We present a multiyear time series of column abundances of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and ethane (C2H6) measured using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers at 10 sites ...affiliated with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Six are high-latitude sites: Eureka, Ny-Ålesund, Thule, Kiruna, Poker Flat, and St. Petersburg, and four are midlatitude sites: Zugspitze, Jungfraujoch, Toronto, and Rikubetsu. For each site, the interannual trends and seasonal variabilities of the CO time series are accounted for, allowing background column amounts to be determined. Enhancements above the seasonal background were used to identify possible wildfire pollution events. Since the abundance of each trace gas emitted in a wildfire event is specific to the type of vegetation burned and the burning phase, correlations of CO to the long-lived wildfire tracers HCN and C2H6 allow for further confirmation of the detection of wildfire pollution. A GEOS-Chem tagged CO simulation with Global Fire Assimilation System (GFASv1.2) biomass burning emissions was used to determine the source attribution of CO concentrations at each site from 2003 to 2018. For each detected wildfire pollution event, FLEXPART back-trajectory simulations were performed to determine the transport times of the smoke plume. Accounting for the loss of each species during transport, the enhancement ratios of HCN and C2H6 with respect to CO were converted to emission ratios. We report mean emission ratios with respect to CO for HCN and C2H6 of 0.0047 and 0.0092, respectively, with a standard deviation of 0.0014 and 0.0046, respectively, determined from 23 boreal North American wildfire events. Similarly, we report mean emission ratios for HCN and C2H6 of 0.0049 and 0.0100, respectively, with a standard deviation of 0.0025 and 0.0042, respectively, determined from 39 boreal Asian wildfire events. The agreement of our emission ratios with literature values illustrates the capability of ground-based FTIR measurements to quantify biomass burning emissions. We provide a comprehensive dataset that quantifies HCN and C2H6 emission ratios from 62 wildfire pollution events. Our dataset provides novel emission ratio estimates, which are sparsely available in the published literature, particularly for boreal Asian sources.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an important atmospheric constituent affecting air quality, and
methane (CH4) is the second most important greenhouse gas contributing to human-induced
climate change. ...Detailed and continuous observations of these gases are necessary to better assess
their impact on climate and atmospheric pollution. While surface and airborne measurements are able
to accurately determine atmospheric abundances on local scales, global coverage can only be
achieved using satellite instruments. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite, which
was successfully launched in October 2017, is a spaceborne nadir-viewing imaging spectrometer
measuring solar radiation reflected by the Earth in a push-broom configuration. It has a wide swath
on the terrestrial surface and covers wavelength bands between the ultraviolet (UV) and the
shortwave infrared (SWIR), combining a high spatial resolution with daily global coverage. These
characteristics enable the determination of both gases with an unprecedented level of detail on a
global scale, introducing new areas of application. Abundances of the atmospheric column-averaged dry air mole fractions XCO and XCH4
are simultaneously retrieved from TROPOMI's radiance measurements in the 2.3 µm
spectral range of the SWIR part of the solar spectrum using the scientific retrieval algorithm
Weighting Function Modified Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (WFM-DOAS). This algorithm
is intended to be used with the operational algorithms for mutual verification and to provide new
geophysical insights. We introduce the algorithm in detail, including expected error characteristics
based on synthetic data, a machine-learning-based quality filter, and a shallow learning calibration
procedure applied in the post-processing of the XCH4 data. The quality of the results based
on real TROPOMI data is assessed by validation with ground-based Fourier transform spectrometer
(FTS) measurements providing realistic error estimates of the satellite data: the XCO data
set is characterised by a random error of 5.1 ppb (5.8 %) and a systematic error of
1.9 ppb (2.1 %); the XCH4 data set exhibits a random error of 14.0 ppb
(0.8 %) and a systematic error of 4.3 ppb (0.2 %). The natural XCO and
XCH4 variations are well-captured by the satellite retrievals, which is demonstrated by a
high correlation with the validation data (R=0.97 for XCO and R=0.91 for XCH4 based
on daily averages). We also present selected results from the mission start until the end of 2018, including a first comparison
to the operational products and examples of the detection of emission sources in a single satellite
overpass, such as CO emissions from the steel industry and CH4 emissions from the
energy sector, which potentially allows for the advance of emission monitoring and air quality assessments
to an entirely new level.
