Search

This paper introduces the recent European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) quality-assurance efforts at instrument level. Within two dedicated campaigns and five single-site intercomparison activities, 21 EARLINET systems from 18 EARLINET stations were intercompared between 2009 and 2013. A comprehensive strategy for campaign setup and data evaluation has been established. Eleven systems from nine EARLINET stations participated in the EARLINET Lidar Intercomparison 2009 (EARLI09). In this campaign, three reference systems were qualified which served as traveling standards thereafter. EARLINET systems from nine other stations have been compared against these reference systems since 2009. We present and discuss comparisons at signal and at product level from all campaigns for more than 100 individual measurement channels at the wavelengths of 355, 387, 532, and 607 nm. It is shown that in most cases, a very good agreement of the compared systems with the respective reference is obtained. Mean signal deviations in predefined height ranges are typically below ±2 %. Particle backscatter and extinction coefficients agree within ±2 × 10−4 km−1 sr−1 and ± 0.01 km−1, respectively, in most cases. For systems or channels that showed larger discrepancies, an in-depth analysis of deficiencies was performed and technical solutions and upgrades were proposed and realized. The intercomparisons have reinforced confidence in the EARLINET data quality and allowed us to draw conclusions on necessary system improvements for some instruments and to identify major challenges that need to be tackled in the future.

This paper is focused on the means of transforming Trinity Sunday and attempts to “reinvent” this festival into the Russian Birch festival. In late 50s of the 20th century in a burst of the anticlerical campaign, the Soviet festival committees were concerned with creating new secular rituals, and anti-religious analogues of festivals, which would be able to get rid of ingrained “popular Orthodoxy”. The modes of performing the meaningful core of Trinity Sunday are a subject of this research, and theatrical and methodological scenario-based experience in holding the Russian Birch festival is an object. This research is based on numerous methodological guidelines, scenarios, reviews, and transcripts of relevant committees, which made it possible to shed light on complicated processes of generating a new festival. This paper represents the way, in which heroic and plot and compositional framework of original Trinity Sunday was being substituted. This research results in the following: in spite of the anticlerical position being declared, which had constituted the basis for the substitution of Trinity Sunday for the Russian Birch festival, in fact, the newly “invented” festival duplicated the basic functions and elements of the trinitarian concept and was within the framework of Trinity Sunday in terms of archetype. Moreover, the association with commemoration of the dead appropriate to Trinity was reflected in a cult of a heroic death of a soldier of the Soviet Army and updating of other cultural agendas.

Non-banking financial institutions, which include credit unions, is a important tool for solving the social and financial problems of the categories of people who are most in need. The credit cooperation movement is an important component of the social economy, as it contributes to the self-organization of people and the formation of civil society. The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence and significance of credit unions in the development of the country's economy and the well-being of its households, to identify trends in their development in the world and in Ukraine, to justify the conditions necessary for the manifestation of positive quantitative and qualitative changes in their activities. The historical background of the development of credit unions and the direction of their further evolution were disclosed. The functions of modern credit unions were determined. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative changes occurring in the activity of credit unions in Ukraine and in the world was carry out, and the factors that caused them were identified. In 2017, the average-statistical Ukrainian credit union totaled about 1490 members; thus, it was not numerous compared to the world average – 2920 members. It was determined that the credit unions, which have more members, are more resistant to the effects of negative factors. The structure of the loan portfolio of credit unions has remained virtually unchanged for many years, while the structure of the deposit portfolio tends to improve due to an increase in the share of long-term deposits. It was revealed that after an eight-year recession, in 2017 the stage of a gradual rise in the development of credit unions of Ukraine began. This trend may continue in subsequent years if: there will be no crisis situations in the economy; the problem of guaranteeing deposits of members of credit unions will be solved; the financial competence of managers and members of credit unions will rise; state and self-governing organizations will conduct the effective control over the financial condition of credit unions.

