Project acronym ATMNUCLE
Project Atmospheric nucleation: from molecular to global scale
Researcher (PI) Markku Tapio Kulmala
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Atmospheric aerosol particles and trace gases affect the quality of our life in many ways (e.g. health effects, changes in climate and hydrological cycle). Trace gases and atmospheric aerosols are tightly connected via physical, chemical, meteorological and biological processes occurring in the atmosphere and at the atmosphere-biosphere interface. One important phenomenon is atmospheric aerosol formation, which involves the production of nanometer-size particles by nucleation and their growth to detectable sizes. The main scientific objectives of this project are 1) to quantify the mechanisms responsible for atmospheric new particle formation and 2) to find out how important this process is for the behaviour of the global aerosol system and, ultimately, for the whole climate system. Our scientific plan is designed as a research chain that aims to advance our understanding of climate and air quality through a series of connected activities. We start from molecular simulations and laboratory measurements to understand nucleation and aerosol thermodynamic processes. We measure nanoparticles and atmospheric clusters at 15-20 sites all around the world using state of the art instrumentation and study feedbacks and interactions between climate and biosphere. With these atmospheric boundary layer studies we form a link to regional-scale processes and further to global-scale phenomena. In order to be able to simulate global climate and air quality, the most recent progress on this chain of processes must be compiled, integrated and implemented in Climate Change and Air Quality numerical models via novel parameterizations.
Summary
Atmospheric aerosol particles and trace gases affect the quality of our life in many ways (e.g. health effects, changes in climate and hydrological cycle). Trace gases and atmospheric aerosols are tightly connected via physical, chemical, meteorological and biological processes occurring in the atmosphere and at the atmosphere-biosphere interface. One important phenomenon is atmospheric aerosol formation, which involves the production of nanometer-size particles by nucleation and their growth to detectable sizes. The main scientific objectives of this project are 1) to quantify the mechanisms responsible for atmospheric new particle formation and 2) to find out how important this process is for the behaviour of the global aerosol system and, ultimately, for the whole climate system. Our scientific plan is designed as a research chain that aims to advance our understanding of climate and air quality through a series of connected activities. We start from molecular simulations and laboratory measurements to understand nucleation and aerosol thermodynamic processes. We measure nanoparticles and atmospheric clusters at 15-20 sites all around the world using state of the art instrumentation and study feedbacks and interactions between climate and biosphere. With these atmospheric boundary layer studies we form a link to regional-scale processes and further to global-scale phenomena. In order to be able to simulate global climate and air quality, the most recent progress on this chain of processes must be compiled, integrated and implemented in Climate Change and Air Quality numerical models via novel parameterizations.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym C8
Project Consistent computation of the chemistry-cloud continuum and climate change in Cyprus
Researcher (PI) Johannes Lelieveld
Host Institution (HI) THE CYPRUS RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary We have developed a new numerical method to consistently compute atmospheric trace gas and aerosol chemistry and cloud processes. The method is computationally efficient so that it can be used in climate models. For the first time cloud droplet formation on multi-component particles can be represented based on first principles rather than parameterisations. This allows for a direct coupling in models between aerosol chemical composition and the continuum between hazes and clouds as a function of ambient relative humidity. We will apply the method in a new nested global-limited area model system to study atmospheric chemistry climate interactions and anthropogenic influences. We will focus on the Mediterranean region because it is a hot spot in climate change exposed to drying and air pollution. The limited area model will also be applied as cloud-resolving model to study aerosol influences on precipitation and storm development. By simulating realistic meteorological conditions at high spatial resolution our method can be straightforwardly tested against observations. Central questions are: - How does the simulated haze-cloud continuum compare with remote sensing measurements and what is the consequence of abandoning the traditional and artificial distinction between aerosols and clouds? - How are cloud and precipitation formation influenced by atmospheric chemical composition changes? - To what extent do haze and cloud formation in polluted air exert forcings of synoptic meteorological conditions and climate? - Can aerosol pollution in the Mediterranean region exacerbate the predicted and observed drying in a changing climate? The model system is user-friendly and will facilitate air quality and climate studies by regional scientists. The project will be part of the Energy, Environment and Water Centre of the newly founded Cyprus Institute, provide input to climate impact assessments and contribute to a regional outreach programme.
