Tulus äri Moskvale: valuuta teenimine Soome välisturismilt Eesti NSV-s aastatel 1965–1980 [Lucrative business for Moscow: foreign currency revenues from Finnish tourism in the Estonian SSR 1965–1980]

The aim of this article is to examine the economical aspects of Finnish foreign tourism in Soviet Estonia during the course of the Cold War, when the two neighboring states and nations were separated by the so-called Iron Curtain. Concentration on Finland is not a random choice; it was the Finnish tourists who made up the majority of all foreign tourists from the capitalist countries visiting Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The work covers the years from 1965 until 1980, because during this period the number of Finnish tourists grew rapidly which was accompanied by the expansion of foreign currency incomes. This article is based on hitherto little studied and known Estonian archival materials. Already after the end of WW II, Western European countries noticed that foreign tourism had become an important tool which enabled governments to acquire and expand the inflow of foreign currency. More foreign tourists visiting one’s country meant more foreign money flowing into the state budget. These positive developments did not go unnoticed by the Soviet Union (USSR), and soon it defined foreign tourism as an important tool for growing its own foreign exchange reserves. Moscow was keen on earning foreign money because the Soviet ruble was non-convertible currency that had no real value in the world market and could be used only for domestic transactions. One of the most important economical functions of foreign tourism was to obtain much needed foreign currency for the Soviet state budget. Until the mid-1960s, the number of Finnish tourists in Soviet Estonia remained low, and first and foremost among them were members of official delegations who, in contrast with ordinary, fun-seeking tourists, had to stick to timetables and participate in previously arranged meetings. As a result, Finnish delegations did not spend many Finnish marks in Tallinn, and the expected inflow of foreign currency remained modest. In 1965, a direct ferry connection was opened between Tallinn and Helsinki, which considerably increased the number of Finnish tourists in Soviet Estonia: from 9,000 people in 1965 to 53,400 in 1975. By the early 1970s, Tallinn had already become one of the most popular foreign turism destinations in the USSR and ranked third among the Soviet cities most visited by foreign tourists. Growing interest among Finnish tourists to visit Estonia provided Moscow with a good opportunity to earn foreign currency from them. Three organizations on the ground were responsible for fulfilling this important task: the local branch of Intourist (the monopolistic state travel agency), an Estonian shipping company working under the Ministry of Merchant Marine, and the network of currency shops under the Ministry of Trade and Commerce. Intourist was responsible for the accommodation and catering of foreign tourists and helped to organize excursions within and outside of Tallinn. In addition, Intourist offered foreign tourists a wide range of additional services – these were extras not included in the tour package and cost extra. The Estonian shipping company operated the Tallinn-Helsinki ferry line and sold ferry tickets via Intourist to the passengers. Similar to Intourist, the shipping company also offered tourists additional services, included snacks and alcoholic beverages in the ship’s restaurant and bar. The local Intourist office saw the Estonian shipping company as its major competitor threatening to minimize its annual foreign currency inflows. Currency shops offered tourists a wide variety of commodities, from clothing and souvenirs to alcohol and canned meat. As these chain stores were better equipped and prices there were a bit cheaper than in Intourist’s bars and restaurants, the Tallinn branch of Intourist must have seen them also as competitors in earning foreign currency. To summarize, the lion’s share of foreign currency revenue came from the Finnish tourists who made up the majority of foreign tourists in Soviet Estonia. Considering Soviet Estonia’s relative geographical and political smallness in comparison with bigger Soviet Republics, it earned a considerable amount of foreign currency for Moscow over the years. How and where this money was spent remains, however, an unsolved question. KEYWORDS: Cold War, foreign tourism, Soviet Estonia, Finland, currency

The cell cycle checkpoint system MAST(L)-ENSA/ARPP19-PP2A is targeted by cAMP/PKA and cGMP/PKG in anucleate human platelets

