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Este estudio presenta el primer registro de Myocastor coypus en el estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, además de señalar su distribución al sur de América del Sur, destacando dónde se considera nativo y exótico en Brasil. El 23 de abril de 2018, aproximadamente a las 6:00 pm, se registró, con un LC (longitud corporal) de 40 cm, un espécimen adulto atropellado en un camino lateral cerca de humedales y una represa, en un área rural en el municipio de Bataguassu, al este del estado de Mato Grosso do Sul. No es posible determinar el origen de M. coypus reportado en el presente estudio; tampoco es posible establecer si fue introducido o dispersado de forma natural por las zonas pantanosas del río Paraná, ya que la especie tiene registros en la frontera de los estados de Mato Grosso do Sul y Paraná.

Granular flows are a complex process, involving a wide range of grain sizes, materials, varied viscous fluids, among others. For this reason, the simulation of granular flows requires a certain level of simplification, allowing the isolated study of its governing variables and extending the global observations to field events. Here, we present the planar setup as an alternative for studying simplified processes associated to granular flows. The planar setup consists of two windows separated by a thin gap and enclosing a granular assembly. We present two examples where the planar setup is adapted for the study of the competing action of segregation and disaggregation in a fractured grain under shear flow, and for the study of the stability scenarios of a flow impacting a permeable obstacle. The close visualization of the kinematics at the particle scale provides an ideal opportunity for describing the mechanisms behind the grain disaggregation or controlling the obstacle stability. Both examples highlight the advantages of the planar setup for the study of granular flows.

Geophysical mass flows involve particles of different sizes, a property termed polydispersity. The granular column collapse is a simplified experiment for studying transitional granular flows. Our research focuses on the role that polydispersity has on the velocity and runout distance of dry and immersed granular columns, undergoing a numerical and experimental study. Our results highlight that polydispersity does not have a strong effect on the collapse of dry columns. On the contrary, the collapse sequence of immerse granular columns strongly depend on the polydispersity level.

This study explores the changing dynamics of tourism in Antarctica, focusing on the impact of digitalisation and User-Generated Content on platforms like Tripadvisor. It aims to understand how online reviews influence perceptions and decisions to visit Antarctica, a region known for its pristine environment and status as 'the last frontier'. Utilising Environmental Perception and Behaviour Geography (EPBG) principles, this research conducts a quantitative analysis of reviews from potential and current travellers. Through text mining, topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), it investigates the emotional and perceptual discourse surrounding Antarctic tourism and its alignment with Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals. The findings reveal a detailed narrative of sustainability challenges and the emotional geography related to tourism in Antarctica, highlighting emotions such as happiness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness among visitors. This study uncovers differences in perception based on visitors' backgrounds, noting that individuals from nature-focused cities display strong environmental concerns, whereas those from advanced urban centres show a more positive attitude. This research contributes to the understanding of EPBG, text mining, and NLP, offering insights into sustainable tourism practices in Antarctica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caimans of the species Caiman latirostris, which are widely distributed in South America, are opportunistic predators. They show ontogenetic variation in diet, with young individuals initially feeding on invertebrates and then gradually adding vertebrates in their diets as they grow up. However, due to inexperience, young individuals may end up eating dangerous prey, such as poisonous amphibians. The intoxication caused by eating an individual of Rhinella diptycha may produce local irritation to the caiman, and even lead it to death shortly after ingestion. To avoid this threat, some animals use particular feeding strategies, such as starting to eat the prey’s posterior part, or eating only its viscera. In this note, we report the first case of a predation event of an adult individual of the poisonous toad R. diptycha by a young individual of C. latirostris that we observed in a pond of the Southeast of Brazil. The caiman waited until the toad was dead before starting swallowing slowly, from the anterior part of the body. We did not observe any sign that the caiman was affected by the prey ingestion, even some hours later after ingestion. Our register suggests that the caiman may be tolerant or adapted to eat this poisonous prey and encourage research on the causes and mechanisms of this tolerance.

