Hotels are energy-intensive buildings; therefore, in this study, we investigate the indicators used for measuring the energy efficiency of one- to five-star hotels, in temperate and tropical regions of Asia, Europe, and Africa. There are several indicators for measuring energy intensity, but we found that the “total average annual energy use intensity index”, measured in kilowatt-hours per square meter per year (kWh/m2 year), was most often used. Surveys and energy audits are the methods used most often to collect the indicator data. Hotels in the tropics tend to consume more energy than those located in temperate zones, with four- and five-star hotels consuming the most energy.

Ocean hydrothermal activity is well known from deep-sea studies; however, few studies have been reported at shallow depth. A shallow submarine hydrothermal system at Punta Mita described in 2000 was studied to determine the grain size classification of the marine sediments of this hydrothermal system. Three sites with hydrothermal activity were included. Each one was divided into three areas: with hydrothermal activity, intermediate, and out of hydrothermal activity. In each area, two sediment cores were randomly collected by scuba diving (number of sediment cores = 18). All sediment samples were subjected to a previous treatment, to eliminate salts and organic matter. The grain sizes were sieved and then classified following the Udden–Wentworth scale. A principal coordinate analysis was performed to determine if there was any association of the statistical moments with the areas and sites of study. The textural composition of the sediments in the hydrothermal influence areas is sand, where the very fine sand is the dominant grain size, which was confirmed with the mean moment. The sediments are characteristic of the tidal areas, except for those sediments in the areas with hydrothermal activity.

Shallow submarine hydrothermal vent systems assume differentiated environmental conditions. Some specimens of Branchiostoma californiense were found in the sediments of the influence area of the shallow hydrothermal venting in Punta Mita. This is the only lancelet species registered for the Mexican Pacific. The meristic and morphometric characteristics of the organisms first collected in unconsolidated sediments of this shallow system were reviewed, in order to determine the species. We confirm that it is the same species. This represents the first record of it for both the Banderas bay and in the influence area of a shallow hydrothermal system.

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The Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera at UNAM, in Mexico, uses the Water Research and Forecasting model to provide weather forecasts to the country. In this study, we downloaded the mean temperature and precipitation forecasts of the first 24 h generated by the WRF model in the center of the country. Only the time series of our study region (Bahía de Banderas) was processed from this database, from June to October 2010, and these data were compared with the data recorded in six stations to evaluate the performance of the model at a local level. Data from 12 stations were used to construct the observed temperature and precipitation maps for spatial validation. The results show that the model performance was partially acceptable. The correlation coefficient for hourly temperatures was an average of r=0.84. Errors were less than 2 °C with a BIAS of ±1 °C. For the accumulated 24 h precipitation, however, the results were not satisfactory (r=0.26). The model predicted only 25.7% of the rainy days observed. In terms of spatial distribution, ~2.3 times more rain was observed than had been predicted by the model.