A physics-based dipole moment source reconstruction is proposed to estimate the near-field coupling between a liquid crystal display panel to a cellphone's cellular antenna. Based on the ...understanding of the current distribution on the source, a magnetic dipole moment source is reconstructed to replace the real radiation source that is located at the edge of the flexible printed circuit board. To characterize the coupling from the equivalent dipole moment source to the victim antenna, the noise transfer coefficient is proposed. The noise transfer coefficient can be calculated from the near-field scanning and the direct coupling measurements using a wideband source. The proposed physics-based dipole moment source reconstruction and noise transfer coefficient are successfully validated through the measured near-field coupling in a practical cellphone.
Drought is frequently recorded as a result of climate warming and elevated concentration of greenhouse gases, which affect the carbon and water cycles in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in arid ...and semi-arid regions. To identify the drought in grassland ecosystems and to determine how such drought affects grassland ecosystems in terms of carbon and water cycles across the globe, this study evaluated the drought conditions of global grassland ecosystems from 2000 to 2011 on the basis of the remotely sensed Drought Severity Index (DSI) data. The temporal dynamics of grassland carbon use efficiency (CUE) and water use efficiency (WUE), as well as their correlations with DSI, were also investigated at the global scale. Results showed that 57.04% of grassland ecosystems experienced a dry trend over this period. In general, most grassland ecosystems in the northern hemisphere (N.H.) were in near normal condition, whereas those in the southern hemisphere (S.H.) experienced a clear drying and wetting trend, with the year 2005 regarded as the turning point. Grassland CUE increased continually despite the varied drought conditions over this period. By contrast, WUE increased in the closed shrublands and woody savannas but decreased in all the other grassland types. The drought conditions affected the carbon and water use mainly by influencing the primary production and evapotranspiration of grass through photosynthesis and transpiration process. The CUE and WUE of savannas was most sensitive to droughts among all the grassland types. The areas of grassland DSI that showed significant correlations with CUE and WUE were 52.92% and 22.11% of the total grassland areas, respectively. Overall, droughts sufficiently explained the dynamics of grassland CUE, especially in the S.H. In comparison with grassland CUE, the grassland WUE was less sensitive to drought conditions at the global scale.
Spatio-temporal behaviour of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), inorganic carbon (DIC) and silica (DSi) along the salinity gradient of three south-west Indian monsoonal estuaries are presented. This ...study showed both conservative and non-conservative behaviour of DOC along the salinity gradient under varying physico-chemical conditions. The gross flux of DOC arriving at the estuary from the rivers was estimated as 0.9 × 109 g/yr for Sita-Swarna river, 4.2 × 109 g/yr for Sharavati river and 5.6 × 109 g/yr for Kali river. Similarly, the net fluxes of DOC estimated beyond the estuarine zone was 5.5 × 109 g/yr (Sita-Swarna), 8.0 × 109 g/yr (Sharavati) and 7.7 × 109 g/yr (Kali). This indicates that these estuaries are the sources of organic carbon to the ocean. The DIC linearly increased towards the higher salinity with net fluxes of 38 × 109 g/yr (Sita-Swarna), 75 × 109 g/yr (Sharavati) and 97 × 109 g/yr (Kali). The combined DIC flux of Sita-Swarna, Sharavati and Kali rivers is ~8% of the total DIC fluxes received from the west flowing rivers of India, to the Arabian Sea. The DSi showed a biogenic removal of 80–85% in all the studied estuaries. From this study it is concluded that the west flowing river estuaries are net sources of DOC and DIC and net sink for DSi. Consideration of the role of west flowing rivers of peninsular India is important for the better understanding of the carbon dynamics in the river-estuary-ocean boundary.
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•Behaviour of carbon in three tropical estuaries joining the Arabian Sea are studied.•Dissolved organic carbon showed non-conservative behaviour in mid salinities.•Dissolved inorganic carbon showed conservative behaviour in these estuaries.•Approximately 85% of dissolved silica removal was observed in these estuaries.
