Recent technological advances have expanded the breadth of available omic data, from whole-genome sequencing data, to extensive transcriptomic, methylomic and metabolomic data. A key goal of analyses ...of these data is the identification of effective models that predict phenotypic traits and outcomes, elucidating important biomarkers and generating important insights into the genetic underpinnings of the heritability of complex traits. There is still a need for powerful and advanced analysis strategies to fully harness the utility of these comprehensive high-throughput data, identifying true associations and reducing the number of false associations. In this Review, we explore the emerging approaches for data integration - including meta-dimensional and multi-staged analyses - which aim to deepen our understanding of the role of genetics and genomics in complex outcomes. With the use and further development of these approaches, an improved understanding of the relationship between genomic variation and human phenotypes may be revealed.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exist in Earth's atmosphere, most of which originate from biogenic emissions. Despite VOCs' critical role in tropospheric chemistry, studies for evaluating ...their atmosphere-ecosystem exchange (emission and deposition) have been limited to a few dominant compounds owing to a lack of appropriate measurement techniques. Using a high—mass resolution proton transfer reaction—time of flight—mass spectrometer and an absolute value eddy-covariance method, we directly measured 186 organic ions with net deposition, and 494 that have bidirectional flux. This observation of active atmosphere-ecosystem exchange of the vast majority of detected VOCs poses a challenge to current emission, air quality, and global climate models, which do not account for this extremely large range of compounds. This observation also provides new insight for understanding the atmospheric VOC budget.
Ice nucleating particles (INPs) affect the radiative properties of cold clouds. Knowledge concerning their concentration above ground level and their potential sources is scarce. Here we present the ...first highly temperature resolved ice nucleation spectra of airborne samples from an aircraft campaign during late winter in 2018. Most INP spectra featured low concentration levels (<3 · 10−4 L−1 at −15°C). However, we also found INP concentrations of up to 1.8·10−2 L−1 at −15°C and freezing onsets as high as −7.5°C for samples mainly from the marine boundary layer. Shape and onset temperature of the ice nucleation spectra of those samples as well as heat sensitivity hint at biogenic INP. Colocated measurements additionally indicate a local marine influence rather than long‐range transport. Our results suggest that even in late winter above 80°N a local marine source for biogenic INP, which can efficiently nucleate ice at high temperatures, is present.
Plain Language Summary
Clouds are a key factor in the energy budget of the Arctic atmosphere. Ice nucleating particles (INPs) can modify the radiation properties and lifetime of clouds by affecting the relative abundance of liquid and frozen droplets in a cloud. Despite this important ability, knowledge about the INP concentration above ground level is limited as airborne INP measurements are very scarce in the Arctic. Here we present results from an aircraft campaign, which took place during the late winter of 2018 in latitudes above 80°N. We found INP concentrations at above −15°C, which are similar to those found in midlatitudes. These INPs also initiate freezing already at high temperatures. We found indications that the INPs are biogenic and originate from a local, marine source, rather than being transported from midlatitudes into the Arctic. Due to the presence of numerous cracks, open leads and polynyas in the sea ice in the investigation area, the ocean may provide a source for these biogenic INP in an environment, where sources on land are still shrouded in snow and ice. However, in a warming Arctic contributions from different sources might change, making the characterization of the current state important.
Key Points
Ice nucleating particles on airborne filter samples containing mainly Arctic marine boundary layer aerosol initiate freezing at −7.5°C
At −15°C, concentrations of ice nucleating particles ranged from up to 2 · 10−2 L−1 down to below 10−3 L−1
A local marine source and biogenic origin for the high‐temperature ice nucleating particles is likely
Subradiant states in a finite chain of two-level quantum emitters coupled to a one-dimensional reservoir are a resource for superior photon storage and their controlled release. As one can maximally ...store one energy quantum per emitter, storing multiple excitations requires delocalized states, which typically exhibit fermionic correlations and antisymmetric wave functions, thus making them hard to access experimentally. Here we identify a new class of quasilocalized dark states with up to half of the qubits excited, which only appear for lattice constants of an integer multiple of the wavelength. These states allow for a high-fidelity preparation and minimally invasive readout in state-of-the-art setups. In particular, we suggest an experimental implementation using a coplanar waveguide coupled to superconducting transmon qubits on a chip. With minimal free space and intrinsic losses, virtually perfect dark states can be achieved for a low number of qubits featuring fast preparation and precise manipulation.
