A Parallel Study of SAR Levels in Head Tissues for Three Antennas Used in Cellular Telephones: Monopole, Helix and Patch

Summary This paper is a comparative study of several antennas commonly used in cellular telephones. These include a monopole, a helix-monopole and a patch antenna. Each one of these structures is modeled and numerically tested using finite-difference time-domain simulation and human models based on magnetic-resonance images, which allow for inclusion of details of the human body in the simulation. The testing procedure involves antenna simulation in the proximity of the human head. The behavior of each antenna is evaluated for variable distances from the head geometry (0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 mm). Continuous waveform, representative of the sources used in mobile telephones, (250 mW, 1.8 GHz) is used as the form of the antenna excitation. The simulation outputs used as measures for this comparative study include transmitting and receiving antenna characteristics and the specific absorption rate (SAR). The SAR levels for the head tissues are calculated for and with accordance to the two currently accepted standards: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The computed SAR levels within each of the considered tissues vary for the three antennas under investigation and are within the determined health safety standards. Results suggest that the patch antenna may be the structure of choice when considering safety standards, as its radiation yields the lowest local SAR in the head tissues.     

Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China

In the global campaign against biodiversity loss in forest ecosystems, land managers need to know the status of forest biodiversity, but practical guidelines for conserving biodiversity in forest management are lacking. A major obstacle is the incomplete understanding of the relationship between site primary productivity and plant diversity, due to insufficient ecosystem‐wide data, especially for taxonomically and structurally diverse forest ecosystems. We investigated the effects of site productivity (the site's inherent capacity to grow timber) on tree species richness across 19 types of forest ecosystems in North America and China through 3 ground‐sourced forest inventory data sets (U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis, Cooperative Alaska Forest Inventory, and Chinese Forest Management Planning Inventory). All forest types conformed to a consistent and highly significant (P < 0.001) hump‐shaped unimodal relationship, of which the generalized coefficients of determination averaged 20.5% over all the forest types. That is, tree species richness first increased as productivity increased at a progressively slower rate, and, after reaching a maximum, richness started to decline. Our consistent findings suggest that forests of high productivity would sustain few species because they consist mostly of flat homogeneous areas lacking an environmental gradient along which a diversity of species with different habitats can coexist. The consistency of the productivity–biodiversity relationship among the 3 data sets we examined makes it possible to quantify the expected tree species richness that a forest stand is capable of sustaining, and a comparison between the actual species richness and the sustainable values can be useful in prioritizing conservation efforts.     

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement

<正>After years of complex and challenging negotiations,197countries reached a landmark climate agreement during the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit in Paris(the 21st Conference of the Parties(COP21)).Under the Paris Agreement,countries announced actions they plan to take to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.Although there is     

Biodegradation characteristics of organic matters in swine carcasses under different initial operating conditions of simulated anaerobic lysimeter

This study was aimed to investigate the biodegradation characteristics of organic matters in swine carcasses. The lysimeters were simulated with different initial operating conditions: 30 % volumetric moisture content and no sludge addition for lysimeter A (control), 30 % volumetric moisture content and anaerobic sludge addition for lysimeter B, and 40 % volumetric moisture content and anaerobic sludge addition for lysimeter C. The degradation efficiency (18.4 %) of lysimeter B was higher than that (15.2 %) of lysimeter A due to anaerobic sludge addition. Lysimeter B showed higher CH₄ yield (15.6 L/kg VS) and CH₄ production rate (0.41 L/kg VS days) compared to lysimeter A by 31 % and 14 %, respectively. In addition, the degradation efficiency improved from 18.4 % (lysimeter B) to 26.3 % (lysimeter C) by increasing volumetric moisture content. The CH₄ yield (22.9 L/kg VS) and CH₄ production rate (0.68 L/kg VS days) of lysimeter C were higher than those of lysimeter B, respectively. Total organic carbon (TOC) removed in lysimeter C was converted to leachate (20.3 %) and gas (6.0 %), whose values were higher than those of lysimeter A and B. These results demonstrated that the proper control of initial operating conditions could accelerate the anaerobic degradation of organic matters in swine carcasses.     

