The African Americans or Black Americans continue to be one of the largest minorities in the USA. The descendants of the African slaves they encountered discrimination, came through racial segregation (1865–1955) and fierce fighting for civil rights (1954–1968). Different social conceptions and movements sprang up inside the Black community in response to discrimination. Afrocentricity as one of them is considered to be the paradigm combining theory and practice, social movement and methodology of research, culture and lifestyle. The main goal of the Afrocentricity is to rehabilitate the Blacks from every corner of the globe. This article demonstrates the evolution of the Afrocentric socio-cultural paradigm in the USA from the early 1960s, when the conditions for its origins were created, up to the present. The author analyzes the evolution of the fundamental basis of the Afrocentric theory, as well as the mechanisms of spreading Afrocentric ideas and influence across the African American community upon the background of contemporary American history. Подробнее https://www.socionauki.ru/journal/articles/445658/

Review of Leonid Alayev, Rural Community: “A Novel Embedded in History”: Critical Analysis of the Theory of Community, Historical Evidence of its Development and Role in the Stratified Society. Moscow: LENAND/URSS, 2016. 480 pp. ISBN 978-5-9710-3745-3. In Russian (Алаев Л. Б. Сельская община. «Роман, вставленный в историю». Критический анализ теорий общины, исторических свидетельств ее развития и роли в стратифицированном обществе. Москва: Ленанд). https://www.socionauki.ru/journal/articles/1387365/

Increased specialization within communities is often explained as an epiphenomenal effect of political expansion and surplus accumulation. Here, I examine the possible role that community demography and settlement structure might have in promoting (or inhibiting) full-time specialization and interdependence in the functions of various social institutions. Through the use of multivariate iconographic representations and diversity indices this article puts forth a methodology for the systematic large-scale comparison of archaeological remains and tests it on three prehistoric settlements in coastal Ecuador. The results indicate that nucleated communities exhibit more evidence of internal functional differentiation and interdependence in social roles than dispersed ones. This suggests that larger networks of interaction might provide ripe social environments for increased specialization of activities. By contrast, dispersed settlement arrangements and the smaller networks of interaction they make available seem to pressure households into becoming increasingly autonomous and self-reliant, resulting in strong tendencies towards functional redundancy. https://www.socionauki.ru/journal/articles/1213812/

A key term in ecology is 'ecosystem'. Examples of bad definition of ecosystem: These are two definitions of ecosystem that can be found in Internet: 1. "a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment" (see: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) The drawbacks of this definition: another term is used , namely, 'community'; why only physical environment is mentioned? if you mention 'physical', you are to mention 'chemical' one as well... 2. "An ecosystem is a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats, and residents of an area. It includes plants, trees, animals, fish, birds, microrganisms, water, soil, and people". http://forest.mtu.edu/kidscorner/ecosystems/definition.html The drawbacks of this definition: another term is used , namely, 'habitats'; why only 'living resources' are mentioned? if you mention 'living resources' , you are to mention non-living as well... ; it is wrong to list 'animals, fish, birds, ' (as 'fish' and 'bird' are part of the general term 'animals'); by the same token, it is wrong to list 'plants, trees,...' (as 'trees' are part of the general term 'plants') . That is why it is important that an attempt was made to give a better definition. An example of such attempt see: http://blog.researchgate.net/masterblog/2220_New_Definition_of_Ecosystem; (in English); http://scipeople.com/publication/99205/; (in Russian); http://scipeople.com/publication/70259/; (in Russian); http://scipeople.com/publication/66938/ (in Russian) Also see the paper: Ostroumov S.A., New definitions of the concepts and terms ecosystem and biogeocenosis. — Doklady Biological Sciences. 2002. Vol. 383: 141-143. 2 tables. Bibliogr. 15. [Publisher: MAIK Nauka / Interperiodica distributed exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media LLC.] ISSN 0012-4966 (Print) 1608-3105 (Online). DOI 10.1023/A:1015393924967. http://www.springerlink.com/content/vpg4yu2v3yd6t97b/ In 1935 the term 'ecosystem' was coined by A. Tansley. In the 1940s, another important term, 'biogeocoenosis', was introduced by V. N. Sukachev. Since that time, a lot of new facts have accumulated in ecology. It is necessary to revisit the formulation of the basic concepts and terms in ecology, including the two terms mentioned above. The author proposed some new variants of the definition of the two terms that (1) reflect the modern vision of the basics of ecology; and (2) avoid the vicious circle of using other terms that in turn request their require definitions. The author realizes that the new variants of the terms cannot be ideal and some other variants of the definitions are also possible. Tables: 5 specific features of the proposed definition of ecosystem (Table 1); 8 specific features of the proposed definition of biogeocenosis, and 8 distinctions between the proposed definition and the classical definition by V.N.Sukachev (Table 2). Aslo see: Ecological concepts "ecosystem", "biogeocenosis", "ecosystem boundaries": search for new definitions. – Moscow University Biological Sciences Bulletin. 2003. Vol. 58. No. 3. P.29-38. Tab. Bibliogr. 44 refs. [ISSN 0096-3925; Publisher: Allerton Press, Inc., 18 West 27th Street, N.Y., NY 10001].

Internet resource online: 3 blogs and papers on how organisms clean water: I would like to make three points: 1.In these three papers (mentioned in the blog below), the author demonstrated how aquatic invertebrates may contribute to making water clean and clear: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergei_Ostroumov/blog/677_Three_papers_on_filter-feeders_and_their_role_in_ecosystems; 2.In this paper (see the blog below), the same author discovered some new facts on how aquatic plants may contribute to making water clean and removing heavy metals from water: http://blog.researchgate.net/masterblog/594_New_plant_species_as_a_potent_tool_to_clean_water_and_to_remove_heavy_metals; 3.In the opinion paper (see the blog below), the same author integrated various data on plants, animals, and microorganisms toward formulating a new holistic theory of how all organisms interact and benefit each other, and as a community function toward decontaminating water and increasing water quality: http://blog.researchgate.net/masterblog/610_New_unified_theory_of_the_ecological_mechanisms_to_improve_water_quality_and_to_make_water_clear_a_basis_for_water_purification_and_waste_water_treatment;