A comprehensive data set of lake surface water temperature over the Tibetan Plateau derived from MODIS LST products 2001-2015.

Lake surface water temperature (LSWT) is sensitive to long-term changes in thermal structure of lakes and regional air temperature. In the context of global climate change, recent studies showed a significant warming trend of LSWT based on investigating 291 lakes (71% are large lakes, ≥50 km2 each) globally. However, further efforts are needed to examine variation in LSWT at finer regional spatial and temporal scales. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as 'the Roof of the World' and 'Asia's water towers', exerts large influences on and is sensitive to regional and even global climates. Aiming to examine detailed changing patterns and potential driven mechanisms for temperature variations of lakes across the TP region, this paper presents the first comprehensive data set of 15-year (2001-2015) nighttime and daytime LSWT for 374 lakes (≥10 km2 each), using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Land Surface Temperature (LST) products as well as four lake boundary shapefiles (i.e., 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2014) derived from Landsat/CBERS/GaoFen-1 satellite images. The data set itself reveals significant information on LSWT and its changes over the TP and is an indispensable variable for numerous applications related to climate change, water budget analysis (particularly lake evaporation), water storage changes, glacier melting and permafrost degradation, etc.

Have GRACE satellites overestimated groundwater depletion in the Northwest India Aquifer?

The Northwest India Aquifer (NWIA) has been shown to have the highest groundwater depletion (GWD) rate globally, threatening crop production and sustainability of groundwater resources. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites have been emerging as a powerful tool to evaluate GWD with ancillary data. Accurate GWD estimation is, however, challenging because of uncertainties in GRACE data processing. We evaluated GWD rates over the NWIA using a variety of approaches, including newly developed constrained forward modeling resulting in a GWD rate of 3.1 ± 0.1 cm/a (or 14 ± 0.4 km(3)/a) for Jan 2005-Dec 2010, consistent with the GWD rate (2.8 cm/a or 12.3 km(3)/a) from groundwater-level monitoring data. Published studies (e.g., 4 ± 1 cm/a or 18 ± 4.4 km(3)/a) may overestimate GWD over this region. This study highlights uncertainties in GWD estimates and the importance of incorporating a priori information to refine spatial patterns of GRACE signals that could be more useful in groundwater resource management and need to be paid more attention in future studies.

Association between donor and recipient smoothened gene polymorphisms and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence following orthotopic liver transplantation in a Han Chinese population.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is potential cause for the poor outcome. Smoothened (SMO) gene has been considered associating with HCC and HCC recurrence, but its association with HCC recurrence after OLT is not clear yet. In this study, we aim at evaluating the association between donor and recipient SMO gene polymorphisms and HCC recurrence after OLT. A total of 76 patients with HCC who had undergone OLT from July 2007 to August 2012 were included. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), SMO rs3824, located at the 3'UTR region, was genotyped and analyzed in both donor and recipient. We demonstrated that recipient rs3824 polymorphism was significantly associated with HCC recurrence following OLT. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, TNM stage (p = 0.001), recipient SMO rs3824 genotype (CG vs. CC/GG p = 0.001), and histologic grade (p = 0.019) were identified as independent risk factors of HCC recurrence. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly higher in the recipient CC/GG group than in the CG group (p = 0.003 and p = 0.011, respectively). Cox proportional hazards modeling revealed that TNM stage, recipient SMO rs3824 genotype, pre-OLT serum AFP level, and histologic grade were independent factors (p < 0.05) for patients' clinical outcomes. In conclusion, recipient SMO rs3824 polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of HCC recurrence following OLT and has a potential clinical value for the prognosis of HCC patients treated with OLT.