Ukrainians in Belarus: distribution and ethnolinguistic processes

The article analyzes the distribution and ethnolinguistic processes in the environment of the Ukrainian diaspora in Belarus. Because of the fact that the part of Ukrainian ethnic territory (currently Brest region) is located in Belarus, not all Ukrainians living in the country can be correctly named a diaspora. To avoiding terminology-related complications, in the article we use the general term Ukrainian diaspora. The study is based on the results of censuses conducted in Belarus after 1991. The article analyzes the ethnic environment of residence of the Ukrainian diaspora based on the ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic criteria of the censuses. In particular, using mathematical and statistical methods of analysis of the ethnic composition of the country’s population, we estimated such indicators as the index of ethnic diversity, ethnic mosaic, socio-ethnic density, etc. These indicators were estimated for districts and the largest cities of Belarus, taking into account the largest ethnic groups living in the country. The result of these estimations was the creation of a number of thematic maps that complement the article. The study highlights the areas of compact residence of Ukrainians, identifies districts and cities where the number of Ukrainians changed the most and the least during the inter-census periods of 1999–2009 and 2009–2019. The dynamics of the number and settlement of Ukrainians in the Ukrainian ethnic territories is analyzed. In this context, it was found that in addition to the Brest region, there is a dense concentration of Ukrainians in the capital, major cities of the country, a number of district centers in the southwestern part of the country. It was determined that the share of Ukrainians living in cities is growing. The growth rate of the number of Ukrainians for the period between 2009 and 2019 in the largest cities of the country ranges from + 7% (Mogilev) to 77.45% (Novopolotsk). It was found that the country is monoethnic in its ethnic composition based on the analysis of a number of indicators related to the ethnic composition of the population of Belarus. A more diverse ethnic composition of the population and therefore higher rates were recorded in large cities and areas densely populated with individual ethnic groups (Russians, Poles and Ukrainians). The Ukrainian diaspora in the country is undergoing processes of Russification, the share of Ukrainians who indicate Ukrainian as their mother tongue is declining. The share of Ukrainians whose native language is Belarusian is also declining. That is, it can be argued that Russification affects not only Ukrainians in Belarus, but also the Belarusians themselves. The research also revealed that villagers are more resistant to language assimilation,and Ukrainians in cities most often indicate Russian as their native language.

Life quality as an indicator of sustainable development: international statistical research

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the methodology for determining the European quality of life index. The theoretical and methodological basis of research is the ideas of the interdependence of life quality and sustainable development. To achieve the desired goal, the following research methods were used: analysis and synthesis (for determining theoretical and practical aspects of ensuring the life quality); statistical (for determining standardized indicators and a European Quality of Life Index for Sweden and Ukraine); abstract-logical (for theoretical summarization and conclusion). As a result, the authors created the European Quality of Life Index based on the comparison of the characteristics of international life quality assessment systems (calculation principle, number and composition of indicators, number of countries covered for calculation), as well as systematization of research by Ukrainian and foreign authors. Therefore, the authors selected twelve main indicators. The indicators are divided into two groups: stimulants (prosperity index, basic human needs index, welfare bases, availability of nutrition and basic health care, GDP per capita, population, global competitiveness index, personal security, access to basic knowledge, ecosystem status) and disincentive (government debt, unemployment). To determine the “European life quality index”, the authors used the formula for calculating the arithmetic mean, as all selected indicators can be considered equivalent as a result of standardization by the method of “minimum- maximum”. In addition, for in-depth analysis, the authors calculated the growth rates of indicators, as well as coefficients of variation. The authors made calculations based on data of 2013–2019 for two countries, namely Sweden and Ukraine. Sweden occupies a much better position in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, so studying the impact of life quality on sustainable development in this country will suggest ways to achieve the chosen strategic priorities for Ukraine.

