mitigation measures (e.g. traffic controls and speed limits) can be highly effective to reduce deer-vehicle accidents, but should be flexibly adapted to specific temporal periods.

Effects of Lunar Phases and Other Variables on CPUE of European Pilchard, Sardina pilchardus, Caught by Purse Seine in the Eastern Mediterranean

European pilchard Sardina pilchardus (Walbaum, 1792) is one of the most dominant small pelagic landed by purse seine in Turkey as well as Mediterranean. In this study, we aimed to identify relationships between the seasonally adjusted CPUE and changes of the sea surface temperature (SST), fishing area, moon phase, and light used in the purse seine fishery to understand the impact of changes on the CPUE of pelagic fishes, especially S. pilchardus, by a total of 214 operations in Izmir Bay, Aegean Sea. The effect of the parameters on the Sardine CPUE, expressed in terms of kg (haul day)–1, was examined by means of the Generalized Additive Modelling (GAMs) techniques. The CPUE values for S. pilchardus were between 0 – 16 800 kg (haul day)–1 and the mean CPUE was 1 844.3±176.6 kg (haul day)–1 . The smallest median was 441 kg (haul day)–1 for full moon and the differences between the CPUE values of lunar phases were statistically significant (p<0.05). Furthermore, there is a linear relationship between CPUE and SST. In conclusion, the CPUE varied under hydrographic variables mostly SST for sardine purse seine fishery in the Aegean Sea.