Since 1998, issues regarding wildlife conservation and transportation planning and development in the State of Vermont have become part of a rigorous collaborative effort between the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department (Department) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (Vtrans). In recent years, these efforts have become increasingly sophisticated and more broadly applied throughout the state to understand better the inherent conflicts and strategies for improving wildlife movement, reducing wildlife mortality, and improving the safety of the traveling public. Given the growing investment of interest and resources by these state agencies, it is necessary to identify potentially significant wildlife-linkage habitat (WLH) throughout the state. Such information would allow for these agencies to make informed decisions regarding the conservation of important WLH and investments for mitigation of impacts associated with transportation such as underpasses, land conservation, and other measures. Geographic Information System (GIS)-based models have been developed in other states and in Canada to identify potentially significant WLH. Many of these projects have relied on landscape-level GIS data such as development density, habitat conditions, topography, among others. This project was designed to develop a GIS-based analysis using landscape-scale data to identify or predict the location of potentially significant WLHs associated with state roads throughout Vermont. This project relied on available GIS data including: (a) land-use and land-cover data; (b) development- density data; and (c) contiguous-habitat data (unfragmented habitat). The GIS conserved lands data was also used as a way of analyzing the feasibility for conserving or ranking potentially significant WLHs identified as a result of this project. These data were classified according to their relative significance with respect to creating potential WLH. The elements that comprise the overall GIS data layers were ranked in accordance with their relative significance to creating potential WLH. In addition, we developed a comprehensive, centralized database of all wildlife road mortality, wildlife road crossing, and related habitat data for all species for which data exists throughout the state of Vermont. This involved updating an existing database developed for a complimentary project designed to compile all existing data on black bear road mortality, road crossing, and significant habitats. It also included incorporating all data on moose collisions and deer collisions. In addition, new databases were created to record existing bobcat, amphibian, and reptile information. In order to expand and improve wildlife road-mortality data, this project developed a partnership with VTrans field staff enabling them to record a new array of wildlife road-mortality information in a consistent and reliable fashion. The analysis, in conjunction with the newly updated wildlife road-mortality data, provides a scientifically based, planning tool that will assist both agencies in understanding and improving their abilities to conserve wildlife in Vermont with respect to transportation planning, permitting, and issues regarding secondary growth.

During fieldwork for the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas Project, a population of Eastern Racers (Coluber constrictor) was found utilizing a parcel of state land managed by the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) in southeastern Vermont along Interstate 91. This species was thought to have been extirpated from Vermont for nearly 20 years. Until 2003, the last positively identified Racer in Vermont was a road-killed specimen in Putney in 1985. But the recent discovery along I-91, resulting in the species being listed as State Threatened in Vermont, proves that a few hardy individuals are making their way back to the northern fringes of their geographic range. To date, a minimum of eight individuals have been identified in Vermont, and researchers feel that this is a very encouraging sign that the Racer is making a comeback in Vermont.

Wildlife movement and related road crossing strategies are becoming an increasingly important factor in the development of transportation projects in Vermont – whether these projects involve reconstruction on existing alignment or new construction. The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) and the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife (VDFW) have identified wildlife movement and habitat connectivity as important factors to consider in the transportation project development process from three perspectives: human safety, environmental stewardship, and fiscal responsibility. Moreover, we have begun to construct wildlife crossing structures, in collaboration with VDFW, in some recent transportation projects. Unfortunately, there is a lack of wildlife road crossing data to support the inclusion, location, design, and construction of these crossings in many parts of the state. Currently, much of the information that is used in the design and location of wildlife crossing structures is from an existing database of road crossing and road mortality information for white-tailed deer, moose and black bear that is maintained by the VDFW. To assist in making, and implementing, these sometimes very expensive project decisions, VTrans desires to have a resource review team to gather wildlife movement, habitat and road mortality data relevant to specific projects. VTrans, in collaboration with VDFW, Keeping Track, Inc., and Jim Andrews of Middlebury College, has developed an inter-agency Wildlife Crossing Team. The primary objective of this initiative is to develop a data gathering protocol to assess habitat fragmented or otherwise affected by Vermont roads, and to train a group of VTrans staff to utilize that protocol as a project planning tool. The goal of this effort is to gather sufficient data regarding wildlife movement and habitat conditions, in the early stages of the transportation project development process, to make substantive recommendations, in conjunction with VDFW, to project managers and designers so that wildlife movement and ecological connectivity can be considered in the design and construction of appropriate VTrans projects. Through this process wildlife movement and habitat connectivity can become an integral part of the environmental review process at VTrans – similar to how historic, archaeological, and other natural resources are considered. It is hoped that this effort will take wildlife movement and habitat connectivity beyond an issue of compliance and become a more standard consideration for transportation projects in Vermont where appropriate. This paper will discuss the development of this inter-agency wildlife crossing team.

In this paper, in the special setting of a Riemannian foliation en- dowed with a bundle-like metric, we obtain conditions that force the vanishing of the kernel of the basic Dirac operator associated to the metric; this way we extend the traditional setting of Riemannian foli- ations with basic-harmonic mean curvature, where Bochner technique and vanishing results are known to work. Beside classical conditions concerning the positivity of some curvature terms we obtain new rela- tions between the mean curvature form and the kernel of the basic Dirac operator