Place In Estonia Research Articles

Conflict of interest in medical research in Estonia.

An area where conflicts of interest can take place in Estonia is in the conduct of clinical trials. The paper lists the main areas where such conflicts of interest can occur. The author also briefly discusses Estonia's current position with regard to regulating genetic information and the commencement of the Estonian Genome Project.

Food habits and dietary intake of schoolchildren in Estonia

The social and economic changes which have taken place in Estonia in the early 1990s may have an impact on the dietary habits and nutrient intake of children. This first report is a comprehensive survey focusing on the diet of pubertal children - the period of most rapid growth after infancy. A school-based cross-sectional dietary study, using food frequency questionnaires and 48-hour recalls, was performed in five Estonian counties. The sample consisted of 562 randomly-selected 12- and 15-year-old rural and urban children, 34 1 of whom answered the 48-hour recall interview. The mean daily energy intake was 10.2-1 1.2 MJ in urban and 8.5-9.2 MJ in rural boys and 7.9-8.6 MJ in urban girls compared with 7.6-8.6 MJ in rural girls. Fat accounted for 36-38%, protein for 12-14% and carbohydrates for 49-52% of the total energy intake. The mean intakes of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids comprised 13- 15%, 11 - 14% and 6- 8% of daily energy intake, respectively. The mean intakes of vitamins C and D and the minerals calcium and zinc were below the current Estonian recommendations for both girls and boys. The mean iron intake of girls was 20% lower than national recommendations. Cereal products were the most important food group, providing the main source of energy, protein, carbohydrates and iron. The requirements for most vitamins and minerals meet the national recommendations, except for iron in girls. Obesity is not a significant problem in these age groups.

General changes in the Matsalu Bay reedbeds in this century and their present quality (Estonian SSR)

The slow but constant rise of the trophic level of natural waters in many places in Estonia (including the eastern part of Matsalu Bay) has brought about a considerable expansion of the area covered by reedbeds and abundant growth (increase of productivity) of hydrophytes. During one century the reedbed territory in the eastern part of Matsalu Bay has increased from 10 km 2 (1870) to 27 km 2 (1980) owing to man's activity (the pollution of natural waterbodies with nutrient elements) as well as the neotectonic uplift of the earth's crust. Today, communities with Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel, Scirpus lacustris L. and Typha angustifolia L. cover about 99.5% of the reedbed area. Helophyte communities in the eastern part of Matsalu Bay function as biofilters, in which large quantities of organic matter, produced here and mineral particles, carried by rivers, have been accumulated in the course of time. The rise of the trophic level is accompanied by an increase in the thickness and length of P. australis shoots, together with their weakening. As a result, the quality of P. australis as a raw material for roofs and insulation mats has deteriorated.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION OF CITIES BY THE METHODS OF CENTRAL-PLACE THEORY (with reference to the Estonian SSR)

Soviet geographers operate with the concept of the economic-geographic situation of places, reflecting the relationship between a given place and all economically significant outside factors. Attempts have been made to derive a measure of the economic-geographic situation, and the author proposes to use the methods of central-place theory for this purpose. He suggests a technique by which he proceeds from the idealized Christaller network to a transformed system of central places and then to a real-world system. He tests the technique by using the system of 50 central places in Estonia, a territory with a long tradition of urbanization. He also evaluates the situation of 16 Estonian urban places whose population is not growing or is actually declining and which have been designated as problem towns. The system of central places in Estonia is found to display good agreement with the predictions of the theory. The ratios of distances between central places at any two successive levels of the hierarchy also ...