Summary
We have developed a new numerical method to consistently compute atmospheric trace gas and aerosol chemistry and cloud processes. The method is computationally efficient so that it can be used in climate models. For the first time cloud droplet formation on multi-component particles can be represented based on first principles rather than parameterisations. This allows for a direct coupling in models between aerosol chemical composition and the continuum between hazes and clouds as a function of ambient relative humidity. We will apply the method in a new nested global-limited area model system to study atmospheric chemistry climate interactions and anthropogenic influences. We will focus on the Mediterranean region because it is a hot spot in climate change exposed to drying and air pollution. The limited area model will also be applied as cloud-resolving model to study aerosol influences on precipitation and storm development. By simulating realistic meteorological conditions at high spatial resolution our method can be straightforwardly tested against observations. Central questions are: - How does the simulated haze-cloud continuum compare with remote sensing measurements and what is the consequence of abandoning the traditional and artificial distinction between aerosols and clouds? - How are cloud and precipitation formation influenced by atmospheric chemical composition changes? - To what extent do haze and cloud formation in polluted air exert forcings of synoptic meteorological conditions and climate? - Can aerosol pollution in the Mediterranean region exacerbate the predicted and observed drying in a changing climate? The model system is user-friendly and will facilitate air quality and climate studies by regional scientists. The project will be part of the Energy, Environment and Water Centre of the newly founded Cyprus Institute, provide input to climate impact assessments and contribute to a regional outreach programme.
Max ERC Funding
2 196 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym COALA
Project Comprehensive molecular characterization of secondary organic aerosol formation in the atmosphere
Researcher (PI) Mikael Ehn
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Key words: Atmospheric secondary organic aerosol, chemical ionization mass spectrometry
The increase in anthropogenic atmospheric aerosol since the industrial revolution has considerably mitigated the global warming caused by concurrent anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. However, the uncertainty in the magnitude of the aerosol climate influence is larger than that of any other man-made climate-perturbing component.
Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is one of the most prominent aerosol types, yet a detailed mechanistic understanding of its formation process is still lacking. We recently presented the ground-breaking discovery of a new important compound group in our publication in Nature: a prompt and abundant source of extremely low-volatility organic compounds (ELVOC), able to explain the majority of the SOA formed from important atmospheric precursors.
Quantifying the atmospheric role of ELVOCs requires further focused studies and I will start a research group with the main task of providing a comprehensive, quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the formation and evolution of SOA. Our recent discovery of an important missing component of SOA highlights the need for comprehensive chemical characterization of both the gas and particle phase composition.
This project will use state-of-the-art chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS), which was critical also in the detection of the ELVOCs. We will extend the applicability of CIMS techniques and conduct innovative experiments in both laboratory and field settings using a novel suite of instrumentation to achieve the goals set out in this project.
We will provide unprecedented insights into the compounds and mechanisms producing SOA, helping to decrease the uncertainties in assessing the magnitude of aerosol effects on climate. Anthropogenic SOA contributes strongly to air quality deterioration as well and therefore our results will find direct applicability also in this extremely important field.
Summary
Key words: Atmospheric secondary organic aerosol, chemical ionization mass spectrometry
The increase in anthropogenic atmospheric aerosol since the industrial revolution has considerably mitigated the global warming caused by concurrent anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. However, the uncertainty in the magnitude of the aerosol climate influence is larger than that of any other man-made climate-perturbing component.
Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is one of the most prominent aerosol types, yet a detailed mechanistic understanding of its formation process is still lacking. We recently presented the ground-breaking discovery of a new important compound group in our publication in Nature: a prompt and abundant source of extremely low-volatility organic compounds (ELVOC), able to explain the majority of the SOA formed from important atmospheric precursors.
Quantifying the atmospheric role of ELVOCs requires further focused studies and I will start a research group with the main task of providing a comprehensive, quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the formation and evolution of SOA. Our recent discovery of an important missing component of SOA highlights the need for comprehensive chemical characterization of both the gas and particle phase composition.
This project will use state-of-the-art chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS), which was critical also in the detection of the ELVOCs. We will extend the applicability of CIMS techniques and conduct innovative experiments in both laboratory and field settings using a novel suite of instrumentation to achieve the goals set out in this project.
