Territorialisation and power in Portuguese America. The creation of comarcas (16th-18th centuries)

The general aim of this article is to analyse the political organisation of the territory in Portuguese America from the start of the building up of the Crown judiciary system from in the 16th to the 18th centuries and to look into the causes of its belatedness in comparison to what happened in Spanish America. The focus will however be on the comarcas through the reconstitution of the process leading to the setting up of these judiciary divisions. Four stages of this process will be identified and discussion will ensue over the social and political contexts in which these political and administrative novelties came to happen. It is claimed that the delay in the structuring of the judicial network in the States of Brazil and Maranhão stems from the fact that the Portuguese advance into the territories took place at a later stage. The comparisons between the two systems will also bring other differences to the fore, not least the greater rigidity of the Spanish model in contrast to the more experimental character of the Portuguese one, and the resilience found to exist in the donatarial system. It is also worth to point out that given solutions were the result of the will of central power as much as of local initiative, and it is suggested that the building up of the crown’s political apparatus (in which the judiciary network is included) brought about the connivance,albeit ephemeral, of social interests which are considered contradictory or irreconcilable by some authors.

Characterization of the methanol recovery process at Prio Biocombustíveis S. A.

In a industrial environment, to know the process one is working with is crucial to ensure its good functioning. In the present work, developed at Prio Biocombustíveis S.A. facilities, using process data, collected during the present work, and historical process data, the methanol recovery process was characterized, having started with the characterization of key process streams. Based on the information retrieved from the stream characterization, Aspen Plus® process simulation software was used to replicate the process and perform a sensitivity analysis with the objective of accessing the relative importance of certain key process variables (reflux/feed ratio, reflux temperature, reboiler outlet temperature, methanol, glycerol and water feed compositions). The work proceeded with the application of a set of statistical tools, starting with the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) from which the interactions between process variables and their contribution to the process variability was studied. Next, the Design of Experiments (DoE) was used to acquire experimental data and, with it, create a model for the water amount in the distillate. However, the necessary conditions to perform this method were not met and so it was abandoned. The Multiple Linear Regression method (MLR) was then used with the available data, creating several empiric models for the water at distillate, the one with the highest fit having a R2 equal to 92.93% and AARD equal to 19.44%. Despite the AARD still being relatively high, the model is still adequate to make fast estimates of the distillate’s quality. As for fouling, its presence has been noticed many times during this work. Not being possible to directly measure the fouling, the reboiler inlet steam pressure was used as an indicator of the fouling growth and its growth variation with the amount of Used Cooking Oil incorporated in the whole process. Comparing the steam cost associated to the reboiler’s operation when fouling is low (1.5 bar of steam pressure) and when fouling is high (reboiler’s steam pressure of 3 bar), an increase of about 58% occurs when the fouling increases.

Development of an electrochemical biosensor for the detection of miRNA-155 in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer in women. Despite all recent advances in early diagnosis and therapy, mortality data is not decreasing. This is an outcome of the inexistence of validated serum biomarkers allowing an early prognosis, out coming from the limited understanding of the natural history of the disease. In this context, miRNAs have been attracting a special interest throughout the scientific community as promising biomarkers in the early diagnosis of cancer. In breast cancer, several miRNAs and their levels of expression are significantly different between normal tissue and tissue with neoplasia, as well as between different molecular subtypes of breast cancer, also associated with prognosis. Thus, this these presents a meta-analysis that allows identifying a reliable miRNA biomarker for the early detection of breast cancer. In this, miRNA-155 was identified as the best one and an electrochemical biosensor was developed for its detection in serum samples. The biosensor was assembled by following three button-up stages: (1) the complementary miRNA sequence thiol terminated (anti-miRNA-155) was immobilized on a commercial gold screen-printed electrode (Au-SPE), followed by (2) blocking non-specific binding with mercaptosuccinic acid and by (3) miRNA hybridization. The biosensor was able to detect miRNA concentrations lying in the 10-18 mol/L (aM) range, displaying a linear response from 10 aM to 1nM. The device showed a limit of detection of 5.7 aM in human serum samples and good selectivity against other biomolecules in serum, such as cancer antigen CA-15.3 and bovine serum albumin (BSA). Overall, this simple and sensitive strategy is a promising approach for the quantitative and/or simultaneous analysis of multiple miRNA in physiological fluids, aiming at further biomedical research devoted to biomarker monitoring and point-of-care diagnosis.