From paleontological collections to the Paleontological Museum of Lviv University as an object of historical, cultural and natural values

The creation of the Paleontological Museum of Lviv University is the implementation of one of many projects of scientists of geologists and paleontologists in the territory of first Eastern Europe, and later modern Western Ukraine. The foundation of the «temple of muses» of geological sciences (natural sciences, Earth sciences) and their component of paleontology in the West of Ukraine is the stage of formation of geological (paleontological) research and the Lviv geological (paleontological-stratigraphic) school at the Lviv University. The beginning and development of natural sciences – geology and paleontology on a global scale became the basis for the creation of the Geological Faculty and the Department of Historical Geology and Paleontology (1945) at the Lviv University, and the Geological/Paleontological Museum acquired importance in the study, collection, conservation, protection, and popularization of Earth Sciences among various segments of the population. The history of the foundation and the development of the Geological/Paleontological Museum of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is covered. Prerequisites that contributed to the foundation of the Paleontological Museum are given, the scientific and theoretical concept based on it, the directions of research and the results of achievements of each stage are substantiated. The museum place in the «spectrum» of historical, cultural and natural values has been clarified. The scientific research works of different generations of geologists and paleontologists over the 200-year history and their contribution to the development of Earth Sciences were analyzed. Its significance as a cultural and spiritual center for the development of society is highlighted. The description of the activity of the scientific goals of various political systems in which the territories of the West of Ukraine were located and their contribution to the development of the Paleontological Museum is given. The structure and classification of natural objects (fossils, naturals) of museum collections and foundations by purpose and significance have been determined. Modern and further trends in the development of the Paleontological Museum have been clarified. Fundamental, research, educational and informative, cultural, propaganda aspects of the Paleontologic Мuseum are shown.

A new species of palaeosiphonocladal algae Kamaena gigantea from the Lower–lowermost Middle Mississippian sediments of the Donbas (Upper Tournaisian–Lower Visean)

A new species of green paleosiphonocladаl algae Kamaena gigantea from the Lower–lowermost Middle Mississippian sediments of the Donbas has been described. This species was distinguished from other representatives of the genus Kamaena Antropov by its extremely large size, tortuous shape of the thallus and convex partitions. The species belongs to an artificial taxonomic unit of the Kamaenae Shuysky tribe, 1985 , of the family Palaeoberesellaceae Mamet et Roux , a systematic grouping which is still controversial. The attribution of this family to green siphonocladal algae is controversial and quite conditional, the opinions of different authors being based on personal vision, and varying in range from the plant to the animal kingdom. A characteristic feature of the family is the tubular shape , the segments of which are connected by partitions with a large central pore, sometimes with additional small pores. The thallus wall (fossilized remains of the body) is porous or non-porous and has simple or branched pores. It has been emphasized that study of Paleoberezellides in thin sections, the sometimes fuzzy images of the typical material in publications and ignorance of other researchers’ publications have caused confusion and led to the selection of an unreasonably large number of genera and species within the family. It has been noted that in previous works, representatives of this species were mistakenly identified as Anthracoporellopsis Maslov, a genus characteristic of the Lower–Middle Pennsylvanian sediments. This erroneous definition was based mainly on general external similarity, a poorly illustrated description of the type species, and did not take into account the morphological features that were characteristic for the genus. It has been found that representatives of the new species had a rather limited stratigraphic distribution: the Upper Tournaisian (Dokuchaevskian horizon) and the Lower Visean (Hlybokian–Sukhinskian horizons), and the most similar specimens found in the Ural region in underlying Tournaisian sediments were, unfortunately, poorly illustrated and smaller in size and had a narrower thallus. It has been noted that a characteristic feature of the tribe Kamaenae Shuysky, 1985 was the tubular shape, its inter-segmental partitions were perpendicular to the walls and were at the approximately same interval from each other. It has been pointed out that representatives of the new species were found mainly in grainstones, packstones, and wackstones − organogenic-detrital limestones along with such groups of microfauna as echinoderms and ostracods, isolated spicules of sponges and remains of worms. The material for illustrations was mainly taken from the borehole74 (near the village of Rodnikove, Starobeshiv district, Donetsk region) , which most fully revealed the Lower–Middle Pennsylvanian deposits of the southern part of the Donbas. The knowledge of the systematic composition of the Early Carboniferous algoflora has been expanded. This has helped us to conclude that the tribe Kamaeneae Shuysky, 1985 ,includes 6 genera and at least 22 species that were found in the layers from the Early Devonian to the Early Visean of the Lower Carboniferous.

