Trade Union Cooperation in the EU: Views Among Swedish Trade Unions and Their Members

This article compares views among Swedish trade unions with those of their members regarding cross-national union cooperation in Europe or the EU. Data are derived from two different surveys, one among trade unions in 2010–2011 and the other among employees in 2006. It turns out that trade unions are generally more affirmative than their members to transnational union cooperation. In the employee survey, differences appear between members of the three peak-level organizations—the LO (manual workers), the TCO (white-collar workers), and Saco (professionals). However, controlling for education, these differences cannot be verified statistically. Higher education—which above all Saco members have—is linked to more positive attitudes toward transnational union cooperation. The gap between the organizations and their affiliates concerning engagement in European issues appears to be larger in the LO than in Saco, with the TCO somewhere in the middle

After the Great Recession: Unions’ Views on Transnational Interests and Cooperation

The aim is to describe and explain the similarities and differences between European trade unions concerning their views on transnational union interests and cooperation in the wake of the Great Recession. We do this by analyzing 221 responses from a European-wide web/postal survey distributed in 2015–2016 to union officials representing staff in employment sectors such as transport, metal and mining, construction, health care, and banking and finance. We find only limited sectoral differences, despite the varied impact of the Great Recession. The main findings are that unions in crisis-ridden southern European countries express a stronger orientation toward transnational union interests and cooperation. Unions in the northern and western European center express a weaker transnational orientation, in line with a renationalization strategy typically expressed in the form of national competitive corporative arrangements. This shows the importance of different institutional resources for unions across the various European industrial relations regimes

Energy reduction of stochastic time-constrained robot stations

This paper looks at the problem of reducing the energy use of robot movements in a robot station with stochastic execution times, while keeping the productivity of the station. The problem is formulated as a stochastic optimization problem, that constrains the makespan of the station to meet a deadline with a high probability. The energy use of the station is a function of the execution times of the robot operations, and the goal is to reduce this energy use by finding the optimal execution times and operation order. A theoretical motivation to why the stochastic variables in the problem, under some conditions, can be approximated as independent and normally distributed is presented, together with a derivation of the max function of stochastic variables. This allows the stochastic optimization problem to be approximated with a deterministic version, that can be solved with a commercial solver. The accuracy of the deterministic approximation is evaluated on multiple numerical examples, which show that the method successfully reduces the energy use, while the deadlines of the stations are met with high probabilities

Chalmers University of Technology: Overcoming Resistance and Inertia in Education through the Dynamics of a Matrix Organization Including Student Co-Creation

In this contribution we describe and reflect on the organization of Chalmers University of Technology and how it benefits education development and innovation. Chalmer’s matrix organization with a buyer-supplier management model for education has proven to be a driving force for change and quality enhancement and promotes the agility necessary for implementing educational reforms in response to both internal and external impulses. We exemplify this by describing and analyzing development projects in curriculum design, education for sustainable development, entrepreneurship, and a new transformative model for flexible education

Selective endothelin A-receptor blockade attenuates coronary microvascular dysfunction after coronary stenting in patients with type 2 diabetes

Nikolaos Östlund Papadogeorgos, Mattias Bengtsson, Majid KalaniKarolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Sciences, Department of Cardiology, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, SwedenBackground: Endothelin-1 may be involved in the development of diabetic microangiopathy. We studied the effect of endothelin-1 blockade on myocardial microcirculation during coronary stenting.Patients and methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes and stable coronary artery disease undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were randomized to bolus dose of 500 mg bosentan (n = 4), a dual endothelin receptor blocker, or intracoronary administration of 0.03 mmol BQ123 (n = 6), a selective endothelin A-receptor blocker, or placebo (n = 5), respectively. Coronary flow reserve (CFR) was measured immediately post-PCI. CFR was also measured in five nondiabetic controls post-coronary stenting.Results: Patients in the placebo group had (P < 0.05) lower values of CFR (2.3 ± 1.2) as compared to those who received endothelin blockade (n = 10; 3.1 ± 0.7) and nondiabetic controls (4.9 ± 2.3). Patients who received BQ123 showed significantly higher CFR (3.3 ± 0.5; P < 0.05) as compared to those on placebo. Nondiabetic patients had significantly higher CFR as compared to patients with diabetes (4.9 ± 2.3 and 2.8 ± 1.0, respectively; P < 0.05). Conclusion: Coronary microvascular dysfunction is present during coronary stenting in patients with type 2 diabetes and may be reversed by selective endothelin A-receptor blockade. Targeting endothelin system may be of importance in protecting the myocardium against ischemic events during elective PCI in type 2 diabetic patients.Keywords: coronary flow reserve, diabetes, endothelin-1, coronary artery disease, coronary angioplast