Tackling health inequalities in primary care: an exploration of GPs’ experience at the frontline

In Scotland, life expectancy and health outcomes are strongly tied to socioeconomic status. Specifically, socioeconomically deprived areas suffer disproportionately from high levels of premature multimorbidity and mortality. To tackle these inequalities in health, challenges in the most deprived areas must be addressed. One avenue that merits attention is the potential role of general medical practitioners (GPs) in helping to address health inequalities, particularly due to their long-term presence in deprived communities, their role in improving patient and population health, and their potential advocacy role on behalf of their patients. GPs can be seen as what Lipsky calls ‘street-level bureaucrats’ due to their considerable autonomy in the decisions they make surrounding individual patient needs, yet practising under the bureaucratic structure of the NHS. While previous research has examined the applicability of Lipsky’s framework to the role of GPs, there has been very little research exploring how GPs negotiate between the multiple identities in their work, how GPs ‘socially construct’ their patients, how GPs view their potential role as ‘advocate’, and what this means in terms of the contribution of GPs to addressing existing inequalities in health. Using semi-structured interviews, this study explored the experience and views of 24 GPs working in some of Scotland’s most deprived practices to understand how they might combat this growing health divide via the mitigation (and potential prevention) of existing health inequalities. Participants were selected based on several criteria including practice deprivation level and their individual involvement in the Deep End project, which is an informal network comprising the 100 most deprived general practices in Scotland. The research focused on understanding GPs’ perceptions of their work including its broader implications, within their practice, the communities within which they practise, and the health system as a whole. The concept of street-level bureaucracy proved to be useful in understanding GPs’ frontline work and how they negotiate dilemmas. However, this research demonstrated the need to look beyond Lipsky’s framework in order to understand how GPs reconcile their multiple identities, including advocate and manager. As a result, the term ‘street-level professional’ is offered to capture more fully the multiple identities which GPs inhabit and to explain how GPs’ elite status positions them to engage in political and policy advocacy. This study also provides evidence that GPs’ social constructions of patients are linked not only to how GPs conceptualise the causes of health inequalities, but also to how they view their role in tackling them. In line with this, the interviews established that many GPs felt they could make a difference through advocacy efforts at individual, community and policy/political levels. Furthermore, the study draws attention to the importance of practitioner-led groups—such as the Deep End project—in supporting GPs’ efforts and providing a platform for their advocacy. Within this study, a range of GPs’ views have been explored based on the sample. While it is unclear how common these views are amongst GPs in general, the study revealed that there is considerable scope for ‘political GPs’ who choose to exercise discretion in their communities and beyond. Consequently, GPs working in deprived areas should be encouraged to use their professional status and political clout not only to strengthen local communities, but also to advocate for policy change that might potentially affect the degree of disadvantage of their patients, and levels of social and health inequalities more generally.

QTLs mapping for primary metabolites responsible of the organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa)