Levels of changes in the genus Pinus Linné in the composition of Mesozoic and Cenozoic flora and vegetation as an additional criterion for the division of sediments by the Mesozoic and Cenozoic of Ukraine

The article presents an analysis of a large array of results of palynological studies of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments of Ukraine and adjacent regions of Belarus and Russia. Numerous literature data on the palynological characteristics of Meso-Cenozoic sediments and the materials of the authors are summarized according to the results of spore-pollen analysis of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments within the main tectonic structures of Ukraine. It has been established that the genus Pinus (Pinaceae) is an integral part of the Meso-Cenozoic flora of Ukraine. Although, the participation in the flora and vegetation of the genus Pinus and its species diversity in different periods of geological time were different. Despite the long history and significant achievements of palynological research of Meso-Cenozoic sediments of Ukraine, no attention has been paid to the historical aspect of Pinus development in the Meso-Cenozoic flora. This work is presented as the first stem to fill this gap. The genus Pinus has a large stratigraphic range, but its species diversity and quantitative changes in the composition of Mesozoic and Cenozoic flora of different ages are markedly different. The analysis of these changes made it possible to trace the emergence and main levels at which the species composition was renewed and the role of Pinus in flora increased during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. According to the results of the research, 5 levels of increasing the participation of the genus Pinus and changes in its species affiliation in the Mesozoic flora were established: Aalenian period of the Middle Jurassic (appearance of the first representatives of Pinus); Oxfordian time of the Late Jurassic; Valanginian – Early Barremian times of the Early Cretaceous; Albian time of the Early Cretaceous; Late Campanian time of the Late Cretaceous. 5 levels of increasing the role of Pinus and its species diversity for the flora and vegetation of the Cenozoic were also established: Oligocene time of the Paleogene, Konkian-early Sarmatian time of the Middle Miocene; early Pontian (Ivankov) time of the Late Miocene; early Kimmerian time (early Sevastopol) of the Early Pliocene and Martonosha time of the Early Neopleistocene. Certain levels have been traced for the similar age of Cenozoic flora of Belarus and Russia.

Methodological principles of systematics of recreational goods

The article presents an overview of modern directions and approaches to systematics of recreational resources (goods). The purpose of our study is to develop methodological principles of systematics of recreational goods, taking into account their subject specificity and modern research approaches to the systematics of natural, historical, cultural and socio-economic conditions and resources. The article has been used development by domestic and foreign scientists, as well as preliminary author’s studies. Working-out of a scheme of recreational goods systematics took place on the basis of a dialectical approach, which requires all phenomena and processes in their development, interconnection, and interdependence. The article presents an overview of modern directions and approaches to the systematics of recreational goods and provides a general methodological scheme of systematics of recreational goods. The proposed scheme includes the division of recreational goods to natural, cultural and historical and socio-economic, as well as directions of use by recreational goods – public, collective and personality. The intersections of these categories are marked by the main methodological approaches to the evaluation of recreational conditions and recreational resources. For each direction of the classification and systematics of recreational goods, it is necessary to develop methodological principles and methodological means of inventory and assessing the corresponding combination of recreational conditions and resourceswith forms of use by recreation goods. Such justification also requires enclosed blocks of recreational conditions and resources and social varieties of use. Recreational conditions and resources of public usage are available for all users without restrictions of property rights; they are considered as global civilization goods as the “property” of the world community; they do not have the content of the goods and do not form appropriate market relations, as a rule, a global or regional spatial scale. Recreational conditions and resources of collective usage form natural and geographical objects and phenomena with different forms of ownership (state, corporate) and collective (group) use. They can be shared by common goods, do not have a form of commodity and not take part in market commodity- money circulation. Recreational conditions and resources of individual usage are private or group property of vacationers. They remain outside the economic assessment, but can also form their market environments with competitive relations and be objects of commodity-money circulation.

