Element Accumulation Patterns of Native Plant Species under the Natural Geochemical Stress.

A biogeochemical study of more than 20,000 soil and plant samples from the North Caucasus, Dzungarian Alatau, Kazakh Uplands, and Karatau Mountains revealed features of the chemical element uptake by the local flora. Adaptation of ore prospecting techniques alongside environmental approaches allowed the detection of geochemical changes in ecosystems, and the lessons learned can be embraced for soil phytoremediation. The data on the influence of phytogeochemical stress on the accumulation of more than 20 chemical elements by plants are considered in geochemical provinces, secondary fields of deposits, halos surrounding ore and nonmetallic deposits, zones of regional faults and schist formation, and over lithological contact lines of chemically contrasting rocks overlain by 5-20 m thick soils and unconsolidated cover.

Sporadic increases of radioactive aerosols as a possible reason for heavy nuclides enhancements recorded with the en-detectors.

Some unexpected sporadic increases of an environmental radioactive background have been recorded at mountain level at Baksan Neutrino Observatory (BNO, 1700 m above sea level) using electron-neutron detectors (en-detectors), which could be explained by radioactive aerosol enhancements. The large area inorganic scintillator en-detectors developed for cosmic ray study are continuously monitoring environmental thermal neutron fluxes at various geophysical conditions. Application of the pulse shape discrimination method allows us to select and separately measure both thermal neutrons and radioactive beta-decay nuclides being products of radon decays in air (mostly Rn-222 and Rn-220).

Primary Immunodeficiencies in Russia: Data From the National Registry.

Primary immunodeficiencies (PID) are a group of rare genetic disorders with a multitude of clinical symptoms. Characterization of epidemiological and clinical data via national registries has proven to be a valuable tool of studying these diseases. The Russian PID registry was set up in 2017, by the National Association of Experts in PID (NAEPID).

Response of the environmental thermal neutron flux to earthquakes.

Some new results were obtained by the array of EN-detectors (Electron and Neutron detectors) developed in the frame of the PRISMA (PRImary Spectrum Measurement Array) project for Extensive Air Showers detection. Our EN-detectors running both on the Earth surface and underground are continuously measuring the environmental thermal neutron flux. Neutrons are partially produced by radioactive gas radon and its daughter decays through (α,n)-reactions in soil close to the detectors.