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.

Enzymes and small molecular mass agents involved with lignocellulose degradation

Abstract: Electron microscopic and biochemical studies of lignocellulose degradation by wood-rotting fungi have shown that enzymes such as lignin peroxidases, manganese-dependent peroxidases, laccases and cellulases are too large to penetrate undegraded secondary wood cell walls. Degradation occurs by surface interaction between cell wall and enzymes, but initiation of decay at a distance from the fungal hyphae must involve diffusible low-molecular mass agents. The roles of hydrogen peroxide, veratryl alcohol, oxalate, Fe2+-Fe3+ and Mn2+-Mn3+, as such agents in lignocellulose degradation are discussed.

Crisis Communication and Recovery for the Tourism Industry: Lessons from the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak in the United Kingdom

Abstract: As the number of disasters and crises affecting the tourism industry increases, it is becoming necessary to understand the nature of these disasters and how to manage and limit the impacts of such incidents. This paper defines crises and disasters before discussing the area of crisis communication management and crisis communication in the tourism industry. The paper then applies the foot and mouth disease (FMD) which occurred in the United Kingdom to crisis communication theory at a national level (by examining the response of the British Tourist Authority) and at a local level (by examining the response of a District Council). The response was limited in part because of a lack of preparedness, but also due to the nature of the foot and mouth outbreak, and the speed and severity of international media coverage. Action was taken in the emergency phase of the crisis and was reactive involving inconsistency in developing key messages to stakeholders, partly due to confusion and a lack of informatio...

MPJ: MPI-like message passing for Java

Abstract: Recently, there has been a lot of interest in using Java for parallel programming. Efforts have been hindered by lack of standard Java parallel programming APIs. To alleviate this problem, various groups started projects to develop Java message passing systems modelled on the successful Message Passing Interface (MPI). Official MPI bindings are currently defined only for C, Fortran, and C++, so early MPI-like environments for Java have been divergent. This paper relates an effort undertaken by a working group of the Java Grande Forum, seeking a consensus on an MPI-like API, to enhance the viability of parallel programming using Java.