Anthropogenic impact on the shores and the bottom of the Jebriyan bay in the Northwestern part of the Black Sea

The Jebriyan Bay is located in the northern part of the Kiliya Danube Delta, at a junction of the delta cone and the indigenous coast. This is a zone of very high anthropogenic impact on the Danube Biosphere Reserve. The two opposite shores of this bay are fundamentally different. Along the northern shore, the Northwest coastal sand sediment flows discharge from the Cape of the Great Fontanne to the Jebriyan Bay. That is why the northern coast of the bay is made up of sandy forms of coastal topography (marine accumulative terrace and spit). The southern coast is deltaic; composed of a mixture of muddy, siltstone and sandy sediments. The area of the bay is limited to isobaths –11 m and is about 80 km2. The bottom of the bay has a gentle relief, made up of smooth outlines, with an average depth of 6.2 m. The shape of the transverse profile of the underwater slope is mostly convex. The natural system of the bay was affected by fishing, recreation, shipping and industrial sand production on coastal accumulative landforms. Coastal fishing uses a system of fixed bottom seines and small motorized floating equipment. Recreational facilities are designed to serve about 350 thousand people during the warm period each year. The impact of shipping was expressed in the construction and operation of the seaport of Ust-Dunaysk, together with suitable canal and the technical canal between the sea and the branch of the delta breakthrough the system of the large Ochakov branch. The ladle port had an area of about 1.5 km2, a maximal depth of 16 m, and an average depth of 13.7 m. The trough was connected to the Ochakov branch of the Danube Delta by a technical canal with a depth of 4 m. Vessels could enter the harbor of Ust-Danube through an access navigation channel with a depth of 11–12 m and a bottom width of 125 m. The port was used for the transshipment of large containers, general forest cargo from ocean vessels (displacement of 60–100 thousand tons) on regular sea lines from the countries of Southeast Asia to the Black Sea, to the Danube and further to the countries of Central Europe and to the ports of the North and the Baltic Seas. But it was unfortunate that the port construction site did not last as expected. Between 1980–2010 the harbor and approach canal of Ust-Dunaysk were filled with Danube river sediments. The example of Jebriyan Bay has shown that when executing any type of sustainable nature management project, it is very important to take into account the natural milieu.

Peculiarities of Stratigraphic Distribution and Paleoecology of Jurassic Bivalve Mollusks of the Pre-Сarpathian Foredeep

Pre-Carpathian region is one of the oldest oil and gas producing regions of our country, which is attracting more and more attention of scientists. In the Outer zone of the Pre-Carpathian Foredeep, Jurassic deposits occur at considerable depths (up to 3,000 m), so we obtain almost all geological information about them exclusively during the study of core material selected during drilling. A comprehensive and detailed study of the Jurassic deposits of this zone during exploration drilling in the 1950s contributed to the discovery of the Kokhanivske and Sudovovyshnianske oil deposits and Rudkivske gas deposit, as well as a number of oil and gas manifestations. After that, the interest in the conditions of formation and stratification of Jurassic deposits increased. Researchers have begun to treat them as the promising objects for oil and gas exploration. Jurassic deposits in the Pre-Сarpathian Foredeep fill a single depression – the Stryi Jurassic deflection, covered by a thick layer of Cretaceous and Neogene rocks. The study of their geology and stratigraphy has acquired important applied and scientific significance, because stratigraphic research serves as a basis for clarifying the history of geological development of the region, performing tectonic constructions, reconstruction of paleogeographic and paleoecological conditions, comparison of productive horizons and specification of their stratigraphic position, search for new objects promising for hydrocarbons. Extremely rare finds of paleontological remains (which are not always well preserved) do not allow to unambiguously determining the age of the host rocks. It is still not always possible to clearly stratigraphically distinguish and correlate these rocks due to weak paleontological study and partial uncertainty in the interpretation of the geological structure of these strata. Despite the significant amount of research we have done, there are some debatable issues regarding the completeness of the section of these rocks and the presence of separate stratigraphic units in them. For many years, we have studied in detail and comprehensively bivalve mollusks found in the core of wells drilled in the Outer zone of the Pre-Carpathian Foredeep. As a result, the age of the host strata was specified and confirmed, as well as the thickness of individual stratigraphic units.

