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Between 2007 and 2011, the Estonian ScienceFoundation organised a research cooperationprogramme called the European Economic Area (EEA)Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian FinancialMechanism in cooperation with the Ministry of Financeand the Ministry of Education and Research. Foreignaid allocated to the support scheme of the researchcooperation accounted for 1.5% of the total amountof financial mechanisms allocated to Estonia of theperiod. The support scheme of the research cooperationtotalled EUR 534 461, of which 85% came from foreignaid and 15% was co-financed by Estonia.

The support scheme of the research cooperation aimedat promoting co-operation of Estonian researcherswith their colleagues from Norway, Island andLiechtenstein. The co-operation with the researchersin Island, Liechtenstein and Norway within theframework of the project was also one of the criteriafor applying. The competition which was organised in2007 saw 31 eligible proposals, the total requestedamount of which was 1.6 million euros. On a proposalof an international evaluation panel, it was decidedthat ten projects would be financed, of which there isa brief overview in this book.

The Estonian Research Foundation thanks the donorcountries for their support and the partners for theirhelp in implementing the support scheme of theresearch cooperation.

Research Cooperation Programme

PROGRAMME The Estonian Science FoundationMANAGER (ETF)

AIM To support the co-operation of Estonian researchers with their colleagues from Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein

TOTAL EUR 534 461FINANCING 85% - EEA Financial Mechanism

and Norwegian Financial Mechanism15% - Estonian Ministry of Education and Research

RESULTS OF 31 eligible proposals (requesting aTHE CALL total of 1.6 million euros)

Ten projects were selected for financing

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The Cultural Heritage of EnvironmentalSpaces: A Comparative Analysisbetween Estonia and Norway

Sabine Brauckmann, Liisi Jääts, Renata Sõukand,Morten Toennessen, Peder Anker,Finn Arne Joergensen

Title of the project “The Cultural Heritage ofEnvironmental Spaces: A Comparative Analysisbetween Estonia and Norway”

The project researched how humans perceiveenvironmental spaces, either pointing to a specificEstonian landscape populated by a humble plant (peatmoss), spanning herbal landscapes, socializing agro-cultural landscapes, or zooming in the NorwegianUmwelten of humans, wolves and sheep.

Besides capturing folk medicine and the socio-culturalrepresentation of arable land of the 20th century, theEstonian theme broadened to "civic botany",considering also the culture of (popular) science amongthe Baltic-German Bürgertum and best capturing thegrowing influence of academic societies on universitypositions. Over the past two years the Estonian sub-project slowly, but persistently enlarged, encompassingbesides mapping the moving spaces of a sphagnologist(Brauckmann), the transitions of the (agri)culturallandscape (Jääts), and the notion of the 'herballandscape' (Sõukand). The choice for a (geo)botanicalcase study was intentional, because botany enjoyedhuge popularity as recreation and as the basis of alucrative business in plant breeding and horticulture.Moreover, it became the 'big science' around 1850sin Europe.

The Norwegian sub-project directed the attention tosocial and cultural factors, which have propelled Umwelttransition in the contemporary Norwegian situation. Toanalyze the conflict between wolves and sheep, itmapped the Umwelten of three species, with a particularemphasis on wolf-sheep, wolf-human and sheep-human relations. For developing Uexküll's Umwelttheory towards ecophenomenology, the notion ofUmwelt transition was introduced. The study showedthat the extinction of wolves in Norway is attributableto the general and universal claim to the land by farmersand hunters who became accustomed to a wolflessenvironment over generations. This will not come asa surprise, for, in cultural terms, hardly any animal isas loaded with symbolic value as the wolf accused ofbeing the predator of sheep.

What united these projects was the subject of'environment at risk' as an implicit feature of culturalheritage, and the focus on a modern view towardsNature, which is not merely a depository for classifyingspecies, hunting predators, cultivating the soil, orembracing Nature as idyllic garden of Eden that is notyet destroyed by (agri)culture, but foremost a projectionspace of the lifeworld that is ever more depending onour careful handling of the resources.

When recalling the beginning in spring 2008 and theend in winter 2010, there is an idiom perfectlysummarizing the work _ it was sometimes an out-of-body experience. For we were stuck for days andnights at airports due to the so-called snow blizzards

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(which turned out to be some tens of snowflakes above0o C) and with nothing else for consumption than thefatty version of fast food, were caught in heateddiscussions with Russian border guards, because apassport number did not match the visa number (butwe crossed the border), stacked up in sticky hotelrooms where only the night desk's bible opened thewindow (the smell we will probably have in our nosesfor the rest of our life), had to make intelligible adnauseam why a non-Estonian is conducting an Estonianproject, or had to waste months for editing again andagain the same manuscripts, thanks to dealing withnot-too-smart reviews. Would we do it again?

Of course, the rewards were not too bad. Besides thescientific results delineating the different usages ofenvironmental spaces, either for (geo)botany,(agri)culture, folk medicine, or ecophenomenology,there were also practical ones: the project resulted inan accepted MA thesis, a successfully completed PhD,and a PhD in progress (to be finished in Sept. 2011).Furthermore, the research on the Estonian plant-spaceand the Norwegian wolf-sheep-human case study ledto several publications: three special volumes (onescientific journal, two humanities journals), a lectureseries co-organized with AHHAA, four internationalworkshops, a mini-conference and two exhibitions.Besides several invited lectures at universities abroadand a presentation at international meetings.

Space technology provides possibilitiesfor monitoring water quality in lakes

Anu Reinart, Senior research fellow at TartuObservatory

Title of the project “Improving Satellite Remote SensingProducts for Large Lakes”

Lakes offer a wide range of ecosystem services tosociety, the multiple use of which creates multiplepressures on these water bodies, such as nutrient loadand toxic pollution, modification of hydrology and shoreline structure, and a potential increase in the globalemission of greenhouse gases. Eutrophication affectssignificant numbers of lakes and reservoirs across thewhole Europe. Monitoring of inland waters is of utmostimportance for the protection of the environment andfor ensuring good water quality in general. Physicallylarge lakes exhibit several similarities to seas andoceans in their thermal structure and circulationdynamics, but their optical properties differ remarkably.Small lakes on the other hand are of great value to thelocal environment; however, they may be difficult toeven reach, as they are located in remote areas orcomplicated landscapes. Here, space technology willprovide a unique possibility to gather data over largeareas and long time periods.

Critical issues in the remote sensing of lakes in Nordicareas are: (i) the adjacency effect that may stronglyinterfere with the near-infrared channels used in theatmospheric correction methods for turbid waters; (ii)the relatively high amount of dissolved organic matterwhich diminishes the water-leaving radiance over thewhole spectrum; (iii) the large variation among theinherent optical properties and their (unknown)

Preparations for measurements of the vertical profile ofabsorption and scattering coefficients during field campingon Lake Peipsi on 18 June 2008. Photo by I. Ansko

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relationships to the water quality parameters indifferent lakes.

The development of comprehensive methods forderiving environmentally and ecologically relevantquantities from optical remote sensing measurementsfor lakes can be achieved by close cooperation withthe international remote sensing community. To thisend, data with consistent quality is necessary. Therefore,three institutions in Estonia experienced in water remotesensing and monitoring _ Tartu Observatory, EstonianMarine Institute and Võrtsjärv Centre for Limnology _

collaborated with the Norwegian Institute for WaterResearch (NIVA) and the University of Oslo. The maingoals of the joint activities were:� Improvement of scientific research in the field of

satellite remote sensing of inland waters on the basis of optically different lakes;

� Development of comprehensive methods for deriving environmentally and ecologically relevantdata by the harmonization of measurement methods and protocols;

� Exchange of results and information between different research groups and environmental monitoring and protecting authorities;

� Improvement of academic education possibilitiesfor researchers and PhD students;

� Reduction in duplicate work and creation of newideas by joint measurement campaigns and seminars.

It can be concluded from the work that variations ofwater colour between lakes and seasons are clearlyvisible in the satellite data, by inspection of both imagesand reflectance spectra. Good agreement betweensatellite and in situ data for Secchi depth, Chlorophylland suspended matter was observed.

The project promotes the use of new and modernmonitoring methods in getting a comprehensiveoverview of the state of eutrophication of lakes asrequired by the Water Framework Directive. To fullyimplement this method by water monitoring authorities,a better understanding of the needs of end users isnecessary. This can be achieved only with furtherbilateral discussions when possible solutions fromresearch outcome are presented.

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Epiphytic lichens - valuable indicatorsfor evaluating various forest qualities

Tiina Randlane, Associate professor at the Institute ofEcology and Earth Sciences of the University of Tartu;Liis Marmor, PhD student at the Institute of Ecologyand Earth Sciences of the University of Tartu

Title of the project “Potentional indicational value ofepiphytic macrolichens in evaluation of forest age andprotection requirements”

The main aim of this project was to research theindicational value of epiphytic lichens concerning thevarious qualities of forest ecosystems. Lichens forma specific part of the biodiversity and are sensitive todifferent environmental factors, like air pollution, forestmanagement and habitat history. They have been usedto assess air quality and to identify valuable sites andhabitats of high biodiversity. We studied the effects offorest continuity and tree age on epiphytic lichen biotain coniferous forests in Estonia and Fennoscandia.

Identification of species is an important step in suchecological and bioindicational studies, but so far user-friendly and richly illustrated keys for Nordic lichenswere lacking. As one of the results of the project, weprepared a practical identification key for 32 EuropeanUsnea species, the so-called beard lichens (Fig. 1). Itis presented in the traditional form as a publisheddichotomous key (Randlane et al. 2009), but also int h e i n t e r a c t i v e f o r m o n t h e I n t e r n e t(http://www.ut.ee/ial5/k2n/key/usnea_eu/). Anotherkey - a tool for the identification of epiphyticmacrolichens of Estonia - was also compiled; it is freelyavailable on the Internet in Estonian, English andRussian, while the publishing of this key as a separate

book in three languages is in progress (Fig. 2). Bothidentification tools are addressed to a wide circle ofusers - foresters, nature conservationists, biologists,students, etc.

To gather material for indicational studies, extensivefieldwork was carried out in the boreal forests in Estonia,Finland, Norway and Sweden. Analyses of the lichenspecimens recorded on 330 trees from 66 sampleplots in spruce and pine forests in Estonia indicatedthat the richness of lichen species per plot wassignificantly higher in old forests compared to first-generation forests; several species, including all red-listed and protected species, were restricted to oldforests. Three lichen taxa (Arthonia leucopellaea,Chrysothrix spp. and Lecanactis abietina) can berecommended as good indicators of old coniferousforests with long continuity in Estonia. The materialscollected in Fennoscandia indicate that the richnessof lichen species in old boreal forests in this region ismuch higher than in similar forests in Estonia. Thismight be related to the fact that old unmanaged foreststands in our country are often fragmented in thesurrounding managed forest landscape which mayhave affected the distribution of lichen species withlow dispersal ability.

This project was carried out by the lichenological teamof the University of Tartu; besides, authors T. Tõrra,E. Leppik, I. Jüriado, L. Saag and A. Saag were activelyinvolved in the work. We thank Prof. P. L. Nimis fromthe University of Trieste and Prof. E. Timdal from theUniversity of Oslo, who contributed to the preparationof the identification keys, and Dr. O. Hilmo from the

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Norwegian University of Science and Technology forconsultations. Financial support was received fromthe Norwegian Financial Mechanisms and the EEAFinancial Mechanisms (grant EMP9).

11(10) Older parts form clearly inflated sausage-like segments (terminal

branches less inflated) ................................................U. articulata

Branches do not form sausage-like segments ............................12

Fig. 1. Excerpt from the identification key for EuropeanUsnea species.

Fig. 2. Excerpt from the three-language identification key for epiphytic macrolichens of Estonia.

Tiiu Tõrra and Ede Leppik, the PhD students at the Universityof Tartu, in fieldwork in an old boreal forest of Norway -collecting lichens (June 2009). Photo by Liis Marmor

Thallus foliose or fruticose

Thallus squamulose

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Battle in our intestine: Good vs. Bad bacteria

Epp Sepp, Senior research fellow at the Institute ofMicrobiology of the University of Tartu;Paul Naaber, Senior research fellow at the Instituteof Microbiology of the University of Tartu

Title of the project “Clostridium difficile infection inEstonia and Norway: molecular epidemiology (inclprevalence of hypervirulent strain 027), phenotypiccharacteristics of strains and interaction with intestinallactobacilli”

Antibiotics have been used for more than half a centuryto kill bad bacteria and save lives. Unfortunately, theycannot distinguish between good and bad bacteriaand thus attack also our normal microbiota. This cansometimes result in mild diarrhea, but in some cases,when good intestinal bacteria are significantlysuppressed, one evil microbe - Clostridium difficile -can multiply and cause severe diseases or even death.

In our collaborative study, researchers from StavangerUniversity Hospital and the University of Tartu aimedto investigate Clostridium difficile and good bacteriain the intestinal tract of Norwegian and Estonianpatients. The key issues of the research were as follows:firstly, which C. difficile types are dominant in patientsfrom these countries? During the recent years, evenmore dangerous “hyper-virulent” C. difficile strainscirculating all over the world have caused outbreaksin hospitals and are associated with high mortality.Secondly, we wanted to explore the relationshipbetween C. difficile and some good bacteria such aslactobacilli. Lactobacilli are of many different speciesand strains and several of them belong to our normal

intestinal microflora. Since Mechnikov-times (Ilya IlyichMechnikov, biologist, Nobel prize in Physiology andMedicine 1908), lactobacilli have been believed toprotect us and prolong life, and they are traditionallyused in milk products as good bacteria. However, afew lactobacilli strains used in commercial productshave shown contradictory effects against C. difficileinfection.

Fortunately, we did not find the new hyper-virulentC. difficile strain in Estonia nor in Norway. High variationof different strains and the absence of dominating C.difficile types indicate the absence of infection outbreaksin our hospitals. So, we should thank the high-levelhygiene and good work of our infection control teams.

Although in our study, the high total amount oflactobacilli had no association with C. difficile, wefound that some particular lactobacilli species mayhave a role in the protection against this bad microbe.Namely, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillusgasseri were frequently absent in patients infected withC. Difficile, but more commonly present in the intestineof non-infected patients. Interestingly, L. gasseri wasmore frequent in Estonian and L. plantarum inNorwegian patients. This may indicate that theimportance of good bacteria in the protection againstsome particular diseases differ between nations andcountries.

As usual, our study raises questions and ideas forfuture studies rather than gives definite answers. Dothese lactobacilli have a causative role in the protectionagainst C. difficile or are they just indicators of better

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condition of intestinal microbiota? If they really aregood bacteria that protect us against the bad ones,are some good bacteria more specific to Estoniansand others to Norwegians? If yes, should we usedifferent strains or species of lactobacilli in Norwegianand Estonian milk products? Etc., etc...

Project: Clostridium difficile infection in Estonia andNorway: molecular epidemiology (incl prevalence ofhypervirulent strain 027), phenotypic characteristicsof strains and interaction with intestinal lactobacilli.

Team: Epp Sepp, Paul Naaber (coordinators); JelenaStsepetova, Imbi Smidt, Merle Rätsep, Siiri Kõljalg,Liis Jaanimäe, Elena Shkut, Iren H. Löhr, Olav B. Natås.

Special thanks to the personnel of Stavanger UniversityHospital, Tartu University Hospital, North EstonianRegional Hospital, East Tallinn Central Hospital, WestTallinn Central Hospital and the Department ofMicrobiology of the University of Tartu.

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Deciphering the cell division code

Mart Loog, senior research fellow at the Institute ofTechnology of the University of Tartu

Title of the project “Mass spectrometry-aidedphosphoproteomics - the key for mapping the signallingnetworks in cells”

Protein phosphorylation is a process of covalentaddition of phosphate groups to proteins by enzymescalled protein kinases. It is the most importantmechanism of molecular switches in cells. The humankinome includes more than 500 protein kinases andmore than one-third of all human proteins arephosphorylated. Phosphorylation and dephosphoryla-tion can switch on and off many crucial cellularprocesses via a variety of mechanisms, includingalteration of protein stability, cellular location, substrateaffinity, complex formation and activity.

Protein phosphorylation is also a mechanism regulatingcell proliferation. Cells multiply by division into twoafter having duplicated their contents. This process isknown as cell division or the cell cycle. The switchesthat control transition points of the cycle must be tightlyregulated, since in case of their failure, the cells undergouncontrolled proliferation which ultimately leads tocancer. The master regulators controlling these switchpoints are cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks). Theseenzymes phosphorylate hundreds of different proteintargets triggering a complex sequence of well-orchestrated events, including DNA replication andchromosome separation. Intriguingly, for Cdk to triggera switch, it must add multiple phosphates to the targetprotein. This phenomenon of multisite phosphorylationhas largely remained a mystery for cell cycle

researchers. Our hypothesis is that the uniquepositioning of sites and the defined order of additionof phosphates form certain logical networks which areable to differentially process kinase signals. Such ‘bar-codes’ assigned to a protein can define the timing andensure the irreversibility or abruptness of the switch.Also, the network of phosphorylation sites on thesurface of a protein can act as a single-molecule-based signal processor which is able to filter outunwanted signals or amplify selected signals. To provethis, we aimed to study the dynamics of targetmultiphosphorylation by Cdk1. Unfortunately, thereare nearly no reliable methods allowing to quantitativelystudy the multisite phosphorylation dynamics. Weaimed to develop several such techniques using massspectrometry (MS)-based phosphoproteomics. Toquantitatively detect the multiple phosphates in proteins,we used different isotope-coded mass tags combinedwith a number of separation and enrichment methodsfor differentially phosphorylated forms of peptides andproteins. However, in order to excel in these elaboratenew methods, we needed trained and skilled personnel.

The general goal of the grant was to train qualifiedPhD level specialists in MS-based phosphoproteomicsin collaboration with our Norwegian partners who arealready excellent in this field. A collaboration was setup between the protein kinase group from the Universityof Tartu and the cell signalling group from the Universityof Bergen to train Estonian PhD students in theoreticaland practical aspects of the field. With kind help fromProf. Kari Espolin Fladmark and Dr. Ralf Kellmann weacquired skills essential for MS-based phosphoproteo-mics, including sample preparation, phosphopeptide

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enrichment methods and dataanalysis. Obtained experienceis being applied by the proteinkinase research group in Tartuto work out and optimize thenovel MS-based protocolsused for quantitative study ofthe kinetics of multisitephosphorylation processes.

Ervin Valk, a PhD student and apromoter of the project

From informed consent to no consent?In search of new bioethical frameworks

Margit Sutrop, Professor of Practical Philosophy,Head of the Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu

Title of the project “New ethical frameworks for geneticand electronic care record databases”

A decade has passed since the mapping of the humangenome - an event that paved the way for many newdevelopments in biomedicine and related fields. Inethics, this milestone was accompanied by calls forchanges in the governing ethical frameworks. Sincethe WW II bioethics has been guided by values ofliberal individualism, thus stressing every person’svoluntary decision-making capacity and the inviolabilityof his/her informed consent. However, the develop-

ments in genetics and related disciplines during thelast decades of the 20th century have increasinglyquestioned the applicability or rather the sufficiencyof the individual-centred value discourse as the soleethical framework of guidance in these areas. Geneticshas uncovered the fundamental biological relatednessof humans; large biobanks and e-health databases(electronic health record collections) have created anew context where risks to individuals are lesser thanin traditional medical research and clinical practice.These advancements promised important publicbenefits - knowledge and better health for everybody.One of the main targets of these discussions has beenthe concept of informed consent - many have argued

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that the concept should either be modified (to openconsent or broad consent in biobanking, etc.) or, insome areas of application (e.g. in electronic healthrecord database projects), abandoned altogether.Traditional informed consent has been criticized asbeing too individual-centred (to the detriment ofcollective or community interests), too formal andunnecessarily cumbersome to obtain. It has beensuggested that a communitarian turn, involving greateremphasis on the principles of solidarity, equity andpublic good, as opposed to the predominance ofautonomy-based argument, would solve some of thedilemmas introduced by new technologies.

The current project application was motivated by ourconviction that there are several important andunanswered questions about this change in ethicalframeworks. Will the new ethics framework beconducive to encouraging civic participation for thepublic welfare? Will it still be able to respect individuals’liberty and autonomy and protect them against possiblebreaches of confidentiality and discrimination? Howshould the complex notion of public interest beconstrued and protected and what are the conditionsunder which the public interest may override individualinterests?

We began by scrutinising the ethical debates of thepast decade and offered an assessment of the so-called communitarian turn. In the long run our aim wasto find proper ethical frameworks for biobanks and e-health databases in an interdisciplinary context. Weinvestigated the new developments in science andtechnology from the perspectives of philosophicalethics, law, biomedical science, and sociology. Ourteam consisted of philosophers, lawyers, medicalscientists, biologists, and sociologists. On the one

hand we carried out a philosophical conceptual analysison the notions of consent, autonomy, privacy, solidarity,justice and trust. On the other hand we analysed therecent scientific developments and noticed how ethicsresponds to scientific developments. In order to findout how changes in ethical frameworks will be receivedby the public, we conducted sociological research onhow the direct users - doctors and patients - perceivethe risks and benefits of the e-health databases.

At the same time we worked in close cooperation withour international partners from the Universities ofReykjavik and Bergen. We organised workshops andconferences for exchange of ideas and for preparationof joint publications. The main results of our researchwere presented at two high-level internationalconferences in 2008 and 2010 in Tartu. The selectionof the conference papers “From informed consent tono consent? Challenges of new ethical frameworks”(November 2010) will be published in a special section(edited by Margit Sutrop and Kadri Simm) in a well-known journal, Cambridge Quarterly of Health CareEthics.

One of the main outcomes of our project was a proposalto avoid a dichotomy between individual rights andpublic interest, as well as a dichotomy betweenindividual and collective values. We argued that thereis no need to set liberal and communitarian frameworksin opposition to each other. Firstly, this is simplyunhelpful as it ultimately turns the debate into anargument about ideologies. Secondly, it is also arestricted view raising concerns that the replacementof one framework with another could, for example,leave individual rights unprotected, or allow for potentialmisuse of the public interest argument. This is not aneither/or issue. Public interest is not by default in

Margit Sutrop, the head of the Centre for Ethics of the University of Tartu andprofessor of practical philosophy; Toivo Maimets, the director of the Institute ofMolecular and Cell Biology of the University of Tartu and professor of cell biology;and Kadri Simm, the senior research fellow of practical philosophy at the Instituteof Philosophy and Semiotics of the University of Tartu

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conflict with private interests and these can oftenoverlap - in fact, one might reasonably have a privateinterest in the common interest being respected. Thus,the choice is often not between two opposing valuesof individual and communal kinds, but between valuesthat can be conceptualised in both ways.

As people have personal interests as individuals andas members of a community, an appropriate balancebetween individual and public interests must bemaintained. Often the so-called public-private conflictsof interest could be reconceptualised as simply conflictsbetween two personal interests (e.g. a personal interestin protection of confidentiality, on the one hand, anda personal interest in promotion of health and publicsafety, on the other, etc.). Secondly, the traditional

liberal-communitarian watershed should be viewed ina pluralist setting. Instead of choosing between ethicaltheories, frameworks or ideologies, we have to noticethat the problem is caused by the fact that there existseveral important objective values (e.g. privacy,autonomy, solidarity, reciprocity, benevolence) thatcannot be respected simultaneously. We believe thatthe values which we care about are plural andcontextual. Value conflicts are frequent mostly becausewe want to realize incompatible goals and incom-mensurable values. Since there is no one highest value,we cannot solve value conflicts by authoritativelyranking all other values in relation to the overridingvalue. In a pluralist approach rankings of values arereasonable only in particular situations, because theydepend on both facts of reality as well as on the

traditions we stand in andindividual conceptions of a goodlife. To conclude - there is noneed to substitute one frame-work for another. We needindividual rights even when weparticipate in large e-healthprojects geared by the commongood rhetoric. While in theEstonian e-health case theinformed consent requirementwas waived, this does not meanthat autonomy can be forsakenas well. Autonomy continues tobe crucial, but we might haveto find other, more appropriate

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means to protect it. A move from liberal tocommunitarian ethics is not a solution. We need tobalance different values and to pay attention to thecontext to avoid presenting corporate interests aspublic interest. It is crucial to understand that thecommon good or public interest is a shared interest,not someone’s private interest. The way these conceptsare debated is heavily dependent on how democratica society is. Thus, new ethical frameworks should bedeveloped taking into account that states have differentlevels of democracy. A communitarian turn in bioethicsmay be beneficial in old democracies where there isa lot of trust towards institutions undertaking research,but may bring along several risks for new democraciesor leave patients without protection in totalitarianregimes.

Shoaling and runup of long wavesgenerated by high-speed ferries

Ira Didenkulova, Senior research fellow at the Instituteof Cybernetics of Tallinn University of Technology andresearch fellow at the Institute of Applied Physics ofthe Russian Academy of Sciences

Title of the project “Shoaling and runup of long wavesgenerated by high-speed ferries”

The main goal of the project has been to describe thenonlinear long wave dynamics in the coastal zone,required to prevent and mitigate marine natural hazardsin coastal waters (storm surges, anomalous wavesfrom high-speed ferries, tsunami and freak waves) withthe basic idea of using the wave generation by fastferries in a shallow environment as a well-controlledinput to model the shoaling and runup of extreme

oceanic waves of big scales (tsunami, sneaker waves,swell, storm surges). Usually such big waves cannotbe correctly reproduced in laboratory tanks due to“scale effects”. As a result, the models developed sofar have no reliable validity. This is the principaldifference of our approach from past and existingprojects in the same field.

