Courtship plasticity reveals the evolution of dialects in allopatric fish populations

Traditionally, reproductive isolation between disjoint populations has been thought to emerge as a result of the accumulation of different mutations, genetic drift, or through the effects of natural and sexual selection^1^. Alternatively, the ability of an organism to express different phenotypes depending on the environment (i.e. phenotypic plasticity) could produce reproductive isolation^2,3^. Sexually selected traits are expected to be phenotypically plastic and can result in modifications of the species recognition system and thus originate new species^4^. Here we show that the population-characteristic male courtship behaviour of a fish (Girardinichthys multiradiatus) is modified in the presence of females from other populations, that this is due to the males responding to subtle cues from females, and that they fail to emulate the female's population-characteristic behaviour. We conclude that plasticity has led to the creation of local dialects in the courtship pattern that hampers communication between heterogametic individuals and promotes pre-mating isolation

Attitudes of residents towards tourism. The case of Benalmadena, Spain

Tourism is consumed in the place of production causing a series of impacts. These effects caused by tourism can be perceived positively or negatively by residents. The objective of this study is to analyze the attitude of the residents from the impacts of tourism in the town of Benalmádena, Spanish town that is located within the Costa del Sol. We used a quantitative methodology and we have carried out an extensive survey of 770 residents. Information has been collected through questionnaires and there have been exploratory and ANOVA analysis. The results are: the economic benefits are the most important elements sought and valued by the local population. However, they also recognize the negative effects of this dimension, in the same way as with the socio-cultural and environmental impacts.This study is to analyze the attitude of the residents from the impacts of tourism in the town of Benalmádena, Spanish. This is a mature destination framed in a pattern of sun and beach in 2012 has a total of 10,885 hotel places. Benalmádena tourism has a significant oscillation throughout the year, peaking in the months of July to September and the minimum between December and February.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Effect of Chicanx Studies in High School Graduation Rates

Chicanx students have a relatively lower high school graduation rate in the United States than other ethnic groups. This study assesses Arizona’s civic curriculum to determine the inclusivity of Latinx social movements that have influenced high school graduation rates. Additionally, Arizona has had ethnic studies within the Tucson school district for various years, since the 1990s. The study will compare graduation rates among Latinx student, through resources provided by ethnic studies. The Latinx Critical Race Theory is used to explain the findings and the works of ethnic studies on the Latinx population. The method of analysis for this study includes peer reviewed journal articles and scholarly sources to assess the extent of civic curriculum that is inclusive of Latinx/Latinx history and explores the influences on graduation rates and its impact on Latinx communities in California versus Arizona

From the Unexpected to the Unbelievable: Thetics, Miratives and Exclamatives in Conceptual Space

This study investigates the relationship between three linguistic functions: thetics, miratives and exclamatives. Thetics are an information structure configuration that conveys that the information is new to the addressee. The thetic subtypes selected for this study are the following: existentials (e.g. There are apples in the kitchen); presentatives (e.g. Heres your book); weather statements (e.g. It rains); physical sensation statements (e.g. My HEAD hurts) and hot news (e.g. MIchael JACKson died). Thetics do not perform a predication but present the state of affairs as a whole. Crosslinguistically, they tend to use morphosyntactic strategies that distinguish them from prototypical predications. Similar morphosyntactic strategies can also be found in miratives and exclamatives. Miratives are defined as grammatical markers that convey that the information is suprising for the speaker, whereas exclamatives are defined as a sentence type that conveys surprise with respect to a scalar extent that has surpassed the current expectations (e.g. How beautiful you are!). I hypothesize that the structural similarities between these functions are motivated by semantic resemblance. The structural features of these functions are compared in a sample of 76 languages, from which 360 constructions were extracted. Multidimensional scaling was used in order to construct a spatial representation of the degree of similarity/dissimilarity of the constructions. The resulting spatial map shows a dimension motivated by a semantic distinction between event-central and entity-central statements. It also shows a second dimension motivated by the following distinctions: 1) an existential domain, 2) a presentational domain, 3) a mirative domain, and 4) an exclamative domain. Several case studies illustrating the relationships between the functions are presented. It is also demonstrated that miratives can establish a distinction between unexpected and misexpected events. As for exclamatives, it is shown that they are related to linguistic hedges that convey the degree of membership of an item into a category. Several neurobiological and psychological correlates are proposed: thetics correspond to two types of awareness, whereas miratives and exclamatives are related to different stages of a cognitive-evolutionary model of surprise