The cell cycle is controlled by microtubule-associated serine/threonine kinase-like (MASTL), which phosphorylates the cAMP-regulated phosphoproteins 19 (ARPP19) at S62 and 19e/α-endosulfine (ENSA) at S67and converts them into protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) inhibitors. Based on initial proteomic data, we hypothesized that the MASTL-ENSA/ARPP19-PP2A pathway, unknown until now in platelets, is regulated and functional in these anucleate cells. We detected ENSA, ARPP19 and various PP2A subunits (including seven different PP2A B-subunits) in proteomic studies of human platelets. ENSA-S109/ARPP19–S104 were efficiently phosphorylated in platelets treated with cAMP- (iloprost) and cGMP-elevating (NO donors/riociguat) agents. ENSA-S67/ARPP19-S62 phosphorylations increased following PP2A inhibition by okadaic acid (OA) in intact and lysed platelets indicating the presence of MASTL or a related protein kinase in human platelets. These data were validated with recombinant ENSA/ARPP19 and phospho-mutants using recombinant MASTL, protein kinase A and G. Both ARPP19 phosphorylation sites S62/S104 were dephosphorylated by platelet PP2A, but only S62-phosphorylated ARPP19 acted as PP2A inhibitor. Low-dose OA treatment of platelets caused PP2A inhibition, diminished thrombin-stimulated platelet aggregation and increased phosphorylation of distinct sites of VASP, Akt, p38 and ERK1/2 MAP kinases. In summary, our data establish the entire MASTL(like)–ENSA/ARPP19–PP2A pathway in human platelets and important interactions with the PKA, MAPK and PI3K/Akt systems. Keywords: platelets; serine/threonine protein phosphatases; cyclic AMP; cyclic GMP; ENSA; ARPP19; MAP kinas

Short-term social memory in the laboratory rat: its susceptibility to disturbance.

Short-term social memory in the laboratory rat: its susceptibility to disturbance

Effect of remission status and induction chemotherapy regimen on outcome of autologous stem cell transplantation for mantle cell lymphoma.

We analysed the outcomes of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) following high-dose therapy with respect to remission status at the time of transplantation and induction regimen used in 56 consecutive patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Twenty-one patients received induction chemotherapy with HyperCVAD with or without rituximab (+/-R) followed by ASCT in first complete or partial remission (CR1/PR1), 15 received CHOP (+/-R) followed by ASCT in CR1/PR1 and 20 received ASCT following disease progression. Estimates of overall and progression-free survival (PFS) at 3 years among patients transplanted in CR1/PR1 were 93% and 63% compared with 46% and 36% for patients transplanted with relapsed/refractory disease, respectively. The hazard of mortality among patients transplanted with relapsed/refractory disease was 6.09 times that of patients transplanted in CR1/PR1 (P = 0.006). Patients in the CHOP (+/-R) group had a higher risk of failure for PFS compared with patients in the HyperCVAD (+/-R) group, though the difference did not reach statistical significance (hazard ratio 3.67, P = 0.11). These results suggest that ASCT in CR1/PR1 leads to improved survival outcomes for patients with MCL compared to ASCT with relapsed/refractory disease, and a HyperCVAD (+/-R) induction regimen may be associated with an improved PFS among patients transplanted in CR1/PR1

Similarities in butterfly emergence dates among populations suggest local adaptation to climate

Phenology shifts are the most widely cited examples of the biological impact of climate change, yet there are few assessments of potential effects on the fitness of individual organisms or the persistence of populations. Despite extensive evidence of climate-driven advances in phenological events over recent decades, comparable patterns across species' geographic ranges have seldom been described. Even fewer studies have quantified concurrent spatial gradients and temporal trends between phenology and climate. Here we analyse a large data set (~129 000 phenology measures) over 37 years across the UK to provide the first phylogenetic comparative analysis of the relative roles of plasticity and local adaptation in generating spatial and temporal patterns in butterfly mean flight dates. Although populations of all species exhibit a plastic response to temperature, with adult emergence dates earlier in warmer years by an average of 6.4 days per °C, among-population differences are significantly lower on average, at 4.3 days per °C. Emergence dates of most species are more synchronised over their geographic range than is predicted by their relationship between mean flight date and temperature over time, suggesting local adaptation. Biological traits of species only weakly explained the variation in differences between space-temperature and time-temperature phenological responses, suggesting that multiple mechanisms may operate to maintain local adaptation. As niche models assume constant relationships between occurrence and environmental conditions across a species' entire range, an important implication of the temperature-mediated local adaptation detected here is that populations of insects are much more sensitive to future climate changes than current projections suggest