Figure 1. Waves from high-speed ferries in Tallinn Bay,

the Baltic Sea

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To achieve the aim of the projectwe have combined analytical,numerical and experimental studyof long waves in the coastal zone.I. Didenkulova (Institute ofCybernetics, Tallinn, Estonia) hasbeen concentrating on theanalytical study of wave runupand experimental measurementsof waves induced by high-speedferries in Tallinn Bay, the BalticSea. T. Torsvik (Bergen Centrefor Computational Science(BCCS), Bergen, Norway) hasbeen responsible for thedevelopment and implementationof numerical models for longwave generation in the TallinnBay conditions.

The analytical study has been based on the rigoroussolutions of the nonlinear shallow-water theory. Thekey and novel results here are as follows:i) parameterization of basic formulas for extreme runupcharacteristics for bell-shape waves, showing that theyweakly depend on the initial wave shape, which isusually unknown in real sea conditions;ii) runup study of periodic asymmetric waves with asteep front, as such waves are penetrating inland overlarge distances and with larger velocities than symmetricwaves;iii) statistical analysis of irregular wave runupdemonstrating that wave nonlinearity near the shoreinfluences the probability distribution of the dis-placement of the moving shoreline (runup) and itsmoments. The runup of waves was studied experi-

mentally in 2008-2009 by using waves from the fastferries in Tallinn Bay. The experimental data includedthe measurements of high-resolution profiling of thewater surface 100 m from the coast and measurementsof wave runup on a beach. Additionally, the damagepotential of fast ferry wakes was demonstrated basedon observations of a semi-sheltered beach on theIsland of Aegna that receives substantial ship waveenergy. The beach profiles demonstrated considerablevariability over relatively short periods of time, withlevels varying by over 0.5 m. It was also shown thatthe passage of 3-4 high-speed ferries was enough toreduce the beach volume by up to 1 m3/m.

Ira Didenkulova, the principal investigator of the project

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Environmental impact of oil shalecombustion ashes on topsoils in NarvaThermal Power Plants region: combinedgeochemical and ecotoxicologicalapproach

Liidia Bitjukova, Senior research fellow at the Instituteof Geology of Tallinn University of Technology

The project was carried out in collaboration with AnneKahru, a chief research fellow at the National Instituteof Chemical Physics and Biophysics.

Title of the project “Environmental impact of oil shalecombustion ashes on topsoils in Narva Powerplantsregion : combined geochemical and ecotoxicologicalapproach”

Oil shale is the main source for energy production inEstonia, the share of which in the power generation is94%. Up to 13 million tons of oil shale is burnedannually at the world’s two largest thermal power plants(Estonian and Baltic TPPs) that leads to the annualgeneration of up to 5 million tons of ash deposited asgigantic plateaus in the vicinities of these TPPs.However, about 1-2% of the finest ash particles (theso-called fly ash) is not captured by electric filters andis thus emitted to the atmosphere. Oil shale containsmost of the naturally occurring chemical elements atleast in trace amounts, which may be realised duringcombustion and can pose environmental and humanrisks. To get detailed information regarding an inputof harmful substances in the soil as one of the mainrecipient of airborne emission, the current project hasbeen initiated and fulfilled by two research groups:from the Institute of Geology; IG TUT (led by Dr. L.Bityukova) and from the National Institute of Chemical

Physics and Biophysics; NICPB (Ecotoxicology andin vitro toxicology group led by Dr. A. Kahru).

The main aims of this study were to evaluate spatialdistribution and accumulation of trace elements in thesoils of the TPPs region. Special attention was focusedon the study of the mobility of trace elements in soilsand evaluation of bioavailability of toxic heavy metalsusing recombinant luminescent sensor bacteria thatwork as an early-warning system and indicate thepotential hazard of soils. Trace elements leaching fromfly ash and toxicity of fly ash depending on the appliedcombustion technology were also important aspectsof this study.

The geochemical mapping in combination withmultivariate statistical analysis revealed the areas withelevated concentrations and allowed to evaluate theimpact of natural and anthropogenic factors on theaccumulation of elements in the soils of the studiedarea. It was shown that geological factors play themain role in the distribution of elements in the soils ofNarva region, i.e. the input of chemical elements fromairborne emissions does not lead to concentration ofchemical elements in the amounts significantly higherthan the average concentrations in the agricultural soilsof North-Eastern Estonia. Estimated values for theelements studied were substantially lower thanpermitted limit values for the residential areas definedby the Estonian Regulations.

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Olesja Bondarenko and Aleksandr Käkinen, the PhD studentsat the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics,evaluate the bioavailability of heavy metals in environmentalsamples using recombinant sensor bacteria.

