Preface to the Special Issue on the “Observation,Prediction and Analysis of severe Convection of China”(OPACC) National “973” Project

China is a country that is frequently affected by severe convective weather. Here, severe convective weather mainly refers to intense local heavy precipitation, thunderstorm-induced gale-force winds including those from tornadoes and downbursts, and hail and lightning. These types of severe weather are usually small in spatial scale and rapid in their development, and are therefore difficult to capture by observational networks and are poorly resolved in typical operational numerical weather prediction （NWP） models. Furthermore, many of the important dynamic and physical processes involved are not well understood. Within China, the impacts of severe convective weather rank only after those of landfalling typhoons and widespread heavy precipitation and flooding. Studies （e.g., Zhang and Zhai, 2011） have shown tendencies for an increased frequency in short-duration extreme precipitation during the past several decades over most of eastern China, where the population is most dense. An in-depth understanding of severe convective weather in China, as well as being able to accurately predict it, is clearly of great importance.

Preface to the Special Issue:Aerosols,Clouds,Radiation,Precipitation,and Their Interactions

The treatment of aerosols, clouds, radiation, and precipitation in climate models, in addition to their interactions and as- sociated feedbacks, has long been one of the largest sources of uncertainty in predicting any potential future climate changes. Although many improvements have been made in CMIP5, aerosols, clouds, radiation, and their feedbacks are still a problem in climate models, as concluded in IPCC AR5 and published papers. Many studies have shown that modeled aerosols, clouds, radiation, and precipitation agree with observations within a certain range on a global scale; however, large biases occur at the regional scale. Characterizing the effects of aerosols and clouds on energy and the hydrological cycle and understanding the interactions among aerosols, clouds, radiation, and precipitation, are critical for weather forecasting and climate models. Significant improvements are needed, which require advanced observations and modeling at a range of spatial and temporal scales.

Preface to the special issue of Dense Array Seismology

Both earthquake seismology and structural seismology rely on observations, which in turn contribute critically to the development of seismology, especially in recent years.In order to understand specific geologic structures and interior processes of the Earth, seismic arrays are widely

Preface to the Special Issue:Towards Improving Understanding and Prediction of Arctic Change and its Linkage with Eurasian Mid-latitude Weather and Climate

The dramatic changes in the Arctic climate system during recent decades are one of the most prominent features of global climate change.Two most striking and fundamental characteristics are the amplified near-surface warming at a rate twice the global average since the mid 20th century(e.g.,Blunden and Arndt,2012;Huang et al.,2017),and the rapid

Preface to the Special Issue on Advances in Seismic Exploration and Monitoring with Active Sources in China

Analyzing the information carriede by seismic waves is a major means for human beings to have an insight into the structure of the earth’s interior,and by using artificial seismic sources to excite seismic waves,we can obtain high-resolution images for the crustal and smaller scale medium.Artificial seismic exploration methods have been widely applied to fields such as

New Food Safety Law of China and the special issue on food safety in China

1. IntroductionThere have been a number of serious incidents of compro- mised food safety in China in recent years. To list a few, these include： a Salmonella outbreak, the use of horse- meat in burgers, the illegal use of phthalates as a clouding agent, the contamination of formula milk by melamine, the meat scandal of Shanghai Husi Food Company which sold reprocessed stale meat to many fast food chains includ- ing McDonald＇s, Burger King, and KFC across theworld,

Introduction to the special section:Recent advancement on integrated carbonate reservoirs prediction with complex secondary storage space

Carbonate reservoirs in Western China show tremendous exploration and development potential.These have become the key area for oil and gas reserves addition and sustainable resource development for China.Compared to conventional carbonate reservoirs,prediction of this kind of reservoir predominated by secondary storage is much more difficultand presents significant challenges.

Preface to the Special Issue on the"Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters"(FEMD)

Meteorological disasters usually exert huge impacts on the development of both human society and the economy. According to statistics from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the annual mean economic loss caused by meteorological disasters accounts for 3%-6% of the total amount of global GDP. China is a country that has been one of the most severely influenced by natural disasters.

Preface to the Special Issue “Unified Perspective of Climate Variability and Change”

Forty years ago, Klaus Wyrtki （1975） of University of Hawaii discovered that E1 Nifio warming off South America is not a result of local wind change but a response to the relaxed equatorial trade winds some 10 000 km away near the international dateline. The Kelvin wave mechanism was quickly verified from wind-forced ocean model simulations. Consequent develop- ments show that the dance between the fast-reacting atmosphere and slow-evolving ocean sets the pace of E1 Nifio-Southern Oscillation （ENSO; Philander, 1990）. The concept of ocean-atmosphere interaction has revolutionized our view of the climate system and led to operational climate prediction.