Corn (Zea mays) biomass accumulation and nutrient uptake by the six-leaf collar (V6) growth stage are low, and therefore, synchronizing nutrient supply with crop demand could potentially minimize nutrient loss and improve nutrient use efficiency. Knowledge of corn's response to nutrient stress in the early growth stages could inform such nutrient management. Field studies were conducted to assess corn recovery from when no fertilizer application is made until the V6 growth stage, and thereafter, applying fertilizer rates as those in non-stressed conditions. The early season nutrient stress and nonstress conditions received the same amount of nutrients. As the availability of nutrients for plant uptake is largely dependent on soil moisture, corn recovery from the early season nutrient stress was assessed under different soil moisture regimes induced via irrigation scheduling at 50% and 80% field capacity under overhead and subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI) systems. Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) was the previous crop under all conditions, and the fields were under cereal rye (Secale cereale) cover crop prior to planting corn. At the V6 growth stage, the nutrient concentrations of the early season-stressed crops, except for copper, were above the minimum threshold of sufficiency ranges reported for corn. However, the crops showed poor growth, with biomass accumulation being reduced by over 50% compared to non-stressed crops. Also, the uptake of all nutrients was significantly lower under the early season nutrient stress conditions. The recovery of corn from the early season nutrient stress was low. Compared to non-stress conditions, the early season nutrient stress caused 1.58 Mg ha-1 to 3.4 Mg ha-1 yield reduction. The percent yield reduction under the SSDI system was 37.6-38.2% and that under the overhead irrigation system was 11.7-13%. The high yield reduction from the early season nutrient stress under the SSDI system was because of water stress conditions in the topsoil soil layer. The findings of the study suggest ample nutrient supply in the early season growth stage is critical for corn production, and thus, further studies are recommended to determine the optimum nutrient supply for corn at the initial growth stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly weathered soils have low native fertility; thus, optimum nutrient management is critical, especially for a high‐input crop such as corn (Zea mays). Field studies were established in Plains and Tifton, GA, to assess secondary nutrient (SN; Mg, Ca, and S) and micronutrient (MN; B, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Mo) application effects on corn fertilized with primary nutrients (PN; N, P, and K) to achieve 12.5 Mg ha−1 (low) and 25.1 Mg ha−1 (high) yields. Both Plains and Tifton have Ultisol soil. However, the Tifton soil has a 30‐cm top sandy layer, and the Plains soil has no top sandy layer. Differences in corn nutrient concentrations were observed at the V5–V7 stage but not in biomass accumulation. The 12.5 Mg ha−1 target grain yield from applying the low PN was exceeded at both locations (by 19.0%–26.6% in Plains and 6.3%–19.7% in Tifton), irrespective of the SN or MN application. However, the 25.1 Mg ha−1 target grain yield from applying the high PN rate was not achieved, with yields of 16.9–17.7 Mg ha−1 in Plains and 15.7–17.1 Mg ha−1 in Tifton obtained. The SN and/or MN application increased corn yield (by 2.3%–13.6%) across all conditions, but the differences were statistically significant under just the low PN rate in Tifton. Overall, the results showed that SN and MN could be yield‐limiting factors of corn in the Ultisol soils tested in the study, and also 12.5 Mg ha−1 corn yield can be achieved with lower PN rates than currently recommended. Core Ideas: Differences in nutrient concentrations were observed at the V5–V7 stage, but they did not affect corn biomass.Corn yield increased by 2.3%–13.6% from secondary (SN) and/or micronutrient (MN) applications.The yield goal of 12.5 Mg ha−1 from applying the recommended primary nutrients (PNs) was exceeded by 6.3%–26.6%.The yield goal of 25 Mg ha−1 from applying the PNs was not achieved, regardless of SN or MN applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been conducted specifically on emotional intelligence (EI) and perceived quality of service in the hospitality industry. The main goal of this research consists of providing empirical evidence related to EI regarding its importance in quality of hospitality service (QHS). To do so, a hypothetical and conceptual model was tested by Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques based on a sample of 408 employees in the hospitality sector in the region of Murcia (Spain). The findings of this work reveal the incidence that EI has on the QHS of human capital, despite a scenario that is characterized by a high rate of talent shortage worldwide and an increasing digitalization that could reduce human interaction. Also, implications are given so that EI could be more deeply analyzed for EI strategy-building within organizational behavior and human resource management areas from a practical approach, increasing engagement and preventing the so-called quality service sabotage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Secure Integration of the IoT and Digital Twins. Digital twins are a powerful consequence of digital transformation. In fact, they have been applied to many industries to enhance operations, predict needs, improve decision making, or optimize performance, even though the definition of digital twins is still evolving. However, their impact on the software industry is still limited. Thus, this work aims to analyze the current adoption of digital twins in the software industry as a potential path to integrate them into application lifecycle management. To achieve this objective, first, the significant characteristics of current digital twins are analyzed in their application to manufacturing to understand how the knowledge and the lessons learned can be transferred to the software industry. Second, a systematic literature review was conducted on Scopus, the Web of Science, and the ScienceDirect database. The literature review revealed 93 documents after data screening and cleaning 251 initial documents. Our main findings are that digital twins are already influencing and will significantly affect the software industry, revolutionizing various aspects of the software development lifecycle. This study tackles what identifies a digital twin in the software industry, the specific domains and areas where they can be applied in the software lifecycle, and the proposed approaches explored to build digital twins for developing, deploying, and maintaining software systems. Finally, this study proposes some guidelines for building digital twins in the context of application lifecycle management. Determining an appropriate roadmap shortly is essential to achieve a widespread applicability to building suitable digital twins and preparing organizations for the software industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that, if A is an algebra (over a field of characteristic zero) with no nonzero joint divisor of zero and containing a nonzero central idempotent, and if A satisfies the identities (x p , x q , x r) = 0 and (x p ′ , x q ′ , x r ′) = 0 with exponents p , q , r , p ′ , q ′ , r ′ belonging to {1, 2} such that p ≠ r , (p ′ , q ′ , r ′) ≠ (p , q , r) and (p ′ , q ′ , r ′) ≠ (3 − r , 3 − q , 3 − p) , then A is a unital power-associative algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although predatory events are uncommon to be recorded in nature, these data are important tools for understanding prey-predator interaction of the involved species. Snakes of genus Thamnodynastes are known for having an anuran diet, including some species of hylid frogs in their diet. Despite this, this pattern does not include T. chaquensis since there are no records on predation or trophic interaction with hylid frogs.Here, we report the first predatory interaction between T. chaquensis and two hylid frogs in Brazilian Cerrado. The first predation event with treefrog Boana caiapo occurred with success but, the second with B. albopunctatadid not. Connecting trophic links within an ecosystem requires in-depth knowledge of its species and their intraspecific interactions. In this context, records of the predation and predation attempts such as these may help to connect unknown trophic links, which helps to understand aspects of the natural history of the species involved.