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Accurate estimation for vegetation net primary production (NPP) at high resolution is essential for ecosystem management and at local to global scales. However, no reliable methods are available to achieve fine-resolution estimation. In this study, a new NPP estimation system was developed by integrating high spatial resolution remote sensing images, tree ring measurements, and process-based model CASA. The system was illustrated by estimating the historical NPP of caragana shrublands from 2011 to 2021 in Dingbian County, China. The results showed that: (1) by employing the biomass model and tree ring measurements, an NPP-crown width model was established to enable a large number of samples for calibrating the CASA model on high spatial resolution images without continuous field measurements. The calibrated parameters, including maximum NDVI, minimum NDVI, and maximum light use efficiency, were determined to be 0.415, 0.022 and 0.025, respectively; (2) according to the estimation by the calibrated CASA model, the NPP in Dingbian County revealed an increasing trend from 2011 to 2021, and the NPP in southern hilly and gully regions was significantly higher than the other regions; (3) among the different indices, max temperature of warmest month had a significant negative effect on the NPP of cagarana shrublands, whereas annual precipitation had a positive effect. In the northern and central regions, air temperature predominantly influenced NPP, while in the southern regions, both temperature and precipitation played a joint role. The implementation in this study illustrated that the NPP estimation system could provide reliable NPP with high resolution and efficient to monitor and detect dominant factors affecting NPP for ecosystem management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. In China, chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains the major risk factor for HCC. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) among Chinese populations to identify novel genetic loci contributing to susceptibility to HBV-related HCC. Experimental Design: GWAS scan is performed in a collection of 205 HBV-related HCC trios (each trio includes an affected proband and his/her both parents), and 355 chronic HBV carriers with HCC (cases) and 360 chronic HBV carriers without HCC (controls), followed by two rounds of replication studies totally consisting of 3,796 cases and 2,544 controls. Results: We identified a novel association signal within the CDK14 gene at 7q21.13 (index rs10272859, OR = 1.28, P = 9.46 × 10 -10 ). Furthermore, we observed that the at-risk rs10272859[G] allele was significantly associated with higher mRNA expression levels of CDK14 in liver tissues. Chromosome conformation capture assays in liver cells confirmed that a physical interaction exists between the promoter region of CDK14 and the risk-associated SNPs in strong linkage disequilibrium with the index rs10272859 at 7q21.13. This index rs10272859 also showed significant association with the survival of HCC patients. Conclusions: Our findings highlight a novel locus at 7q21.13 conferring both susceptibility and prognosis to HBV-related HCC, and suggest the CDK14 gene to be the functional target of the 7q21.13 locus. Clin Cancer Res; 24(4); 906-15. ©2017 AACR ., (©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.)

The sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) encoded by SLC10A1 was recently demonstrated to be a functional receptor for hepatitis B virus (HBV). The role of SLC10A1 polymorphisms, particularly the Ser267Phe variant (rs2296651) in exon 4, has been frequently investigated in regard to risk of persistent HBV infection. However, these investigations have generated conflicting results. To examine whether common genetic variation at the SLC10A1 locus is associated with risk of persistent HBV infection, haplotype-tagging and imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were assessed in two case-control sample sets, totally including 2,550 cases (persistently HBV infected subjects, PIs) and 2,124 controls (spontaneously recovered subjects, SRs) of Southern Chinese ancestry. To test whether rare or subpolymorphic SLC10A1 variants are associated with disease risk, the gene's exons in 244 cases were sequenced. Overall, we found neither SNPs nor haplotypes of SLC10A1 showed significant association in the two sample sets. Furthermore, no significant associations of rare variants or copy number variation covering SLC10A1 were observed. Finally, expression quantitative trait locus analyses revealed that SNPs potentially affecting SLC10A1 expression also showed no significant associations. We conclude that genetic variation at the SLC10A1 locus is not likely a major risk factor of persistent HBV infection among Southern Chinese.