The increasing quality and diminishing cost of next-generation sequencing has transformed our ability to interrogate large quantities of genetic information. This has led to a dramatic increase in ...the number of elective genomic tests performed. In this article, elective test denotes a test that a patient chooses to undertake without a clinical indication. The variety of elective genomic testing options is considerable. Because these offerings provide differing levels of sensitivity and specificity, it can be difficult to choose among them. A simple rubric to compare offerings is not readily available. We propose a framework designated completeness that evaluates both analytical and interpretative components of genomic tests. We then illustrate how this framework can be used to evaluate the expanding landscape of elective genomic testing.
We analyzed seasonality and interannual variability of tropospheric hydrogen cyanide (HCN)
columns in densely populated eastern China for the first time. The results
were derived from solar ...absorption spectra recorded with a ground-based high-spectral-resolution Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer in Hefei
(31∘54′ N, 117∘10′ E) between 2015 and
2018. The tropospheric HCN columns over Hefei, China, showed significant
seasonal variations with three monthly mean peaks throughout the year. The
magnitude of the tropospheric HCN column peaked in May, September, and December. The tropospheric HCN column reached a maximum monthly
mean of (9.8±0.78)×1015 molecules cm−2 in May
and a minimum monthly mean of (7.16±0.75)×1015 molecules cm−2 in November. In most cases, the tropospheric HCN columns
in Hefei (32∘ N) are higher than the FTIR observations in Ny-Ålesund (79∘ N), Kiruna (68∘ N), Bremen (53∘ N), Jungfraujoch (47∘ N), Toronto (44∘ N), Rikubetsu
(43∘ N), Izana (28∘ N), Mauna Loa (20∘ N), La
Reunion Maido (21∘ S), Lauder (45∘ S), and Arrival
Heights (78∘ S) that are affiliated with the Network for Detection
of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Enhancements of tropospheric HCN
column were observed between September 2015 and July 2016 compared to the
same period of measurements in other years. The magnitude of the enhancement
ranges from 5 % to 46 % with an average of 22 %. Enhancement of
tropospheric HCN (ΔHCN) is correlated with the concurrent
enhancement of tropospheric CO (ΔCO), indicating that enhancements
of tropospheric CO and HCN were due to the same sources. The GEOS-Chem tagged CO simulation, the global fire maps, and the potential source
contribution function (PSCF) values calculated using back trajectories
revealed that the seasonal maxima in May are largely due to the influence of
biomass burning in Southeast Asia (SEAS) (41±13.1 %), Europe
and boreal Asia (EUBA) (21±9.3 %), and Africa (AF) (22±4.7 %). The seasonal maxima in September are largely due to the influence
of biomass burnings in EUBA (38±11.3 %), AF (26±6.7 %),
SEAS (14±3.3 %), and North America (NA) (13.8±8.4 %).
For the seasonal maxima in December, dominant contributions are from AF (36±7.1 %), EUBA (21±5.2 %), and NA (18.7±5.2 %). The tropospheric HCN enhancement between September 2015 and July
2016 at Hefei (32∘ N) was attributed to an elevated influence of
biomass burnings in SEAS, EUBA, and Oceania (OCE) in this period. In
particular, an elevated number of fires in OCE in the second half of 2015
dominated the tropospheric HCN enhancement between September and December 2015. An
elevated number of fires in SEAS in the first half of 2016 dominated the
tropospheric HCN enhancement between January and July 2016.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown reduced anthropogenic emissions of NO2 in Paris. NO2 concentrations recorded in 2020 were the lowest they have been in the past 5 years. Despite these ...low-NO2 levels, Paris experienced PM2.5 pollution episodes, which were investigated here based on multi-species and multi-platform measurements. Ammonia (NH3) measurements over Paris, derived from a mini-DOAS (differential optical absorption spectroscopy) instrument and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite, revealed simultaneous enhancements during the spring PM2.5 pollution episodes. Using the IASI maps and the FLEXPART model, we show that long-range transport had a statistically significant influence on the degradation of air quality in Paris. In addition, concentrations of ammonium (NH4+) and PM2.5 were strongly correlated for all episodes observed in springtime 2020, suggesting that transport of NH3 drove a large component of the PM2.5 pollution over Paris. We found that NH3 was not the limiting factor for the formation of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), and we suggest that the conversion of ammonia to ammonium may have been the essential driver.
We present tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) changes observed by the Canadian Pandora measurement program in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada, and compare the results with surface NO2 ...concentrations measured via in situ instruments to assess the local emission changes during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the City of Toronto, the first lockdown period started on 15 March 2020, and continued until 24 June 2020. ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA-5) wind information was used to facilitate the data analysis and reveal detailed local emission changes from different areas of the City of Toronto. Evaluating seven years of Pandora observations, a clear NO2 reduction was found, especially from the more polluted downtown Toronto and airport areas (e.g., declined by 35% to 40% in 2020 compared to the 5-year mean value from these areas) during the first two years of the pandemic. Compared to the sharp decline in NO2 emissions in 2020, the atmospheric NO2 levels in 2021 started to recover, but are still below the mean values in pre-pandemic time. For some sites, the pre-pandemic NO2 local morning rush hour peak has still not returned in 2021, indicating a change in local traffic and commuter patterns. The long-term (12 years) surface air quality record shows a statistically significant decline in NO2 with and without April to September 2020 observations (trend of −4.1%/yr and −3.9%/yr, respectively). Even considering this long-term negative trend in NO2, the observed NO2 reduction (from both Pandora and in situ) in the early stage of the pandemic is still statistically significant. By implementing the new wind-based validation method, the high-resolution satellite instrument (TROPOMI) can also capture the local NO2 emission pattern changes to a good level of agreement with the ground-based observations. The bias between ground-based and satellite observations during the pandemic was found to have a positive shift (5–12%) than the bias during the pre-pandemic period.
In 2004, the US Surgeon General launched the Family History Public Health Initiative to increase awareness and discussions regarding family health history (FHx). FHx reflects the combined influences ...of shared genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors in families. The collection and use of FHx have already been shown to be useful in risk assessment and preventive intervention for cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer surveillance/chemoprevention, to name a few.1-3 Yet many segments of the population lack adequate access to the genetic component of FHx that might inform their health management. Here, we focus on adoptees, whose lack of genetic FHx normally reflects separation from biological parents as an inherent feature of adoption.
Changes of atmospheric methane total columns (CH4) since 2005 have been evaluated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) solar observations carried out at 10 ground-based sites, affiliated to the ...Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). From this, we find an increase of atmospheric methane total columns of 0.31 ± 0.03 % year−1 (2σ level of uncertainty) for the 2005–2014 period. Comparisons with in situ methane measurements at both local and global scales show good agreement. We used the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model tagged simulation, which accounts for the contribution of each emission source and one sink in the total methane, simulated over 2005–2012. After regridding according to NDACC vertical layering using a conservative regridding scheme and smoothing by convolving with respective FTIR seasonal averaging kernels, the GEOS-Chem simulation shows an increase of atmospheric methane total columns of 0.35 ± 0.03 % year−1 between 2005 and 2012, which is in agreement with NDACC measurements over the same time period (0.30 ± 0.04 % year−1, averaged over 10 stations). Analysis of the GEOS-Chem-tagged simulation allows us to quantify the contribution of each tracer to the global methane change since 2005. We find that natural sources such as wetlands and biomass burning contribute to the interannual variability of methane. However, anthropogenic emissions, such as coal mining, and gas and oil transport and exploration, which are mainly emitted in the Northern Hemisphere and act as secondary contributors to the global budget of methane, have played a major role in the increase of atmospheric methane observed since 2005. Based on the GEOS-Chem-tagged simulation, we discuss possible cause(s) for the increase of methane since 2005, which is still unexplained.
Abstract
A pilot program was initiated using whole genome sequencing (WGS) to diagnose suspected genetic disorders in the Genetics Clinic at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Twenty-two patients ...underwent WGS between 2010 and 2013. Initially, we obtained a 14% (3/22) diagnosis rate over 2 years; with subsequent reanalysis, this increased to 36% (8/22). Disease causing variants were identified in SKIV2L, CECR1, DGKE, PYCR2, RYR1, PDGFRB, EFTUD2, and BCS1L. In 75% (6/8) of diagnosed cases, the diagnosis affected treatment and/or medical surveillance. Additionally, one case demonstrated a homozygous A18V variant in VLDLR that appears to be associated with a previously undescribed phenotype.
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