We will provide unprecedented insights into the compounds and mechanisms producing SOA, helping to decrease the uncertainties in assessing the magnitude of aerosol effects on climate. Anthropogenic SOA contributes strongly to air quality deterioration as well and therefore our results will find direct applicability also in this extremely important field.
Max ERC Funding
1 892 221 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29
Project acronym COMPUTED
Project Computational User Interface Design
Researcher (PI) Antti Olavi Oulasvirta
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary PROBLEM: Despite extensive research on human-computer interaction (HCI), no method exists that guarantees the optimal or even a provably good user interface (UI) design. The prevailing approach relies on heuristics and iteration, which can be costly and even ineffective, because UI design often involves combinatorially hard problems with immense design spaces, multiple objectives and constraints, and complex user behavior.
OBJECTIVES: COMPUTED establishes the foundations for optimizing UI designs. A design can be automatically optimized to given objectives and constraints by using combinatorial optimization methods that deploy predictive models of user behavior as objective functions. Although previous work has shown some improvements to usability, the scope has been restricted to keyboards and widgets. COMPUTED researches methods that can vastly expand the scope of optimizable problems. First, algorithmic support is developed for acquiring objective functions that cover the main human factors in a given HCI task. Second, formal analysis of decision problems in UI design allows combating a broader range of design tasks with efficient and appropriate optimization methods. Third, a novel interactive UI optimization paradigm for UI designers promotes fast convergence to good results even in the face of uncertainty and incomplete knowledge.
IMPACT: Combinatorial UI optimization offers a strong complement to the prevailing design approaches. Because the structured search process has a high chance of finding good solutions, optimization could improve the quality of interfaces used in everyday life. Optimization can also increase cost-efficiency, because reference to optimality can eliminate fruitless iteration. Moreover, because no preknowledge of UI design is required, even novices will be able to design great UIs. Even in “messy,” less well-defined problems, it may support designers by allowing them to delegate the solving of well-known sub-problems.
Summary
PROBLEM: Despite extensive research on human-computer interaction (HCI), no method exists that guarantees the optimal or even a provably good user interface (UI) design. The prevailing approach relies on heuristics and iteration, which can be costly and even ineffective, because UI design often involves combinatorially hard problems with immense design spaces, multiple objectives and constraints, and complex user behavior.
OBJECTIVES: COMPUTED establishes the foundations for optimizing UI designs. A design can be automatically optimized to given objectives and constraints by using combinatorial optimization methods that deploy predictive models of user behavior as objective functions. Although previous work has shown some improvements to usability, the scope has been restricted to keyboards and widgets. COMPUTED researches methods that can vastly expand the scope of optimizable problems. First, algorithmic support is developed for acquiring objective functions that cover the main human factors in a given HCI task. Second, formal analysis of decision problems in UI design allows combating a broader range of design tasks with efficient and appropriate optimization methods. Third, a novel interactive UI optimization paradigm for UI designers promotes fast convergence to good results even in the face of uncertainty and incomplete knowledge.
IMPACT: Combinatorial UI optimization offers a strong complement to the prevailing design approaches. Because the structured search process has a high chance of finding good solutions, optimization could improve the quality of interfaces used in everyday life. Optimization can also increase cost-efficiency, because reference to optimality can eliminate fruitless iteration. Moreover, because no preknowledge of UI design is required, even novices will be able to design great UIs. Even in “messy,” less well-defined problems, it may support designers by allowing them to delegate the solving of well-known sub-problems.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 790 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31
Project acronym ECLAIR
Project Emulation of subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interactions in climate models: towards a realistic representation of aerosol indirect effect
Researcher (PI) Sari Hannele Korhonen
Host Institution (HI) ILMATIETEEN LAITOS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary I propose to develop an innovative interdisciplinary model framework to refine the estimate of aerosol indirect effect (i.e. influence of atmospheric aerosol particles on cloud properties), which remains the single largest uncertainty in the current drivers of climate change.
A major reason for this uncertainty is that current climate models are unable to resolve the spatial scales for aerosol-cloud interactions. We will resolve this scale problem by using statistical emulation to build computationally fast surrogate models (i.e. emulators) that can reproduce the effective output of a detailed high-resolution cloud-resolving model. By incorporating these emulators into a state-of-the-science climate model, we will for the first time achieve the accuracy of a limited-area high-resolution model on a global scale with negligible computational cost.