The chemical and isotopic composition of organic aerosol (OA) samples collected on PM1 filters was determined as a function of desorption temperature to investigate the main sources of organic carbon ...and the effects of photochemical processing on atmospheric aerosol. The filter samples were collected at an urban (54°38′ N, 25°18′ E), coastal (55°55′ N, 21°00′ E) and forest (55°27′ N, 26°00’ E) site in Lithuania in March 2013. They can be interpreted as winter-time samples because the monthly averaged temperature was −4 °C.
The detailed chemical composition of organic compounds was analysed with a thermal desorption PTR-MS. The mass concentration of organic aerosol at the forest site was roughly by a factor of 30 lower than at the urban and coastal site. This fact could be an indication that in this cold month the biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation was very low. Moreover, the organic aerosol collected at the forest site was more refractory and contained a larger fraction of heavy molecules with m/z > 200.
The isotopic composition of the aerosol was used to differentiate the two main sources of organic aerosol in winter, i.e. biomass burning (BB) and fossil fuel (FF) combustion. Organic aerosol from biomass burning is enriched in 13C compared to OA from fossil fuel emissions. δ13COC values of the OA samples showed a positive correlation with the mass fraction of several individual organic compounds. Most of these organic compounds contained nitrogen indicating that organic nitrogen compounds formed during the combustion of biomass may be indicative of BB. Other compounds that showed negative correlations with δ13COC were possibly indicative of FF. These compounds included heavy hydrocarbons and were on the average less oxidized than the bulk organic carbon.
The correlation of δ13COC and the O/C ratio was positive at low but negative at high desorption temperatures at the forest site. We propose that this might be due to photochemical processing of OA. This processing can lead to accumulation of carbon in the more refractory organic fraction that is depleted in 13C compared with the less refractory organic fraction. Detailed laboratory experiments are necessary to further investigate the aging of aerosol particles before firm conclusions can be drawn.
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•Photochemical processing of organic aerosol at the forest site.•δ13C of organic aerosol provided insight into sources.
The recently reported finding that plant matter and living plants produce significant amounts of the important greenhouse gas methane under aerobic conditions has led to an intense scientific and ...public controversy. Whereas some studies question the up-scaling method that was used to estimate the global source strength, others have suggested that experimental artifacts could have caused the reported signals, and two studies, one based on isotope labeling, have recently reported the absence of CH4 emissions from plants. Here we show – using several independent experimental analysis techniques – that dry and detached fresh plant matter, as well as several structural plant components, emit significant amounts of methane upon irradiation with UV light and/or heating. Emissions from UV irradiation are almost instantaneous, indicating a direct photochemical process. Long-time irradiation experiments demonstrate that the size of the CH4 producing reservoir is large, exceeding potential interferences from degassing or desorption processes by several orders of magnitude. A dry leaf of a pure 13C plant produces 13CH4 at a similar rate as dry leaves of non-labeled plants produce non-labeled methane.
For the first time a high mass resolution thermal desorption proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (hr-TD-PTR-MS) was deployed in the field to analyze the composition of the organic fraction of ...aerosols. We report on measurements from the remote Mt. Sonnblick observatory in the Austrian alps (3108 m a.s.l.) during a 7 week period in summer 2009. A total of 638 mass peaks in the range 18–392 Da were detected and quantified in aerosols. An empirical formula was tentatively attributed to 464 of these compounds by custom-made data analysis routines which consider compounds containing C, H, O, N, and S atoms. Most of the other (unidentified) compounds must contain other elements – most likely halogenated compounds. The mean total concentration of all detected compounds was 1.1 μg m−3. Oxygenated hydrocarbons constitute the bulk of the aerosol mass (75%) followed by organic nitrogen compounds (9%), inorganic compounds (mostly NH3, 8%), unidentified/halogenated (3.8%), hydrocarbons (2.7%), and organic sulfur compounds (0.8%). The measured O/C ratios are lower than expected and suggest a significant effect from charring. Organic carbon concentrations measured with TD-PTR-MS were about 25% lower than measurements on high volume filter samples.
We present a novel analytical approach to measure the chemical composition of organic aerosol. The new instrument combines proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometry (PTR-MS) with a ...collection-thermal-desorption aerosol sampling technique. For secondary organic aerosol produced from the reaction of ozone with isoprenoids in a laboratory reactor, the TD-PTR-MS instrument detected typically 80% of the mass that was measured with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). The first field deployment of the instrument was the EUCAARI-IOP campaign at the CESAR tall tower site in the Netherlands. For masses with low background values (~30% of all masses) the detection limit of aerosol compounds was below 0.2 ng/m3 which corresponds to a sampled compound mass of 35 pg. Comparison of thermograms from ambient samples and from chamber-derived secondary organic aerosol shows that, in general, organic compounds from ambient aerosol samples desorb at much higher temperatures than chamber samples. This suggests that chamber aerosol is not a good surrogate for ambient aerosol and therefore caution is advised when extrapolating results from chamber experiments to ambient conditions.
