Geographic applications of ERTS-1 data to landscape change

The analysis of landscape change requires large area coverage on a periodic basis in order to analyze aggregate changes over an extended period of time. To date, only the ERTS program can provide this capability. Three avenues of experimentation and analysis are being used in the investigation: (1) a multi-scale sampling procedure utilizing aircraft imagery for ground truth and control; (2) a densitometric and computer analytical experiment for the analysis of gray tone signatures, comparisons and ultimately for landscape change detection and monitoring; and (3) an ERTS image enhancement procedure for the detection and analysis of photomorphic regions

The verification of LANDSAT data in the geographical analysis of wetlands in western Tennessee

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Pedestrian Prediction by Planning using Deep Neural Networks

Accurate traffic participant prediction is the prerequisite for collision avoidance of autonomous vehicles. In this work, we predict pedestrians by emulating their own motion planning. From online observations, we infer a mixture density function for possible destinations. We use this result as the goal states of a planning stage that performs motion prediction based on common behavior patterns. The entire system is modeled as one monolithic neural network and trained via inverse reinforcement learning. Experimental validation on real world data shows the system's ability to predict both, destinations and trajectories accurately

3. Wochenbericht M66/2b

METEOR 66/2b Corinto - Caldera Wochenberichte Dritter Wochenbericht, 16.10 –23.10. 200

1. Wochenbericht M66/2a

METEOR 66/2a Curacao – Corinto Wochenberichte Erster Wochenbericht, 22.9 – 25.9. 200

1. Wochenbericht M66/2a

METEOR 66/2a Curacao – Corinto Wochenberichte Erster Wochenbericht, 22.9 – 25.9. 200

Institutional change in the German wage bargaining system: The role of big companies

Despite the emergence of new production systems, Europeanization and economic internationalization, the national arrangements of wage bargaining systems have not been eroded. The paper highlights the factors that counteract the pressures for a straightforward decentralization with reference to Germany. Firstly, the maintenance of peaceful labour relations is a major advantage for big companies in centralized wage bargaining systems. Secondly, big companies have been able to achieve labour cost control and the differentiation of working conditions by drawing up pacts for employment and competitiveness at the company level. Thirdly, they have succeeded in introducing a higher degree of flexibility into the collective agreement framework. The main argument will be that institutional change has taken other forms than expected. Whereas the formal institutional setting has remained relatively stable, the functioning of the German wage bargaining system has changed. -- Trotz der Verbreitung neuer Produktionssysteme, der Europäisierung und der wirtschaftlichen Internationalisierung sind nationale Tarifverhandlungssysteme in den meisten Ländern stabil geblieben. Dieses Working Paper hebt am Beispiel Deutschlands die Faktoren hervor, die dem Dezentralisierungsdruck entgegen wirken. Für Großunternehmen ist auch unter veränderten Bedingungen die Vermeidung von Konflikten einer der Hauptvorteile zentraler Tarifverhandlungssysteme. In dem gegebenen institutionellen Rahmen haben Unternehmen Möglichkeiten gefunden, über Standortsicherungsvereinbarungen auf Unternehmensebene die Arbeitsorganisation zu flexibilisieren und Arbeitskosten zu senken. Zudem konnten sie Tarifverträge flexibler gestalten und Öffnungsmöglichkeiten einfügen. Als Ergebnis wird festgehalten, dass institutionelle Veränderungen andere Formen angenommen haben als erwartet. Während die formalen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen verhältnismäßig stabil geblieben sind, hat sich die Funktionsweise des deutschen Tarifverhandlungssystems verändert.

In situ benthic fluxes from an intermittently active mud volcano at the Costa Rica convergent margin

Along the erosive convergent margin off Costa Rica a large number of mound-shaped structures exist built by mud diapirism or mud volcanism. One of these, Mound 12, an intermittently active mud volcano, currently emits large amounts of aqueous dissolved species and water. Chemosynthetic vent communities, authigenic carbonates, and methane plumes in the water column are manifestations of that activity. Benthic flux measurements were obtained by a video-guided Benthic Chamber Lander (BCL) deployed at a vent site located in the most active part of Mound 12. The lander was equipped with 4 independent chambers covering adjacent areas of the seafloor. Benthic fluxes were recorded by repeated sampling of the enclosed bottom waters while the underlying surface sediments were recovered with the lander after a deployment time of one day. One of the chambers was placed directly in the centre of an active vent marked by the occurrence of a bacterial mat while the other chambers were located at the fringe of the same vent system at a lateral distance of only 40 cm. A transport-reaction model was developed and applied to describe the concentration profiles in the pore water of the recovered surface sediments and the temporal evolution of the enclosed bottom water. Repeated model runs revealed that the best fit to the pore water and benthic chamber data is obtained with a flow velocity of 10 cm yr− 1 at the centre of the vent. The flux rates to the bottom water are strongly modified by the benthic turnover (benthic filter). The methane flux from below at the bacterial mat site is as high as 1032 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1, out of which 588 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1 is oxidised in the surface sediments by microbial consortia using sulphate as terminal electron acceptor and 440 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1 are seeping into the overlaying bottom water. Sulphide is transported to the surface by ascending fluids (238 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1) and is formed within the surface sediment by the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM, 588 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1). However, sulphide is not released into the bottom water but completely oxidized by oxygen and nitrate at the sediment/water interface. The oxygen and nitrate fluxes into the sediment are high (781 and 700 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1, respectively) and are mainly driven by the microbial oxidation of sulphide. Benthic fluxes were much lower in the other chambers placed in the fringe of the vent system. Thus, methane and oxygen fluxes of only 28 and 89 μmol cm− 2 yr− 1, respectively were recorded in one of these chambers. Our study shows that the aerobic oxidation of methane is much less efficient than the anaerobic oxidation of methane so that methane which is not oxidized within the sediment by AOM is almost completely released into the bottom water. Hence, anaerobic rather than aerobic methane oxidation plays the major role in the regulation of benthic methane fluxes. Moreover, we demonstrate that methane and oxygen fluxes at cold vent sites may vary up to 3 orders of magnitude over a lateral distance of only 40 cm indicating an extreme focussing of fluid flow and methane release at the seafloor