The main scientific outcome of the project will be a highly refined and physically sound estimate of the aerosol indirect effect that enables more accurate projections of future climate change, and thus has high societal relevance. In addition, the developed emulators will help to quantify how the remaining uncertainties in aerosol properties propagate to predictions of aerosol indirect effect. This information will be used, together with an extensive set of remote sensing, in-situ and laboratory data from our collaborators, to improve the process-level understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions.
The comprehensive uncertainty analyses performed during this project will be highly valuable for future research efforts as they point to processes and interactions that most urgently need to be experimentally constrained. Furthermore, our pioneering model framework that incorporates emulators to represent subgrid- scale processes will open up completely new research opportunities also in other fields that deal with heterogeneous spatial scales.
Summary
I propose to develop an innovative interdisciplinary model framework to refine the estimate of aerosol indirect effect (i.e. influence of atmospheric aerosol particles on cloud properties), which remains the single largest uncertainty in the current drivers of climate change.
A major reason for this uncertainty is that current climate models are unable to resolve the spatial scales for aerosol-cloud interactions. We will resolve this scale problem by using statistical emulation to build computationally fast surrogate models (i.e. emulators) that can reproduce the effective output of a detailed high-resolution cloud-resolving model. By incorporating these emulators into a state-of-the-science climate model, we will for the first time achieve the accuracy of a limited-area high-resolution model on a global scale with negligible computational cost.
The main scientific outcome of the project will be a highly refined and physically sound estimate of the aerosol indirect effect that enables more accurate projections of future climate change, and thus has high societal relevance. In addition, the developed emulators will help to quantify how the remaining uncertainties in aerosol properties propagate to predictions of aerosol indirect effect. This information will be used, together with an extensive set of remote sensing, in-situ and laboratory data from our collaborators, to improve the process-level understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions.
The comprehensive uncertainty analyses performed during this project will be highly valuable for future research efforts as they point to processes and interactions that most urgently need to be experimentally constrained. Furthermore, our pioneering model framework that incorporates emulators to represent subgrid- scale processes will open up completely new research opportunities also in other fields that deal with heterogeneous spatial scales.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 511 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym EVERYSOUND
Project Computational Analysis of Everyday Soundscapes
Researcher (PI) Tuomas Oskari Virtanen
Host Institution (HI) TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Sounds carry a large amount of information about our everyday environment and physical events that take place in it. For example, when a car is passing by, one can perceive the approximate size and speed of the car. Sound can easily and unobtrusively be captured e.g. by mobile phones and transmitted further – for example, tens of hours of audio is uploaded to the internet every minute e.g. in the form of YouTube videos. However, today's technology is not able to recognize individual sound sources in realistic soundscapes, where multiple sounds are present, often simultaneously, and distorted by the environment.
The ground-breaking objective of EVERYSOUND is to develop computational methods which will automatically provide high-level descriptions of environmental sounds in realistic everyday soundscapes such as street, park, home, etc. This requires developing several novel methods, including joint source separation and robust pattern classification algorithms to reliably recognize multiple overlapping sounds, and a hierarchical multilayer taxonomy to accurately categorize everyday sounds. The methods are based on the applicant's internationally recognized and awarded expertise on source separation and robust pattern recognition in speech and music processing, which will allow now tackling the new and challenging research area of everyday sound recognition.
The results of EVERYSOUND will enable searching for multimedia based on its audio content, which is not possible with today's technology. It will allow mobile devices, robots, and intelligent monitoring systems to recognize activities in their environments using acoustic information. Producing automatically descriptions of vast quantities of audio will give new tools for geographical, social, cultural, and biological studies to analyze sounds related to human, animal, and natural activity in urban and rural areas, as well as multimedia in social networks.
Summary
Sounds carry a large amount of information about our everyday environment and physical events that take place in it. For example, when a car is passing by, one can perceive the approximate size and speed of the car. Sound can easily and unobtrusively be captured e.g. by mobile phones and transmitted further – for example, tens of hours of audio is uploaded to the internet every minute e.g. in the form of YouTube videos. However, today's technology is not able to recognize individual sound sources in realistic soundscapes, where multiple sounds are present, often simultaneously, and distorted by the environment.
