Volume 88, Nº 4 (2024)

The article analyzes current trends in the development of medical and health tourism in the health care systems of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. The purpose of the study is to identify differentiation in the level of development of health and medical tourism. The authors justify the choice of key indicators in the demographic, social, economic and environmental spheres that influence the development of health tourism. A correlation matrix was proposed and applied, thanks to which the degree of linear dependence between pairs of variables was revealed. Clustering of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union according to the level of development of medical and health tourism was carried out using the K-means method in combination with two-dimensional principal component analysis (2D PCA). The levels of development of medical and health tourism in the studied countries were determined: high (Belarus, Russia), medium (Armenia, Kazakhstan), low (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan). For each of the identified clusters, trends in the development of medical and health tourism were identified, which are determined by the specific demographic situation, the volume of investments in the health sector, the availability of hospital beds per 10 thousand inhabitants, the quantity and quality of medical personnel, the development of infrastructure, and the state of the environment. In addition, attention is paid to determining the export potential of medical care and health services. Recommendations were made on the interaction of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which will improve the efficiency of health care systems. Ways of strengthening interstate interaction in the protection of public health under the existing restrictions in relation to some of the countries studied are substantiated. In the conclusion, it is noted that it is advisable to adopt documents on standardization and certification of medical care and health services within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The study is devoted to assessing the impact of cultivated crops and applied fertilizers on soil respiration—the most intensive CO ₂ flux from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. The object was the Long-term field experiment of the Russian State Agrarian University–Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, where the main crops of the Non-Chernozem zone—winter rye, barley, potato, and bare fallow, which are included in crop rotation with liming and application of different fertilizers variants—were selected for measurements. They were carried out by the method of closed dynamic chambers with portable infrared gas analyzers from May 2023 to April 2024. They were divided into two series: vegetation period and period with bare soil, the boundary between which was plowing. Comparing soil respiration during the growing season for individual plots, it was found that most of them were characterized by a wide range of values, and the CO ₂ emission rates were not statistically different. The dependence of soil respiration on air temperature and soil moisture revealed for some plots is not universal. Two-way analysis of variance showed a significant effect of crop and fertilizer on soil respiration separately, but insignificance of their cumulative effect. The rate of CO ₂ emission from the soil naturally increased in the variants: no fertilizer < NPK < NPK + manure, and when averaged over crops increased in the sequence potato < fallow < barley < winter rye. For soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content, the identified sequences were repeated for fertilizer variants and were not repeated for crops where the predecessor in the crop rotation and the position of the plot in the microrelief were found to be more important factors. During the period with bare soil, averaging was carried out for fertilizer variants, no significant differences were found between them, and quantitative estimates of soil respiration under snow cover were 10‒20 times lower than in the vegetation period.

Sevastopol is one of the leaders among the federal subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of the percentage of its territory occupied by protected areas. However, the largest protected areas are located in the sparsely populated periphery of the city. The environmental situation in the central, most urbanized part of the city is far from optimal. Here there are two protected areas: Ushakova Balka and Maksimova Dacha. They influence the significant anthropogenic impact, which is the subject of the study. As we consider it very indicative of the cities in the south of the European part of Russia. To assess the anthropogenic impact on the protected areas, we used the results of field work, a synthesis of literary and cartographic sources, and the analysis of satellite images. All this served as a basis for mapping the sources of impact and the network of roads and paths formed within the protected area. The entire spectrum of pollution has been analyzed: chemical, physical (radiation, electromagnetic, noise, light), biological, visual (video pollution). Chemical pollution affects the air, mainly from vehicles, soil and surface water, mainly from storm drains, and groundwater. Physical pollution is multifaceted: power lines dominate from all electromagnetic sources, noise comes mainly from highways, light occurs at night and is summed up from numerous sources along the periphery, considering the light dome over the city; at the same time, radiation is virtually absent. Biological pollution, including from transformer species, leads to a reduction in biodiversity and changes in natural communities. Visual pollution is considered on two levels: the distortion of the general panorama of the natural landscape and individual local areas. Spontaneous recreational pollution plays a special role. Its high level is facilitated by the location of protected areas within urbanized areas. The ever-increasing human influence continues to significantly change the natural complexes and, in some places, leads to their degradation. This leads to conflicts between environmental and recreational nature management.

The article discusses the results of researches on chemical pollution and water quality of the Angrapa, Pissa, Krasnaya and Russkaya rivers, which belong to the Pregolya River basin and form the basis of the river network of the southeastern part of Kaliningrad oblast. Monitoring of these watercourses was planned and carried out at 16 sites during the 2022–2023 hydrological seasons. Hydrological measurements and sampling for subsequent chemical analysis were carried out on October 15, 2022, January 15, 2023, April 23, 2023, and July 19, 2023. The main pollutants in the rivers were identified: petroleum products, iron, sulfates, ammonium, nitrites, phosphates and non-compliance with MPC standards in terms of BOD, COD and dissolved oxygen. The specific combinatorial index of water pollution and the water pollution index were calculated and presented cartographically. The spatial differentiation of water quality in the studied rivers reflects a natural deterioration from the headwaters to the estuaries due to the increased accumulation of river runoff from agricultural lands, settlements and individual households. During the study period, the following phases of the water regime were observed: autumn low water, winter floods, spring high water, and the absence of summer low water. This factor, together with anthropogenic impacts, has a significant impact on the water quality, which varies from polluted to extremely polluted. It can be said that the ecological state of the studied watercourses and their river basins is unfavorable.

This study is based on open data of the social network “VKontakte.” The personal data of users from the cities of Vologda oblast were collected using the “VKontakte” API. Several filters were developed to exclude fake users. Complex characteristics of users were created. It reflects his tastes and interests according to his subscriptions for communities. A group of users who tend to subscribe to a certain set of communities is called a pattern of social network behavior. The patterns were defined using the developed method of graph clustering based on the force layout (OpenOrd algorithm). Eleven obtained patterns of social network behavior were divided into 2 groups: age-sex and thematic. Communities of age-sex patterns have no common theme, they have many users, they contain a lot of humorous resources. Communities of thematic patterns have one or two common themes, they are much less populated, they contain a few numbers of humorous resources. The structure of age-sex patterns in a city depends on its population. The structure of thematic patterns of a city is also influenced by the composition of its economy. The diversity of the city’s social network behavior patterns is directly proportional to its population. The diversity is related to the role of services in the local economy for cities with comparable population.