University of San Carlos of Guatemala

Under the current global biodiversity crisis, there is a need for automated and noninvasive monitoring techniques that can gather large amounts of data cost-effectively at various ecological scales, from local to large spatial scales. These data can then be analyzed to inform stakeholders and decision-makers. One such technique is passive acoustic monitoring, which is commonly coupled with automatic identification of animal species based on their sound. Automated sound analyses usually require the training of sound detection and identification algorithms. These algorithms are based on annotated acoustic datasets which mark the occurrence of sounds of species inside sound recordings. However, compiling large annotated acoustic datasets is time-consuming and requires experts, and therefore, they normally cover reduced spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. This data paper presents WABAD, the World Annotated Bird Acoustic Dataset for passive acoustic monitoring. WABAD is designed to provide the public, the research community, and conservation managers with a novel and globally representative annotated acoustic dataset. This database includes 5047 min of audio files annotated to species-level by local experts with the start and end time and the upper and lower frequencies of each identified bird vocalization in the recordings. The database has a wide taxonomic and spatial coverage, including information on 91,931 vocalizations from 1192 bird species recorded at 72 recording sites in 29 recording locations (mainly countries) and distributed across 13 biomes. WABAD can be used, for example, for developing and/or validating automatic species detection algorithms, answering ecological questions, such as assessing geographical variations on bird vocalizations, or comparing acoustic diversity indices with species-based diversity indices. The dataset is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license that permits redistribution and reuse on the condition that the original work is properly credited.

Kinematic coupling models inverted from geodetic data are widely used to evaluate how slip deficit is distributed along subduction megathrusts during the interseismic period, and are central to earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment. Yet, existing coupling models differ widely in methodology and inputs, lack common community standards, and are scattered across publications and repositories. Here, we introduce the "Coupling Cloud" (https://couplingcloud.ucsd.edu), an open, extensible, community-driven platform that curates, standardizes, documents, and disseminates more than 96 kinematic coupling models from 55 publications across 21 subduction margins. The platform provides interactive 2D and 3D plate-interface viewers to inspect coupling models together with associated information such as slab geometry, uncertainty estimates and metadata. All datasets can be downloaded directly in standardized formats: surface-projected coupling values as NetCDF, plate-interface dislocation geometries as VTU, and model metadata as YAML files. We demonstrate the advantages of centralized and standardized coupling data through a Cascadia subduction zone example, where synthesizing eight full-margin models reveals along-strike patterns that are not apparent when models are examined individually. Consolidating coupling models within a coherent, version-controlled framework enables systematic cross-margin comparison and FAIR-compliant data sharing, opening the door to more comprehensive assessment of megathrust mechanics.

Oil palm plantations in Guatemala’s northern lowlands have been expanding rapidly over the past two decades, driven by large-scale conversion of tropical forests and croplands. This extensive land use change to oil palm has placed enormous pressure on the region’s freshwater ecosystems. The extent to which various land uses impact the quality of tropical stream water remains poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different land uses on aquatic macroinvertebrates and stream water quality in the northern lowlands of Guatemala. We assessed 19 sampling sites, including at least four replicated headwater streams for each of the four dominant land uses: tropical forest, cropland, pastureland, and oil palm plantation. In each stream, we measured and analyzed physicochemical water quality parameters in both rainy and dry seasons and sampled benthic macroinvertebrates during the dry season. Subsequently, we used the resulting data to calculate two water quality indices and assess the ecological status of the sampling sites: the Water Quality Index (WQIsimp), based on physicochemical parameters, and the Biological Monitoring Working Party for Costa Rica (BMWP-CR), based on the aquatic macroinvertebrate community. Water quality scores differed among sampling sites, with sites draining forested catchments exhibiting the highest scores and those draining pastureland and oil palm plantations exhibiting the lowest. In contrast, the WQIsimp results did not differ significantly among land uses and were largely influenced by seasonal variations. Overall, water quality scores declined as the proportion of tropical forest within the watershed decreased. Oil palm plantation sites were characterized by the lowest benthic macroinvertebrates species richness and diversity, alongside higher abundance of contamination-tolerant families. These findings reveal significant negative impacts of oil palm plantations on water quality and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities, particularly when compared with forested areas and basic grains croplands. Therefore, safeguarding primary forests and basic grains cropland from further conversion to oil palm is crucial to preserving biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem functions and services, and securing food provision.

We present measurements of the cool molecular gas mass around the nuclei of two gas-rich mergers, III Zw 035 and IRAS F01364−1042, whose enclosed masses ( M _enc ) within the central 40–80 pc would be overmassive if attributed entirely to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and compared to SMBH–galaxy scaling relations. Our gas mass measurements are derived from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 6 long-baseline observations of CO( J = 2–1) and 230 GHz continuum emission at 14–20 pc resolution, which probes below the resolving limit of the previous black hole mass measurements. Subtracting molecular gas mass from these enclosed masses is not enough to reconcile with black hole–galaxy relationships, but independently measuring M _enc using the cold CO(2–1) gas does shift the black holes down to their expected values. Still, these ALMA data reveal respective molecular gas masses of ∼3 × 10 ^7 to ∼6 × 10 ^8 M _⊙ within 70 pc of these black holes, which could challenge some black hole accretion models that assume nuclear gas like this has no angular momentum.

OBJETIVO: analizar las percepciones de aprendizaje de estudiantes de quinto grado de electricidad sobre la implementación del método de lúmenes como recurso didáctico en la enseñanza de la iluminación eléctrica. MÉTODO: se realizó un estudio con enfoque cuantitativo, alcance descriptivo y diseño transversal mediante la aplicación de una encuesta tipo Likert de 15 ítems a 17 estudiantes de quinto grado de electricidad. La escala de valoración comprendió cinco niveles (1=totalmente en desacuerdo a 5=totalmente de acuerdo). Se calcularon medias, desviaciones estándar y distribuciones de frecuencia para cada variable de percepción. RESULTADOS: los estudiantes mostraron percepciones altamente positivas en motivación e interés (M= 4.71, DE=0.47), recomendación del método (M= 4.59, DE= 0.62) y motivación para aprender más (M= 4.53, DE= 0.62). La comprensión de temas (M= 4.00, DE= 0.61) y conexión teoría-práctica (M= 4.00, DE= 0.61) obtuvieron valoraciones favorables. Las variables de aplicación práctica mostraron percepciones moderadas, destacando la capacidad de crear proyectos (M= 3.12, DE= 1.50) y explicar conceptos de iluminancia (M= 3.18, DE= 1.07). El alfa de Cronbach fue de 0.869, lo que es un valor bueno para la consistencia interna. CONCLUSIÓN: el método de lúmenes genera percepciones positivas en dimensiones motivacionales y de comprensión conceptual, aunque requiere fortalecimiento en competencias de aplicación práctica y transferencia de conocimientos.