Description: © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Geoscientific Model Development 11 (2018): 497-519, doi:10.5194/gmd-11-497-2018.

Description: Peatlands store substantial amounts of carbon and are vulnerable to climate change. We present a modified version of the Organising Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems (ORCHIDEE) land surface model for simulating the hydrology, surface energy, and CO2 fluxes of peatlands on daily to annual timescales. The model includes a separate soil tile in each 0.5° grid cell, defined from a global peatland map and identified with peat-specific soil hydraulic properties. Runoff from non-peat vegetation within a grid cell containing a fraction of peat is routed to this peat soil tile, which maintains shallow water tables. The water table position separates oxic from anoxic decomposition. The model was evaluated against eddy-covariance (EC) observations from 30 northern peatland sites, with the maximum rate of carboxylation (Vcmax) being optimized at each site. Regarding short-term day-to-day variations, the model performance was good for gross primary production (GPP) (r2 =  0.76; Nash–Sutcliffe modeling efficiency, MEF  =  0.76) and ecosystem respiration (ER, r2 =  0.78, MEF  =  0.75), with lesser accuracy for latent heat fluxes (LE, r2 =  0.42, MEF  =  0.14) and and net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE, r2 =  0.38, MEF  =  0.26). Seasonal variations in GPP, ER, NEE, and energy fluxes on monthly scales showed moderate to high r2 values (0.57–0.86). For spatial across-site gradients of annual mean GPP, ER, NEE, and LE, r2 values of 0.93, 0.89, 0.27, and 0.71 were achieved, respectively. Water table (WT) variation was not well predicted (r2 〈 0.1), likely due to the uncertain water input to the peat from surrounding areas. However, the poor performance of WT simulation did not greatly affect predictions of ER and NEE. We found a significant relationship between optimized Vcmax and latitude (temperature), which better reflects the spatial gradients of annual NEE than using an average Vcmax value.

Description: This study was supported by the European Research Council Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG- 610028 IMBALANCE-P.

Description: Wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. They emit CH4 because decomposition of soil organic matter in waterlogged anoxic conditions produces CH4, in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). Production of CH4 and how much of it escapes to the atmosphere depend on a multitude of environmental drivers. Models simulating the processes leading to CH4 emissions are thus needed for upscaling observations to estimate present CH4 emissions and for producing scenarios of future atmospheric CH4 concentrations. Aiming at a CH4 model that can be added to models describing peatland carbon cycling, we composed a model called HIMMELI that describes CH4 build-up in and emissions from peatland soils. It is not a full peatland carbon cycle model but it requires the rate of anoxic soil respiration as input. Driven by soil temperature, leaf area index (LAI) of aerenchymatous peatland vegetation, and water table depth (WTD), it simulates the concentrations and transport of CH4, CO2, and oxygen (O2) in a layered one-dimensional peat column. Here, we present the HIMMELI model structure and results of tests on the model sensitivity to the input data and to the description of the peat column (peat depth and layer thickness), and demonstrate that HIMMELI outputs realistic fluxes by comparing modeled and measured fluxes at two peatland sites. As HIMMELI describes only the CH4-related processes, not the full carbon cycle, our analysis revealed mechanisms and dependencies that may remain hidden when testing CH4 models connected to complete peatland carbon models, which is usually the case. Our results indicated that (1) the model is flexible and robust and thus suitable for different environments; (2) the simulated CH4 emissions largely depend on the prescribed rate of anoxic respiration; (3) the sensitivity of the total CH4 emission to other input variables is mainly mediated via the concentrations of dissolved gases, in particular, the O2 concentrations that affect the CH4 production and oxidation rates; (4) with given input respiration, the peat column description does not significantly affect the simulated CH4 emissions in this model version.