Profile of residents: attitude towards tourism in Benalmádena (Costa del Sol, Spain)

Tourism development and evolution along the time causes multiple impacts. Based on characteristic profiles of resident, these impacts may be assessed differently. The attitude of residents and the identification of profiles is a tool that allows to asses the status of destination and propose future strategies for improving the destination. This study aims to analyse the role of residents regarding the perception of tourism.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Así mismo, Esta investigación ha sido subvencionada por el programa Nacional de Investigación Básica 2012, CS2010-30840. "Geografías de la crisis: analisis urbano turístico de las Islas Baleares, Costa del Sol y principales destinos en el Caribe

Residents´ perceptions of tourism development in Benalmádena (Spain)

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.11.007This study examines the residents´ perceptions of the impact of tourism in Benalmádena, and the profiles of the residents according to socio-demographic characteristics. A questionnaire assessed how these characteristics influence the residents' perceptions towards the environment, economy, and socio-cultural aspects. The survey was administered to a stratified sample of 770 residents in Benalmádena. Results show a significant effect of socio-demographic variables on perception of tourism impact. The educational background, place of birth and how long respondents had been living in the community explain a significant amount of the variance in overall attitudes. Interaction analyses revealed that place of birth moderated the relationship between the tourism dimensions and the years of residence. For instance, the respondents with less than five years of residence showed more positive attitude towards the impact of tourism. We offer a profile of these residents according to their perceptions of the impact of tourism in their community.This research has received funding from the Spanish Government, Fundamental Research Program (R+D) (CSO2012-30840), “Geographies of crisis: analysis of urban and tourist territories of the Balearic Islands, Costa del Sol and main tourist destinations of the Caribbean and Central America”. Andalucia Tech, Universidad de Málaga, Spain

Report on scenarios for the Mediterranean Sea

The SEACOAST project of the Water Resources Unit (H01) of the Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IES) has aimed during 2015 to monitor, model and assess the environmental status of the marine and coastal waters of European seas. The SEACOAST project assists in implementing the objectives of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) by the assessment of the marine environment through targeted modelling and monitoring activities. Specifically, the main objective of the modelling activities within SEACOAST 2015 has been to assess the anthropogenic and climate driven changes on the marine environment by using adequate numerical modelling tools that include the main components of the Earth System; atmosphere, ocean, land and anthroposphere. In the scientific jargon, an integrated modelling system of this nature is typically referred as a Regional Earth System Model (RESM). In this context, the marine modelling group has been working to develop such modelling system for the Mediterranean Sea as a ‘benchmark’ case of EU regional seas. Within Deliverable 6 of SEACOAST 2015 on scenarios of the Mediterranean Sea, we have used a regional climate model (RCM) developed within the EuroCORDEX initiative to obtain atmospheric conditions for the Mediterranean region for the 21st century. However, before using the RCM variables to force the ocean model an intense work was necessary to reduce the bias in surface properties induced by model deficiencies. Once the present-day conditions in the basin could be satisfactorily simulated by using the RCM variables, this coupled atmosphere/ocean/hydrology system has been used to create a set of scenario simulations into the future under various emission scenarios (business as usual and worst case) and considering different options for freshwater management (associated with socio-economic scenarios). The objective of this work during 2015 has been to create the model system and to test its capability to perform in scenario mode for the Mediterranean Sea. Now that the tool is created and tested, it could be used to explore consequences of different policy options for Europe in near future in combination with expected climatic changes in the context of the MSFD.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Adaptive nitrogen to phosphate ratio in biogeochemical models, consequences for the stoichiometry of the Mediterranean Sea

Biogeochemical marine models aim to replicate the chemical and low-trophic levels conditions of marine ecosystems. There are many types of such models, depending on complexity, specific aims and formulations. All of them are but rough approximation of the real ecosystems with many shortcomings and drawbacks so improvements and new formulations are always needed in order to increase their capability to reproduce real-life conditions. Here we present a modification of the biogeochemical model developed at JRC for representing marine conditions in the Mediterranean Sea, the MedERGOM model. This model has been demonstrated to properly represent biological production patterns in the basin but had some difficulties in simulating correctly concentrations of free nutrients in the seawater. In the present report we modify the internal ratio of the two main nutrients in the sea (nitrate and phosphate) by taking into account the physiological flexibility plankton communities show in the real environment. By making this simple modification we show how nutrients levels in seawater simulated by MedERGOM become much closer to observations, enhancing the capability of the marine modelling framework to simulate chemical conditions in nutrient-starved basins such as the Mediterranean Sea.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource