| 1. |
- Schael, S, et al.
(författare)
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Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance
- 2006
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Ingår i: Physics Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-1573 .- 1873-6270. ; 427:5-6, s. 257-454
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron-positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLID experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, m(Z) and Gamma(Z), and its couplings to fermions, for example the p parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle for leptons, are precisely measured: m(Z) = 91.1875 +/- 0.0021 GeV, Gamma(Z) = 2.4952 +/- 0.0023 GeV, rho(l) = 1.0050 +/- 0.0010, sin(2)theta(eff)(lept) = 0.23153 +/- 0.00016. The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840 +/- 0.0082, in agreement with the three observed generations of fundamental fermions. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model (SM). At the Z-pole, electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward-backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its SM expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the Z-pole data are also used to predict the mass of the top quark, m(t) = 173(+10)(+13) GeV, and the mass of the W boson, m(W) = 80.363 +/- 0.032 GeV. These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the SM. Using in addition the direct measurements of m(t) and m(W), the mass of the as yet unobserved SM Higgs boson is predicted with a relative uncertainty of about 50% and found to be less than 285 GeV at 95% confidence level. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Mann, G. W., et al.
(författare)
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Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity
- 2014
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 14:9, s. 4679-4713
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many of the next generation of global climate models will include aerosol schemes which explicitly simulate the microphysical processes that determine the particle size distribution. These models enable aerosol optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to be determined by fundamental aerosol processes, which should lead to a more physically based simulation of aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcings. This study examines the global variation in particle size distribution simulated by 12 global aerosol microphysics models to quantify model diversity and to identify any common biases against observations. Evaluation against size distribution measurements from a new European network of aerosol supersites shows that the mean model agrees quite well with the observations at many sites on the annual mean, but there are some seasonal biases common to many sites. In particular, at many of these European sites, the accumulation mode number concentration is biased low during winter and Aitken mode concentrations tend to be overestimated in winter and underestimated in summer. At high northern latitudes, the models strongly underpredict Aitken and accumulation particle concentrations compared to the measurements, consistent with previous studies that have highlighted the poor performance of global aerosol models in the Arctic. In the marine boundary layer, the models capture the observed meridional variation in the size distribution, which is dominated by the Aitken mode at high latitudes, with an increasing concentration of accumulation particles with decreasing latitude. Considering vertical profiles, the models reproduce the observed peak in total particle concentrations in the upper troposphere due to new particle formation, although modelled peak concentrations tend to be biased high over Europe. Overall, the multimodel-mean data set simulates the global variation of the particle size distribution with a good degree of skill, suggesting that most of the individual global aerosol microphysics models are performing well, although the large model diversity indicates that some models are in poor agreement with the observations. Further work is required to better constrain size-resolved primary and secondary particle number sources, and an improved understanding of nucleation and growth (e. g. the role of nitrate and secondary organics) will improve the fidelity of simulated particle size distributions.
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| 3. |
- Reddington, C. L., et al.
(författare)
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THE GLOBAL AEROSOL SYNTHESIS AND SCIENCE PROJECT (GASSP) : Measurements and Modeling to Reduce Uncertainty
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 98:9, s. 1857-1877
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The largest uncertainty in the historical radiative forcing of climate is caused by changes in aerosol particles due to anthropogenic activity. Sophisticated aerosol microphysics processes have been included in many climate models in an effort to reduce the uncertainty. However, the models are very challenging to evaluate and constrain because they require extensive in situ measurements of the particle size distribution, number concentration, and chemical composition that are not available from global satellite observations. The Global Aerosol Synthesis and Science Project (GASSP) aims to improve the robustness of global aerosol models by combining new methodologies for quantifying model uncertainty, to create an extensive global dataset of aerosol in situ microphysical and chemical measurements, and to develop new ways to assess the uncertainty associated with comparing sparse point measurements with low-resolution models. GASSP has assembled over 45,000 hours of measurements from ships and aircraft as well as data from over 350 ground stations. The measurements have been harmonized into a standardized format that is easily used by modelers and nonspecialist users. Available measurements are extensive, but they are biased to polluted regions of the Northern Hemisphere, leaving large pristine regions and many continental areas poorly sampled. The aerosol radiative forcing uncertainty can be reduced using a rigorous model-data synthesis approach. Nevertheless, our research highlights significant remaining challenges because of the difficulty of constraining many interwoven model uncertainties simultaneously. Although the physical realism of global aerosol models still needs to be improved, the uncertainty in aerosol radiative forcing will be reduced most effectively by systematically and rigorously constraining the models using extensive syntheses of measurements.