The study of 26 soil samples that were specially selectedfrom two profiles oriented in a dominant wind directionreveals no tendency of the accumulation of elementsbeing dependent on the distance from pollution sources

(TPPs). The chemical analysis of these soil extracts(1:10) showed a slight positive correlation between Ba,Ca, Cu, P, Pb and Ni total contents in the soils andtheir concentrations in water-soluble extracts. Bacterialbiosensors showed the presence of bioavailable Asand Pb/Zn/Cd/Hg in soils.

Extraction of the studied metals from the soils into thewater-soluble (bioavailable) fractions exhibits thefollowing sequence: Mo > Sb > Cu> Cd > As > Sr >Zn > Ag > Ni > Mn. The higher leaching of metals wasrevealed for the soils with slowly acidic pH.

The content of 30 ashes was studied in detail to revealthe difference between the ashes from old pulverizedfiring (PF) and new circulating fluidized-bed boilercombustion (CFB) systems at the Eesti and Balti PowerPlants. The water extracts of fly ashes were analyzedto evaluate elements leaching from the finest fractionsof ashes.

The study of the aqueous extracts of the CBF and PFfly ashes (1:10 and 1:10000) showed that the toxicityof CBF fly ash to aquatic organisms was significantlylower than the toxicity of PF fly ash. However, theresults of the tests with higher plants did not revealany relations between toxicity and the “origin” of flyash samples (CBF or PF). The high alkalinity of all theanalyzed extracts seems to be the key factor indetermining the toxicity to all investigated aquaticspecies.

The results obtained once more demonstrate thatchemical and biological approaches supplement eachother to get more objective information concerning theenvironmental hazard of ashes.

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Helpful and unhelpful tools from thebiobank

Agu Tamm, Professor at the Department of InternalMedicine of the University of Tartu

Title of the project “Angiogenic, inflammatory and bonemarkers in Estonian and Icelandic patients with distinctforms of osteoarthritis”

The social burden of osteoarthritis (OA) is everincreasing. This may be illustrated by the fact that thenumber of people in Estonia who suffer from bone andjoint diseases increases more rapidly than the numberof people who suffer from heart diseases (StatisticalYearbook of Estonia, 2007). Furthermore, it is estimatedthat joint replacement surgeries in industrial countriesshould increase sevenfold in the next 20 years! Eventoday, by far the largest part of osteoarthritis-relatedexpenses is incurred for this treatment method.

The pathogenesis of the disease is complicated. Oneof the factors contributing to the progression of thedisease is believed to be inflammation of the jointlining. The latter should give rise to the growth of newblood vessels in joint tissues. This process has beenlittle studied, since it difficult to figure out what is goingon inside the joints. This is how the clarification of thepossible role of some vascular biomarkers in patientswith certain forms of OA became one of the goals ofour study.

Both study groups aimed at re-examining the patientswho had first been examined 9-12 years ago. This waywe received the most accurate information on whetherthe patient’s OA progresses fast (continuously) orslowly or does not progress at all. A prerequisite for

such a study was the awareness of the existence ofblood serum of the patient in a biobank. Blood serumcan be used to investigate the relationship of thepatient’s condition back then with today’s findings.We started to investigate the expression of a) twometalloproteinases (MMP-7 and ADAM12) and theirinhibitor TIMP-1; b) angiogenic vascular endothelialgrowth factor (VEGF) and its receptor VEGF-R2.

In most cases, there is no (reliable) data available onnew biomarkers, not even in the possession of themanufacturers of reagents. Since we were aware ofthe relatively short-term storage life of the biomarkersthat were of interest to us (e.g. MMP-s), we decidedto carry out a series on in vitro experiments beforeinvestigating the data on patients.

We used certain systematic techniques for theaccelerated ageing of cells and a special method ofcalculating for predicting the stability. It was foundthat MMP-7 has excellent stability: at least five yearsat -20oC and even a hundred years at -75oC. The VEGFreceptor maintains 90% of its initial concentration at-20oC over three months, and decades at -75oC. Bycontrast, the inhibitor of metalloproteinasesTIMP-1and VEGF showed poor stability even at -75oC. VEGFlost 90% of its activity already during the firstfreeze/thaw cycle.

Since the blood serums of the patients with OA hadbeen stored for up to 9 years in Estonia and up to 12-15 years in Iceland, there was no point in identifyingtwo of the four planned biomarkers. These two includedthe very interesting, but especially unstable VEGF.

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Therefore, we began todetermine the concentrationsof the VEGF receptor (VEGFR2)and MMP-7 in the bloodserums of the patients andabandoned the two othermarkers that were of dubiousvalue.

The results of the tests havebeen published and theyshould send a clear messageto the world’s biobank ownersand the users of theirresources.

The deadline of the final report is approaching. Some of the members of the workinggroup: Kalle Kisand, Ann Tamm, Agu Tamm and Anne Krips.

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All the Estonian electricity from the wind- is it possible?

Ants Erm, Senior research fellow at the Marine SystemsInstitute of Tallinn University of Technology

Title of the project “Probable locations of windfarmsin the open sea in relation to most favourablemeteorological, hydrographical, ice and environmentalconditions”

The resources of wind energy in Estonia (both onshoreand offshore) are comparable to those of Denmark;however, there is ~54 kW/km2 installed in Denmarkcompared to only 3.3 kW/km2 in Estonia. Taking intoconsideration the fact that the population density inDenmark is around five times higher than in Estonia,the relative potential of Estonia’s wind energy is severaltimes higher. To catch stronger wind and to avoid theworsening of the living conditions of countrysideinhabitants, it is rational to move the wind energeticsto the sea - to develop offshore wind farms preferably.In this study - Probable locations of wind farms in theopen sea in relation to most favourable meteorological,hydrographical, ice and environmental conditions -three potential locations of wind farms were pickedout in the coastal sea of North and North-West Estonia.

