Combined use of GPS and accelerometry reveals fine scale three-dimensional foraging behaviour in the short-tailed shearwater

Determining the foraging behaviour of free-ranging marine animals is fundamental for assessing their habitat use and how they may respond to changes in the environment. However, despite recent advances in bio-logging technology, collecting information on both at-sea movement patterns and activity budgets still remains difficult in small pelagic seabird species due to the constraints of instrument size. The short-tailed shearwater, the most abundant seabird species in Australia (ca 23 million individuals), is a highly pelagic procellariiform. Despite its ecological importance to the region, almost nothing is known about its at-sea behaviour, in particular, its foraging activity. Using a combination of GPS and tri-axial accelerometer data-loggers, the fine scale three-dimensional foraging behaviour of 10 breeding individuals from two colonies was investigated. Five at-sea behaviours were identified: (1) resting on water, (2) flapping flight, (3) gliding flight, (4) foraging (i.e., surface foraging and diving events), and (5) taking-off. There were substantial intra- and inter- individual variations in activity patterns, with individuals spending on average 45.8% (range: 17.1-70.0%) of time at sea resting on water and 18.2% (range: 2.3-49.6%) foraging. Individuals made 76.4 ± 65.3 dives (range: 8-237) per foraging trip (mean duration 9.0 ± 1.9 s), with dives also recorded during night-time. With the continued miniaturisation of recording devices, the use of combined data-loggers could provide us with further insights into the foraging behaviour of small procellariiforms, helping to better understand interactions with their prey.

Dharma and grief: secularisation of a sacred emotion

The presentation begins with the moving scene of Va¯lmi¯ki's grief over the bereavement of the survivor of the two birds in amorous union as one of them is pierced by a hunter's arrow. After considering Abhinavagupta's doubt about the genuineness of Va¯lmi¯ki's grief, the paper moves to Maha¯bha¯rata as the women from the warring clans bear witness to the horrendous carnage ensuing from the battle, and the constant rebuke that Yudhisthira, head of the Pa¯ndava clan, faces from Draupadi¯ for wandering the earth without finding a stable foundation for Dharma or grounding it in firm absolutes. We liken Yudhisthira to Mahatma Gandhi facing the near-collapse of the Indian subcontinent as it was being rent apart with communal violence on the eve of its Independence. But we also compare Yudhisthira with Hamlet, the tragic grief-ridden character, who is equally bewildered and confused by the array of emotions and sensations that overwhelm his lingering body upon news of the death of and ghostly encounter with his murdered father. With this as the context, we take the occasion to explore recent thinking on the 'hard emotions', in particular, grief, sorrow and mourning, and link the challenging inner and social condition to the calling of Dharma (righteous law, normatively worthy action). Drawing from some comparative work (academic and personal) in the study of grief, mourning and empathy, we shall discuss the treatment of this tragic pathos in classical Indic literature and modern-day psychotherapy. We shall demonstrate, despite being secularised, these emotions continue to serve as the sites of imagination at a much more personal and inter-personal level that are not antithetical to a Dharmic (sacred) quest despite their haunting presence even when 'the four walls collapse around one in the intensity of duhkha (suffering, sorrow)' (Tagore).

Facebook content analysis: a study into Australian banks' social media community engagement

Understanding the motives that encourage users to adopt social media to communicate with businessesis very important. This research study was conducted with Australian banks and adds to the developmentof empirically tested social media adoption model consisting of technological and social communicationaspects (Senadheera, 2015). This chapter presents the findings of the research study based on analysisof wall posts gathered from Australian banks’ Facebook presence in the year 2013. The research studyinvolves a thematic analysis of frequently used words by Australian banks in their respective Facebookwall posts following an outcome of a word frequency test conducted using NVivo. This analysis wasconducted with the proposed adoption model as the basis to determine whether banks’ Facebook contentaddresses the basic user requirements driving them to adopt social media to communicate with Australianbanks. The results strengthens the robustness and the applicability of the social media adoption model.