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The East Asian marginal seas (EAMS) are one of the fastest‐warming ocean regions globally. This study presents the long‐term trends (1982–2020) of extreme ocean warming events called "marine heatwaves" over the EAMS and examines the relationships between marine heatwave trends and mean SST warming trends. We focus on five subregions with different influences from atmospheric perturbation and ocean currents: the northern East Sea (N‐ES), southern East Sea, Yellow Sea, Korea Strait (KS), and East China Sea (ECS). During the past four decades, marine heatwave duration and intensity in the EAMS have increased to approximately +4 days and +0.3°C per decade on average, respectively. In summer, the positive trend of marine heatwaves is the highest in the ECS, primarily due to the rapidly increasing mean sea surface temperature (SST). In winter, the N‐ES reveals remarkably rapid increases in marine heatwave properties in the last two decades, with increasing rates of approximately 6.2 (4.9) times longer total duration (stronger intensity) than the global average changes. Beyond the impact of the rapid increase in mean SST, the N‐ES marine heatwaves can be further extended due to the northward shift of the East Korea Warm Current. In general, mean SST changes are critical to the increasing trend in marine heatwave duration and intensity. This study further emphasizes that the changes in ocean circulation may expedite more rapid changes in extreme ocean events, which can produce more vulnerability in some places, such as the N‐ES, to marine heatwaves under continued global warming. Plain Language Summary: Extreme warming events of the ocean occurring from several days to weeks significantly impact marine ecosystems. This study investigates the increasing trends of extremely high ocean warming, namely "marine heatwave," over East Asian marginal seas. During the past four decades, marine heatwave duration and intensity have increased to approximately +4 days and +0.3°C per decade on average, respectively. Comparing the earlier period (1982–2000) and the recent period (2001–2020), the most dramatic changes in marine heatwave properties, including frequency, duration, and intensity, occur in the northern East Sea in winter, significantly increasing 763.33% in duration. During summer, the East China Sea reveals the most significant increasing ratio of marine heatwave properties, with change rates of 227.07% in duration. Marine heatwave characteristics have a statistically increasing trend in both seasons in most regions due to global warming. Beyond the impact of the change in mean SST, we find the change in SST variance via shifting ocean current leads to the excessive trend of marine heatwaves. Key Points: East Asian Marine heatwave duration and intensity have enhanced to approximately +4 days and +0.3°C per decadeDuring winter, the marine heatwave duration over northern East Sea regions experiences a dramatic increase of 763.33%, much higher than the global average increase of 122.63%Northward ocean current variance is a significant factor in the excessive increase of marine heatwave duration, in addition to the changing mean sea surface temperature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution poses a serious threat to human health in Asia. This study analyzes the association of air pollutants and greenness with incidence rates of allergic rhinitis in Seoul at the administrative district level to gain insight into district-level urban policies to improve public health. A spatial regression model is constructed to investigate the correlation between allergic rhinitis incidence rates and five air pollutants measured at 128 air pollution monitoring stations around Seoul: sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter less than 10 µm (PM10), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO). The allergic rhinitis incidence data are derived from the National Health Insurance Service's database that includes the number of allergic rhinitis-related clinic visits by the patients over 20 years of age and living in Seoul. A kriging geostatistical interpolation was used to estimate average air pollution level of 423 administrative districts. To assess pollen concentrations that can affect allergic rhinitis, the average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is measured based on the urban greenness. The model, controlling for built environment and socio-economic attributes, identifies the possibility of a weak association between allergic rhinitis incidence rates and carbon monoxide levels. The NDVI value is negatively correlated with allergic rhinitis incidence rates, implying a complicated aspect in relation to the effect of urban greenness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of this study were to verify and compare the performances of anaerobic threshold (AT) point estimates among different filtering intervals (9, 15, 20, 25, 30 s) and to investigate the interrelationships of AT point estimates obtained by ventilatory threshold (VT) and muscle fatigue thresholds using electromyographic (EMG) activity during incremental exercise on a cycle ergometer. 69 untrained male university students, yet pursuing regular exercise voluntarily participated in this study. The incremental exercise protocol was applied with a consistent stepwise increase in power output of 20 watts per minute until exhaustion. AT point was also estimated in the same manner using V-slope program with gas exchange parameters. In general, the estimated values of AT point-time computed by EMG method were more consistent across 5 filtering intervals and demonstrated higher correlations among themselves when compared with those values obtained by VT method. The results found in the present study suggest that the EMG signals could be used as an alternative or a new option in estimating AT point. Also the proposed computing procedure implemented in Matlab for the analysis of EMG signals appeared to be valid and reliable as it produced nearly identical values and high correlations with VT estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since Korea joined ITER as Korea was developing a fully super-conducting tokamak, KSTAR, the national plan for developing fusion energy was renewed and focused on a clear mission – developing a technological self-reliant program for a fusion demonstration device. A new technical roadmap was developed toward self-reliant technologies for constructing a fusion power plant in a similar time window as in the EU, Japan and the US. This looks tough and formidable but Korea could take advantage of their well-established nuclear technologies in power plant design, construction, and operation. The government and the legislature recognized the importance of this effort by establishing a special law for supporting it practically and for giving it a high priority in their R&D agenda. Under this favorable environment, various scenarios for finding the most effective and efficient path to achieve the goal were reviewed and some of the features of this review will be presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]