The ground-breaking objective of EVERYSOUND is to develop computational methods which will automatically provide high-level descriptions of environmental sounds in realistic everyday soundscapes such as street, park, home, etc. This requires developing several novel methods, including joint source separation and robust pattern classification algorithms to reliably recognize multiple overlapping sounds, and a hierarchical multilayer taxonomy to accurately categorize everyday sounds. The methods are based on the applicant's internationally recognized and awarded expertise on source separation and robust pattern recognition in speech and music processing, which will allow now tackling the new and challenging research area of everyday sound recognition.
The results of EVERYSOUND will enable searching for multimedia based on its audio content, which is not possible with today's technology. It will allow mobile devices, robots, and intelligent monitoring systems to recognize activities in their environments using acoustic information. Producing automatically descriptions of vast quantities of audio will give new tools for geographical, social, cultural, and biological studies to analyze sounds related to human, animal, and natural activity in urban and rural areas, as well as multimedia in social networks.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30
Project acronym iTPX
Project In-cavity thermophotonic cooling
Researcher (PI) Jani Erkki Oksanen
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Thermophotonic (TPX) coolers and generators based on electroluminescent (EL) cooling have the potential to enable a high efficiency replacement for thermoelectric devices. Highly optimized TPX devices can even outperform modern compressor based household refrigerators and heat pumps, enabling a significant reduction in the global energy consumption of cooling and heating. While the EL cooling phenomenon is theoretically well understood, it was only very recently demonstrated for the first time under very small power conditions. Enabling high power EL cooling, however, will require a breakthrough in reducing the losses present in conventional light emitting diodes (LED).
iTPX aims to enable this breakthrough by developing an alternative approach to enhance the efficiency of light emission. The approach is based on enclosing the emitter-absorber pair used in TPX in a single semiconductor structure forming an optical cavity. This enhances the light emission rate by an order of magnitude and provides a substantial increase in the efficiency as well as several other technical and fundamental benefits. The main goal of iTPX is to demonstrate high power EL cooling for the first time and to provide quantitative insight on the limitations and possibilities of the cavity-based approach. Recent studies have shown extremely high – over 99 % – internal and external quantum efficiencies of light emission from optically pumped semiconductor structures. This suggests that the material quality of common III-V compound semiconductors is perfectly sufficient for EL cooling if similarly performing electrically injected structures can be fabricated in the single cavity configuration.
Summary
Thermophotonic (TPX) coolers and generators based on electroluminescent (EL) cooling have the potential to enable a high efficiency replacement for thermoelectric devices. Highly optimized TPX devices can even outperform modern compressor based household refrigerators and heat pumps, enabling a significant reduction in the global energy consumption of cooling and heating. While the EL cooling phenomenon is theoretically well understood, it was only very recently demonstrated for the first time under very small power conditions. Enabling high power EL cooling, however, will require a breakthrough in reducing the losses present in conventional light emitting diodes (LED).
iTPX aims to enable this breakthrough by developing an alternative approach to enhance the efficiency of light emission. The approach is based on enclosing the emitter-absorber pair used in TPX in a single semiconductor structure forming an optical cavity. This enhances the light emission rate by an order of magnitude and provides a substantial increase in the efficiency as well as several other technical and fundamental benefits. The main goal of iTPX is to demonstrate high power EL cooling for the first time and to provide quantitative insight on the limitations and possibilities of the cavity-based approach. Recent studies have shown extremely high – over 99 % – internal and external quantum efficiencies of light emission from optically pumped semiconductor structures. This suggests that the material quality of common III-V compound semiconductors is perfectly sufficient for EL cooling if similarly performing electrically injected structures can be fabricated in the single cavity configuration.
Max ERC Funding
1 981 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30
Project acronym M-Imm
Project Novel etiology of autoimmune disorders: the role of acquired somatic mutations in lymphoid cells
Researcher (PI) Satu Maarit Mustjoki
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS6, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Molecular pathogenesis of most immune-mediated disorders, such as of autoimmune diseases, is poorly understood. These common maladies carry a heavy burden both on patients and on society. Current therapy is non-targeted and results in significant short- and long-term adverse effects.
