An evolutionary approach to the delineation of functional areas based on travel-to-work flows

This paper presents a new approach to the delineation of local labor markets based on evolutionary computation. The aim of the exercise is the division of a given territory into functional regions based on travel-to-work flows. Such regions are defined so that a high degree of inter-regional separation and of intra-regional integration in both cases in terms of commuting flows is guaranteed. Additional requirements include the absence of overlap between delineated regions and the exhaustive coverage of the whole territory. The procedure is based on the maximization of a fitness function that measures aggregate intra-region interaction under constraints of inter-region separation and minimum size. In the experimentation stage, two variations of the fitness function are used, and the process is also applied as a final stage for the optimization of the results from one of the most successful existing methods, which are used by the British authorities for the delineation of travel-to-work areas (TTWAs). The empirical exercise is conducted using real data for a sufficiently large territory that is considered to be representative given the density and variety of travel-to-work patterns that it embraces. The paper includes the quantitative comparison with alternative traditional methods, the assessment of the performance of the set of operators which has been specifically designed to handle the regionalization problem and the evaluation of the convergence process. The robustness of the solutions, something crucial in a research and policy-making context, is also discussed in the paper.

An approach to verbal humor in interaction

I propose a method to study interactional ironic humorous utterances in Spanish. In GRIALE research group consider this method can be applied to humorous ironic utterances in different textual genres, from the violation of conversational principles. Futhermore, we present the General Theory of Verbal Humor proposed by Attardo that it will be taken in our analysis. Therefore, I study irony and humor in examples of conversations from Peninsular Spanish real sample corpuses (COVJA, Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales [Corpus of Colloquial Conversations] and CREA, Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Reference Corpus of Present-Day Spanish]). In this article, I will focus on the application of this theory to humorous ironic statements which arise in conversation and examine the effects caused by them, which will additionally verify if irony and humor coexist in the same conversational exchange with a communicative aim and conversational strategies.

Early al-Andalus: an Archaeological Approach to the Process of Islamization in the Iberian Peninsula (7th to 10th centuries)

This paper is part of the research project HAR2012–34035 (Lectura arqueológica del uso social del espacio. Espacios domésticos y vida social entre la Antigüedad y el Medievo, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).