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| 4. |
- Metcalfe, N. B., et al.
(författare)
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Solving the conundrum of intra-specific variation in metabolic rate: A multidisciplinary conceptual and methodological toolkit New technical developments are opening the door to an understanding of why metabolic rate varies among individual animals of a species
- 2023
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Ingår i: Bioessays. - 0265-9247. ; 45:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Researchers from diverse disciplines, including organismal and cellular physiology, sports science, human nutrition, evolution and ecology, have sought to understand the causes and consequences of the surprising variation in metabolic rate found among and within individual animals of the same species. Research in this area has been hampered by differences in approach, terminology and methodology, and the context in which measurements are made. Recent advances provide important opportunities to identify and address the key questions in the field. By bringing together researchers from different areas of biology and biomedicine, we describe and evaluate these developments and the insights they could yield, highlighting the need for more standardisation across disciplines. We conclude with a list of important questions that can now be addressed by developing a common conceptual and methodological toolkit for studies on metabolic variation in animals.
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| 5. |
- Bellouin, N., et al.
(författare)
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Bounding Global Aerosol Radiative Forcing of Climate Change
- 2020
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Ingår i: Reviews of geophysics. - 8755-1209 .- 1944-9208. ; 58:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aerosols interact with radiation and clouds. Substantial progress made over the past 40 years in observing, understanding, and modeling these processes helped quantify the imbalance in the Earth's radiation budget caused by anthropogenic aerosols, called aerosol radiative forcing, but uncertainties remain large. This review provides a new range of aerosol radiative forcing over the industrial era based on multiple, traceable, and arguable lines of evidence, including modeling approaches, theoretical considerations, and observations. Improved understanding of aerosol absorption and the causes of trends in surface radiative fluxes constrain the forcing from aerosol-radiation interactions. A robust theoretical foundation and convincing evidence constrain the forcing caused by aerosol-driven increases in liquid cloud droplet number concentration. However, the influence of anthropogenic aerosols on cloud liquid water content and cloud fraction is less clear, and the influence on mixed-phase and ice clouds remains poorly constrained. Observed changes in surface temperature and radiative fluxes provide additional constraints. These multiple lines of evidence lead to a 68% confidence interval for the total aerosol effective radiative forcing of -1.6 to -0.6Wm(-2), or -2.0 to -0.4Wm(-2) with a 90% likelihood. Those intervals are of similar width to the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment but shifted toward more negative values. The uncertainty will narrow in the future by continuing to critically combine multiple lines of evidence, especially those addressing industrial-era changes in aerosol sources and aerosol effects on liquid cloud amount and on ice clouds. Plain Language Summary Human activities emit into the atmosphere small liquid and solid particles called aerosols. Those aerosols change the energy budget of the Earth and trigger climate changes, by scattering and absorbing solar and terrestrial radiation and playing important roles in the formation of cloud droplets and ice crystals. But because aerosols are much more varied in their chemical composition and much more heterogeneous in their spatial and temporal distributions than greenhouse gases, their perturbation to the energy budget, called radiative forcing, is much more uncertain. This review uses traceable and arguable lines of evidence, supported by aerosol studies published over the past 40 years, to quantify that uncertainty. It finds that there are two chances out of three that aerosols from human activities have increased scattering and absorption of solar radiation by 14% to 29% and cloud droplet number concentration by 5 to 17% in the period 2005-2015 compared to the year 1850. Those increases exert a radiative forcing that offsets between a fifth and a half of the radiative forcing by greenhouse gases. The degree to which human activities affect natural aerosol levels, and the response of clouds, and especially ice clouds, to aerosol perturbations remain particularly uncertain.
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| 6. |
- Lynham, J., et al.
(författare)
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Costly stakeholder participation creates inertia in marine ecosystems
- 2017
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Ingår i: Marine Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0308-597X .- 1872-9460. ; 76, s. 122-129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecosystems often shift abruptly and dramatically between different regimes in response to human or natural disturbances. When ecosystems tip from one regime to another, the suite of available ecosystem benefits changes, impacting the stakeholders who rely on these benefits. These changes often create some groups who stand to incur large losses if an ecosystem returns to a previous regime. When the participation cost in the decision-making process is extremely high, this can lock in ecosystem regimes, making it harder for policy and management to shift ecosystems out of what the majority of society views as the undesirable regime. Public stakeholder meetings often have high costs of participation, thus economic theory predicts they will be dominated by extreme views and often lead to decisions that do not represent the majority viewpoint. Such extreme viewpoints can create strong inertia even when there is broad consensus to manage an ecosystem towards a different regime. In the same manner that reinforcing ecological feedback loops make it harder to exit an ecosystem regime, there are decision-making feedback loops that contribute additional inertia.
