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 & Politics. The organization has 2944 authors who have published 8426 publications receiving 200236 citations. The organization is also known as: Westminster University & Royal Polytechnic Institution.

The smart city and Its publics: insights from across six UK cities

Abstract: In response to policy-makers’ increasing claims to prioritise ‘people’ in smart city development, we explore the publicness of emerging practices across six UK cities: Bristol, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, and Peterborough. Local smart city programmes are analysed as techno-public assemblages invoking variegated modalities of publicness. Our findings challenge the dystopian speculative critiques of the smart city, while nevertheless indicating the dominance of ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘service user’ modes of the public. We highlight the risk of bifurcation within smart city assemblages, such that the ‘civic’ and ‘political’ roles of the public become siloed into less obdurate strands of programmatic activity.

Randomized controlled trial of the Alexander Technique for idiopathic Parkinson's disease

Abstract: Objective: To determine whether the Alexander Technique, alongside normal treatment, is of benefit to people disabled by idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Design: A randomized controlled trial with three groups, one receiving lessons in the Alexander Technique, another receiving massage and one with no additional treatment. Measures were taken pre- and post-intervention, and at follow-up, six months later. Setting: The Polyclinic at the University of Westminster, Central London. Subjects: Ninety-three subjects with clinically confirmed idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Interventions: The Alexander Technique group received 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique and the massage group received 24 sessions of massage. Main outcome measures: The main outcome measures were the Selfassessment Parkinson’s Disease Disability Scale (SPDDS) at best and at worst times of day. Secondary measures included the Beck Depression Inventory and an Attitudes to Self Scale. Results: The Alexander Technique group improved compared with the no additional treatment group, pre-intervention to post-intervention, both on the SPDDS at best, p = 0.04 (confidence interval (CI) ‐6.4 to 0.0) and on the SPDDS at worst, p = 0.01 (CI ‐11.5 to ‐1.8). The comparative improvement was maintained at six-month follow-up: on the SPDDS at best, p = 0.04 (CI ‐7.7 to 0.0) and on the SPDDS at worst, p = 0.01 (CI ‐11.8 to ‐0.9). The Alexander Technique group were comparatively less depressed post-intervention, p = 0.03 (CI ‐3.8 to 0.0) on the Beck Depression Inventory, and at six-month follow-up had improved on the Attitudes to Self Scale, p = 0.04 (CI ‐13.9 to 0.0). Conclusions: There is evidence that lessons in the Alexander Technique are likely to lead to sustained benefit for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Cytotoxicity of lavender oil and its major components to human skin cells.

Abstract: Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) oil, chiefly composed of linalyl acetate (51%) and linalool (35%), is considered to be one of the mildest of known plant essential oils and has a history in wound healing. Concerns are building about the potential for irritant or allergenic skin reactions with the use of lavender oil. This study has demonstrated that lavender oil is cytotoxic to human skin cells in vitro (endothelial cells and fibroblasts) at a concentration of 0.25% (v/v) in all cell types tested (HMEC-1, HNDF and 153BR). The major components of the oil, linalyl acetate and linalool, were also assayed under similar conditions for their cytotoxicity. The activity of linalool reflected that of the whole oil, indicating that linalool may be the active component of lavender oil. Linalyl acetate cytotoxicity was higher than that of the oil itself, suggesting suppression of its activity by an unknown factor in the oil. Membrane damage is proposed as the possible mechanism of action.

The dMARS Architecture: A Specification of the Distributed Multi-Agent Reasoning System

Abstract: The Procedural Reasoning System (PRS) is the best established agent architecture currently available It has been deployed in many major industrial applications, ranging from fault diagnosis on the space shuttle to air traffic management and business process control The theory of PRS-like systems has also been widely studied: within the intelligent agents research community, the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model of practical reasoning that underpins PRS is arguably the dominant force in the theoretical foundations of rational agency Despite the interest in PRS and BDI agents, no complete attempt has yet been made to precisely specify the behaviour of real PRS systems This has led to the development of a range of systems that claim to conform to the PRS model, but which differ from it in many important respects Our aim in this paper is to rectify this omission We provide an abstract formal model of an idealised dMARS system (the most recent implementation of the PRS architecture), which precisely defines the key data structures present within the architecture and the operations that manipulate these structures We focus in particular on dMARS plans, since these are the key tool for programming dMARS agents The specification we present will enable other implementations of PRS to be easily developed, and will serve as a benchmark against which future architectural enhancements can be evaluated

Consumerism in Sustainable Tourism: A Survey of UK Consumers

Abstract: This article presents the results of a survey of tourism consumers from the Destinations Travel Show in the UK in 2000. Four hundred and eleven tourism consumers were interviewed over four days at the show on the type of information that they used in the selection of their holiday destination. This article posits that the power of the consumer can be a major force for progress towards greater sustainability by the tourism industry, acting as a rationale for change, which is often missing from more traditional planning, management or regulatory techniques. The research shows consumers are already making decisions based on environmental, social and economic quality for day-to-day products and are keen to transfer these habits to the purchase of tourism products. Recommendations are made, highlighting the need for the tourism industry to capitalise on this demand for a wider range of product information and so promote moves towards greater levels of sustainability in the industry.