During the presummer rainy season (April–June), southern China often experiences frequent occurrences of extreme rainfall, leading to severe flooding and inundations. To expedite the efforts in improving the quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) of the presummer rainy season rainfall, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) initiated a nationally coordinated research project, namely, the Southern China Monsoon Rainfall Experiment (SCMREX) that was endorsed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as a research and development project (RDP) of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP). The SCMREX RDP (2013–18) consists of four major components: field campaign, database management, studies on physical mechanisms of heavy rainfall events, and convection-permitting numerical experiments including impact of data assimilation, evaluation/improvement of model physics, and ensemble prediction. The pilot field campaigns were carried out from early May to mid-June of 2013–15. This paper: i) describes the scientific objectives, pilot field campaigns, and data sharing of SCMREX; ii) provides an overview of heavy rainfall events during the SCMREX-2014 intensive observing period; and iii) presents examples of preliminary research results and explains future research opportunities.

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U2AF1 mutations (U2AF1MT) occur commonly in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) without ring sideroblasts. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical and biological implications of different U2AF1 mutation types in MDS. We performed targeted gene sequencing in a cohort of 511 MDS patients. Eighty-six patients (17%) were found to have U2AF1MT, which occurred more common in younger patients (P = .001) and represented ancestral lesions in a substantial proportion (71%) of cases. ASXL1MT and isolated +8 were significantly enriched in U2AF1MT-positive cases, whereas TP53MT, SF3B1MT, and complex karyotypes were inversely associated with U2AF1MT. U2AF subjects were enriched for isolated +8 and were inversely associated with complex karyotypes. U2AF1MT was significantly associated with anemia, thrombocytopenia, and poor survival in both lower-risk and higher-risk MDS. U2AF1 subjects had more frequently platelet levels of <50 × 10 /L (P = .043) and U2AF1 /U2AF1 subjects had more frequently hemoglobin concentrations at <80 g/L (P = .008) and more often overt fibrosis (P = .049). In conclusion, our study indicates that U2AF1MT is one of the earliest genetic events in MDS patients and that different types of U2AF1MT have distinct clinical and biological characteristics.

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This paper investigates the relationships between friction velocity, 10 m drag coefficient, and 10 m wind speed using data collected at two offshore observation towers (one over the sea and the other on an island) from seven typhoon episodes in the South China Sea from 2008 to 2014. The two towers were placed in areas with different water depths along a shore-normal line. The depth of water at the tower over the sea averages about 15 m, and the depth of water near the island is about 10 m. The observed maximum 10 min average wind speed at a height of 10 m is about 32 m s . A comparison of the measurements from the two towers shows that the 10 m drag coefficient from the tower in 10 m water depth is about 40% larger than that from the tower in 15 m water depth when the 10 m wind speed is less than 10 m s À1. Above this, the difference in the 10 m drag coefficients of the two towers disappears.

Satb2 acts as a potent transcription factor to promote osteoblast differentiation and bone regeneration. Recently, microRNAs (miRNA) have been identified as critical regulators of osteogenic differentiation. This study aimed to identify specific miRNAs and their regulatory roles in the process of Satb2-induced osteogenic differentiation. We studied the differentially expressed miRNAs by Satb2 overexpression in murine bone marrow stromal cells using miRNA microarray. Ten down-regulated miRNAs including miR-27a, miR-125a-5p, and miR-466f-3p, and 18 up-regulated miRNAs including miR-17, miR-20a and miR-210 were found to be differentially expressed and their expression were verified by quantitative real time PCR. The differentially expressed miRNAs were further subjected to gene ontology and KEGG analysis. The highly enriched GOs and KEGG pathway showed target genes of these miRNAs were significantly involved in multiple biological processes (mesenchymal cell differentiation, bone formation, and skeletal development), and several osteogenic pathways (TGF-β/BMP, MAPK, and Wnt signaling pathway). Finally, miR-27a was selected for target verification and function analysis. BMP2, BMPR1A, and Smad9, members of the TGF-β/BMP superfamily, which were predicted to be target genes of miR-27a, were confirmed to be significantly up-regulated in Satb2-overexpressing cells by quantitative real time PCR. Overexpression of miR-27a significantly inhibited osteogenesis and repressed BMP2, BMPR1A, and Smad9 expression. In this study, we identified that a number of differentially regulated miRNAs, whose target genes involved in the TGF-β/BMP signaling pathway, play an important role in the early stage of Satb2-induced osteogenic differentiation.