This study aims to conduct a relationship survey between subjective voice assessment (the Persian version of consensus auditory perceptual evaluation of voice (called ATSHA)) and the Dysphonia ...Severity index (DSI).
Cross-sectional, methodological study.
Our sample included 144 adults; 48 patients with different voice disorders and 96 volunteers without voice disorders, hearing complaints or any auditory-perceptual voice disorders. The vocal tasks included in the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) and the DSI were performed and recorded. We used subjective and objective assessments to investigate the correlation between the CAPE-V perceptual-auditory assessment parameters and the DSI. Finally, through using the univariate-linear regression and other statistical analyses, we examined the correlation and prediction value of subjective assessment by the DSI.
The result of correlation of the total DSI value and individual items with the CAPE-V parameters demonstrated the strongest correlation between the DSI and breathiness (R = 0/563) in the second sentence of the CAPE-V scale, and the weakest correlation between the DSI and overall severity (R = 0/202) in the sixth sentence. The results of the univariate linear regression model indicated that the highest predictive power was obtained for the DSI and breathiness (R2 = 0/427) in the sixth sentence in the dysphonic group, while the lowest predictive power was found for low intensity and strain (R2 = 0/025) in the connected speech in the control group.
This study found a significant relationship between the target objective and subjective voice assessment scales in most parameters. Furthermore, the findings of the current study show that the DSI scale, as an objective tool, can predict some auditory-perceptual parameters.
Diatom aggregates contribute significantly to the vertical sinking flux of particulate matter in the ocean. These fragile structures form a specific microhabitat for the aggregated cells, but their ...internal chemical and physical characteristics remain largely unknown. Studies on the impact of aggregation on the Si cycle led to apparent inconsistency. Despite a lower biogenic silica (bSiO₂) dissolution rate and diffusion of the silicic acid (dSi) being similar in aggregates and in seawater, dSi surprisingly accumulates in aggregates. A reaction–diffusion model helps to clarify this incoherence by reconstructing dSi accumulation measured during batch experiments with aggregated and non-aggregated Skeletonema marinoi and Chaetoceros decipiens. The model calculates the effective bSiO₂ dissolution rate as opposed to the experimental apparent bSiO2 dissolution rate, which is the results of the effective dissolution of bSiO₂ and transport of dSi out of the aggregate. In the model, dSi transport out of the aggregate is modulated by alternatively considering retention (decrease of the dSi diffusion constant) and adsorption (reversible chemical bonds between dSi and the aggregate matrix) processes. Modelled bSiO₂ dissolution is modulated by the impact of dSi concentration inside aggregates and diatom viability, as enhanced persistence of metabolically active diatoms has been observed in aggregates. Adsorption better explains dSi accumulation within and outside aggregates, raising the possible importance of dSi travelling within aggregates to the deep sea (potentially representing 20% of the total silica flux). The model indicates that bSiO₂ dissolution is effectively decreased in aggregates mainly due to higher diatom viability but also to other parameters discussed herein.
This paper presents an efficient multi-objective optimization method, focusing on aerodynamic optimization of a diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) in transonic and supersonic flight conditions. The ...DSI inlet, through scrutinizing the Bump shape has potential to attain greater aerodynamic performance on exit plane of inlet. However, the high cost of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations raises a significant challenge in the DSI optimization process. In order to obtain solution set in few numbers of objective function calls, a meta-model multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method is proposed based on a self-adaptive Kriging surrogate model, and applied to solve this kind of costly black-box optimization problem. The Kriging model is updated by using a dynamic expected hyper-volume improvement (EHVI) sample metric, which is developed by analyzing disadvantages of the original sample criterion. With the help of the dynamic sample metric, simulation results show that the surrogate-based MOPSO algorithm can obtain plenty enough non-dominated solutions and achieve high precision in the approximation of the Pareto front. In terms of DSI inlet optimization, the bump shape is parameterized by free form deformation (FFD) method, and the total pressure distortions of inlet exit plane are treated as two minimization objectives under transonic and supersonic flight conditions. A well distributed non-dominated solution set is generated by the proposed algorithm within the context of a small call number of cost evaluations, and optimized inlet configurated by the selected solution has better aerodynamic characteristics compared with the initial inlet.
