Thunderstorm asthma and increased childhood leukemia risk near high-voltage power lines (HVPL) are occurrences whose mechanism of effect is not fully understood.
This paper proposes and discusses a ...key similarity: both thunderstorms and HVPL generate a high enough electrical field in the environment to ionize nearby air and air-borne particles.
I argue that the repeatedly demonstrated acute asthma response to pollen-laden air during thunderstorms is largely due to ionization of air-borne allergens, which adhere more readily and in greater quantity in the lungs than non-ionized particles. If these bind to mucous or phagocytic cells, it would enhance immune response. A rapid temperature drop and high ozone also seem to be drivers of thunderstorm asthma.
This causal nexus provides strong support for the parallel situation of prolonged exposure to ionized particles near HVPL and an increased rate of childhood leukemia. Here, it is proposed that upwind carcinogens are ionized when passing HVPL and then residential and business areas. Published evidence for most steps are presented, but have not previously been published as a coherent whole, nor has it been suggested that the inhaled ionized micro-particle explanation for acute asthma may also explain development of childhood leukemia over time.
The demonstrated series of events leading to increased deposition and retention of ionized particles in airways provides support for explaining both adverse health outcomes: acute thunderstorm asthma and increased risk of childhood leukemia near HVPL. Further support for this explanation of both outcomes is provided by effects of on-going proximity to highways.
This paper deals with the electromagnetic aspects related to a series of experiments aimed at the identification and control of vertical instabilities in the JET Tokamak. The first part of the work ...is devoted to model the transient magnetic fields produced by the poloidal field circuits and the plasma edge localized modes (ELMs). The second part describes the approach used to design an ELM independent plasma speed estimator. The design of the estimator had to be developed with the constraint of using the present controller parameters, so as to minimize the impact on JET operation.
An increase in sensitivity of the graded-gap AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs X-ray detectors is achieved using multiplication of charge generated in a detector body. A thin n-GaAs layer was grown on a narrow-gap ...side of the AlxGa1−xAs structure. This layer is used as a photoconductor. The multiplication of the charge injected from the graded-gap structure to the photoconductive n-GaAs layer exceeds a few hundred times. This sensitive structure was tested as a detector of single alpha particles (from an 241Am source) .
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