The New Structure of Labor Relations: Tripartism and Decentralization

Tripartism, the national-level interaction among representatives of labor, management, and government, occurs infrequently in the United States. Based on the U.S. experience, then, such interactions might seem irrelevant to economic performance and policymaking. The essays in this volume reveal the falsity of that assumption. Contributors from eight industrialized countries examine the changing nature of labor management relations, with a particular focus on the role of tripartism and the decentralization of collective bargaining. The vibrancy of the coordinating mechanisms that help shape employment conditions and labor policy contradicts the traditional belief that an overpowering unilateral decentralizing shift is underway in labor-management interactions. The contributors show that these mechanisms are in fact increasing in the face of intensified pressures, promoting greater flexibility in work organization and working time

Mathematical descriptions of nematic polymers in the monolayer limit

Monolayer films of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) are modeled with a two dimensional (2D) analog of the Doi-Hess (1981, 1976) kinetic model. In this dissertation, we focus on the analysis of the Doi-Hess Smoluchowski equation for the orientational distribution of LCPs, and an understanding of the distinctions which arise due to 2D confinement relative to results for full orientational space distributions. In Chapter 2, we study the mesoscopic model which approximates the Doi-Hess kinetic model, based on a second-moment closure. In this setting, we establish a more complete solution to the classical problem of how orientational degeneracy of quiescent nematic equilibria breaks in weak shear, and we determine the distinctions between two versus three dimensional sheared nematic-liquids. We give the first proof that limit cycles, known as tumbling orbits, must arise beyond the parameter boundary for the steady-unsteady transition. Finally, we show the shear-perturbed 2D phase diagram is significantly more robust to closure approximations than the 3D system. In Chapter 3, we solve a two dimensional Smoluchowski equation which is the extended Doi-Hess model for magnetic nano-rod dispersions in linear flows. We obtain closed-form representations of all steady state solutions in terms of Boltzmann distributions of the Smoluchowski equation. This method yields an exact, finite-dimensional reduction of the infinite-dimensional PDE, from which we construct bifurcation diagrams for all equilibria without external fields

A Novel CCA Attack for NTRU+ KEM

The KpqC competition has begun in 2022, that aims to standardize Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) in the Republic of Korea. Among the 16 submissions of the KpqC competition, the lattice-based schemes exhibit the most promising and balanced features in performance. In this paper, we propose an effective classical CCA attack to recover the transmitted session key for NTRU+, one of the lattice-based Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEM) proposed in the KpqC competition, for the first time. With the proposed attacks, we show that all the suggested parameters of NTRU+ do not satisfy the claimed security. We also suggest a way to modify the NTRU+ scheme to defend our attack

Printing of wirelessly rechargeable solid-state supercapacitors for soft, smart contact lenses with continuous operations

Recent advances in smart contact lenses are essential to the realization of medical applications and vision imaging for augmented reality through wireless communication systems. However, previous research on smart contact lenses has been driven by a wired system or wireless power transfer with temporal and spatial restrictions, which can limit their continuous use and require energy storage devices. Also, the rigidity, heat, and large sizes of conventional batteries are not suitable for the soft, smart contact lens. Here, we describe a human pilot trial of a soft, smart contact lens with a wirelessly rechargeable, solid-state supercapacitor for continuous operation. After printing the supercapacitor, all device components (antenna, rectifier, and light-emitting diode) are fully integrated with stretchable structures for this soft lens without obstructing vision. The good reliability against thermal and electromagnetic radiations and the results of the in vivo tests provide the substantial promise of future smart contact lenses

Stressors, Self-Esteem, Social Activities, and Depression: A Sample of Patients at a Federally Qualified Health Center Who Experienced Homelessness

This study examined the relationships between current stressors and depressive symptoms among Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) patients who experienced homelessness, with a particular focus on the role of self-esteem and social activities on these relationships. The sample included patients who visited any clinic site of a FQHC in the southern part of Mississippi and qualified for the Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Program. Assessments included the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the DUKE Health Profile, and a checklist of stressors. Results of the multivariate analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that ambulation difficulties were related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through social activities. SES-related stressors were related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through self-esteem and social activities. Relational and legal/police-related stressors were linked to depressive symptoms only through self-esteem. These results indicate the importance of integrated community healthcare services to address the physical, social, and mental healthcare needs of the homeless population

Person-Centredness In the Workplace: An Examination of Person-Centred Skills, Processes and Workplace Factors Among Medicaid Waiver Providers In the United States

