José M. Casado-Díaz

Rewards to Education in the Tourism Sector: One Step Ahead

The authors analyse private returns to education in the Spanish tourism sector – that is, the increase in salary associated with an additional year of study. Mincer-type functions are estimated, drawing on a large sample from the Spanish Survey on Working Conditions, which allows robust estimations. Unlike previous analyses, the existence of an ability bias is considered explicitly through the use of instrumental variables techniques. The results show that, contrary to previous estimates based on OLS, the estimated returns in the tourism sector are not significantly different from those of the Spanish economy as a whole. The authors also provide additional evidence on the heterogeneity that is apparent when the tourism sector workforce is disaggregated by age, sex and work experience.

Linking tourism, retirement migration and social capital

A general trend in the study of international retirement migration has been the increased attention paid to the social contacts and network connections of the migrants in both the destination and the origin areas. These studies have examined the extent to which migrants build social relationships with their neighbours and the host society while also maintaining social links with their countries of origin, addressing the central role that leisure travel plays in sustaining increasingly dispersed social networks and maintaining the social capital of these networks and of the individuals involved in them. Using a case study approach to examine British retirement migration to Spain, we explore the relevance of transnational social networks in the context of international retirement migration, particularly the intensity of bidirectional visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism flows and the migrants’ social contacts with friends and/or family back in their home country. Building on the concept of social capital and Putnams distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, we propose a framework for the analysis of the migrants’ international social networks. The results of a study conducted based on a sample of 365 British retirees living in the coast of Alicante (Spain) show both the strength of the retirees’ international bonding social capital and the role of ‘VFRs travel and communication technologies in sustaining the migrants’ transnational social practices and, ultimately, their international bonding social capital. It also provides evidence for the reinforcing links between tourism-related mobility and amenity-seeking migration in later life.

Grouping genetic operators for the delineation of functional areas based on spatial interaction

The delineation of functional economic areas, or market areas, is a problem of high practical relevance, since the delineation of functional sets such as economic areas in the US, Travel-to-Work Areas in the United Kingdom, and their counterparts in other OECD countries are the basis of many statistical operations and policy making decisions at local level. This is a combinatorial optimisation problem defined as the partition of a given set of indivisible spatial units (covering a territory) into regions characterised by being (a) self-contained and (b) cohesive, in terms of spatial interaction data (flows, relationships). Usually, each region must reach a minimum size and self-containment level, and must be continuous. Although these optimisation problems have been typically solved through greedy methods, a recent strand of the literature in this field has been concerned with the use of evolutionary algorithms with ad hoc operators. Although these algorithms have proved to be successful in improving the results of some of the more widely applied official procedures, they are so time consuming that cannot be applied directly to solve real-world problems. In this paper we propose a new set of group-based mutation operators, featuring general operations over disjoint groups, tailored to ensure that all the constraints are respected during the operation to improve efficiency. A comparative analysis of our results with those from previous approaches shows that the proposed algorithm systematically improves them in terms of both quality and processing time, something of crucial relevance since it allows dealing with most large, real-world problems in reasonable time.

Late life second move housing choices of international retiree migrants

Purpose – Many international retirement migrants are amenity movers undertaking the first move in the late life course model of migration. The purpose of this paper is to examine second moves within the retirement destination community to test whether the model of late life course migration accurately portrays the motivations and housing choices local movers make after retiring to another country.Design/methodology/approach – The paper combines secondary data and survey results to examine the composition of the retiree migrant population in the Alicante province of Spain. The socioeconomic characteristics and housing choices of those who have made a second move since retiring to Spain are compared with those who have not moved through a series of t‐tests and chi‐square tests.Findings – The paper finds that those who have made a second move within Spain are somewhat typical of second movers in the late life course. They are likely to cite mobility or health problems as a reason for moving and appear to rec...

