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The surface water area (SWA) and terrestrial water storage (TWS) are both essential metrics for assessing regional water resources. However, the combined effects of climate change and human activities on the dynamics of the SWA and TWS have not been extensively researched within the context of the CPEC. To fill this gap, we first analyzed the annual changes in the SWA and TWS in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) region in recent decades using the methods of correlation analysis and Geodetector. Our findings indicate that Sindh exhibited the highest increase in the SWA at 8.68 ha/km2, whereas FATA showed the least increase at 0.2 ha/km2 from 2002 to 2018. Punjab exhibited a significant decrease in TWS, with a slope of −0.48 cm/year. Azad Kashmir followed with a decrease in TWS at a rate of −0.36 cm/year. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA exhibited an insignificant increase in TWS, with values of 0.02 cm/year and 0.11 cm/year, respectively. TWS was significantly positively correlated with the SWA in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, other regions showed inconsistent changes; in particular, a decline was observed in Gilgit–Baltistan. The changes in TWS in Balochistan were primarily influenced by the SWA and climate change, while TWS changes in FATA were mainly affected by climate change. In addition, human activities had a primary impact on the TWS changes in Azad Kashmir, Punjab, and Sindh. The influencing factors of TWS changes in different regions of the CPEC mainly involved a dual-factor enhancement and the nonlinear weakening of single factors. These results highlight that under the effect of climate change and human activities, TWS may not increase as surface water area increases. This study contributes to a better understanding of water resource dynamics and can aid in the development of strategies for the efficient and sustainable use of water resources in the CPEC.

The assessment of forest structural parameters is crucial for understanding carbon storage, habitat suitability, and timber stock. However, the labor-intensive and expensive nature of field measurements, coupled with inadequate sample sizes for large-scale modeling, poses challenges. To address the forest structure parameters in the Western Tianshan Mountains, this study used UAV-LiDAR to gather extensive sample data. This approach was enhanced by integrating Sentinel satellite and topographic data and using a Bayesian-Random Forest model to estimate forest canopy height, average height, density, and aboveground biomass (AGB). Validation against independent LiDAR-derived samples confirmed the model’s high accuracy, with coefficients of determination (R2) and root mean square errors (RMSE) indicating strong predictive performance (R2 = 0.63, RMSE = 5.06 m for canopy height; R2 = 0.64, RMSE = 2.88 m for average height; R2 = 0.68, RMSE = 62.84 for density; and R2 = 0.59, RMSE = 29.71 Mg/ha for AGB). Notably, the crucial factors include DEM, Sentinel-1 (VH and VV backscatter in dB), and Sentinel-2 (B6, B8A, and B11 bands). These factors contribute significantly to the modeling of forest structure. This technology aims to expedite and economize forest surveys while augmenting the range of forest parameters, especially in remote and rugged terrains. Using a wealth of UAV-LiDAR data, this outcome surpasses its counterparts’ by providing essential insights for exploring climate change effects on Central Asian forests, facilitating precise carbon stock quantification, and enhancing knowledge of forest ecosystems.

It is important to understand the mechanism of travel location choices, since the dynamic individual behavior would lead to the evolution of the network. The existing location choice researches usually based on the static and perfect information, and analyzed each step of the travel independently. This research considers the interaction between individuals on a series of trips in the travel chain by incorporating the spatial-temporal bounded rationality estimation. The Indifference Zone and information sharing in the travel process are defined to explore the spatial and temporal sides. A within-day location choice model is developed based on the spatial benefit and temporal cost. The proposed spatial-temporal bounded rationality LSTM model is verified in five cities networks in China, and it shows the 8.65% and 20.30% improvement, respectively, compared to the spatial bounded rationality LSTM models and perfect rationality LSTM models. In addition, the improvement becomes more pronounced when more alternative locations (the largest city improve 31.65%), more serious congestion (improve 27.45%), more complex chain (improve 13.85%), and more stable weight (improve 22.88%). The proposed dynamic decision model with bounded rationality would provide insights for travel chain prediction in the complex urban network.