Description: Objective: Cancer risk increases with age, creating a challenge for the Chinese health system. To inform public health policy and research, we evaluated the cancer burden in elderly Chinese. Methods: Based on the published Chinese Cancer Registry Annual Report or related literature and the China Population and Employment Statistics Yearbooks, we estimated the cancer burden of elderly Chinese, who were representative of the Chinese population. We calculated the cancer incidence, cancer-related mortality, potential years of life lost (PYLL), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2005–2011 by age, sex, district (rural, urban), and calendar year using national cancer registry, publication, and census data. The relative ratios (RRs) were determined between the elderly (≥60 years) and young (〈60 years). Results: Cancer incidence and related mortality in the elderly were 8.47 and 13.96 times, respectively, those in the young. The PYLL and DALY rates of the elderly were 1.63 and 5.00 times, respectively, those in the young. The PYLL and DALY rates for elderly men and rural districts were higher than for elderly women and urban districts. The RRs for male sex and rural districts were higher than for female sex and urban districts. RRs increased sharply from 2005 to 2011. Conclusions: The cancer burden in elderly Chinese was higher in men and rural districts than in women and urban districts, which creates considerable challenges for the Chinese health care system. Comprehensive measures for cancer prevention and treatment in the elderly are needed.

Description: To gain a greater understanding of the spatial spillover effect of greenhouse gas emissions and their influencing factors, this paper provides a spatial analysis of four gas pollutants (CO2 emissions, SO2 emissions, NOx emissions, and dust emissions). Focusing on China, the paper also explores whether the four gas pollutants are influenced by the emissions of neighboring regions and other possible sources. The paper uses a global spatial autocorrelation analysis, local spatial association analysis and spatial lag model for empirical work. The results suggest that CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions show significant positive results for both the spatial correlation and space cluster effect in provincial space distribution.CO2 and NOx emissions have a significant positive spillover effect, while the SO2 emissions’ spatial spillover effect is positive but not significant. Economic growth and urbanization are the key determinants of CO2, dust, and NOx emissions, while energy efficiency and industrialization do not appear to play a role. This raises questions about the method of examining the spatial relationship between gas pollution, economic growth and urbanization in the future.

Description: Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has profound impacts on cancer progression and also on drug resistance, including epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). Nowadays there is still no predictive biomarker identified for the use of EGFR-TKIs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with wild-type EGFR . To clarify the role of EMT phenotype as a predictive marker for EGFR-TKI, we performed a retrospective study in 202 stage IV or recurrent NSCLC patients receiving gefitinib or erlotinib therapy from Jun 2008 to Sep 2012 in our institute. Clinical data and EGFR mutational status were collected, while epithelial, epithelial to mesenchymal, not specified or mesenchymal phenotype were classified according to EMT markers such as E-cadherin, fibronectin, N-cadherin and vimentin by immunohistochemistry. Epithelial phenotype was more frequently found in patients with EGFR mutation (P=0.044). Epithelial phenotype was associated with a significantly higher objective response rate (23.5% vs 11.1% vs 0.0% vs 2.4% p=0.011), longer PFS (4.4 vs 1.9 vs 1.7 vs 1.0 months, P〈0.001) and longer OS (11.5 vs 8.9 vs 4.5 vs 4.9 months, P〈0.001) compared to epithelial to mesenchymal, not specified and mesenchymal phenotype in the wild-type EGFR subgroup. In the subgroup with EGFR mutation, the trend remained but without a statistically significant difference. In conclusion, epithelial phenotype was more likely expressed in patients with EGFR mutation and was associated with a better outcome in advanced NSCLC patients with wild-type EGFR , which indicates that the EMT phenotype might be a potential marker to guide EGFR-TKI therapy in this population. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway plays a key role in the development of the hypervascular tumor renal cell carcinoma (RCC). NVP-BEZ235 (NVP), a novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, showed great antitumor benefit and provided a treatment strategy in RCC. In this study, we test the effect of NVP on survival rate, apoptosis and autophagy in the RCC cell line, 786-0. We also explore the hypothesis that NVP, in combination with autophagy inhibitors, leads to apoptosis enhancement in 786-0 cells. The results showed that the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway proteins p-AKT and p-P70S6K were highly expressed in RCC tissue. We also showed that NVP inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis and autophagy in RCC cells. The combination treatment of NVP with autophagy inhibitors enhanced the effect of NVP on suppressing 786-0 growth and induction of apoptosis. This study proposes a novel treatment paradigm where combining PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors and autophagy inhibitors lead to enhanced RCC cell apoptosis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.