"But how true that is, I do not know": the influence of written sources on the medicinal use of fungi across the western borderlands of the former Soviet Union.

Fungi have been used for medicinal purposes for many centuries. This study, based on 35 historical written sources and 581 in-depth semi-structured interviews from eight countries in the western borderlands of the former Soviet Union, investigates the medicinal use of fungi by local communities. We compared the taxa and uses obtained from fieldwork and historical sources with works that advocated fungi use within Soviet herbals, representing the centralised medical system.

Green pharmacy at the tips of your toes: medicinal plants used by Setos and Russians of Pechorsky District, Pskov Oblast (NW Russia).

Background: While the hybridization of ecological knowledge has attracted substantial attention from researchers, the coexistence of local and allopathic medicinal traditions in literate societies widely exposed to centralized schooling and medical services has not yet been investigated. To this end, we studied the current and remembered local ethnomedical practices of Setos and neighboring Russians at the border with Estonia.

Methods: During 2018-2019, we carried out 62 semi-structured interviews in the Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, NW Russia.

Multifarious Trajectories in Plant-Based Ethnoveterinary Knowledge in Northern and Southern Eastern Europe.

Over the last century in the European context, animal production has been transformed by the dynamics of centralization and decentralization due to political and economic factors. These processes have influenced knowledge related to healing and ensuring the welfare of domestic animals. Therefore, our study aimed to document and compare current and past ethnoveterinary practices, and to identify trajectories in ethnoveterinary knowledge in study regions from both northern and southern Eastern Europe.

Language of Administration as a Border: Wild Food Plants Used by Setos and Russians in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, NW Russia.

Socio-economic changes impact local ethnobotanical knowledge as much as the ecological ones. During an ethnobotanical field study in 2018-2019, we interviewed 25 Setos and 38 Russians in the Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast to document changes in wild plant use within the last 70 years according to the current and remembered practices. Of the 71 botanical taxa reported, the most popular were , , , spp.

Re-written narrative: transformation of the image of Ivan-chaj in Eastern Europe.

The aim of this study was to understand the role of viral narratives and the involvement of social media into the invention of tradition. We took as an example the recently highly promoted Ivan-chaj, a tea made from the fermented leaves of willowherb, a plant little known and used in Europe until a few years ago. Relying on a wide variety of sources circulating on the Internet (videos, various texts and visuals) and robust empirical field research results, we used mixed methods to analyze this specific case in order to understand if people adopt new teachings and if their acceptance leads to practical output.

Foraging in Boreal Forest: Wild Food Plants of the Republic of Karelia, NW Russia.

While the current consumption of wild food plants in the taiga of the American continent is a relatively well-researched phenomenon, the European taiga area is heavily underrepresented in the scientific literature. The region is important due to its distinctive ecological conditions with restricted seasonal availability of wild plants. During an ethnobotanical field study conducted in 2018-2019, 73 people from ten settlements in the Republic of Karelia were interviewed.

Gaining momentum: Popularization of Epilobium angustifolium as food and recreational tea on the Eastern edge of Europe.

The local use of wild food plants represents a reservoir for the biocultural diversity of human diet and is therefore being extensively studied; yet the effects of the introduction of novel uses into specific biocultural conditions have been little researched. Rosebay willowherb Epilobium angustifolium L. has been intensively promoted in Europe since the mid-18th century.

Inventing a herbal tradition: The complex roots of the current popularity of Epilobium angustifolium in Eastern Europe.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Currently various scientific and popular sources provide a wide spectrum of ethnopharmacological information on many plants, yet the sources of that information, as well as the information itself, are often not clear, potentially resulting in the erroneous use of plants among lay people or even in official medicine. Our field studies in seven countries on the Eastern edge of Europe have revealed an unusual increase in the medicinal use of Epilobium angustifolium L., especially in Estonia, where the majority of uses were specifically related to "men's problems".

Naukan ethnobotany in post-Soviet times: lost edibles and new medicinals.

Background: This study focuses on health-related plant use among speakers of the critically endangered Naukan language (Inuit-Yupik-Unangan family) in the Russian Far East. The Naukan people were forced, in 1958, under Soviet consolidation, to move from their original settlement on Cape Dezhnev, leading to significant changes in spiritual worldview, subsistence, social structure, and language proficiency in the years that followed. Here, we focus on changes that elders report in their edible, medicinal, and spiritual uses of local plant species since their childhood.