A Memetic Algorithm for the Delineation of Local Labour Markets

Given a territory composed of basic geographical units, the delineation of local labour market areas (LLMAs) can be seen as a problem in which those units are grouped subject to multiple constraints. In previous research, standard genetic algorithms were not able to find valid solutions, and a specific evolutionary algorithm was developed. The inclusion of multiple ad hoc operators allowed the algorithm to find better solutions than those of a widely-used greedy method. However, the percentage of invalid solutions was still very high. In this paper we improve that evolutionary algorithm through the inclusion of (i) a reparation process, that allows every invalid individual to fulfil the constraints and contribute to the evolution, and (ii) a hillclimbing optimisation procedure for each generated individual by means of an appropriate reassignment of some of its constituent units. We compare the results of both techniques against the previous results and a greedy method.

Industry wage premia and collective bargaining revisited: evidence from Spain

This study examines the general influence of collective bargaining on inter-industry wage differentials drawing on an unique data set on industry minimum wages for Spain. Our novel evidence confirms the untested hypothesis that inter-industry wage premia are driven by industry minimum wages in corporatist countries with centralized collective bargaining systems, but suggests that a compressed inter-industry wage structure needs not to be a feature of such systems.

Specific crossover and mutation operators for a grouping problem based on interaction data in a regional science context

This paper proposes a set of specific crossover and mutation operators for the delineation of functional regions through evolutionary computation. We consider a problem of dividing a given territory into local labor market areas based on spatial interaction data. Such areas are defined so that a high degree of inter-regional separation and intra-regional integration - in both cases in terms of commuting flows - exist. A genetic algorithm has been designed based on the maximization of a fitness function that measures aggregate intra-region interaction under constraints of inter-region separation and minimum size. Additional requirements, typical of any functional regionalization, include the absence of overlapping between delineated regions and an exhaustive coverage of the whole territory (so all basic spatial units must be allocated to one and only one-region). The complex set of restrictions results in conventional operators often generating invalid solutions, impeding or delaying the evolutionary process. This is the reason why an extensive set of operators has been designed that incorporates knowledge about the problem, allowing the evolution of the set of solutions towards the final result.