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| 7. |
- Artaxo, Paulo, et al.
(författare)
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Tropical and Boreal Forest – Atmosphere Interactions : A Review
- 2022
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Ingår i: Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology. - : Stockholm University Press. - 0280-6509 .- 1600-0889. ; 74:1, s. 24-163
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This review presents how the boreal and the tropical forests affect the atmosphere, its chemical composition, its function, and further how that affects the climate and, in return, the ecosystems through feedback processes. Observations from key tower sites standing out due to their long-term comprehensive observations: The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory in Central Amazonia, the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory in Siberia, and the Station to Measure Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations at Hyytiäla in Finland. The review is complemented by short-term observations from networks and large experiments.The review discusses atmospheric chemistry observations, aerosol formation and processing, physiochemical aerosol, and cloud condensation nuclei properties and finds surprising similarities and important differences in the two ecosystems. The aerosol concentrations and chemistry are similar, particularly concerning the main chemical components, both dominated by an organic fraction, while the boreal ecosystem has generally higher concentrations of inorganics, due to higher influence of long-range transported air pollution. The emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds are dominated by isoprene and monoterpene in the tropical and boreal regions, respectively, being the main precursors of the organic aerosol fraction.Observations and modeling studies show that climate change and deforestation affect the ecosystems such that the carbon and hydrological cycles in Amazonia are changing to carbon neutrality and affect precipitation downwind. In Africa, the tropical forests are so far maintaining their carbon sink.It is urgent to better understand the interaction between these major ecosystems, the atmosphere, and climate, which calls for more observation sites, providing long-term data on water, carbon, and other biogeochemical cycles. This is essential in finding a sustainable balance between forest preservation and reforestation versus a potential increase in food production and biofuels, which are critical in maintaining ecosystem services and global climate stability. Reducing global warming and deforestation is vital for tropical forests.
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| 8. |
- Edwin, Aaron, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Calcium binding by the PKD1 domain regulates interdomain flexibility in Vibrio cholerae metalloprotease PrtV
- 2013
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Ingår i: FEBS Open Bio. - : Elsevier. - 2211-5463. ; 3, s. 263-270
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, releases several virulence factors including secreted proteases when it infects its host. These factors attack host cell proteins and break down tissue barriers and cellular matrix components such as collagen, laminin, fibronectin, keratin, elastin, and they induce necrotic tissue damage. The secreted protease PrtV constitutes one virulence factors of V. cholerae. It is a metalloprotease belonging to the M6 peptidase family. The protein is expressed as an inactive, multidomain, 102 kDa pre-pro-protein that undergoes several N- and C-terminal modifications after which it is secreted as an intermediate variant of 81 kDa. After secretion from the bacteria, additional proteolytic steps occur to produce the 55 kDa active M6 metalloprotease. The domain arrangement of PrtV is likely to play an important role in these maturation steps, which are known to be regulated by calcium. However, the molecular mechanism by which calcium controls proteolysis is unknown. In this study, we report the atomic resolution crystal structure of the PKD1 domain from V. cholera PrtV (residues 755–838) determined at 1.1 Å. The structure reveals a previously uncharacterized Ca2+-binding site located near linker regions between domains. Conformational changes in the Ca2+-free and Ca2+-bound forms suggest that Ca2+-binding at the PKD1 domain controls domain linker flexibility, and plays an important structural role, providing stability to the PrtV protein.
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| 9. |
- Edwin, Aaron, et al.