The physical measurements (detecting of waves,currents, turbidity, suspended matter concentrationand optical density) showed that (1) the dependenceof near-bottom currents on the mean winds is verycomplicated, (2) at a depth of at least up to 7 meterswave-generated sediment transport dominates overthat induced by the near-bottom currents, (3) butfollowing from the directional character of the current,

the wearing of the bottom takes place by the influenceof the latter, (4) at a depth of 20 m and more a windof more than 20 m/s is needed to induce any detectableprocesses at the sea bed, (5) an underwater cloud ofsuspended matter could be moved more than 5 kmper day.

The wind farms would be located near the area wherea half of the Estonian population is living: nearby theSouth-West coast of Suur-Pakri Island, about 50 kmto the west of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia; in TallinnBay, about 13 km to the north of Tallinn; and about100 km to the east of Tallinn, in the Gulf of Finlandand in the vicinity of Kunda town. Altogether it ispossible to establish about two hundred turbines(10 MW of rated power each) only in these three windfarms that responded to 2100 MW installed power. Itshould be mentioned here that the total power of theEstonian thermal power stations is ~3000 MW.

Of course, wind electricity needs alternatives (if thereis a calm period, for example). The most favourablealternatives are (1) gas turbine station(s) using (a)imported gas, (b) hydrogen produced by hydrolysis,(c) gas or oil produced from oil shale; (2) pumpedstorage hydroelectric power plant(s) (one such stationis in a developing phase in Estonia - they are planningto construct a 300 m deep granite mine that will beused for the storage of sea water after the granite isworked out; (3) sea hydroelectric power plant (inprinciple also a storage station, but a dam and naturalrelief of the coastline will be used).

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The answer to the question above is: not all, but afavourable part of electricity could be produced usingthe wind resource of Estonia. At first, the technology

of oil shale stations must be totally renewed or stopped,and dynamic power stations must be introducedtogether with windmills.

“Eureka - the Doppler probe!”

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Projects funded under the EEA/Norwegian financial mechanisms transfer ofknowledge block grant

EMP 1

EMP 9

EMP 13

EMP 24

EMP 31

Grant No Grant holder Project title Partner institutionsin donor countries

Anu ReinartTartu Observatory

Tiina RandlaneUniversity of Tartu

Epp SeppUniversity of Tartu

Mart LoogUniversity of Tartu

Margit SutropUniversity of Tartu

Improving Satellite Remote SensingProducts for Large Lakes

Potentional indicational value ofepiphytic macrolichens in evaluationof forest age and protectionrequirements

Clostridium difficile infection in Estoniaand Norway: molecular epidemiology(incl prevalence of hypervirulent strain 027),phenotypic characteristics of strains andinteraction with intestinal lactobacilli

Mass spectrometry-aidedphosphoproteomics - the key for mappingthe signalling networks in cells

New ethical frameworks for genetic andelectronic care record databases

University of Oslo, Section forMeteorology and Oceanography;Norwegian Institute for WaterResearch, NIVA

Norwegian University ofScience and Technology,Dept. of Biology;Nord-Trondelag UniversityCollege (Steinkjer)

Stavanger University Hospital

University of Bergen,Department of MolecularBiology

Centre for Ethics, Dept. ofPhilosophy, University of Iceland;Centre for the Study of theSciences and the Humanities,University of Bergen

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EMP 41

EMP 45

EMP 48

EMP 53

EMP 54

Grant No Grant holder Project title Partner institutionsin donor countries

Irina DidenkulovaTallinn Universityof Technology

Lidia BitjukovaTallinn Universityof Technology

Agu TammUniversity of Tartu

Ants ErmTallinn Universityof Technology

SabineBrauckmannUniversity of Tartu

Shoaling and runup of long wavesgenerated by high-speed ferries

Environmental impact of oil shalecombustion ashes on topsoils in NarvaPowerplants region : combined geochemicaland ecotoxicological approach

Angiogenic, inflammatory and bone markersin Estonian and Icelandic patients withdistinct forms of osteoarthritis

Probable locations of windfarms in the opensea in relation to most favourablemeteorological, hydrographical, ice andenvironmental conditions

The Cultural Heritage of EnvironmentalSpaces: A Comparative Analysis betweenEstonia and Norway

Dept. of Mathematics,University of Oslo;Bergen Centre forComputational Science

Geological Survey of Norway, NGUNorwegian Geotechnical Institute(NGI);Norwegian Institute forAgricultural and EnvironmentalResearch (Bioforsk)

Landspitalinn University Hospital,Department of Rheumatology

Institute of Marine Research,Bergen

University of Oslo, Forum forUniversity History;University of Oslo, Centre forDevelopment and the Environment

Published by Estonian Science FoundationCompiled by Kati KioPrint by PressmasterISBN 978-9949-21-699-4

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