Climate warming has pronounced impacts on high-elevation regions, including arid Central Asia, and has multiple impacts on the environment. Forests in these mountainous areas provide essential services by regulating regional climate, sequestering carbon, and supporting soil and water conservation. However, trends in forest productivity and their response to climate change remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we collected tree cores from five sample plots in the western Tianshan region. We used tree-ring widths to reconstruct net primary productivity (NPP) and investigated the sensitivity of forest NPP to climate change by analysing weather station data and employing LASSO regression to identify climatic factors influencing forest growth. Our results demonstrate that the reconstructed forest NPP effectively captured significant carbon shifts and revealed a non-significant increase in forest productivity associated with climate warming and higher precipitation between 1970 and 2020 at low and middle elevations in the Tianshan mountains. Humidity is the primary limiting factor affecting forest growth in this region. Conversely, the relationship between temperature and forest growth is not consistent as precipitation increases. Our findings suggest that continued warming will exacerbate water stress in forests.

Abstract Background Although immunoglobulin E (IgE) increases significantly in tears and serum during seasonal allergic conjunctivitis (SAC), it is unclear whether tear total IgE can reflect the severity and prognosis of SAC more accurately than serum total IgE. We aimed to investigate the usefulness of measuring the total IgE in tears to evaluate the severity and determine the treatment of SAC. Methods This prospective, nonrandomized study involved 55 patients with SAC and 10 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls. Serum and tears were collected before and after treatment to analyze the total IgE. SAC patients received the same topical anti‐allergy treatment and were followed‐up every 2 weeks for 1 month. The relationship of tear and serum total IgE concentrations with pollen concentrations and symptom severity before and after treatment was assessed. Results The total IgE concentration in tears was higher in SAC patients than in healthy participants with significant correlations between tear and serum total IgE concentrations. The total IgE concentration in tears, but not in serum, correlated with the pollen concentration and severity of ocular symptoms and reactions in SAC. Treatment‐associated improvements in symptoms and reactions in SAC correlated with decreased concentrations of the tear total IgE. Patients with disease recurrence following treatment demonstrated significantly higher tear total IgE concentrations than patients with no recurrence. Conclusion The total tear IgE level can indicate the severity and predict the prognosis of SAC more accurately than the serum total IgE.

ObjectiveTo assess a novel eyelid pressure measurement device and study the relationship between eyelid pressure and ocular surface parameters of moderate-to-severe dry eye disease (DED).MethodsThe present study included 70 eyes of 35 moderate-to-severe DED patients. All subjects were subjected to the following examinations for DED assessment: Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire, tear meniscus height (TMH), lipid layer thickness (LLT), number of partial blink (PB), total blink (TB) and partial blink rate (PBR), fluorescein tear breakup time (FBUT), corneal fluorescein staining (CFS), lid margin abnormality, meibum expression assessment (meibum score), meibomian gland dropout (MGd) and Schirmer I test. Pressure of the upper eyelid was measured thrice with the novel pressure measurement device. Repeatability of the device was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Safety of the device was evaluated by observing ocular adverse reactions of each subject prior to measurement, at day 1 and day 7 following measurement. Correlations between eyelid pressure and ocular surface parameters of moderate-to-severe DED were analyzed by using Pearson correlation coefficient and Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient.ResultsICC of the measurement results in our study was 0.86. There was no abnormality presenting in all subjects recorded prior to measurement, 1 and 7 days following measurement. The eyelid pressure was significantly correlated with PBR (r = 0.286, P = 0.016), FBUT (r = −0.331, P = 0.005), CFS (r = 0.528, P = 0.000), lid margin abnormality (r = 0.408, P = 0.011) and MGd (r = 0.226, P = 0.016) in moderate-to-severe DED patients, but not significantly correlated with OSDI score (r = 0.016, P = 0.912), TMH (r = −0.002, P = 0.988), meibum score (r = −0.196, P = 0.317), LLT (r = 0.114, P = 0.346), PB (r = 0.116, P = 0.338), TB (r = 0.074, P = 0.544), meibum score (r = −0.196, P = 0.317) and Schirmer I test (r = 0.028, P = 0.821).ConclusionThe novel pressure measurement device exhibited good repeatability and safety in measuring eyelid pressure. Significant correlations were noted between the eyelid pressure and PBR, FBUT, CFS, lid margin abnormality and MGd in moderate-to-severe DED. The measurement of eyelid pressure combined with ocular surface parameters may be valuable for the assessment of DED.