Call for papers of the special issue on Animal Models and Infectious Diseases

Primates and animal models are major areas of coverage for Zoological Research （ZR）. Over the past few years, ZR has released a series of special issues/topics addressing various aspects of these areas, e.g., ge- netics, immunology, and physiology neuroscience. A special issue for 2017 focusing on ＂Animal Models of Infectious Diseases＂ is under preparation and, so far, includes original research articles and reviews on filo- viruses and coxsackievirus involving guinea pigs, mice, and other species. Further to this, ZR would like to extend a very warm invitation to all peer researchers in the field to submit outstanding work to the journal on this special issue.

Guest Editorial First Issue on the Special Section on Terahertz Technology and Applications

During the past few years, the terahertz （THz） frequency regime has had renewed scientific and technological interest because of recent breakthroughs in the areas of high power sources, sensitive detectors, novel materials, and high resolution video imaging. Because it lies between the radio frequencies and infrared wavelengths, the terahertz electromagnetic region was thought to be promising for practical applications （300 micrometers wavelength corresponds to 1 THz frequency）, but it suffered from very high attenuation through the atmosphere （above 1 dB/meter）, and was found to be difficult to generate, modulate, and detect. On the other hand, many non-polar dielectric materials are transparent to THz waves,

Foreword for the Special Issue——International Workshop on Metamaterials and Negative Refraction

Electromagnetic properties of materials are often described using the concept of refraction index. The re- fraction index of a natural material is always positive. However, some artificially designed materials-so-called metamaterials-can act as negative-index media （NIM）.

Preface to the special issue on Lushan earthquake

On April 20th, 2013, a strong earthquake （Ms7, China Earthquake Network Center） struck Lushan county of Sichuan province and the quake （hereafter referred to as Lushan earthquake） caused substantial loss of life and damage to infrastructure. Just as the 2008 Ms8 Wenchuan earthquake, the Lushan earthquake also occurred on the Longmenshan fault system. After the Lushan earthquake, preliminary studies of the Lushan earthquake and its pos- sible link to the Wenchuan earthquake have been published in special issues rapidly organized in a few journals such as Seismological Research Letters, Chinese Journal of Geo- physics and Science in China.

Message from the Guest Editor for the Special Issue

"Emergency Communica-tions" systems, especially the "Social Integrated Emergency Response Communications " Systems, are the professional communications systems with great social value and realistic significance, built up by the wire/wireless platform and dig-ital trunking dispatch commu-

Prolog to the Special Issue on System Simulation

System simulation is a comprehensive technology, which makesdynamic experiments on a system by means of system model(computerized / semi-physical / physical mode) under certainexperimental condition. Today, system simulation has heen de-veloped into a comprehensive experimental discipline based on

Preface to the special issue on seismotectonics of Asia: Progress in seismotectonic studies at Peking University

Seismotectonics is one of the new research areas of seismology with its main focus on studying the detailed seismic structure of lithosphere and upper mantle using seismic records, particularly the records collected at portable seismic arrays. Development of new seismic methods utilizing seismic arrays such as receiver functions, SKS-splitting analysis, body- and surface-wave tomography, and recently ambient noise tomography （Langston, 1977; Dueker and Sheehan, 1997;

Preface to the special issue on electromagnetic phenomena related to seismic and volcanic activities from EMSEV in 2016

EMSEV, Electromagnetic Studies of Earthquake and Volcanoes, set up in 2002, is a joint academic organization by multi-associations in IUGG （International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics）, including IAGA （International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy）, IASPEI （International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth＇s Interior）, IAVCEI （International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth＇s Interior）.

Preface to the Special Issue in Celebration of Professor Shouwen Yu’s 70th Birthday

Shouwen Yu, emeritus Professor of Applied Mechanics at Tsinghua University, was born ,on May 4, 1939 in Xianyou County, Fujian Province of China. From 1955 to 1958, he studied as an undergraduate student in Department of Civil Structures of Tongji University at Shanghai.

World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Announcement of Compiling the Special Issue of Acupuncture in the Whole World——Global Events Record of Acu-Moxi

Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Foundation of World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies (WFAS)ABSTRACT During the past 30 years, acupuncture has developed a lot in the whole world. The international group of acupuncture has been enlarged and a new page was created in the cause of human health and medicine. At the eve of "The 20th Anniversary of the Foundation of WFAS—International Acupuncture Congress", in order to show the achievements in the circle of acupuncture and set up a new image of global acupuncture circle, expand the influence of acupuncture, promote international cooperation, World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion will print a Special Issue in large scale, Acupuncture in the Whole World—Global Events Record of Acu-Moxi and calling for articles starts from now on.