Background: Existing research supports the effectiveness of person-centred practices in working with persons with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities, but less clear is the influence of workplace factors on the implementation and quality of person-centred practices. Aims: This article explores the influence of workplace factors on job satisfaction and on the implementation and quality of person-centred practices in healthcare agencies that provide home- and community-based services through a Medicaid waiver in Mississippi, a state in the southeastern United States. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to collect data via online surveys to explore the interrelationships among person-centred workplaces, job satisfaction and person-centred practices. Results: Path analysis reveals that a person-centred workplace influences both skill implementation and person-centred processes. Job satisfaction was significantly correlated to skill implementation and person-centred processes in bivariate analysis but was not detected in the path model. Conclusion: This study suggests that organisations may improve the provision of person-centred practices by investing in policies that create a person-centred workplace

Development and evaluation of gellan gum/silk fibroin/chondroitin sulfate ternary injectable hydrogel for cartilage tissue engineering

Hydrogel is in the spotlight as a useful biomaterial in the field of drug delivery and tissue engineering due to its similar biological properties to a native extracellular matrix (ECM). Herein, we proposed a ternary hydrogel of gellan gum (GG), silk fibroin (SF), and chondroitin sulfate (CS) as a biomaterial for cartilage tissue engineering. The hydrogels were fabricated with a facile combination of the physical and chemical crosslinking method. The purpose of this study was to find the proper content of SF and GG for the ternary matrix and confirm the applicability of the hydrogel in vitro and in vivo. The chemical and mechanical properties were measured to confirm the suitability of the hydrogel for cartilage tissue engineering. The biocompatibility of the hydrogels was investigated by analyzing the cell morphology, adhesion, proliferation, migration, and growth of articular chondrocytes-laden hydrogels. The results showed that the higher proportion of GG enhanced the mechanical properties of the hydrogel but the groups with over 0.75% of GG exhibited gelling temperatures over 40 °C, which was a harsh condition for cell encapsulation. The 0.3% GG/3.7% SF/CS and 0.5% GG/3.5% SF/CS hydrogels were chosen for the in vitro study. The cells that were encapsulated in the hydrogels did not show any abnormalities and exhibited low cytotoxicity. The biochemical properties and gene expression of the encapsulated cells exhibited positive cell growth and expression of cartilage-specific ECM and genes in the 0.5% GG/3.5% SF/CS hydrogel. Overall, the study of the GG/SF/CS ternary hydrogel with an appropriate content showed that the combination of GG, SF, and CS can synergistically promote articular cartilage defect repair and has considerable potential for application as a biomaterial in cartilage tissue engineering.This research was supported by the International Research and Development Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2017K1A3A7A03089427) and by the bilateral cooperation Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2019K2A9A1A06098563)

Lizard: Cut off the Tail! Practical Post-Quantum Public-Key Encryption from LWE and LWR

The LWE problem has been widely used in many constructions for post-quantum cryptography due to its strong security reduction from the worst-case of lattice hard problems and its lightweight operations. The PKE schemes based on the LWE problem have a simple and fast decryption, but the encryption phase is rather slow due to large parameter size for the leftover hash lemma or expensive Gaussian samplings. In this paper, we propose a novel PKE scheme, called Lizard, without relying on either of them. The encryption procedure of Lizard first combines several LWE samples as in the previous LWE-based PKEs, but the following step to re-randomize this combination before adding a plaintext is different: it removes several least significant bits of each component of the computed vector rather than adding an auxiliary error vector. Lizard is IND-CPA secure under the hardness assumptions of the LWE and LWR problems, and its variant achieves IND-CCA security in the quantum random oracle model. Our approach accelerates encryption speed to a large extent and also reduces the size of ciphertexts, and Lizard is very competitive for applications requiring fast encryption and decryption phases. In our single-core implementation on a laptop, the encryption and decryption of IND-CCA Lizard with 256-bit plaintext space under 128-bit quantum security take 0.014 and 0.027 milliseconds, which are comparable to those of NTRU. To achieve these results, we further take some advantages of sparse small secrets

Design of 6U Nanosatellites in Formation Flying for the Laser Crosslink Mission

With a recent growth in the volume of spaceborne data, free space optical (FSO) or laser communication systems are attracting attention, as they can enable super-high data rates faster than 1 Gbps. The Very high-speed Inter-satellite link Systems using Infrared Optical terminal and Nanosatellite (VISION) is a technical demonstration mission to establish and validate laser crosslink systems using two 6U nanosatellites in formation flying. The final goal is to achieve a Gbps-level data rate at a distance of thousands of kilometers. To establish space-to-space laser communication, the payload optical axes of each satellite should be precisely aligned during the crosslink. The payload is the laser communication terminal (LCT) including the deployable space telescope (DST), which improves optical link performances. The 6U nanosatellite bus is designed with commercial off-the shelf-(COTS) components for agile systems development. For precise formation flying, the bus is equipped a with relative navigation system with a GNSS receiver and RF crosslink, star tracker, 3-axis reaction wheels (RWs), and propulsion system. This proposed concept of the laser crosslink systems will contribute to the construction of the LEO communication constellation with high speed and secure links in future