Wage effects of works councils and opening clauses: the German case

"German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system. First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry-level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment-level, the works council is responsible for employer - employee negotiations. However, since the mid-1980s, an increasing number of areas of regulation have been transferred from the industry- to the establishment-level using so-called opening clauses. The analysis in this article relies on rich German establishment data and reveals new insights into the institutional machinery of wage bargaining. While the existence of such clauses is related to higher wages, their application results in wage cuts of roughly the same size. The results also suggest that works councils, on average, are able to prevent the negative wage effects of opening clauses." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)

Observation of Spin Wave Soliton Fractals in Magnetic Film Active Feedback Rings

The manifestation of fractals in soliton dynamics has been observed for the first time. The experiment utilized self-generated spin wave envelope solitons in a magnetic film based active feedback ring. At high ring gain, the soliton that circulates in the ring breathes in a fractal pattern. The corresponding power frequency spectrum shows a comb structure, with each peak in the comb having its own comb, and so on, to finer and finer scales.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Microstructure identification via detrended fluctuation analysis of ultrasound signals

We describe an algorithm for simulating ultrasound propagation in random one-dimensional media, mimicking different microstructures by choosing physical properties such as domain sizes and mass densities from probability distributions. By combining a detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) of the simulated ultrasound signals with tools from the pattern-recognition literature, we build a Gaussian classifier which is able to associate each ultrasound signal with its corresponding microstructure with a very high success rate. Furthermore, we also show that DFA data can be used to train a multilayer perceptron which estimates numerical values of physical properties associated with distinct microstructures.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Plasmon reflections by topological electronic boundaries in bilayer graphene

Domain walls separating regions of AB and BA interlayer stacking in bilayer graphene have attracted attention as novel examples of structural solitons, topological electronic boundaries, and nanoscale plasmonic scatterers. We show that strong coupling of domain walls to surface plasmons observed in infrared nanoimaging experiments is due to topological chiral modes confined to the walls. The optical transitions among these chiral modes and the band continua enhance the local ac conductivity, which leads to plasmon reflection by the domain walls. The imaging reveals two kinds of plasmonic standing-wave interference patterns, which we attribute to shear and tensile domain walls. We compute the electronic structure of both wall varieties and show that the tensile wall contain additional confined bands which produce a structure-specific contrast of the local conductivity. The calculated plasmonic interference profiles are in quantitative agreement with our experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

RECRUITMENT OF WINTER TICKS (DERMACENTOR ALBIPICTUS) IN CONTRASTING FOREST HABITATS, ONTARIO, CANADA

Recruitment of winter tick larvae (Dermacentor albipictus) was studied in a forest opening and a closed canopy deciduous forest to evaluate their potential as sources of tick infestation to moose (Alces alces). Engorged female ticks were set out in early May at each site and monitored to measure the proportions of females producing larvae and the number of larvae recruited per g of surviving female. Recruitment was higher in the forest during the hotter, drier summer of 1983, primarily due to fewer engorged females producing larvae in the opening, and was much higher (>2 x) in the opening during the cooler, damper summer of 1984. Recruitment in the field was 20–40% of that under laboratory conditions. Desiccation of eggs and/or larvae was the probable cause for the annual variation in recruitment in the opening. Most larvae were recruited earlier in the opening than in the forest site. Neither weight nor date of detachment of engorged female ticks influenced when larvae first ascended vegetation. Weather, especially temperature, and site structure and composition affect abundance of the free-living stages of the winter tick and larvae available for transmission to moose. Open sites should support more winter tick larvae than densely forested sites except in years of particularly hot and dry weather

HATS-3b: An inflated hot Jupiter transiting an F-type star

We report the discovery by the HATSouth survey of HATS-3b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting a V=12.4 F-dwarf star. HATS-3b has a period of P = 3.5479d, mass of Mp = 1.07MJ, and radius of Rp = 1.38RJ. Given the radius of the planet, the brightness of the host star, and the stellar rotational velocity (vsini = 9.0km/s), this system will make an interesting target for future observations to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and determine its spin-orbit alignment. We detail the low/medium-resolution reconnaissance spectroscopy that we are now using to deal with large numbers of transiting planet candidates produced by the HATSouth survey. We show that this important step in discovering planets produces logg and Teff parameters at a precision suitable for efficient candidate vetting, as well as efficiently identifying stellar mass eclipsing binaries with radial velocity semi-amplitudes as low as 1 km/s.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A

Management Changes and Strategies to Improve the Environmental Services from Grasslands in Northern China and Mongolia

The grasslands of Mongolia and northern China are part of the vast Eurasian grasslands that extend from east Asia to eastern Europe, with many common problems. Grassland degradation and herder livelihoods in the steppe regions of China and Mongolia are widely acknowledged as major issues that need to be improved. The core problem is too many animals are now grazing grasslands, initially driven by significant policy changes, and decisions that assumed more animals would lift herder incomes. Problems are accentuated by poorly defined property rights over the land. The effectiveness of current Government Programs aimed at reducing grazing pressures has been questioned, especially for their ability to deliver better environmental outcomes without impacting herder livelihoods. This panel session examines ways to understand the opportunities for improvement of grasslands. This first paper outlines some general aspects of the pastoral sectors, and management responses and strategies that can improve the services from grasslands