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Background: The taste sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is one of the classical genetic markers in human studies. PTC is of great interest from the medical point of view since a number of associations of the taster status with human diseases have been found. The aim of our study was to evaluate the population structure of Ukraine in relation to PTC sensitivity.Methods: The study involved 533 people (78 males and 455 females) aged from 16 to 25 years. The PTC solution in the concentration of 0.13% was prepared according to the method of Harris and Kalmus. The participants of the study analyzed the taste of the filter paper impregnated with PTC. If the trial subjects tasted PTC as ''bitter'', ''very bitter'', ''bitterish'', the phenotype was defined as a taster. If the trial subject did not taste PTC (''no taste'', ''taste of paper''), he/she was referred to a non-taster.Results: The structure of the sample of the Ukrainian population studied in relation to the phenotypic and genotypic frequency associated with the phenylthiocarbamide sensitivity has been studied. It has been shown that in the population there are 22% of those who do not feel the taste of phenylthiocarbamide. Among males there are a few more non-tasters than among females, however, the differences are not significant. The frequency of the dominant and recessive allele of the phenylthiocarbamide sensitivity gene in the sample calculated on the basis of the Hardy-Weinberg equation is generally p T = 0.55 and q t = 0.45, respectively.Conclusions: Frequencies of alleles T and t obtained in the male and female population under research are very close to the frequencies of the same alleles in some populations of India. Data of this study supplement the currently available information in relation to the genetic structure of modern Ukrainian cities.

Aim:Fear is an ancient natural reaction of a human being to a threat and it is also an adaptive feature. Obsessive fear can transfer into phobias, which lead to a clinical problem. In spite of many studies done on fear, many questions are yet not clarified. In the former Soviet Union, research on human behaviour traits was mostly tabooed. The current research will fill some gaps on the ‘behavioural map’ of Ukraine in relationship to fear distributions in two successive generations of residents of Ukraine.Subjects and Methods:Eight hundred and sixty-seven residents of Ukraine, predominantly residents of Kharkov and Kharkov region participated in the study. All participants were distributed into groups of younger and older generations. Twenty-four emotional states of fear have been studied by Ivleva-Shcherbatyh questionnaire, developed and validated in Slavs samples.Results:The population analysis of 24 types of fear has shown that sex differences were found mostly among members of the younger generation. The average value of sex differences from the amplitude trait of variation made up approximately 20%. More significant differences between members of different generations have been found in females. The age dynamics of fears within each generation has been detected.Conclusions:The population analysis of fears in Ukraine has demonstrated that the strongest fears independently of the generation were related to diseases of relatives and to problems in the case of diseases of relatives.

Indicators characterizing population migration were calculated according to the marriage records of Yevpatoria (Crimea) of 1960/1961, 1985, and 1994/1995. The marital migration coefficient m in those years was 0.80, 0.75, and 0.66, the endogamy index was 0.04, 0.08, and 0.15, and the rate of marriage contin gency by birthplace was 0.15, 0.16, and 0.19, respectively. The highest values of the positive mating assortative index were recorded for people from the Caucasus, Central, Central Black Earth Oblast, and Northwest regions of Russia in 1960/1961 and for migrants from Moldavia, the republics of Central Asia and Caucasus, Western Siberia, and Ukraine in 1985. In 1994/1995, natives of Yevpatoria were also included in this group. The average distance of migration by year was 909, 1280, and 1314 km, and the marital distance was 960, 1397, and 1171 km. The "radius" of the Yevpatoria population, in accordance with the Maleco model in the years under study, was 98, 134, and 137 km. The distance isolation indicator b was decreasing and amounted to 0.00049, 0.00043, and 0.00038. In the migration flow in all of the periods, the majority of immigrants came from different regions of Ukraine outside Crimea (27-31%), followed by natives of various places in Crimea (21-24%), Central (3.6-8.5%), and Central Black Earth (1.8-6.1%) regions of Russia, and the South Cau casus (4.0-5.7%). The proportion of Russians and Jews decreased in the migration flow, while the proportion of Ukrainians and representatives of non Slavic nationalities increased.

Data from marriage records of the city of Belgorod for 1960Belgorod for , 1985Belgorod for , and 1995 have been used to determine some parameters of population structure in this city. The coefficients of correlation with respect to age of marriage between spouses in the couples contracting marriages in these years were 0.74, 0.62, and 0.80, respectively. Women of reproductively unfavorable age (under 20 or over 30 years) accounted for 5.5, 0.83, and 19% of all women contracting marriages in these years, respectively. The proportions of interethnic marriages in these years were 16.9, 14.9, and 15.6%, respectively. The percentage of Slavs decreased from 99 to 97% during the 35 years studied, whereas the proportion of Russians insignificantly increased (from 90.4 to 91.4%). The proportion of Caucasian ethnic groups increased by six time (from 0.3 to 1.8%), and that of other nonSlavic ethnic groups increased by almost two times (from 0.7 to 1.2%). The marriage convergence ( K ) with respect to ethnicity (0. 095, 0.106, and 0.090 in 1960, 1985, and 1995, respectively) was lower than that with respect to education (0. 296 and 0.350 in 1985 and 1995, respectively) or occupation (0.212 and 0.231 in 1985 and 1995, respectively). The maximum coefficients of ethnically, educationally, and occupationally assortative marriage have been found, respectively, in ethnic minority groups ( A ' = 20%); in persons with higher and primary education ( A ' = 37.5 and 49.9%, respectively); and in the military officers/soldiers, engineers, healthcare professionals, and researchers (the respective A ' values are 65.6, 32.2, 31.5, and 39.8%).