Different Relationship between hsp70 mRNA and hsp70 Levels in the Heat Shock Response of Two Salmonids with Dissimilar Temperature Preference

The heat shock response (HSR) refers to the rapid production of heat shock proteins (hsps) in response to a sudden increase in temperature. Its regulation by heat shock factors is a good example of how gene expression is transcriptionally regulated by environmental stresses. In contrast, little is known about post-transcriptional regulation of the response. The heat shock response is often used to characterize the temperature tolerance of species with the rationale that whenever the response sets on, a species is approaching its lethal temperature. It has commonly been considered that an increase in hsp mRNA gives an accurate indication that the same happens to the protein level, but this need not be the case. With climate change, understanding the effects of temperature on gene expression of especially polar organisms has become imperative to evaluate how both biodiversity and commercially important species respond, since temperature increases are expected to be largest in polar areas. Here we studied the HSR of two phylogenetically related Arctic species, which differ in their temperature tolerance with Arctic charr having lower maximally tolerated temperature than Atlantic salmon. Arctic charr acclimated to 15 degrees C and exposed to 7 degrees C temperature increase for 30 min showed both an increase in hsp70 mRNA and hsp70 whereas in salmon only hsp70 mRNA increased. Our results indicate that the temperature for transcriptional induction of hsp can be different from the one required for a measurable change in inducible hsp level. The species with lower temperature tolerance, Arctic charr, are experiencing temperature stress already at the higher acclimation temperature, 15 degrees C, as their hsp70 mRNA and hsp70 levels were higher, and they grow less than fish at 8 degrees C (whereas for salmon the opposite is true). Consequently, charr experience more drastic heat shock than salmon. Although further studies are needed to establish the temperature range and length of exposure where hsp mRNA and hsp level are disconnected, the observation suggests that by measuring both hsp mRNA and hsp level, one can evaluate if a species is approaching the higher end of its temperature tolerance, and thus evaluate the vulnerability of an organism to the challenges imposed by elevated water temperature

The contradictory politics of the right to travel: mobilities, borders & tourism

The freedom of movement and right to travel are intrinsic to the growth of international tourism. Notwithstanding the inchoate nature of the right to tourism, the entitlement to travel and to pursue tourism without hindrance is firmly established in advanced capitalist societies. Moreover, the right to tourism has been recently enshrined in the 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics. Tourists’ ease of mobility contrasts starkly with the movements of less privileged forms of mobility that may be variously constrained by racism, xenophobia and restrictive border controls. This paper contends that rather than a mere reflection of accumulated political rights (citizenship), such unequal and differentiated mobilities are conditioned by a complex assemblage of discursive frameworks and structural forces that are played out in specific historical-geographic contexts. Accordingly, we argue that the rights associated with global tourism must be analysed in the context of the contradictory politics of global mobility, or indeed in terms of the ‘mobility crisis’. This ‘crisis’ is one that is rooted in and shaped by the cumulative legacy of past colonial orders, global capitalism and geopolitical realignments, in addition to multi-scalar systems of governance through which borders are constituted, managed and policed

Rajan turvallistaminen ja poikkeustilan arjen geopolitiikka:Tornion kaupunki maahantulon reittinä syksyllä 2015

Abstract In the autumn of 2015 more than 32 000 asylum-seekers arrived in Finland, most of them traveling through the Tornio border crossing point from Haparanda, Sweden. The situation was exceptional and as a response, the Finnish government relocated hundreds of security authorities and servicemen to register the asylumseekers and to control the border crossing. In the research literature such a border securitization, an approach where migrants and asylums are approached from the viewpoint of security instead of human rights, is considered problematic. This paper examines the local authorities and civic actors’ stories of border securitization and asylum reception in Tornio by employing everyday geopolitics as a theoretical and methodological framework. Everyday geopolitics approach is sensitive to the practices and experiences of border securitization at local and intimate scales. The main research finding is that local actors are aware of the wider geopolitical and societal discourses of threat. However, their stories of local and everyday practices emphasize feelings of safety, trust and cooperation at both national and supranational scales. Instead of focusing the feelings of safety merely on the discursive production of threat and danger, it is important to unfold the more contextual, local and mundane interpretations of border securitization

