Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5 GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the $\gamma p$ centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4 GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Sustainable tourism: Whale watching footprint in the Bah�a de Banderas, M�xico

The discussion about nonsustainable ecological systems is in vogue. The debate has led to the biophysical analysis of "human-nature" relationships. This analysis is an important way to determine human impacts on the Earth, based on the colonization of nature and social activities that consider matter and energy flows through appropriation, transformation, distribution, consumption, and excretion. Tourism has appropriated and characterized various types of ecosystems that represent the use of a finite set of spatially distributed resources. The observation of marine mammals, such as whales, in natural protected areas attracts many tourists each year, and this activity indirectly generates carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. This carbon emission, which is accompanied by the increased scale of tourism, may hamper global conservation goals. We describe the use of the Ecological Footprint tool as a sustainability indicator of humpback whale-watching activity in Bah�a de Banderas, Marietas Islands National Park, in Nayarit, M�xico, to examine the global impact of this tourist activity on ecosystems. Calculations are based on the Ecological Footprint method using the consumption/productivity ratio - converting costs of goods and services into consumption of resource inputs and then translating these to surface units. The findings show that the mean whale-watching footprint in the study area is 46.85 ha. This figure is low when compared to other estimated footprints of ecotourism activities in the world. The discussion examines how the results of this type of analysis can be used to improve tourism planning with a view to promoting sustainability. � Coastal Education & Research Foundation 2013

Holiday in the sun: The impacts of tourism on Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Tourism is a major economic activity with significant social, political and environmental repercussions that influence people and places in virtually every corner of the contemporary world. This study focuses on tourism development in Puerto Vallarta (PV), Jalisco, Mexico. The region has been almost completely transformed by this industry in a relatively short period of time, since the development of the first major hotel in 1948. The paper begins by discussing the development of Puerto Vallarta as a place, as a coastal tourist resort, and also as a set of quite different cultural landscapes. Building on this we specifically identity, describe and discuss some of the major cultural imprints of tourism, including hotels, restaurants, the gay community, art galleries and internet cafes, as well as ecological imprints of tourism (using ecological footprint analysis) upon PV. The conclusions provide a commentary on the potential for, and challenges of, tourism development in Puerto Vallarta as a place that is likely to face serious questions regarding sustainability as the new millennium unfolds

Holiday in the sun: The impacts of tourism on Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Tourism is a major economic activity with significant social, political and environmental repercussions that influence people and places in virtually every corner of the contemporary world. This study focuses on tourism development in Puerto Vallarta (PV), Jalisco, Mexico. The region has been almost completely transformed by this industry in a relatively short period of time, since the development of the first major hotel in 1948. The paper begins by discussing the development of Puerto Vallarta as a place, as a coastal tourist resort, and also as a set of quite different cultural landscapes. Building on this we specifically identity, describe and discuss some of the major cultural imprints of tourism, including hotels, restaurants, the gay community, art galleries and internet cafes, as well as ecological imprints of tourism (using ecological footprint analysis) upon PV. The conclusions provide a commentary on the potential for, and challenges of, tourism development in Puerto Vallarta as a place that is likely to face serious questions regarding sustainability as the new millennium unfolds