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Recent evidence documents an increased interest among American workers in joining a union. At the same time, there is revived debate among labor scholars, union leaders, politicians, and activists over what forms of labor representation are best suited to meet the needs of the contemporary workforce. Yet little is known about what contemporary workers have to say about these debates. This article draws on a conjoint survey experiment fielded on a nationally representative sample of more than 4,000 employees to explore the forms of representation workers want and are willing to support by paying dues. The authors compare interest in the forms of labor representation that are currently being debated. Results show that while workers value traditional collective bargaining, they would be even more willing to join and financially support organizations currently unavailable under US law and practice. The authors use these results to draw implications for the labor movement, worker advocacy groups, and the future of labor law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a method to control the vibration of mobile manipulator on the vertical direction. When the mobile manipulation moves on uneven road, the road disturbance affects the manipulation system. It is important to suppress the disturbance for the stability of manipulation system. The vibration damping control method of a simplified double inverted pendulum model is designed to suppress vertical disturbance. In the double inverted pendulum model, the system matrix contains parameter uncertainty due to the simplification of the model. To control this system, we use static output feedback with min-max control. By using the static output feedback with min-max control, the desired closed-loop stability can be achieved while effectively suppressing disturbance even in the presence of system uncertainty. We measure the actual road disturbance by using an accelerometer. In the simulation, we prove the measured ground disturbance is successfully suppressed by using our control method and demonstrated effectiveness of proposed control method through comparative simulations with LQR control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we consider a scenario in which a boarding-type personal mobility (BPM) unit navigates in a mixed environment with pedestrians. The BPM unit passenger is expected to pass pedestrians in a smooth manner without imparting anxiety to them. This is accomplished by selecting appropriate paths on a successively updated map of the surrounding environment. Based on a model that simulates a pedestrian's path selection behavior, we design and investigate a path selection method that avoids sudden behavior changes in the BPM unit, which may cause apprehensiveness to the passenger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the composition method of a model based feedforward and sensor based feedback control realization of a mobile robot that has high center of gravity. The robot is comprised of a mobile base, which has two active wheels for locomotion, and body, which has a pitch and roll actuator connected to the mobile base. In this type of a mobile robot, the stabilization (against tip over) problem takes an important role in high performance mobility realization. The control method is explained from the viewpoint of controlling ZMP (Zero moment point). The composition control method (Model based feed-forward control and sensor based feedback control) is proposed and verified experimentally. The mobile robot's (weighs about 96kg) mobility performance with 2m/s speed and 1m/s acceleration was achieved using this approach. In addition, the sensor based feedback controller contributes to increasing stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the mechanical design of the huggable robot Probo. Its intentions include human-robot interaction (HRI), both physical and cognitive, with a special focus on children. Since most of the communication passes through nonverbal cues and since people rely on face-to-face communication, the focus of Probo's communicative skills lies initially on facial expressions. The robot has 20 high-precision motors in its head and body. They are used to actuate the ears, eyebrows, eyelids, eyes, trunk, mouth, and neck. To build safety aspects intrinsically in the robot's hardware, all the motors are linked with flexible components. In case of a collision, the robot will be elastic and safety will be ensured. The mechanics of Probo are covered by protecting plastic shells, foam, and soft fur. This gives Probo's animal-like look and makes the robot huggable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A retrospective endoscopic follow-up study was conducted to elucidate the development of minute or superficial-type cancers. The development of eight colorectal cancers that were followed up by endoscopy was evaluated. (i) Cancer with high-grade atypia frequently developed from lesions diagnosed histologically by biopsy as adenoma; (ii) two polypoid adenomas developed into invasive cancers with non-polypoid configuration; (iii) a superficial elevated-type cancer with high-grade atypia remained a mucosal cancer for more than 1 year; (iv) a superficial depressed (SD)-type cancer that had a concomitant adenomatous component grew slowly, maintaining the same configuration for more than 2 years. Another SD-type cancer grew rapidly to an advanced cancer; and (v) a superficial elevated adenoma developed into a IIa + IIc-type submucosally invasive cancer while maintaining the size of the initial tumor. From the analysis of the literature, 35 lesions were collected, but it was impossible to speculate which specific type of tumor grew rapidly. From the endoscopic observations of the present study and the review of the literature, developments of superficial type cancers were diverse, sessile-type cancers with marked configurational change, and early cancers developed slowly, although the speed of their growth accelerated according to the downward invasion of the cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]