Labor migration:dynamics and politics

Introduction Much of the early research on labor migration drew on the push-pull factors of migration. The emphasis was on economic and individualistic assumptions with little notion of institutions, power, and politics. Since the early 1970s, the interest has shifted toward historical and institutional processes and structural factors and their explanatory power regarding the dynamics and patterns of labor migration. The national and international regimes of migration control have expanded and directed scholarly attention toward border and migration policies and their production of migrant categories. Migration policy research has also extended the focus from receiving countries toward complex dynamics and interactions between the labor-sending and labor-receiving countries. The migration trajectories from the global South to North have been studied extensively and more and more attention is paid to South–North, South–South and North–North migrations. Different types of labor migration and mobilities are also subject to different regional, national, and international policies and policy change. In current literature, the heterogeneity of migration is underlined, as well as how labor migration politics and policies address high-skilled migrants in different ways than low-skilled ones. However, the categories of migration are in many ways arbitrary. Labor migration is a highly complex and politically contested issue that intersects and forms a continuum with other types of migration and migration politics. Migration politics and the precarious conditions of foreign workers have been studied, among other ways, in explorations of what influence the temporal nature of migration and restricted permission to stay in the foreign territory have. Moreover, although labor migration is usually understood in terms of voluntary migration, the conditions of migrants sometimes resemble those of unfree labor, illustrating the complexity of determining what is counted as labor migration and what politics it concerns. The recent research on migrant rights and political atmosphere brings together the subjects of different migrations and how migrants navigate between different legal and political statuses. The literature is organized chronologically into eight themes that have a similar theoretical approach or similar thematic perspective to labor migration: (1) Theoretical and Historical Overviews, (2) International Division of Labor, (3) the Political Economy of Labor Migration, (4) Regulation and Management of Labor Migration, (5) Regional Migration Governance, (6) Skilled Labor Migration, (7) Temporary and Precarious Labor Migration, and (8) rights and protection in a Rights-Based Approach. The historical and geographical migration trajectories are visible through the themes, revealing how and why the particular aspects of labor migration have become questions of politics in different parts of the world

Geopolitics of border securitization:sovereignty, nationalism and solidarity in asylum reception in Finland

Abstract The paper examines the recent security interventions at the northern Finnish-Swedish border crossing point in the town of Tornio, the particular focus being on the 2015 migration influx in which Finland received a tenfold increase in asylum applications compared with the previous years (~3000 → 32 476 asylum applicants). The resultant securitization of the Finnish-Swedish border and the organization of asylum reception practices, in which nongovernmental organizations played an important role, created tension between the Finnish and Swedish authorities, borderlanders, and within wider Finnish society. An empirical study of various materials (documents, interviews, social media debates and media reports) is used to examine the coexistence and intertwining of different border securitization practices and discourses. The analysis is structured around three story lines that disclose border securitization as multiple and aims to problematize the assumption that states, as entities holding sovereign authority, fully determine matters of border securitization. Firstly, the state intervention examined here occurred through and fully depended on collaboration with local authorities and nongovernmental actors. Secondly, nationalistic groups mobilized demonstrations against immigration and started independent street patrols in the name of security, throwing into question the effectiveness and authority of the state government in matters of border securitization. Thirdly, the discourses of the securitized Finnish-Swedish border reflect the wider solidarity crisis between EU countries with respect to shared sovereignty. The study complicates the understanding of border securitization as a straight forward state effort and provides a picture of a hybrid border securitization environment

Border-regional resilience in EU internal and external border areas in Finland

Abstract European border regions have witnessed a long history of remarkable mobility shocks stemming from complex ecological and economic changes and geopolitical events. The experience of near-continuous regional and global crisis has increased interest towards the idea of resilience, that is, the ability of communities and regions to adapt and cope with disturbances and transitions. Inspired by the literature of regional resilience and the evolutionary approach, this paper will examine the difference that borders and geopolitical conditions make from the perspective of regional resilience and especially ‘border-regional resilience’. Particular focus will be on irregular cross-border mobilities and consequent transitions in EU external and internal border towns, here the Finnish towns of Lappeenranta and Tornio. The study points out that the geopolitical environment and the openness of the border partly determine the regional development trajectories and the ways of coping with cross-border mobility-related changes. Although the border location entails some vulnerability, formal and informal cross-border institutions and relations of trust are of crucial importance from the perspective of border-regional resilience. The paper proposes a research agenda for studying border-regional resilience in the context of environmental, economic and social changes and geopolitical events

Asylum reception and the politicization of national identity in Finland:a gender perspective

Abstract This chapter analyses the relationship between nationalism and gender by scrutinizing the gendered imaginations and rationalities of border crossing and asylum reception in Finland. In Finland, like in many European countries, border and migration securitization has become an integral part of national identity formation and of the making of political divisions between ‘friends’ and the ‘enemy’. The chapter examines the contextual, local, and mundane interpretations of border and migration securitization in the context of the reception of asylum seekers in Finland in 2015. The experiences of the securitization and politicization of national identity are discussed in the context of the asylum reception in Tornio. The anonymous survey and the social media discussions illustrate different kinds of attitudes towards the border and the asylum reception than do the face-to-face interviews with people who participated in border surveillance and asylum reception on the ground

Alueellinen tietoisuus ja rajat ylittävän liikkuvuuden hierarkia:Lappeenrannan ja Tornion kaupunkien asukkaiden näkökulmat

Abstract This paper reports a study that examined peoples’ attitudes towards borders, border surveillance and cross-border mobilities in the Finnish–Russian and Finnish–Swedish border areas. The study is based on a postal survey that was conducted among the residents of Lappeenranta and Tornio in 2017. The analysis points out differences in the attitudes towards the borders and crossborder mobilities between and within the border cities. With the exception of cross-border petrol shopping, people in Tornio have more regular interaction across the Finnish–Swedish border than people in Lappeenranta have across the Finnish–Russian border. An interesting research finding is that people in Tornio consider the free mobility of locals across borders more important in both border contexts compared to people in Lappeenranta. In both research areas, however, border surveillance is considered of high importance. The concept of border-regional consciousness is proposed as a key for understanding the divergence of attitudes towards the rights of mobility between different legal-administrative and geopolitical border contexts