Have the National Resources Inventories advanced conservation policy?

Background. Over the last three decades, the USDA's conservation policy has changed dramatically. Not only has the number of programs multiplied and the scope of issues expanded, but a once-casual link between commodity programs and conservation activities has been formalized. One reason for the changes may have been an effort within the USDA's conservation agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), to collect information on natural resource conditions through the National Resources Inventories (NRIs). In the 1970s, Congress mandated the NRIs and also a national agricultural-conservation appraisal and the development of a national program to devise conservation-policy recommendations. Together these mandates constituted the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA) appraisal process. The NRIs have been produced on a huge scale and through great effort, and they have evolved successfully over time. Recently formed Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) offered another opportunity to use the NRIs. But their integration into policy has been neither consistent nor smooth -- nor, heretofore, well understood. Question. Have the National Resources Inventories advanced conservation policy? Methods. I followed three policy layers over the last thirty-five years: the intra-agency dynamic that produced informational products; the USDA conservation-program structure, and the federal legislative branch in its policy-making dimension. In all, I interviewed over 40 experts, looked through nearly 800 speeches, reviewed 47 Congressional hearings, analyzed dozens of databases, and relied on hundreds of internal documents. Conclusion. Yes, the National Resources Inventories have advanced conservation policy. However, NRI influence has been directly unambiguous only once. NRI influence has mostly been through the RCA, and it has been greatest when support has been high at both agency and USDA levels, when participation from constituent USDA agencies and other federal agencies has been enthusiastic, when willingness to restructure programs according to actual findings has been ascendent, and when Congress members have been hearing about NRI results from many sources

Проявление климатических изменений в ледовом режиме Ладожского озера за последние 55 лет

The article presents results of monitoring changes in some phenological characteristics of the ice cover of Lake Ladoga over the past 55 years. A steady tendency has been observed for a decrease in the duration of ice formation and the area of fast ice since the beginning of the 90s. A comparison is made of the average spatial patterns of ice formation dynamics between the periods 1964–1994 and 1993–2019. Since the beginning of the 90s, there has been a change in the ice characteristics of Lake Ladoga, directly related to a reduction in the duration of the cold period. The duration of ice events averaged over the past 30 years has decreased by about a month compared with the previous thirty-year period. Fast ice began to cover only 30% of the lake surface compared to 80% in previous years. The frequency of winters with incomplete freeze-up (remaining ice free areas) increased from two to six years per decade. The warming effect is most clearly seen in the central part of the lake. Such significant changes in the dynamics of ice phenology cannot but affect the functioning of the entire ecosystem of Lake Ladoga.Представлены изменения некоторых фенологических характеристик ледяного покрова Ладожского озера за последние 55 лет. Установлена устойчивая тенденция уменьшения продолжительности ледообразования и площади припая с начала 1990-х годов, что связано с сокращением продолжительности холодного периода. Выполненное сравнение осреднённых пространственных закономерностей динамики ледообразования за периоды 1964–1994 и 1993–2019  гг. с перекрытием в один год позволило выявить уменьшение во второй период примерно на месяц по сравнению с первым 30-летним периодом средней продолжительности сплошного ледостава

Evaluation of efficiency of rotary friction welding in obtaining joints from corrosion and heat resistant steel

The efficiency of using rotary friction welding in obtaining joints from 20Cr13 steel has been evaluated. For this purpose, test samples with welded joint and from the base metal were made, and then microstructure studies and tensile tests were carried out. As part of the microstructure study, the structure of the welded joint metal and base metal was determined. As a result of tensile tests, the tensile strength, relative elongation after rupture, and fracture area were determined for the base metal and welded joint specimens. These tests have shown that friction welding can produce joints without the use of heating during welding