ObjectiveTo report the influence of Demodex folliculorum (D. folliculorum) infestation in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) related dry eye and the associations of the infestation with MGD related dry eye.MethodsEyelashes (three from the upper eyelid and three from the lower eyelid) from 119 eyes of 119 patients diagnosed with MGD related dry eye were examined under a light microscope. There were 68 eyes of 68 patients with MGD related dry eye and D. folliculorum infestation (Demodex positive group) and 51 eyes of 51 patients without infestation (Demodex negative group). All patients completed an Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire and underwent tests for dry eye and MGD. The tests included fluorescein tear breakup time (TBUT), corneal fluorescein staining, Schirmer I test (SIT), lid margin abnormalities, meibum expression assessment, and meibomian gland dropout.ResultsThe scores for OSDI, corneal fluorescein staining, lid margin abnormalities, meibum expression, and meibomian gland dropout were significantly higher (all P < 0.05), while TBUT was significantly shorter in the Demodex positive group compared to the Demodex negative group (P = 0.020). The SIT values did not significantly differ between groups. Chalazion was significantly more prevalent in the Demodex positive group. The number of D. folliculorum was positively correlated with all three MGD parameters (P ≤ 0.035), OSDI; corneal fluorescein scores, and it was inversely correlated with BUT. The correlation for SIT was R2 = 0.075 (P = 0.064).ConclusionDemodex folliculorum infestation is possibly one of the key contributors in the pathogenesis of MGD related dry eye, and a higher prevalence of chalazion was found in D. folliculorum infected patients. The possible causal role of D. folliculorum infestation needs to be further studied.

The expression of death receptor 6 (DR6) is abnormal in some cancer types, but the function and underlying molecular mechanisms of DR6 in tumor progression are not yet clear. In the present study, our analysis of ovarian cancer RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas revealed that DR6 is upregulated in human ovarian cancer. We confirmed that the expression level of DR6 is upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues when compared with matched adjacent normal tissues. In addition, DR6 enhanced ovarian carcinoma cell migration ability, and decreased expression of DR6 inhibited the expression of matrix metalloprotease (MMP) 2 and MMP9, and increased the expression of E‐cadherin. Additionally, DR6 shRNA caused a significant decrease in phosphoinositide‐3‐kinase (PI3K), phospho (p) ‐AKT, p‐extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK), and p‐mitogen‐activated protein kinase kinase expression in SKOV3 cells. These results suggested that DR6 can enhance ovarian carcinoma cell migration ability through the mitogen‐activated protein kinase/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways. Notably, mass spectrometric analysis indicated that DR6 co‐purified with kinesin family member 11 (KIF11), and we verified the interaction between KIF11 and DR6 by co‐immunoprecipitation and glutathione S‐transferase pull‐down. Furthermore, we demonstrated that DR6 can bind tumor necrosis factor receptor‐associated factor 4 (TRAF4) with co‐immunoprecipitation. Overexpression of KIF11 or TRAF4 eliminated the suppression of carcinoma cell migration by DR6 knockdown. We also found that TRAF4 and KIF11 were upregulated in ovarian carcinomas and that their level of expression was positively correlated with that of DR6. The findings above suggest that DR6 may play a notable oncogenic role in ovarian malignancy by interacting with TRAF4 and KIF11, and that DR6 may be an effective therapeutic target in ovarian cancer.

Chronic infections can lead to carcinogenesis through inflammation-related mechanisms. Chronic infection of the human gastric mucosa with Helicobacter pylori is a well-known risk factor for gastric cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying H. pylori-induced gastric carcinogenesis are incompletely defined. We aimed to screen and clarify the functions of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are differentially expressed in H. pylori-related gastric cancer. We found that lncRNA SNHG17 was upregulated by H. pylori infection and markedly increased the levels of double-strand breaks (DSBs). SNHG17 overexpression correlated with poor overall survival in patients with gastric cancer. The recruitment of NONO by overabundant nuclear SNHG17, along with the role of cytoplasmic SNHG17 as a decoy for miR-3909, which regulates Rad51 expression, shifted the DSB repair balance from homologous recombination toward nonhomologous end joining. Notably, during chronic H. pylori infection, SNHG17 knockdown inhibited chromosomal aberrations. Our findings suggest that spatially independent deregulation of the SNHG17/NONO and SNHG17/miR-3909/RING1/Rad51 pathways upon H. pylori infection promotes tumorigenesis in gastric cancer by altering the DNA repair system, which is critical for the maintenance of genomic stability. Upregulation of SNHG17 by H. pylori infection might be an undefined link between cancer and inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]