The recent global warming slowdown or hiatus after the big El Niño event in 1997/98 raises the questions of whether terrestrial hydrological cycle is being decelerated and how do the hydrological extremes respond to the hiatus. However, the rapidly developing drought events that are termed as “flash droughts” accompanied by extreme heat, low soil moisture and high evapotranspiration (ET), occurred frequently around the world, and caused devastating impacts on crop yields and water supply. Here, we investigate the long-term trend and variability of flash droughts over China. Flash droughts are most likely to occur over humid and semi-humid regions, such as southern and northeastern China. Flash drought averaged over China increased by 109% from 1979 to 2010, and the increase was mainly due to a long term warming of temperature (50%), followed by the contributions from decreasing soil moisture and increasing ET. There was a slight drop in temperature after 1997, but the increasing trend of flash droughts was tripled. Further results indicate that the decreasing temperature was compensated by the accelerated drying trends of soil moisture and enhanced ET, leading to an acceleration of flash droughts during the warming hiatus. The anthropogenic warming in the next few decades may exacerbate future flash drought conditions in China.

61The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as the "sensible heat pump" and the 62 "atmospheric water tower", modifies monsoon circulations and regional energy and 63 water cycles over Asia (Wu and Zhang 1998; Zhao and Chen 2001a; Wu et al. 2007; 64 Xu et al. 2008b; Zhou et al. 2009). Strong ascent over the TP may transport lower-65 tropospheric water vapor and anthropogenic pollutants into the upper troposphere-66 lower stratosphere (UT-LS), which exerts an influence on the local ozone valley 67 (Zhou et al. 1995; Liu et al. 2003; Bian et al. 2011) and the aerosol-layer 68 enhancements near the tropopause (Tobo et al. 2007; Vernier et al. 2015). The TP also In the 1990s, a longer-term field experiment was conducted over the TP with the 84 support of the Japanese Experiment on Asian Monsoon (JEXAM). It estimated the 2008a; Zhang et al. 2012; Chen et al. 2011 Chen et al. , 2013. It found diurnal variations of et al. 2013; Hu et al. 2014; Zheng et al. 2014 Zheng et al. , 2015a Zheng et al. , b, c, 2016 Guo et al. 2015; 161 Zhuo et al. 2016; Wan et al. 2017). These problems may also cause large uncertainties 162 in reanalysis datasets and satellite products (such as air temperature, soil moisture, 163 surface heat fluxes, and radiation) over the TP (Li et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2012; Zhu 164 et al. 2012; Su et al. 2013; Zeng et al. 2016). 165To promote Tibetan meteorological research, the Third Tibetan Plateau 166Atmospheric Scientific Experiment (TIPEX-III), to continue for eight to ten years, OBJECTIVES. 173The field observational objective of TIPEX-III is to constitute a 3-D observation 174 system of the land surface, PBL, troposphere, and lower stratosphere over the TP. 175This system integrates ground-, air-, and space-based platforms based on the 176 meteorological operational networks, the TIPEX-III network, the existing NIOST (Fig. 1a). Consistent with the operational observations of the 265 CMA, at each site the measurement system measures soil water content ( Fig. 1a). The regional network consists of 33 sites over 270 Naqu (Fig. 1c), which began operating in August 2015, and 17 sites over Shiquanhe This network consists of six additional sites at Bange, Namucuo, Anduo, Nierong, 280Jiali, and Biru, and contributes to integrated research on the high-resolution land-281 surface and PBL processes over the central TP and their effects on mesoscale systems. 282These observations have been conducted at Shiquanhe, Namucuo, Naqu, Anduo, Gongshan (98.67°E, 27.75°N) station on the southeastern slope of the TP (Fig. 1b), a 300 key area for gauging water-vapor transports from the Indian Ocean to East Asia. (Fig. 1b). A primary goal of these observations is to explore the cloud (Fig. 1b). A follow-up field campaign using ground-based radars Tuotuohe, Mangya, Golmud, and Xining meteorological stations (Fig. 1b). Using PRELIMINARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF TIPEX-III. 328The implementation of TIPEX-III has enhanced the monitoring capability for the 380(1) Cloud diurnal variation and warm rain process. 3...

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently been identified to be involved in various diseases including cancer. NEAT1 is a recently identified lncRNA with its function largely unknown in human malignancy. In the present study, we investigated NEAT1 expression in 239 cases of clinical colorectal cancer specimens and matched normal tissues. Statistical methods were utilized to analyze the association of NEAT1 with clinical features, disease-free and overall survival of patients. Results showed that NEAT1 expression in colorectal cancer was up-regulated in 72.0% (172/239) cases compared with corresponding normal counterparts, and related to tumor differentiation, invasion, metastasis and TNM stage. Kaplan-Meier analysis proved that NEAT1 was associated with both disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with colorectal cancer that patients with high NEAT1 expression tend to have unfavorable outcome. Moreover, cox’s proportional hazards analysis showed that high NEAT1 expression was an independent prognostic marker of poor outcome. These results provided the first evidence that the expression of NEAT1 in colorectal cancer may play an oncogenic role in colorectal cancer differentiation, invasion and metastasis. It also proved that NEAT1 may serve as an indicator of tumor recurrence and prognosis of colorectal cancer.

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