Evidence and ideology as a rationale for light-therapy in Russia: from the Soviet Union to the present day.

Light therapy is still used to treat a number of common diseases in Russia. The practice is firmly anchored in history: Soviet clinical practice was divorced from the emerging field of evidence-based medicine. Medical researchers were cut off from international medical research and scientific literature, with much Soviet scientific activity based on a particular socialist ideology. In this study, the use of light therapy serves as a case study to explore tensions between international evidence-based medicine and practices developed in isolation under the Soviet Union, the legacy of which is to the detriment of many patients today. We used four different search methods to uncover scientific and grey literature, both historical and contemporary. We assessed the changing frequency of publications over time and contrasted the volume of literature on light therapy with more orthodox treatments such as statins and painkillers. Our search found an increasing number and comparatively large body of scientific publications on light therapy in the Russian language, and many publications emanating from prestigious Russian institutions. Combined with our analysis of the historical literature and our appraisal of 22 full text articles, this leads us to suggest that light therapy entered mainstream Soviet medical practice before the Stalinist period and still occupies an important position in contemporary Russian clinical practice. We propose that this outdated treatment survives in Russia in part due to the political, economic and social forces that helped to popularize it during Soviet times, and by the seeming justification offered by poorly executed studies

Vygotsky in English: What Still Needs to Be Done

At present readers of English have still limited access to Vygotsky’s writings. Existing translations are marred by mistakes and outright falsifications. Analyses of Vygotsky’s work tend to downplay the collaborative and experimental nature of his research. Several suggestions are made to improve this situation. New translations are certainly needed and new analyses should pay attention to the contextual nature of Vygotsky’s thinking and research practice

Structural basis for myosin V discrimination between distinct cargoes

Myosin V molecular motors move cargoes on actin filaments. A myosin V may move multiple cargoes to distinct places at different times. The cargoes attach to the globular tail of myosin V via cargo-specific receptors. Here we report the crystal structure at 2.2 Å of the myosin V globular tail. The overall tertiary structure has not been previously observed. There are several patches of highly conserved regions distributed on the surface of the tail. These are candidate attachment sites for cargo-specific receptors. Indeed, we identified a region of five conserved surface residues that are solely required for vacuole inheritance. Likewise, we identified a region of five conserved surface residues that are required for secretory vesicle movement, but not vacuole movement. These two regions are at opposite ends of the oblong-shaped cargo-binding domain, and moreover are offset by 180°. The fact that the cargo-binding areas are distant from each other and simultaneously exposed on the surface of the globular tail suggests that major targets for the regulation of cargo attachment are organelle-specific myosin V receptors