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is the berry fruit most consumed worldwide and is well-known for its delicate flavour and nutritional properties. However, fruit quality attributes have been lost or reduced after years of traditional breeding focusing mainly on agronomical traits. To face the obstacles encountered in the improvement of cultivated crops, new technological tools, such as genomics and high throughput metabolomics, are becoming essential for the identification of genetic factors responsible of organoleptic and nutritive traits. Integration of “omics” data will allow a better understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying the accumulation of metabolites involved in the flavour and nutritional value of the fruit. To identify genetic components affecting/controlling? fruit metabolic composition, here we present a quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis using a 95 F1 segregating population derived from genotypes ‘1392’, selected for its superior flavour, and ‘232’ selected based in high yield (Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al., 2011; Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al., 2012). Metabolite profiling was performed on red stage strawberry fruits using gas chromatography hyphenated to time-of-flight mass spectrometry, which is a rapid and highly sensitive approach, allowing a good coverage of the central pathways of primary metabolism. Around 50 primary metabolites, including sugars, sugars derivatives, amino and organic acids, were detected and quantified after analysis in each individual of the population. QTL mapping was performed on the ‘232’ x ‘1392’ population separately over two successive years, based on the integrated linkage map (Sánchez-Sevilla et al., 2015). First, significant associations between metabolite content and molecular markers were identified by the non-parametric test of Kruskal-Wallis. Then, interval mapping (IM), as well as the multiple QTL method (MQM) allowed the identification of QTLs in octoploid strawberry. A permutation test established LOD thresholds for each metabolite and year. A total of 132 QTLs were detected in all the linkage groups over the two years for 42 metabolites out of 50. Among them, 4 (9.8%) QTLs for sugars, 9 (25%) for acids and 7 (12.7%) for amino acids were stable and detected in the two successive years. We are now studying the QTLs regions in order to find candidate genes to explain differences in metabolite content in the different individuals of the population, and we expect to identify associations between genes and metabolites which will help us to understand their role in quality traits of strawberry fruit.

Bacterial communities of the specialty crop phyllosphere: response to biological soil amendment use, rainfall, and insect visitation

Microorganisms in the plant rhizosphere, the zone under the influence of roots, and phyllosphere, the aboveground plant habitat, exert a strong influence on plant growth, health, and protection. Tomatoes and cucumbers are important players in produce safety, and the microbial life on their surfaces may contribute to their fitness as hosts for foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes. External factors such as agricultural inputs and environmental conditions likely also play a major role. However, the relative contributions of the various factors at play concerning the plant surface microbiome remain obscure, although this knowledge could be applied to crop protection from plant and human pathogens. Recent advances in genomic technology have made investigations into the diversity and structure of microbial communities possible in many systems and at multiple scales. Using Illumina sequencing to profile particular regions of the 16S rRNA gene, this study investigates the influences of climate and crop management practices on the field-grown tomato and cucumber microbiome. The first research chapter (Chapter 3) involved application of 4 different soil amendments to a tomato field and profiling of harvest-time phyllosphere and rhizosphere microbial communities. Factors such as water activity, soil texture, and field location influenced microbial community structure more than soil amendment use, indicating that field conditions may exert more influence on the tomato microbiome than certain agricultural inputs. In Chapter 4, the impact of rain on tomato and cucumber-associated microbial community structures was evaluated. Shifts in bacterial community composition and structure were recorded immediately following rain events, an effect which was partially reversed after 4 days and was strongest on cucumber fruit surfaces. Chapter 5 focused on the contribution of insect visitors to the tomato microbiota, finding that insects introduced diverse bacterial taxa to the blossom and green tomato fruit microbiome. This study advances our understanding of the factors that influence the microbiomes of tomato and cucumber. Farms are complex environments, and untangling the interactions between farming practices, the environment, and microbial diversity will help us develop a comprehensive understanding of how microbial life, including foodborne pathogens, may be influenced by agricultural conditions.

The Road to Bali: ERIA Perspectives on the WTO Ministerial and Asian Integration

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) forthcoming Ninth Ministerial Conference in Bali comes at a critical juncture for the multilateral trade body, long mired in the Doha Round stalemate. Beyond offering a critical first test at consensus-building and institutional renewal, the Bali Ministerial affords a unique opportunity to gauge contrasting perceptions across ASEAN and East Asian countries of the continued relevance of the WTO to trade and economic governance within the region and beyond. Resulting from the collaborative efforts of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), the Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) and the World Trade Institute at the University of Bern (WTI), this policy research initiative offers comparative scholarship on some of the key questions arising from the forthcoming WTO Ministerial gathering from an East Asian perspective. Specifically, it explores what scholars in the region expect the Bali Ministerial to produce by way of tangible outcomes and whether the Ministerial will restore the momentum needed to bring the Doha Round to a successful conclusion. Contributors also investigate how relevant the WTO remains to the multiple processes of deepening economic integration in ASEAN and East Asia (e.g. AEC, TPP, RCEP) and, importantly, what lessons in rule-design and market opening WTO Members could usefully draw from the ongoing march towards the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community.