(författare)
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Domain isolation, expression, purification and proteolytic activity of the metalloprotease PrtV from Vibrio cholerae
- 2014
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Ingår i: Protein Expression and Purification. - : Elsevier. - 1046-5928 .- 1096-0279. ; 96, s. 39-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The metalloprotease PrtV from Vibrio cholerae serves an important function for the bacteria's ability to invade the mammalian host cell. The protein belongs to the family of M6 proteases, with a characteristic zinc ion in the catalytic active site. PrtV constitutes a 918 amino acids (102kDa) multidomain pre-pro-protein that so far has only been expressed in V. cholerae. Structural studies require high amounts of soluble protein with high purity. Previous attempts for recombinant expression have been hampered by low expression and solubility of protein fragments. Here, we describe results from parallel cloning experiments in Escherichia coli where fusion tagged constructs of PrtV fragments were designed, and protein products tested for expression and solubility. Of more than 100 designed constructs, three produced protein products that expressed well. These include the N-terminal domain (residues 23-103), the PKD1 domain (residues 755-839), and a 25kDa fragment (residues 581-839). The soluble fusion proteins were captured with Ni(2+) affinity chromatography, and subsequently cleaved with tobacco etch virus protease. Purification protocols yielded ∼10-15mg of pure protein from 1L of culture. Proper folding of the shorter domains was confirmed by heteronuclear NMR spectra recorded on (15)N-labeled samples. A modified protocol for the native purification of the secreted 81kDa pro-protein of PrtV is provided. Proteolytic activity measurements suggest that the 37kDa catalytic metalloprotease domain alone is sufficient for activity.
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| 10. |
- Fanourgakis, George S., et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei number, with implications for cloud droplet formation
- 2019
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 19:13, s. 8591-8617
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A total of 16 global chemistry transport models and general circulation models have participated in this study; 14 models have been evaluated with regard to their ability to reproduce the near-surface observed number concentration of aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), as well as derived cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC). Model results for the period 2011-2015 are compared with aerosol measurements (aerosol particle number, CCN and aerosol particle composition in the submicron fraction) from nine surface stations located in Europe and Japan. The evaluation focuses on the ability of models to simulate the average across time state in diverse environments and on the seasonal and short-term variability in the aerosol properties. There is no single model that systematically performs best across all environments represented by the observations. Models tend to underestimate the observed aerosol particle and CCN number concentrations, with average normalized mean bias (NMB) of all models and for all stations, where data are available, of -24% and -35% for particles with dry diameters >50 and >120nm, as well as -36% and -34% for CCN at supersaturations of 0.2% and 1.0%, respectively. However, they seem to behave differently for particles activating at very low supersaturations (<0.1%) than at higher ones. A total of 15 models have been used to produce ensemble annual median distributions of relevant parameters. The model diversity (defined as the ratio of standard deviation to mean) is up to about 3 for simulated N3 (number concentration of particles with dry diameters larger than 3nm) and up to about 1 for simulated CCN in the extra-polar regions. A global mean reduction of a factor of about 2 is found in the model diversity for CCN at a supersaturation of 0.2% (CCN0.2) compared to that for N3, maximizing over regions where new particle formation is important. An additional model has been used to investigate potential causes of model diversity in CCN and bias compared to the observations by performing a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) accounting for uncertainties in 26 aerosol-related model input parameters. This PPE suggests that biogenic secondary organic aerosol formation and the hygroscopic properties of the organic material are likely to be the major sources of CCN uncertainty in summer, with dry deposition and cloud processing being dominant in winter. Models capture the relative amplitude of the seasonal variability of the aerosol particle number concentration for all studied particle sizes with available observations (dry diameters larger than 50, 80 and 120nm). The short-term persistence time (on the order of a few days) of CCN concentrations, which is a measure of aerosol dynamic behavior in the models, is underestimated on average by the models by 40% during winter and 20% in summer. In contrast to the large spread in simulated aerosol particle and CCN number concentrations, the CDNC derived from simulated CCN spectra is less diverse and in better agreement with CDNC estimates consistently derived from the observations (average NMB -13% and -22% for updraft velocities 0.3 and 0.6ms-1, respectively). In addition, simulated CDNC is in slightly better agreement with observationally derived values at lower than at higher updraft velocities (index of agreement 0.64 vs. 0.65). The reduced spread of CDNC compared to that of CCN is attributed to the sublinear response of CDNC to aerosol particle number variations and the negative correlation between the sensitivities of CDNC to aerosol particle number concentration (Nd=Na) and to updraft velocity (Nd=w). Overall, we find that while CCN is controlled by both aerosol particle number and composition, CDNC is sensitive to CCN at low and moderate CCN concentrations and to the updraft velocity when CCN levels are high. Discrepancies are found in sensitivities Nd=Na and Nd=w; models may be predisposed to be too "aerosol sensitive" or "aerosol insensitive" in aerosol-cloud-climate interaction studies, even if they may capture average droplet numbers well. This is a subtle but profound finding that only the sensitivities can clearly reveal and may explain intermodel biases on the aerosol indirect effect.
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