Effect of multiple washing operations on the removal of potentially toxic metals from an alkaline farmland soil and the strategy for agricultural reuse

Few studies have carried out soil washing experiments using pot experiments to simulate in situ soil washing operations, particularly for alkaline soils. This study explored the effects of multiple washing operations using pot experiments on the removal efficiencies of potentially toxic metals (PTM) from alkaline farmland soil and the reuse strategy of washed soil for safe agricultural production. The results showed that the removal efficiencies of Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn after seven washings with a mixed chelator (EDTA, GLDA, and citric acid) were 41.1%, 47.1%, 14.7%, and 26.5%, respectively, which was close to the results of the EDTA treatment. For the alkaline soil studied, the second washing with the mixed chelators most effectively removed PTM owing to the activation of them after the first washing operation. The mixed chelator more effectively increased the proportion of stable fraction of PTM and maintained soil nutrients (e.g., nitrogen content) than EDTA, indicating little disturbance of alkaline soil quality after washing with the mixed chelator. After the amendment of the washed soil, there was no visible difference in the biomass weight of crops from the soils washed with different agents, indicating that the inhibitory effect of both washing agents on plant growth was effectively alleviated. The Cd and Pb contents in Z. mays were below the threshold of Hygienical Standard for Feeds of China (GB 13078–2017) (1 and 30 mg·kg^?1). Moreover, after three cropping operations, the available concentrations of PTM in the soil washed with the mixed chelator were lower than those in the soil washed with EDTA, indicating the value and potential of agricultural reuse of alkaline farmland soil washed with the mixed chelator.

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Effect of composite amendments on physicochemical properties of copper tailings repaired by herbaceous plants

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Phytoremediation is considered to be the most environmentally friendly green restoration technology for dealing with mine waste. Adding amendments can...     

Nitrogen evolution during the co-combustion of hydrothermally treated municipal solid waste and coal in a bubbling fluidized bed

Nitrogen evolution was studied during the co-combustion of hydrothermally treated municipal solid wastes (HT MSW) and coal in a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB). HT MSW blending ratios as 10%, 20% and 30% (wt.%) were selected and tested at 700, 800, 900 °C. Emissions of NO and N₂O from blends were measured and compared with the results of mono-combustion trials. Moreover, concentrations of precursors like NH₃ and HCN were also quantified. The results are summarized as follows: NO emissions were predominant in all the cases, which rose with increasing temperature. The blending of HT MSW contributed to the NO reduction. N₂O emissions decreased with temperature rising and the blending of HT MSW also presented positive effects. At 30% HT MSW addition, both NO and N₂O emissions showed the lowest values (391.85 ppm and 55.33 ppm, respectively at 900 °C). For the precursors, more HCN was detected than NH₃ and both played important roles on the gas side nitrogen evolution.     

An investigation on pollutant emissions from co-firing of RDF and coal

Pollutant emissions from co-firing of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and coal were investigated in a vortexing fluidized bed combustor (VFBC). RDF-5 was made of common municipal solid waste (MSW). CaCO₃ was injected in the combustor to absorb HCl at 850 °C. The results show that NO_x and HCl emissions increase with RDF-5 co-firing ratio. The NO_x concentration in flue gas at the bottom of the combustor is higher than that at the top. However, the trend of HCl released is reverse compared with NO_x emissions. It was found that the HCl concentration decreases with increasing the molar ratio of Ca/Cl. However, the effect of CaCO₃ addition on HCl retention is not significant when the molar ratio of Ca/Cl is higher than 5. The chlorine content in fly ash increases obviously with the molar ratio of Ca/Cl. PCDD/Fs emissions decrease slightly with an addition of CaCO₃. In this study incomplete combustion is regarded as the main cause for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) formation.     

Insight into metal binding properties of biochar-derived DOM using EEM-PARAFAC and differential absorption spectra combined with two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A large amount of biochar-derived dissolved organic matter (BDOM) will be released into the environment with biochars application into repairing...