Intra- and extracellular osmotic regulation in the hololimnetic Caridea and Anomura: a phylogenetic perspective on the conquest of fresh water by the decapod Crustacea

We investigate extra- and intracellular osmoregulatory capability in two species of hololimnetic Caridea and Anomura: Macrobrachium brasiliense, a palaemonid shrimp, and Aegla franca, an aeglid anomuran, both restricted to continental waters. We also appraise the sharing of physiological characteristics by the hololimnetic Decapoda, and their origins and role in the conquest of fresh water. Both species survive salinity exposure well. While overall hyperosmoregulatory capability is weak in A. franca and moderate in M. brasiliense, both species strongly hyporegulate hemolymph [Cl-] but not osmolality. Muscle total free amino acids (FAA) increase slowly but markedly in response to the rapid rise in hemolymph osmolality consequent to hyperosmotic challenge: 3.5-fold in A. franca and 1.9-fold in M. brasiliense. Glycine, taurine, arginine, alanine and proline constitute a parts per thousand 85% of muscle FAA pools in fresh water; taurine, arginine, alanine each contribute a parts per thousand 22% in A. franca, while glycine predominates (70%) in M. brasiliense. These FAA also show the greatest increases on salinity challenge. Muscle FAA titers correlate strongly (R = 0.82) with hemolymph osmolalities across the main decapod sub/infraorders, revealing that marine species with high hemolymph osmolalities achieve isosmoticity of the intra- and extracellular fluids partly through elevated intracellular FAA concentrations; freshwater species show low hemolymph osmolalities and exhibit reduced intracellular FAA titers, consistent with isosmoticity at a far lower external osmolality. Given the decapod phylogeny adopted here and their multiple, independent invasions of fresh water, particularly by the Caridea and Anomura, our findings suggest that homoplastic strategies underlie osmotic and ionic homeostasis in the extant freshwater Decapoda.

Examining the Validity of the GRE General Test Scores and Undergraduate GPA for Predicting Success in Graduate School at a Large Racially and Ethnically Diverse Public University in Southeast Florida

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of relationships among GRE scores, undergraduate GPA (UGPA), and success in graduate school, as measured by first year graduate GPA (FGPA), cumulative graduate GPA, and degree attainment status. A second aim of the study was to determine whether the relationships between the composite predictor (GRE scores and UGPA) and the three success measures differed by race/ethnicity and sex. A total of 7,367 graduate student records (masters, 5,990; doctoral: 1,377) from 2000 to 2010 were used to evaluate the relationships among GRE scores, UGPA and the three success measures. Pearson’s correlation, multiple linear and logistic regression, and hierarchical multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to answer the research questions. The results of the correlational analyses differed by degree level. For master’s students, the ETS proposed prediction that GRE scores are valid predictors of first year graduate GPA was supported by the findings from the present study; however, for doctoral students, the proposed prediction was only partially supported. Regression and correlational analyses indicated that UGPA was the variable that consistently predicted all three success measures for both degree levels. The hierarchical multiple linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that at master’s degree level, White students with higher GRE Quantitative Reasoning Test scores were more likely to attain a degree than Asian Americans, while International students with higher UGPA were more likely to attain a degree than White students. The relationships between the three predictors and the three success measures were not significantly different between men and women for either degree level. Findings have implications both for practice and research. They will provide graduate school administrators with institution-specific validity data for UGPA and the GRE scores, which can be referenced in making admission decisions, while they will provide empirical and professionally defensible evidence to support the current practice of using UGPA and GRE scores for admission considerations. In addition, new evidence relating to differential predictions will be useful as a resource reference for future GRE validation researchers.

Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy : a science and technology-based framework to assess and reduce nutrients to Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico (2016)

On November 19, 2012, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, Director Chuck Gipp from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Dr. John Lawrence of Iowa State University announced the release of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy for public comment. A two-month public comment period and several informational meetings allowed the public to provide feedback on the draft strategy. Updates and improvements were made to the draft based on the public comments. The final version of the strategy was released May 29, 2013. The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a science and technology-based approach to assess and reduce nutrients delivered to Iowa waterways and the Gulf of Mexico. The strategy outlines voluntary efforts to reduce nutrients in surface water from both point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, and nonpoint sources, including farm fields and urban areas, in a scientific, reasonable and cost effective manner. The development of the strategy reflects more than two years of work led by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University. The scientific assessment to evaluate and model the effects of practices was developed through the efforts of 23 individuals representing five agencies or organizations, including scientists from ISU, IDALS, DNR, USDA Agricultural Research Service and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The strategy was developed in response to the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan that calls for the 12 states along the Mississippi River to develop strategies to reduce nutrient loading to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iowa strategy follows the recommended framework provided by EPA in 2011 and is only the second state to complete a statewide nutrient reduction strategy. This strategy is the beginning. Operational plans are being developed and work is underway. This is a dynamic document that will evolve over time, and is a key step towards improving Iowa’s water quality. The impetus for this report comes from the Water Resources Coordination Council (WRCC) which states in its 2014‐15 Annual Report “Efforts are underway to improve understanding of the multiple nutrient monitoring efforts that may be available and can be compared to the nutrient WQ monitoring framework to identify opportunities and potential data gaps to better coordinate and prioritize future nutrient monitoring efforts.” This report is the culmination of those efforts.

Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy : a science and technology-based framework to assess and reduce nutrients to Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico (2013)

On November 19, 2012, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, Director Chuck Gipp from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Dr. John Lawrence of Iowa State University announced the release of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy for public comment. A two-month public comment period and several informational meetings allowed the public to provide feedback on the draft strategy. Updates and improvements were made to the draft based on the public comments. The final version of the strategy was released May 29, 2013. The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a science and technology-based approach to assess and reduce nutrients delivered to Iowa waterways and the Gulf of Mexico. The strategy outlines voluntary efforts to reduce nutrients in surface water from both point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, and nonpoint sources, including farm fields and urban areas, in a scientific, reasonable and cost effective manner. The development of the strategy reflects more than two years of work led by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University. The scientific assessment to evaluate and model the effects of practices was developed through the efforts of 23 individuals representing five agencies or organizations, including scientists from ISU, IDALS, DNR, USDA Agricultural Research Service and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The strategy was developed in response to the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan that calls for the 12 states along the Mississippi River to develop strategies to reduce nutrient loading to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iowa strategy follows the recommended framework provided by EPA in 2011 and is only the second state to complete a statewide nutrient reduction strategy. This strategy is the beginning. Operational plans are being developed and work is underway. This is a dynamic document that will evolve over time, and is a key step towards improving Iowa’s water quality. The impetus for this report comes from the Water Resources Coordination Council (WRCC) which states in its 2014‐15 Annual Report “Efforts are underway to improve understanding of the multiple nutrient monitoring efforts that may be available and can be compared to the nutrient WQ monitoring framework to identify opportunities and potential data gaps to better coordinate and prioritize future nutrient monitoring efforts.” This report is the culmination of those efforts.

Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy : a science and technology-based framework to assess and reduce nutrients to Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico (2012)