Illuminating Existential Meaning: A New Approach in the Study of Retirement

Current discussions on the importance of retirement are largely built on statistical analyses of longitudinal data showing that well-being seldom changes from before to after entering retirement, but is rather mainly dependent on the individual’s social resource position. In contrast, qualitatively oriented researchers underline that the retirement process is a complex life transition that needs to be further illuminated. To do this, however, we need to advance new theoretical and methodological perspectives. In this article, an existential sociology approach is outlined, emphasizing the multifaceted spectra of lived experiences and meaning-making in the retirement process. The phenomenological approaches of existential sociology allow us to consider how the exit from working life is created in the processes of motion rather than as expressions of static positions. A merit of this approach is that retirement as an empirical case may say something general about being in transition as a basic social condition. In the article, we discuss how a socio-biographical methodology, based on longitudinal qualitative interviews, helps us capture how existential meaning is formed and reformed in the ambiguous situations which arise in similar life-course transitions. Theoretically, we especially draw on concepts from the existential anthropologist Jackson and the phenomenological tradition of existential philosophers such as Arendt and Heidegger

After the Great Recession: Unions’ Views on Transnational Interests and Cooperation

The aim is to describe and explain the similarities and differences between European trade unions concerning their views on transnational union interests and cooperation in the wake of the Great Recession. We do this by analyzing 221 responses from a European-wide web/postal survey distributed in 2015–2016 to union officials representing staff in employment sectors such as transport, metal and mining, construction, health care, and banking and finance. We find only limited sectoral differences, despite the varied impact of the Great Recession. The main findings are that unions in crisis-ridden southern European countries express a stronger orientation toward transnational union interests and cooperation. Unions in the northern and western European center express a weaker transnational orientation, in line with a renationalization strategy typically expressed in the form of national competitive corporative arrangements. This shows the importance of different institutional resources for unions across the various European industrial relations regimes

Design and characterization of a cobalt-free stainless maraging steel for laser-based powder bed fusion

This study presents a new Co-free stainless maraging variant for laser-based powder bed fusion developed using a computational alloy design approach. The goal was to develop an easily printable material with similar performance to 18Ni-300. After screening numerous compositions, Fe-13.2Cr-9.1Ni-1.1Al-0.6Mo-0.5Nb-0.23Ti-0.5Mn-0.5Si (wt.%) was selected. This composition showed excellent printability with low porosity levels. The precipitation strengthening response was evaluated by aging at 500 \ub0C for 15 min, 3 h and 18 h, measuring hardness, tensile strength, and by characterization using atom probe tomography. After 15 min of aging, 90% of the maximum hardness was reached, thanks to formation of (Ni, Al, Nb, Ti, Mn, Si) clusters with a density of 1.5 7 1024 m-3. Between 15 min and 3 h, distinct precipitates formed with a radius of ∼1.4 nm. The precipitates underwent a splitting phenomenon after 18 h, forming several unique Ni-rich precipitates including Ni16Si7(Ti, Nb)6 and Ni3(Al, Ti, Nb, Si). The splitting can be a reason for the slow coarsening rate, as the average precipitate radius after 18 h was only 2 nm. Simulations of the precipitation sequence using PRISMA indicated very rapid and dense precipitation of L12-Ni3X precipitates with a slow coarsening rate, in agreement with experimental observations