University of Westminster

About: University of Westminster is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 2944 authors who have published 8426 publications receiving 200236 citations. The organization is also known as: Westminster University & Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Management and Empowerment Programmes

Abstract: This paper addresses the divergence between the widespread rhetoric of empowerment and limited reality of empowerment programmes. Having demonstrated the ambiguities and contradictions in the concept of empowerment to be found in the management literature and, hence, the amenability of the concept to a variety of interpretations, the paper considers evidence from studies of hotel companies, a theme park and chemicals and telecommunications manufacturing plants which shows that the interpretation of empowerment which senior managers enthusiastically promote is rather different from the one which junior managers reluctantly accept and that empowerment programmes are as much about the putative reorganisation of junior managers' work as any substantive increase in worker autonomy. An interpretation of these findings is then offered in terms of how the ideological space opened up by ambiguities in the empowerment concept presents senior managers with a convenient ideological justification for the reorganisation of managerial work but also presents junior managers with a set of ideas with which to justify their continued existence, at a time when the managerial labour process is being rationalised and the raison d'etre of junior line managers, in terms of responsibility for a labour process, is becoming problematic. The rhetoric of empowerment is an ideological terrain on which the conflict between senior and junior managers over attempts to reconstitute managerial work is conducted.

Novel Poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate)/Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) blends for medical applications

Abstract: Novel Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/Poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) blends were developed with varying amounts of Poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate), P(3HO) and Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), P(3HB) for their potential use in various medical applications. These blend films exhibited higher tensile strength and Young’s modulus values compared to neat P(3HO). The overall protein adsorption and % cell viability was also found to be significantly higher in the blend films than the neat P(3HO) film. Hydrolytic degradation was faster in the blend films and the degradation rate could potentially be tailored to achieve the optimum rate required for a particular medical application. Hence, these novel blends were found to be highly biocompatible with surface, mechanical and thermal properties suitable for a range of potential medical applications, a great step forward in the area of medical materials.

An examination of the psychometric properties of Brazilian Portuguese translations of the Drive for Muscularity Scale, the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire, and the Masculine Body Ideal Distress Scale.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to translate into Brazilian Portuguese three scales for the assessment of men's body image, namely the Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS), the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (SMAQ), and the Male Body Ideal Distress Scale (MBIDS), and to evaluate the factor structure of each of these translated scales. A sample of 878 men completed translated versions of each of the scales, a previously translated Portuguese version of the Body Appreciation Scale, and demographic measures. Confirmatory factor analysis, using unweighted least square estimation and listwise deletion, was used to determine the scales' factorial structures. Results showed that the Portuguese DMS and MBIDS had similar factor structures as their parent versions, whereas the SMAQ had a three-factor structure that diverged from its parent scale. Adequate internal reliability coefficients and evidence of construct validity was established for all three scales. These translated scales provide useful tools for quantitative investigations of men's body image in the Brazilian context and expand the possibility of future cross-cultural research.

The effects of dietary supplementation with inulin and inulin-propionate ester on hepatic steatosis in adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Abstract: The short chain fatty acid (SCFA) propionate, produced through fermentation of dietary fibre by the gut microbiota, has been shown to alter hepatic metabolic processes that reduce lipid storage. We aimed to investigate the impact of raising colonic propionate production on hepatic steatosis in adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Eighteen adults were randomised to receive 20g/day of an inulin-propionate ester (IPE), designed to deliver propionate to the colon, or an inulin-control for 42-days in a parallel design. The change in intrahepatocellular lipid (IHCL) following the supplementation period was not different between groups (P=0.082), however IHCL significantly increased within the inulin-control group (20.9±2.9 to 26.8±3.9%; P=0.012; n=9), which was not observed within the IPE group (22.6±6.9 to 23.5±6.8%; P=0.635; n=9). The predominant SCFA from colonic fermentation of inulin is acetate, which in a background of NAFLD and a hepatic metabolic profile that promotes fat accretion, may provide surplus lipogenic substrate to the liver. The increased colonic delivery of propionate from IPE appears to attenuate this acetatemediated increase in IHCL.