О зависимости процесса ледообразования в Ладожском озере от температуры воздуха

The purpose of the work was to establish regularities of the ice formation in the largest European Lake Ladoga depending on the air temperature. The average daily air temperatures obtained at the Sortavala weather station for thirty years were used for the analysis. The main task was to determine the sums of accumulated average daily air temperatures necessary for the appearance of primary ice phenomena in areas with different depths of the Lake. To solve this problem digitized remote sensing data of the spatial distribution of ice in the fixed cells with known average depth and data on average daily air temperatures were used. For thirty last winters, the dates of the first ice appearance in each of 180 cells were selected, which were related to the accumulated to this date sum of mean daily air temperatures after its steady transition through 0°С towards the negative values. The resulting scheme of the accumulated sums of air temperatures needed for the ice appearance indicates their regular growth with increasing depth. It is assumed that this dependence will make it possible to assess dynamics of ice formation on other lakes.Приведены дистанционные данные о распределении льда на акватории Ладожского озера за последние тридцать зим. По данным метеостанции Сортавала подсчитывались накопления льда после устойчивого перехода через 0°C в сторону отрицательных значений суммы среднесуточных температур воздуха. Получена схема продвижения кромки льда при замерзании озера в зависимости от накопленной суммы среднесуточных температур воздуха

Application of alternative technologies in repair of rolled and welded tube to tubesheet joints

The article proposes a technology of repair of composite (i.e. obtained by welding and expanding) tube to tubesheet joints of heatexchanging apparatuses using friction welding operations devoid of heat treatment. The objective of the investigation was to determine the influence of using the proposed technology for repairing the composite joints made of 15Cr5Mo steel on the properties of the joint. Samples made by different technologies were tested for strength and tightness. The result of the study was the confirmation of compliance of the characteristics of the samples made by the proposed technology with the samples made by the currently widely used technology utilizes arc welding

Efficiency of modern geoinformation technologies application at survey works designing on inland waterways of Russia

Survey works on inland waterways can be contingently divided into two directions. The first ones are directed at maintaining the given dimensions of the waterway and are carried out with the use of technical fleet vessels, which includes the dredging fleet. At the same time the basis creation, the results verification and the control of the survey works implementation are carried out by the survey party. The main types of work here are surveying and trawling works, the implementation of which is carried out at the present time on the inland waterways of Russia using geo information technologies, which makes it possible to improve the quality and efficiency of their realization. Such an approach, firstly, has a positive effect on the implementation of the navigational hydrographic support system of navigators, including in the part of electronic cartography, and secondly, it allows to provide the survey works realization at the modern level. The most effective approaches and methods of modern geo information technologies application, implemented for the collection and processing of high-precision bathymetric information and positioning data to ensure the navigation safety on the inland waterways of the Russian Federation, are considered in the paper

Fundamentals of training navigators of ships flying foreign flags when entering the inland waterways of the Russian Federation

Navigation on inland waterways, such as rivers, canals, fairways via reservoirs and lakes is performed under conditions of a minimum under the keel clearance, hydrodynamic interaction between the ship's hull and underwater limits of the fairway, and the impact of irregular currents. Piloting a ship difficult navigational conditions requires the navigator to monitor continuously the ship’s motion, assess quickly the situation and develop optimal decision for ship handling, have sufficient navigational experience and a large amount of practical knowledge. To achieve a high level of qualification, the training of navigators is carried out in several ways at once - general and particular pilotage, organization of navigation safety and the theoretical foundations of ship handling. Lack of theoretical or practical knowledge can lead to wrong assessment of navigation situation and therefore be considered as factor limiting passage of vessel and navigational safety. The article contains analysis of inland waterways navigation particulars as basis of training for navigators of ships flying foreign flags when entering the inland waterways of the Russian Federation to reduce influence of limiting factors and support the navigational safety

Adaptive Method for Estimating Traffic Characteristics in Corporate Multi-Service Communication Networks for Transport Companies

An adaptive method for estimation the traffic characteristics in high-speed corporate multiservice networks based on the methods of preliminary indistinct computer training, functioning in real time mode, is proposed and investigated in this paper. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that many processes of network management in high-speed corporate multiservice communication networks need to be implemented in a mode close to real time. The approach proposed in the paper is based on the concept of conditional nonlinear Pareto-optimal filtering V. C. Pugachev. The essence of this approach consists in the fact that estimation of the traffic parameter is performed in two stages - on the first stage the parameter value prediction is estimated, and on the second stage, when the next parameter observations are received, the parameter values are corrected. In the proposed method and algorithm, predictions of traffic parameter values are made in a small sliding window, and adaptation is implemented based on pseudo-gradient procedures whose parameters are adjusted using the Takagi-Sugeno indistinct logic inference method. The proposed method and algorithm belong to the class of adaptive methods and algorithms with prior learning. The average relative error of the estimated traffic parameters estimation does not exceed 8.2%, which is a sufficient value for the implementation of operational network management tasks