Increasing interest has been given to the use of recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) as food contact materials. However, the use of recycled PET without decontamination in food packages ...causes serious safety hazards for consumers, thus representing a major limit hurdling the recycling and reuse of PET in many countries. Herein, a feasible study was employed for the discrimination of 105 total types of virgin and recycled PET samples based on 267 semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) tentatively identified by direct sample introduction/comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DSI/GC×GC-Q-TOF-MS) coupled with various chemometrics. 100% prediction accuracy was accomplished using orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA), and principal component analysis (PCA) combined with nonparametric tests. Cross-discrimination based on misclassified samples with various chemometrics enabled identifying large sample sizes and improving prediction accuracy. The possible origins of the markers containing 46 substances could be food, medicine, cosmetics, pesticides, fuel, plastic and industrial sources, where most of them are highly toxic chemicals, indicative of the urgent requirement of employing closed-loop recycling and sorting of plastic wastes. More importantly, our strategy could also act as a basis for discriminating against other plastics, making it promising as a novel, efficient and versatile approach for sorting of plastic wastes. Finally, this report also demonstrates the combination of various chemometrics and chromatography tool is reliable and powerful to effectively address PET adulteration, thereby facilitating food contact uses of rPET bottles, which is also beneficial for the health and safety of consumers.
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•Non-targeted screening of SVOCs was identified by DSI/GC×GC-Q-TOF-MS.•Chromatography tool coupled with various chemometrics can address PET adulteration.•The efficiency of various chemometrics for PET discrimination was created.•Cross-validation based on misclassified samples can improve prediction accuracy.•Possible origins of marker compounds were analyzed.
Contestations about the way in which digital sequence information is used and regulated have created stumbling blocks across multiple international policy processes. Such schisms have profound ...implications for the way in which we manage and conceptualize agrobiodiversity and its benefits. This paper explores the relationship between farmers’ rights, as recognized in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the dematerialization of genetic resources. Using concepts of “stewardship” and “ownership” we emphasize the need to move away from viewing agrobiodiversity as a commodity that can be owned, toward a strengthened, proactive and expansive stewardship approach that recognizes plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as a public good which should be governed as such. Through this lens we analyze the relationship between digital sequence information and different elements of farmers’ rights to compare and contrast implications for the governance of digital sequence information. Two possible parallel pathways are presented, the first envisaging an enhanced multilateral system that includes digital sequence information and which promotes and enhances the realization of farmers’ rights; and the second a more radical approach that folds together concepts of stewardship, farmers’ rights, and open source science. Farmers’ rights, we suggest, may well be the linchpin for finding fair and equitable solutions for digital sequence information beyond the bilateral and transactional approach that has come to characterize access and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Existing policy uncertainties could be seized as an unexpected but serendipitous opportunity to chart an alternative and visionary pathway for the rights of farmers and other custodians of plant genetic resources.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) was adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as the new global target for the period 2022 - 2030. In this special issue, we ...compare the KMGBF with its predecessors, thus the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 - 2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (ABTs), using the specific/measurable/ambitious/realistic/time-bound (SMART) perspective. We found that, in general, KMGBF was SMARTer than the ABTs. For example, the KMGBF includes 10 quantitative elements with numeric targets, including the conservation target of 30% of areas by 2030, the so-called “30 by 30”. Relevant elements are considered here: space-based conservation of areas other than protected areas, genetic diversity, and the oceans. During discussions on resource mobilization and digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources, developing countries have emphasized the need for fair and equitable sharing of the benefits afforded by DSI. The Conference of the Parties to the CBD thus adopted a framework that integrates resource mobilization with DSI; both are viewed as implementation measures - and often as bargaining conditions - by developing countries.
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