Examining Retirement Housing Preferences Among International Retiree Migrants

Trabajo presentado al 7th Biennial International Conference on University, Industry & Government Linkages celebrado en Glasgow (UK) del 17 al 19 de Junio de 2009.Resumen del poster presentado al Workshop on Informetric and Scientometric Research (SIG/MET), celebrado en Copenague (Dinamarca) el 14 de octubre de 2016.Trabajo presentado en el IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, celebrado en Sydney (Australia), del 10 al 17 de noviembre de 2018We are indebted to Aeropuerto de Castellon for supporting and funding the project on the ecology of Montagu’s Harrier in Castellon. Special thanks are due to Servicio de Biodiversidad from Conselleria de Medio Ambiente, Agua, Urbanismo y Vivienda (Generalitat Valenciana) for permissions to carry out the present study.Las senales mediadas por los Receptores Nucleares de Hormonas desempenan un importante papel en el control de la diferenciacion celular. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los mecanismos moleculares a traves de los cuales se ejerce este control. Como sistema experimental utilizamos celulas de neuroblastoma humano SH-SY5Y, cuya diferenciacion se induce mediante tratamiento con acido retinoico (RA) que produce la parada en el crecimiento y desencadena la diferenciacion celular. Estudiar el mecanismo molecular a traves del cual, actua el RA, tambien resulta interesante desde un punto de vista biomedico, puesto que los retinoides y sus derivados sinteticos son utilizados en la terapia de neuroblastoma y tambien de otros tipos de cancer. Mediante Display Diferencial Ordenado hemos identificando 43 genes regulados (positiva o negativamente) por RA en celulas SH-SY5Y, entre los que se incluyen factores de transcripcion y proteinas relacionadas con el ciclo celular, la transduccion de senales y las funciones neuronales. Entre los genes regulados negativamente por RA se encuentra ID3, un factor de transcripcion de la familia de los HLH, los cuales desempenan un papel crucial en la diferenciacion celular. ID3 actua inhibiendo la union al DNA de ciertos factores de la familia HLH. ID3 bloquea la diferenciacion interfiriendo con la actividad de factores HLH neurogenicos. Cuando la expresion de ID3 se reduce por efecto de RA, se activa la cascada de bHLH proneurales, desencadenando la diferenciacion celular. La expresion de otros genes bHLH cambio durante la diferenciacion inducida por RA: la expresion del gen especifico de neuroblastos en proliferacion ASCL1 (HASH-1) disminuyo rapidamente tras 6 h de tratamiento con RA, mientras que la expresion de genes promotores de la diferenciacion aumento como es el caso de NEUROD6 y NEUROD1. Los niveles de otros miembros de la familia de los IDs (ID1, ID2) estan regulados tambien negativamente durante la diferenciacion inducida por RA en celulas SH-SY5Y. Mediante Western Blot estudiamos los niveles de proteinas ID1, ID2 e ID3 en celulas SH-SY5Y tratadas a diferentes tiempos con RA. Los niveles de proteinas disminuyen de manera notoria tras 24 h de tratamiento con RA, en paralelo a lo observado a nivel de ARN mensajero. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el RA produce una regulacion negativa coordinada de los genes IDs. El tratamiento con otros inductores de la diferenciacion como es el caso del TPA, tambien dio lugar a una regulacion negativa y coordinada de los genes IDs. Esto resalta la importancia de estos genes en los procesos de diferenciacion celular. Ademas hemos visto que la regulacion negativa y coordinada de los genes IDs por tratamiento con RA es un mecanismo complejo que implica sintesis de nuevas proteinas y actividad fosfatidil-inositol-3-kinasa (PI3K). El tratamiento con RA activa la via de senalizacion intracelular de la PI3K/AKT, resultando en un incremento en la actividad PI3K de extractos de celulas tratadas con RA y un rapido incremento en la fosforilacion de la proteina diana AKT en Serina 473. La activacion de la via PI3K/AKT es necesaria para la diferenciacion celular, y probablemente tiene una gran relevancia a nivel fisiologico, puesto que acopla procesos vitales como son la diferenciacion y la supervivencia celular. Aunque el mecanismo molecular por el cual el RA activa la via PI3K/AKT no esta todavia definido, los resultados obtenidos indican que, probablemente, podria tratarse de una accion extragenomica del RAR, entre otras razones por la rapidez con la que se produce. Hemos tratado de caracterizar el mecanismo por el cual el RA activa la via PI3K/AKT. En principio partimos de la hipotesis de que el RA pudiera inducir la expresion de una tirosina-kinasa que fuera capaz de activar la PI3K. Hemos encontrado un buen candidato para esta actividad: RET, el receptor de la familia de neurotrofinas del GDNF, es inducido directa- y fuertemente por RA. En las celulas SH-SY5Y se expresa uno de los co-receptores que actua junto a RET, el GFRA2, pero no hemos logrado detectar la expresion de ninguno de los ligandos de la familia del GDNF, que pudiera activar RET actuando de un modo autocrino/paracrino. Por otro lado, no hemos podido observar fosforilacion de RET en residuos tirosina, lo que probaria su activacion. Estos resultados apoyan la hipotesis que planteamos en la cual el RA desempenaria una accion de tipo no genomica. Los resultados obtenidos, nos llevan a postular, que el RA desempena un papel muy importante en la regulacion de la supervivencia de las celulas neurales. La regulacion positiva del gen anti-apoptotico BCL2 durante la diferenciacion inducida por RA en celulas de neuroblastoma es un hecho conocido desde hace tiempo, y la diferenciacion incrementa la resistencia a la apoptosis inducida por drogas. Tambien se han descrito efectos del RA sobre la supervivencia celular en cultivos primarios de neuroblastos de medula espinal y en neuronas derivadas de celulas madre neurales. Los resultados presentados aqui proporcionan un mecanismo molecular para explicar estos efectos. Ademas, pensamos que el fenomeno aqui descrito en celulas de neuroblastoma pudiera ser relevante en la diferenciacion neural en general. La coordinacion de las acciones genomicas y extragenomicas del RA da lugar al acoplamiento entre la diferenciacion y la supervivencia celular. Por una parte el RA regula la transcripcion de genes especificos implicados en diferenciacion celular. Por otra parte, a traves de una accion extragenomica, el RA activa la via de PI3K/AKT, que esta implicada en la supervivencia celular. Los dos tipos de acciones no se producen de un modo independiente, sino que estan entrelazados. La activacion extragenomica de la via PI3K/AKT tambien esta implicada en la regulacion transcripcional de genes decisivos para la diferenciacion, como hemos demostrado en el caso de la regulacion negativa coordinada de los genes IDs. Reciprocamente, el RA puede contribuir a la supervivencia celular a traves de la regulacion transcripcional positiva de receptores de neurotrofinas, como RET y de trkB. Este acoplamiento entre diferenciacion y supervivencia es un fenomeno novedoso.Trabajo presentado al X Congreso mundial de la calidad del azulejo y del paviemnto ceramico (Qualicetr) celebrado en Castellon (Espana) del 10 al 13 de Febrero de 2008.Poster presentado a las XVII Jornadas Nacionales de Documentacion Clinica y Admision, celebradas en Sevilla del 9 al 11 de junio de 2016.Aphids maintain an obligate, endosymbiotic association with Buchnera sp., a bacterium closely related to Escherichia coli. Bacteria are housed in specialized cells of organ-like structures called bacteriomes in the hemocoel of the aphid and are maternally transmitted. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the association had a single origin, dated about 200-250 million years ago, and that host and endosymbiont lineages have evolved in parallel since then. However, the pattern of deepest branching within the aphid family remains unsolved, which thereby hampers tin appraisal of, for example, the role played by horizontal gene transfer in the early evolution of Buchnera. The main role of Buchnera in this association is the biosynthesis and provisioning of essential amino acids to its aphid host. Physiological and metabolic studies have recently substantiated such nutritional role. In addition, genetic studies of Buchnera from several aphids have shown additional modifications, such as strong genome reduction, high A+T content compared to free-living bacteria, differential evolutionary rates, a relative increase in the number of non-synonymous substitutions, and gene amplification mediated by plasmids. Symbiosis is an active process in insect evolution cis revealed by the intermediate values of the previous characteristics showed by secondary symbionts compared to free-living bacteria and Buchnera.The authors acknowledge partial support from the Spanish MINECO through projects AYA2013- 48623-C2-2, AYA2007-68058-C03-01, AYA2010-21766-C03-02, AYA2012-30789 and the Consolider-Ingenio projects CSD2010-00064 (EPI: Exploring the Physics of Inflation) and CSD2009-00064 (MultiDark), and from the Generalitat Valenciana through grants PROMETEOII/2014/060 and PROMETEOII/2014/084. RAL acknowledges the Spanish grant FPA2014-58183-P. CHM acknowledges the support of the Ramon y Cajal fellowship RyC 2011 148062 awarded by the Spanish MICINN and the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant CIG 294183.Comunicacion presentada en las CephsInAction MC & WGs meetings, celebradas en Lisboa, Portugal, del 25 al 27 de noviembre de 2015Poster original presentado XXIX Congreso de la Sociedad Espanola de Bioquimica y Biologia Molecular ( SEBBM), celebrado Elche (Alicante), 7-10 de septiembre, 2006In this contribution, we present the basic aspects of the Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey, and the possible synergies that will be generated with the arrival of the Square Kilometer Array.Trabajo presentado en el 10th Iberian and 7th Iberoamerican Congress on Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (CICTA), celebrado en Vila Real, Portugal, del 14 al 17 de julio de 201530th New European Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (ESCPB) Congress, Unraveling complexity: from molecules to ecosystems, 4-7 September 2016, Barcelona.-- 1 pagePublicacion financiada por Conselleria de Agricultura, Medio Ambiente, Cambio Climatico y Desarrollo Rural (Direccion General de Prevencion de Incendios Forestales) mediante el proyecto: “Elaboracion del catalogo de suelos forestales en el ambito de la prevencion de incendios y gestion forestal de la Comunitat Valenciana” 2017.Trabajo presentado en el 15th International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding (ISFNF 2012), celebrado en Molde (Noruega), del 4 al 7 de junio de 2012Poster presentado en el 10th International Symposium on Reproductive Physiology of Fish, celebrado en Olhao, Portugal, del 25 al 30 de mayo de 2014Trabajo presentado en la European Geosciences Union General Assembly, celebrada en Viena (Austria), del 17 al 22 de abril de 2016Trabajo presentado en TERRAenVISION Environmental Issues Today: Scientific Solutions for Societal Issues, celebrado en Barcelona (Espana) del 27 de enero al 2 de febrero de 2018Trabajo presentado en la European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), celebrada en Viena (Austria), del 7 al 12 de abril de 2019Resumen del trabajo presentado al VII Congreso Red Espanola Canales Ionicos, celebrado en Caceres del 15 al 17 de mayo de 2019.Comunicacion presentada en el 10th International Symposium on Reproductive Physiology of Fish, celebrado en Olhao, Portugal, del 25 al 30 de mayo de 2014Comunicacion presentada en el 9th International Symposium on Fish Parasites, celebrado en Valencia, Espana, del 31 de agosto al 4 de septiembre de 2015La presencia de compuestos farmacéuticos en los ecosistemas acuáticos costeros ha ido en aumento en las últimas décadas y, aunque sus concentraciones rara vez superen los ng/l, son biológicamente muy activos y se desconocen los efectos que podrían ocasionar en los organismos que habitan dichas áreas. La simvastatina (SV) forma parte de ese amplio grupo de compuestos cuya presencia podría suponer un problema ambiental. Este estudio tiene como objetivo identificar posibles daños musculares a través de la determinación de marcadores enzimáticos, en juveniles de Solea senegalensis, tras una exposición aguda a SV mediante inyección intraperitoneal (IP; 10 mg/kg). Las muestras de tejido muscular fueron recogidas tras 20, 26 y 44 horas de exposición a SV. Se han determinado los niveles de diferentes transaminasas (gamma-glutamil transferasa (γ − GT) y aspartato aminotransferasa (GOT)), al igual que los niveles de lactato deshidrogenasa (LHD) como indicadores de daño muscular.Trabajo presentado en el VII International Symposium on Marine Sciences (ISMS), celebrado del 1 al 3 de julio de 2020, en Barcelona (Espana)The work conducted in LGC’s lab has been supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (AGL2005-1443, AGL2008-1443 and AGL2011-01727) and from the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2010/010)Comunicacion presentada en la 27th Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists, celebrada en Rennes, Francia, del 25 al 29 de agosto de 2014The geography of knowledge flows has shown that the probability of a patent applicant rather than the examiner originating a citation depends on differences between citing and cited countries. How the characteristics of the citing country affect that probability has received less attention. Using European Patent Office (EPO) data of over 3,500,000 citations (1997-2007), we find that the probability of applicant citation is higher as national economic and scientific strengths increase, if applicants and examiners come from the same country and if the country belongs to EPO. This ‘country club’ effect is comparable to that found for US Patent and Trademark Office.