Large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia is characterized by expansion of cytotoxic T- or NK-cells and represents an intriguing clinical continuum between a neoplastic and an autoimmune disorder. Patients suffer from autoimmune cytopenias and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which are thought to be mediated by LGL cells targeting host tissues. My group recently discovered that 40-50% of LGL leukemia patients carry in their lymphoid cells acquired, activating mutations in the STAT3 gene – a key regulator of immune and oncogenic processes (Koskela et al, N Engl J Med, 2012). This breakthrough discovery gives insight to the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders at large.
I present here a hypothesis that a strong antigen-induced proliferation is a mutational driver, which causes somatic mutations in lymphoid cells. When mutations hit key activating pathways, autoreactive cells acquire functional advantage and expand. The target antigen of the expanded clone determines the clinical characteristics of the autoimmune disease induced.
To prove this hypothesis, we will separate small lymphocyte clones from patients with autoimmune diseases and use sensitive next-generation sequencing methods to characterize the spectrum of somatic mutations in lymphoid cells. Further, we will study the function of mutated lymphocytes and examine the mechanisms of autocytotoxicity and end-organ/tissue damage. Finally, we aim to understand factors, which induce somatic mutations in lymphoid cells, such as the role of viral infections.
The results will transform our understanding of molecular pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and lead to accurate diagnostics and discovery of novel drug targets.
Summary
Molecular pathogenesis of most immune-mediated disorders, such as of autoimmune diseases, is poorly understood. These common maladies carry a heavy burden both on patients and on society. Current therapy is non-targeted and results in significant short- and long-term adverse effects.
Large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia is characterized by expansion of cytotoxic T- or NK-cells and represents an intriguing clinical continuum between a neoplastic and an autoimmune disorder. Patients suffer from autoimmune cytopenias and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which are thought to be mediated by LGL cells targeting host tissues. My group recently discovered that 40-50% of LGL leukemia patients carry in their lymphoid cells acquired, activating mutations in the STAT3 gene – a key regulator of immune and oncogenic processes (Koskela et al, N Engl J Med, 2012). This breakthrough discovery gives insight to the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders at large.
I present here a hypothesis that a strong antigen-induced proliferation is a mutational driver, which causes somatic mutations in lymphoid cells. When mutations hit key activating pathways, autoreactive cells acquire functional advantage and expand. The target antigen of the expanded clone determines the clinical characteristics of the autoimmune disease induced.
To prove this hypothesis, we will separate small lymphocyte clones from patients with autoimmune diseases and use sensitive next-generation sequencing methods to characterize the spectrum of somatic mutations in lymphoid cells. Further, we will study the function of mutated lymphocytes and examine the mechanisms of autocytotoxicity and end-organ/tissue damage. Finally, we aim to understand factors, which induce somatic mutations in lymphoid cells, such as the role of viral infections.
The results will transform our understanding of molecular pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and lead to accurate diagnostics and discovery of novel drug targets.
Max ERC Funding
2 047 337 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym MPOES
Project Mathematical Physics of Out-of-Equilibrium Systems
Researcher (PI) Antti Jukka Kupiainen
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The purpose of the project is to develop new tools for a mathematical analysis of out of equilibrium systems. My main goal is a rigorous proof of Fourier's law for a Hamiltonian dynamical system. In addition I plan to study various fundamental problems related to transport in such systems. I will consider extended dynamical systems consisting of a large number (possibly infinite) of subsystems that are coupled to each other. This set includes discrete and continuous wave equations, non-linear Schrödinger equation and coupled chaotic systems. I believe mathematical progress can be made in two cases: weakly nonlinear systems and strongly chaotic ones. In the former class I propose to study the kinetic limit and corrections to it, anomalous conductivity in low dimensional systems, interplay of disorder and nonlinearity and weak turbulence. In the latter class my goal is to prove Fourier's law. The methods will involve a map of the Hamiltonian problem to a probabilistic one dealing with random walk in a random environment and an application of rigorous renormalization group to study the latter. I believe the time is ripe for a breakthrough in a rigorous analysis of transport in systems with conservation laws. A proof of Fourier's law would be a major development in mathematical physics and would remove blocks from progress in other fundamental issues of non equilibrium dynamics. I have previously solved hard problems using the methods proposed in this proposal and feel myself to be in a good position to carry out its goals.