Size-segregated aerosol particles were collected during winter sampling campaigns at a coastal (55°37′ N, 21°03′E) and an urban (54°64′ N, 25°18′ E) site. Organic compounds were thermally desorbed ...from the samples at different temperature steps ranging from 100 °C to 350 °C. The organic matter (OM) desorbed at each temperature step is analysed for stable carbon isotopes using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) and for individual organic compounds using a Proton Transfer Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS). The OM desorbed at temperatures <200 °C was classified as less refractory carbon and the OM desorbed at temperatures between 200 °C and 350 °C was classified as more refractory carbon. At the coastal site, we identified two distinct time periods. The first period was more frequently influenced by marine air masses than the second time period, which was characterized by Easterly wind directions and continental air masses. During the first period OM contained a large fraction of hydrocarbons and had a carbon isotopic signature typical of liquid fossil fuels in the region. Organic mass spectra provide strong evidence that shipping emissions are a significant source of OM at this coastal site. The isotopic and chemical composition of OM during the second period at the coastal site was similar to the composition at the urban site. There was a clear distinction in source contribution between the less refractory OM and the more refractory OM at these sites. According to the source apportionment method used in this study, we were able to identify fossil fuel burning as predominant source of the less refractory OM in the smallest particles (D50 < 0.18 μm), and biomass burning as predominant source of the more refractory OM in the larger size range (0.32 < D50 < 1 μm).
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•Biomass burning is the predominant source of the more refractory carbonaceous aerosol at particle sizes >340 nm.•Fossil fuel burning was identified as predominant source of the less refractory fraction for <180 nm particles.•Heavy fuel exhaust emissions from ships can enhance OC concentrations at the coastal site.
Chemical and isotopic analysis of carbonaceous aerosol particles revealed a clear distinction in source contribution at coastal and urban sites.
During summer 2010, a proton transfer reaction – time of flight – mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) and a quadrupole proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) were deployed simultaneously for ...one month in an orange orchard in the Central Valley of California to collect continuous data suitable for eddy covariance (EC) flux calculations. The high time resolution (5 Hz) and high mass resolution (up to 5000 m/Δm) data from the PTR-TOF-MS provided the basis for calculating the concentration and flux for a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOC). Throughout the campaign, 664 mass peaks were detected in mass-to-charge ratios between 10 and 1278. Here we present PTR-TOF-MS EC fluxes of the 27 ion species for which the vertical gradient was simultaneously measured by PTR-MS. These EC flux data were validated through spectral analysis (i.e., co-spectrum, normalized co-spectrum, and ogive). Based on inter-comparison of the two PTR instruments, no significant instrumental biases were found in either mixing ratios or fluxes, and the data showed agreement within 5% on average for methanol and acetone. For the measured biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC), the EC fluxes from PTR-TOF-MS were in agreement with the qualitatively inferred flux directions from vertical gradient measurements by PTR-MS. For the 27 selected ion species reported here, the PTR-TOF-MS measured total (24 h) mean net flux of 299 μg C m−2 h−1. The dominant BVOC emissions from this site were monoterpenes (m/z 81.070 + m/z 137.131 + m/z 95.086, 34%, 102 μg C m−2 h−1) and methanol (m/z 33.032, 18%, 72 μg C m−2 h−1). The next largest fluxes were detected at the following masses (attribution in parenthesis): m/z 59.048 (mostly acetone, 12.2%, 36.5 μg C m−2 h−1), m/z 61.027 (mostly acetic acid, 11.9%, 35.7 μg C m−2 h−1), m/z 93.069 (para-cymene + toluene, 4.1%, 12.2 μg C m−2 h−1), m/z 45.033 (acetaldehyde, 3.8%, 11.5 μg C m−2 h−1), m/z 71.048 (methylvinylketone + methacrolein, 2.4%, 7.1 μg C m−2 h−1), and m/z 69.071 (isoprene + 2-methyl-3-butene-2-ol, 1.8%, 5.3 μg C m−2 h−1). Low levels of emission and/or deposition (<1.6% for each, 5.8% in total flux) were observed for the additional reported masses. Overall, our results show that EC flux measurements using PTR-TOF-MS is a powerful new tool for characterizing the biosphere-atmosphere exchange including both emission and deposition for a large range of BVOC and their oxidation products.
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