Dear colleagues - our authors and readers, At the turn of the year 2016 we would like to thank you all for your valuable contributions to our journal activities and we are happy to continue serving for the benefit of a broad scientific community. In these somewhat restless and uneasy times, we see our role not in merely technical assistance for publishing activities but also in sharing scientific knowledge from Ukrainian authors to a wider international audience, as well as in introducing the cutting edge research results to the native Ukrainian reader. We hope that these activities serve the purpose of strengthening the existing scientific links between the Ukrainian science and the rest of the world and help to establish new mutually b...