Biodistributions, Myelosuppression and Toxicities in Mice Treated with an Anti-CD45 Antibody Labeled with the α-Emitting Radionuclides Bismuth-213 or Astatine-211

We previously investigated the potential of targeted radiotherapy using a bismuth-213- labeled anti-CD45 antibody to replace total body irradiation as conditioning for hematopoietic cell transplantation in a canine model. While this approach allowed sustained marrow engraftment, limited availability, high cost and short half-life of bismuth-213 induced us to investigate an alternative α-emitting radionuclide, astatine-211, for the same application. Biodistribution and toxicity studies were conducted with conjugates of the anti-murine CD45 antibody 30F11 with either bismuth-213 or astatine-211. Mice were injected with 2-50 μCi on 10 μg or 20 μCi on 2 or 40 μg 30F11 conjugate. Biodistribution studies showed that the spleen contained the highest concentration of radioactivity, ranging from 167±23 to 417±109 % injected dose/gram (%ID/g) after injection of the astatine-211 conjugate and 45±9 to 166±11 %ID/g after injection of the bismuth-213 conjugate. The higher concentrations observed for astatine-211- labeled 30F11 were due to its longer half-life, which permitted better localization of isotope to the spleen before decay. Astatine-211 was more effective at producing myelosuppression for the same quantity of injected radioactivity. All mice injected with 20 or 50 μCi astatine-211 but none with the same quantities of bismuth-213 had lethal myeloablation. Severe reversible acute hepatic toxicity occurred with 50 μCi bismuth-213, but not with lower doses of bismuth-213 or with any dose of astatine-211. No renal toxicity occurred with either radionuclide. The data suggest that smaller quantities of astatine-211-labeled anti-CD45 antibody are sufficient to achieve myelosuppression and myeloablation with less non-hematological toxicity compared with bismuth-213-labeled antibody

Population variability of species can be deduced from citizen science records: a case study using British butterflies

Abundance data are the foundation for many ecological and conservation projects, but are only available for a few taxonomic groups. In contrast, distribution records (georeferenced presence records) are more widely available. Here we examine whether year-to-year changes in numbers of distribution records, collated over a large spatial scale, can provide a measure of species' population variability, and hence act as a metric of abundance changes. We used 33 British butterfly species to test this possibility, using distribution and abundance data (transect counts) from 1976 to 2012. Comparing across species, we found a strong correlation between mean year-to-year changes in total number of distribution records and mean year-to-year changes in abundance (N = 33 species; r2 = 0.66). This suggests that annual distribution data can be used to identify species with low versus high population variability. For individual species, there was considerable variation in the strength of relationships between year-to-year changes in total number of distribution records and abundance. Between-year changes in abundance can be identified from distribution records most accurately for species whose populations are most variable (i.e. have high annual variation in numbers of records). We conclude that year-to-year changes in distribution records can indicate overall population variability within a taxon, and are a reasonable proxy for year-to-year changes in abundance for some types of species. This finding opens up more opportunities to inform ecological and conservation studies about population variability, based on the wealth of citizen science distribution records that are available for other taxa

Results of a phase I-II study of fenretinide and rituximab for patients with indolent B-cell lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma.

Fenretinide, a synthetic retinoid, induces apoptotic cell death in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) and acts synergistically with rituximab in preclinical models. We report results from a phase I-II study of fenretinide with rituximab for B-NHLs. Eligible diagnoses included indolent B-NHL or mantle cell lymphoma. The phase I design de-escalated from fenretinide at 900 mg/