An evolutionary approach to the delimitation of labour market areas: an empirical application for Chile

ABSTRACT An evolutionary approach to the delimitation of labour market areas: an empirical application for Chile. Spatial Economic Analysis. Labour market areas (LMAs) are argued to represent a more appropriate policy framework than administrative units for the analysis of spatial labour market activity. This article develops LMAs for Chile by applying an evolutionary computation approach. This innovative approach defines LMAs through an optimization process by maximization of internal cohesion, subject to restrictions of minimum levels of self-containment and population. To evaluate the appropriateness of the LMAs, comparative analyses are performed between alternative delimitations based on different parameter configurations of the proposed method versus administrative boundaries and the most widely used method for official LMA delimitation, the travel-to-work areas method.

Inside the metropolis: the articulation of Spanish metropolitan areas into local labor markets

In this article, we delimit local labor markets (LLMs) in order to analyze the internal structure and organization of Spanish metropolitan areas. LLMs are defined as self-contained and cohesive areas in terms of commuting flows. Unlike the conventional approach to polycentrism based on the analysis of commuting flows that begins with the identification of subcenters, our analytical strategy does assume any a priori structure and is compatible with the relationship between places of work and residence having other locational and spatial organization patterns. The analysis is performed at three different scales of detail linked to three self-containment levels for the LLMs delimited and three population groups (total, males, and females). The results show that metropolitan areas are complex, fuzzy, multidimensional spaces, where the conditions of spatial organization are manifested in different ways depending on the parameters and variables used.