Geospatial Technology for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping along the Vathalmalai Ghat road section, South India

Landslides are among the most prevalent and harmful hazards. Assessment of landslide susceptibility zonation is an important task in reducing the losses of lifeand properties. The present study aims to demarcate the landslide prone areas along the Vathalmalai Ghat road section (VGR) using remote sensing and GIS techniques. In the first step, the landslide causative factors such as geology, geomorphology, slope, slope aspect, land use / land cover, drainage density, lineament density, road buffer and relative relief were assessed. All the factors were assigned to rank and weight based on the slope stability of the landslide susceptibility zones. Then the thematic maps were integrated using ArcGIS tool and landslide susceptibility zonation was obtained and classified into five categories ; very low, low, moderate, high and very high. The landslide susceptibility map is validated with R-index and landslide inventory data collected from the field using GPS measurement. The distribution of susceptibility zones is ; 16.5% located in very low, 28.70% in low, 24.70% in moderate, 19.90% in high and 10.20% in very high zones. The R-index indicated that about 64% landslide occurences correlated with high to very high landslide susceptiblity zones. The model validation indicated that the method adopted in this study is suitable for landslide disaster mapping and planning.

Petrogenetic peculiarities of Fe-Ti oxide minerals in the processes of crystallization and evolution of late Cretaceous volcanic complexes of the Lesser Caucasus

Drawing from the determined differences between iron-titanium oxide minerals, we analyzed the conditions of crystallization and evolution of late-Cretaceous magmatic complexes of the Lesser Caucasus. It was found that the rocks of basalt-andesibasalt complex, which correspond to the early substage (upper Coniacian-lower Santonian) of late-Cretaceous volcanism in the Qazakh, Agjakand, Agdara depressions, have crystallized in the conditions of relatively highly- thermobaric crystallization of titanomagnetite, poorly differentiated and evolutionized according to the Fenner trend. In the second substage of volcanism, due to decrease in permeability of the Earth’s crust, the elevation of the remaining magma to the upper horizons was hindered. Therefore, within the Qazakh depression, shallow intermediate sites of crystallization developed where moderately titaniferous magnetite crystallized with the participation of oxidized fluids earlier than hornblende, pyroxene and plagioclase. Thus, the remaining magma evolutionized its composition through Bowen’s reaction series. In the Agjakand and Agdara depressions, change of previous expansion to compaction was the cause of hindering of partly fractioned portion of the magma. The latter thermally interacted with the above-embedded maghemite, hematite and in a number of cases magnetite. In the Khojavand depression, rocks of trachibasalt- trachiodolerite complex, which characterize the late substage of the Santonian volcanism, contain moderately titanium magnetites and maghemites. In the second substage of volcano-plutonism, rocks of tephrite-teshenite complex developed. There, accompanied by oxidized fluids, highly-clayey titanomagnetite crystallized before chrome-diopside and salite. However, the ulvospinel titanomagnetite in teshenites, having associated with barkevikite and kaersutite, crystallized at a relatively higher temperature. Within the Senonian volcanites of the Azykh depression, along with the moderately-titanium magnetite, chromic titanomagnetite and rarely chromite was determined. Similar mineralogical diversities are also characteristic for the Gochas depression.