On November 19, 2012, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, Director Chuck Gipp from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Dr. John Lawrence of Iowa State University announced the release of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy for public comment. A two-month public comment period and several informational meetings allowed the public to provide feedback on the draft strategy. Updates and improvements were made to the draft based on the public comments. The final version of the strategy was released May 29, 2013. The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a science and technology-based approach to assess and reduce nutrients delivered to Iowa waterways and the Gulf of Mexico. The strategy outlines voluntary efforts to reduce nutrients in surface water from both point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, and nonpoint sources, including farm fields and urban areas, in a scientific, reasonable and cost effective manner. The development of the strategy reflects more than two years of work led by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University. The scientific assessment to evaluate and model the effects of practices was developed through the efforts of 23 individuals representing five agencies or organizations, including scientists from ISU, IDALS, DNR, USDA Agricultural Research Service and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The strategy was developed in response to the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan that calls for the 12 states along the Mississippi River to develop strategies to reduce nutrient loading to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iowa strategy follows the recommended framework provided by EPA in 2011 and is only the second state to complete a statewide nutrient reduction strategy. This strategy is the beginning. Operational plans are being developed and work is underway. This is a dynamic document that will evolve over time, and is a key step towards improving Iowa’s water quality. The impetus for this report comes from the Water Resources Coordination Council (WRCC) which states in its 2014‐15 Annual Report “Efforts are underway to improve understanding of the multiple nutrient monitoring efforts that may be available and can be compared to the nutrient WQ monitoring framework to identify opportunities and potential data gaps to better coordinate and prioritize future nutrient monitoring efforts.” This report is the culmination of those efforts.

Ethos and Ideology of Knowledge Organization: Toward Precepts for and Engaged Knowledge Organization Drawing on The Arts and Crafts Movement, Critical Theory, and Žižek

Ethos is the spirit that motivates ideas and practices. When we talk casually about the ethos of a town, state, or country we are describing the fundamental or at least underlying rationale for action, as we see it. Ideology is a way of looking at things.It is the set of ideas that constitute one’s goals, expectations, and actions. In this brief essay I want to create a space where we might talk about the ethos and ideology in knowledge organization from a particular point of view; combining ideas and inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement of the early Twentieth Century, critical theory in extant knowledge organization work, the work of Slavoj Žižek, and the work of Thich Nhat Hahn on Engaged Buddhism.I will expand more below, but we can say here and now that there are many open questions about ethos and ideology in and of knowledge organization, both its practice and products. Many of them in classification, positioned as they are around identity politics of race, gender, and other marginalized groups, ask the classificationist to be mindful of the choice of terms and relationships between terms. From this work we understand that race and gender requires special consideration, which manifests as a particular concern for the form of representation inside extant schemes. Even with these advances in our understanding there are still other categories about which we must make decisions and take action. For example, there are ethical decisions about fiduciary resource allocation, political decisions about standards adoption, and even broader zeitgeist considerations like the question of Fordist conceptions (Day, 2001; Tennis 2006) of the mechanics of description and representation present in much of today’s practice.Just as taking action in a particular way is an ethical concern, so too is avoiding a lack of action. Scholars in Knowledge Organization have also looked at the absence of what we might call right action in the context of cataloguing and classification. This leads to some problems above, and hints at larger ethical concerns of watching a subtle semantic violence go on without intervention (Bowker and Star, 2001; Bade 2006).The problem is not to act or not act, but how to act or not act in an ethical way, or at least with ethical considerations. The action advocated by an ethical consideration for knowledge organization is an engaged one, and it is here where we can take a nod from contemporary ethical theory advanced by Engaged Buddhism. In this context we can see the manifestation of fourteen precepts that guide ethical action, and warn against lack of action.

Communication across cultures? An intercultural approach to customer service in the hotel industry: a study with globally branded hotels in the United Kingdom

In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers. This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the café-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied. Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.

The influence of queer theory on marriage and civil partnership in Scotland

This thesis will explore the whether queer theory has had any real influence on the law on marriage and civil partnership in Scotland. It will do so by examining the work of Michael Foucault and Judith Butler, reviewing both The History of Sexuality Volume One, and Gender Trouble to establish what queer theory has to say on gender and sexuality. Both works expose the artificiality of gender and sexuality, and in doing so, show that marriage and civil partnership are institutions created to support these artificial structures. Marriage and civil partnership are not isolated from the continuing influence of queer discourse on both gender and sexuality; however, as I will show, the influence has been contained largely to opening up privilege, both legally and socially, to those who wish to conform to structures that remain heteronormative and prescriptive.