Cloning and Characterization of a New Site-Specific Methyl-Directed ElmI Endonuclease Recognizing and Cleaving C5-methylated DNA Sequence 5'-G(5mC)^NG(5mC)-3'.

Putative open reading frames of MD-endonucleases have been identified in Enterobacteria genomes as a result of the search for amino acid sequences homologous to MD-endonuclease BisI. A highly conserved DNA primary structure of these open reading frames in different genera of Enterobacteria (Escherichia, Klebsiella and Cronobacter) has allowed researchers to create primers for PCR screening, which was carried out on Enterobacteria DNA collected from natural sources. The DNA fragment, about 440 bp in length, was amplified by use of the genomic DNA of a wild E.

Muscle volume, MRI relaxation times (T2), and body composition after spaceflight.

Postflight changes in muscle volume, calf muscle transverse relaxation time, and total body composition were measured in 4 crewmembers after a 17-day mission and in 14-16 crewmembers in multiple shuttle/Mir missions of 16- to 28-wk duration. During the 17-day mission, all muscle regions except the hamstrings significantly decreased 3-10% compared with baseline. During the shuttle/Mir missions, there were significant decreases in muscle volume (5-17%) in all muscle groups except the neck.

BtrI, a novel restriction endonuclease, recognises the non-palindromic sequence 5'-CACGTC(-3/-3)-3'.

The recognition sequence and cleavage positions of a new restriction endonuclease BTR:I isolated from Bacillus stearothermophilus SE-U62 have been determined. BTR:I belongs to a rare type IIQ of restriction endonucleases, which recognise non-palindromic nucleotide sequences and cleave DNA symmetrically within them.

PsiI, a novel restriction endonuclease recognizing the DNA sequence 5'-TTA downward arrow TAA-3'.

PsiI, a novel restriction endonuclease produced by the bacterial strain Pseudomonas sp. SE-G49, has been isolated and characterized. The enzyme cleaves DNA in the middle of its palindromic recognition sequence 5'-TTA downward arrow TAA-3'.

BstAPI, an ApaBI isoschizomer, cleaves DNA at 5'-GCANNNN NTGC-3'.

Cleavage positions of Bst API, a new restriction endonuclease (ENase) that recognizes palindromic interrupted DNA sequence, have been determined. Recognition sequences and cleavage sites comparison shows that Bst API shares similarity with a number of type II restriction enzymes.

[Magnetic resonance tomography and magnetic resonance phlebography in studies of the brain in patients with severe arterial hypertension].

MR tomography of the brain, MR angiography of extra- and intracranial arteries and veins, duplex scanning of the extracranial arteries and veins were performed according to the technique spin-echo, by the technique 2D, 3D time-to-flight (unit "Magnetom 63 SP", 1.5 T), Acuson 128 technique, respectively, in 21 patients with high and malignant blood hypertension (BH) and 11 healthy controls. In BH patients magnetic resonance has detected signs of hypertensive encephalopathy: dilation of the liquor-conduction system, small hyperintensive foci in the white substance, zones of periventricular hyperintensity.

[The clinical aspect of the joint use of magnetic resonance tomography of the brain and magnetic resonance angiography of the extra- and intracranial arteries in patients with arterial hypertension].

NMR tomography (NMRT) of the brain and NMR angiography (NMRA) of the extra- and intracranial arteries were performed on the unit Magnetom 63 SP (1.5 T) Siemens in 13 healthy controls and 87 patients with cerebrovascular diseases initiated by arterial hypertension and atherosclerosis of major cerebral arteries. NMRA image of arterial impairment comprise curved extracranial arteries.

[Magnetic resonance tomography in hydronephrotic transformation, cystic lesions and tumors of the kidneys in patients with arterial hypertension].

MR tomography was carried out on MR tomographs Tomicon 1100 (Bruker, 0.23 T) and Magnetom SP 63 (Siemens, 1.5 T) in 126 hypertensive subjects (66 had cysts, 20 HT and 31 renal tumors) and 27 healthy controls.

[Informative value of various diagnostic methods in Itsenko-Cushing syndrome].

The authors discuss the comparative evaluation of different methods of examination applied in 36 patients with the Icenko-Cushing syndrome. The results of the investigation are compared with the intraoperative findings and the data of morphological studies. MR-topography proved to be mist informative.