Summary
The purpose of the project is to develop new tools for a mathematical analysis of out of equilibrium systems. My main goal is a rigorous proof of Fourier's law for a Hamiltonian dynamical system. In addition I plan to study various fundamental problems related to transport in such systems. I will consider extended dynamical systems consisting of a large number (possibly infinite) of subsystems that are coupled to each other. This set includes discrete and continuous wave equations, non-linear Schrödinger equation and coupled chaotic systems. I believe mathematical progress can be made in two cases: weakly nonlinear systems and strongly chaotic ones. In the former class I propose to study the kinetic limit and corrections to it, anomalous conductivity in low dimensional systems, interplay of disorder and nonlinearity and weak turbulence. In the latter class my goal is to prove Fourier's law. The methods will involve a map of the Hamiltonian problem to a probabilistic one dealing with random walk in a random environment and an application of rigorous renormalization group to study the latter. I believe the time is ripe for a breakthrough in a rigorous analysis of transport in systems with conservation laws. A proof of Fourier's law would be a major development in mathematical physics and would remove blocks from progress in other fundamental issues of non equilibrium dynamics. I have previously solved hard problems using the methods proposed in this proposal and feel myself to be in a good position to carry out its goals.
Max ERC Funding
1 293 687 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-03-01, End date: 2014-02-28
Project acronym PBL-PMES
Project Atmospheric planetary boundary layers: physics, modelling and role in Earth system
Researcher (PI) Sergej Zilitinkevich
Host Institution (HI) ILMATIETEEN LAITOS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This project aims to systematically revise the planetary-boundary-layer (PBL) physics accounting for the non-local effects of coherent structures (long-lived large eddies especially pronounced in convective PBLs and internal waves in stable PBLs). It focuses on the key physical problems related to the role of PBLs in the Earth system as the atmosphere-land/ocean/biosphere coupling modules: the resistance and heat/mass transfer laws determining the near-surface turbulent fluxes, the entrainment laws determining the fluxes at the PBL outer boundary, the PBL depth equations, and turbulence closures. In this project the first round of revision will be completed, the advanced concepts/models will be empirically validated and employed to develop new PBL parameterization for use in meteorological modelling and analyses of the climate and Earth systems. The new parameterizations and closures will be implemented in state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction, climate, meso-scale and air-pollution models; evaluated through case studies and statistical analyses of the quality of forecasts/simulations; and applied to a range of environmental problems. By this means the project will contribute to better modelling of extreme weather events, heavy air pollution episodes, and fine features of climate change. The new physical concepts and models will be included in the university course and new textbook on PBL physics. This project summarises and further extends our last-decade works in the PBL physics: discovery and the theory of the new PBL types of essentially non-local nature: long-lived stable and conventionally neutral ; quantification of the basic effects of coherent eddies in the shear-free convective PBLs including the non-local heat-transfer law; physical solution to the turbulence cut off problem in the closure models for stable stratification; and discovery of the stability dependences of the roughness length and displacement height.
Summary
This project aims to systematically revise the planetary-boundary-layer (PBL) physics accounting for the non-local effects of coherent structures (long-lived large eddies especially pronounced in convective PBLs and internal waves in stable PBLs). It focuses on the key physical problems related to the role of PBLs in the Earth system as the atmosphere-land/ocean/biosphere coupling modules: the resistance and heat/mass transfer laws determining the near-surface turbulent fluxes, the entrainment laws determining the fluxes at the PBL outer boundary, the PBL depth equations, and turbulence closures. In this project the first round of revision will be completed, the advanced concepts/models will be empirically validated and employed to develop new PBL parameterization for use in meteorological modelling and analyses of the climate and Earth systems. The new parameterizations and closures will be implemented in state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction, climate, meso-scale and air-pollution models; evaluated through case studies and statistical analyses of the quality of forecasts/simulations; and applied to a range of environmental problems. By this means the project will contribute to better modelling of extreme weather events, heavy air pollution episodes, and fine features of climate change. The new physical concepts and models will be included in the university course and new textbook on PBL physics. This project summarises and further extends our last-decade works in the PBL physics: discovery and the theory of the new PBL types of essentially non-local nature: long-lived stable and conventionally neutral ; quantification of the basic effects of coherent eddies in the shear-free convective PBLs including the non-local heat-transfer law; physical solution to the turbulence cut off problem in the closure models for stable stratification; and discovery of the stability dependences of the roughness length and displacement height.
Max ERC Funding
2 390 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
