The strange non-death of employer and business associations : an analysis of their representativeness and activities in Western European countries.

Against the background that corporatism is on the decline in recent decades, one could expect that the representativeness of employer and business associations is also declining. In this article it is argued and shown that, contrary to this expectation, this decline is not observable for employer and business associations. So the question arises as to whether employer and business associations are simply relics of a different era with no longer any purpose. Using a cross-national approach it is shown that by adapting their organizational structure as well as their activities to the changing needs of business, employer and business organizations are as ‘strong’ and active nowadays as ever

A foam model highlights the differences of the macro- and microrheology of respiratory horse mucus

Native horse mucus is characterized with micro- and macrorheology and compared to hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) gel as a model. Both systems show comparable viscoelastic properties on the microscale and for the HEC the macrorheology is in good agreement with the microrheology. For the mucus, the viscoelastic moduli on the macroscale are several orders of magnitude larger than on the microscale. Large amplitude oscillatory shear experiments show that the mucus responds nonlinearly at much smaller deformations than HEC. This behavior fosters the assumption that the mucus has a foam like structure on the microscale compared to the typical mesh like structure of the HEC, a model that is supported by cryogenic-scanning-electron-microscopy (CSEM) images. These images allow also to determine the relative amount of volume that is occupied by the pores and the scaffold. Consequently, we can estimate the elastic modulus of the scaffold. We conclude that this particular foam like microstructure should be considered as a key factor for the transport of particulate matter which plays a central role in mucus function with respect to particle penetration. The mesh properties composed of very different components are responsible for macroscopic and microscopic behavior being part of particles fate after landing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Material

The Strange Non-Death of Employer and Business Associations: An Analysis of their Representativeness and Activities in Western European Countries

Against the background that corporatism is on the decline in recent decades, one could expect that the representativeness of employer and business associations is also declining. In this article it is argued and shown that, contrary to this expectation, this decline is not observable for employer and business associations. So the question arises as to whether employer and business associations are simply relics of a different era with no longer any purpose. Using a cross-national approach it is shown that by adapting their organizational structure as well as their activities to the changing needs of business, employer and business organizations are as ‘strong’ and active nowadays as ever