Search results for "electromagnetic [showers]"
showing 10 items of 928 documents
Mobile phone base stations and adverse health effects: phase 1 of a population-based, cross-sectional study in Germany
2009
Objective: The aim of this first phase of a cross-sectional study from Germany was to investigate whether proximity of residence to mobile phone base stations as well as risk perception is associated with health complaints. Methods: The researchers conducted a population-based, multi-phase, cross-sectional study within the context of a large panel survey regularly carried out by a private research institute in Germany. In the initial phase, reported on in this paper, 30 047 persons from a total of 51 444 who took part in the nationwide survey also answered questions on how mobile phone base stations affected their health. A list of 38 health complaints was used. A multiple linear regression…
The “Mainzer EMF-Wachhund”: results from a watchdog project on self-reported health complaints attributed to exposure to electromagnetic fields
2006
The "Mainzer EMF-Wachhund," a watchdog project, offered a system of self-notification of health complaints attributed to exposures to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to a population of a part of Germany with about 4 million inhabitants. By using a self-administered questionnaire, which was provided online and for download from the Internet, 192 persons reported such health complaints in the period from October 2003 to March 2005. Of these, 56% classified themselves as electromagnetic hypersensitive (EH). Predictors of this self classification were being affected by all kinds of EMF rather than single EMF sources and being female. On average, EH subjects reported a high degree of suffering, 77…
Are media warnings about the adverse health effects of modern life self-fulfilling? An experimental study on idiopathic environmental intolerance att…
2013
article i nfo Objective: Medically unsubstantiated 'intolerances' to foods, chemicals and environmental toxins are com- mon and are frequently discussed in the media. Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electro- magnetic fields (IEI-EMF) is one such condition and is characterized by symptoms that are attributed to exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). In this experiment, we tested whether media reports promote the development of this condition. Methods: Participants (N=147) were randomly assigned to watch a television report about the adverse health effects of WiFi (n=76) or a control film (n=71). After watching their film, participants received a sham exposure to a WiFi …
Blood laboratory findings in patients suffering from self-perceived electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)
2009
Risks from electromagnetic devices are of considerable concern. Electrohypersensitive (EHS) persons attribute a variety of rather unspecific symptoms to exposure to electromagnetic fields. The pathophysiology of EHS is unknown and therapy remains a challenge. We hypothesized that some electrosensitive individuals are suffering from common somatic health problems. Toward this end we analysed clinical laboratory parameters including thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), creatinine, hemoglobine, hematocrit and c-reactive protein (CRP) in subjects suffering from EHS and in controls that are routinely used in clinical medicine to identify or…
Fetal dose measurements and shielding efficiency assessment in a custom setup of (192)Ir brachytherapy for a pregnant woman with breast cancer.
2015
To assess the radiation dose to the fetus of a pregnant patient undergoing high-dose-rate (HDR) (192)Ir interstitial breast brachytherapy, and to design a new patient setup and lead shielding technique that minimizes the fetal dose.Radiochromic films were placed between the slices of an anthropomorphic phantom modeling the patient. The pregnant woman was seated in a chair with the breast over a table and inside a leaded box. Dose variation as a function of distance from the implant volume as well as dose homogeneity within a representative slice of the fetal position was evaluated without and with shielding.With shielding, the peripheral dose after a complete treatment ranged from 50 cGy at…
Aerosol properties of the Eyjafjallajökull ash derived from sun photometer and satellite observations over the Iberian Peninsula
2012
The Eyjafjallajökull ash that crossed over Spain and Portugal on 6e12 May 2010 has been monitored by a set of operational sun photometer sites within AERONET-RIMA and satellite sensors. The sun photometer observations (aerosol optical depth, coarse mode concentrations) and ash products from IASI and SEVIRI satellite sensors, together with FLEXPART simulations of particle transport, allow identifying the volcanic aerosols. The aerosol columnar properties derived from inversions were investigated, indicating specific properties, especially regarding the absorption. The single scattering albedo was high (0.95 at 440 nm) and nearly wavelength independent, although with slight decrease with wave…
Water-Insoluble Organics Dominate Brown Carbon in Wintertime Urban Aerosol of China: Chemical Characteristics and Optical Properties.
2020
The chromophores responsible for light absorption in atmospheric brown carbon (BrC) are not well characterized, which hinders our understanding of BrC chemistry, the links with optical properties, and accurate model representations of BrC to global climate and atmospheric oxidative capacity. In this study, the light absorption properties and chromophore composition of three BrC fractions of different polarities were characterized for urban aerosol collected in Xi'an and Beijing in winter 2013-2014. These three BrC fractions show large differences in light absorption and chromophore composition, but the chromophores responsible for light absorption are similar in Xi'an and Beijing. Water-ins…
Measurement and correction of atmospheric effects in O<inf>2</inf>-B and O<inf>2</inf>-A absorption bands in the context of s…
2014
Under sun-light illumination, the shape of the atmospheric oxygen bands (O 2 -B, 687 nm and O 2 -A, 760 nm) of the vegetation radiance is modified by chlorophyll fluorescence. However for far-range measurements, atmospheric effects also modify this shape. In this study, measurements in O 2 -A and O 2 -B absorption bands have been performed at different altitudes up to 3123 m over bare soil and wheat fields. It is observed that bands depth increase significantly with altitude. In O 2 -B band, the total magnitude of variation is of the same order of magnitude as the change induced by vegetation fluorescence, while it is much greater in O 2 -A band. We used MODTRAN 4 to correct measurements fr…
Plasmonic and diffractive nanostructures for light trapping—an experimental comparison
2015
Metal nanoparticles and diffractive nanostructures are widely studied for enhancing light trapping efficiency in thin-film solar cells. Both have achieved high performance enhancements, but there are very few direct comparisons between the two. Also, it is difficult to accurately determine the parasitic absorption of metal nanoparticles. Here, we assess the light trapping efficiencies of both approaches in an identical absorber configuration. We use a 240 nm thick amorphous silicon slab as the absorber layer and either a quasi-random supercell diffractive nanostructure or a layer of self-assembled metal nanoparticles for light trapping. Both the plasmonic and diffractive structures strongly…
Influence of the electro-optical properties of an a-Si:H single layer on the performances of a pin solar cell
2012
We analyze the results of an extensive characterization study involving electrical and optical measurements carried out on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) thin film materials fabricated under a wide range of deposition conditions. By adjusting the synthesis parameters, we evidenced how conductivity, activation energy, electrical transport and optical absorption of an α-Si:H layer can be modified and optimized. We analyzed the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor of the dark conductivity by varying the dopant-to-silane gas flow ratio. Optical measurements allowed to extract the absorption spectra and the optical bandgap. Additionally, we report on the temperature dependen…