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In the design of any multi-port network with more than one antenna, mutual coupling between these different ports must be accounted for. In an effort to investigate and control these mutual coupling effects, we have selected three structures to be thoroughly analyzed. Furthermore, they have been fabricated and tested to develop relevant design guides for these selected structures to have minimal mutual coupling effects. These selected structures included a feed network for a multi-port antenna, a dual feedhorn for a large reflector antenna, as well as a set of Multi- Input Multi-Output (MIMO) laptop antennas. In the first study, we analyzed a 30- port radial splitter that can be used for an in-phase feeding of a 30-high power transmitter. Our objectives here have been geared towards estimating the mutual coupling between the 30 ports and exploring the port and alignment failure analysis, its graceful degradation results, and relevant efficiency performance for such high power multi-port network will be presented. In the second study, we investigated the mutual coupling of a multifeedhorn structure of a large reflector antenna in order to allow multi-beam radiation or reception. This high gain antenna utilizes integrated feeds with precise physical tight spacing and could suffer from strong inter-coupling. Mutual coupling effects here include input match deterioration, beam width broadening, and cross-polarization degradation due to the proximity coupling of these various feeds. Our study derived accurate feed location expressions as well as methods to improve the decoupling between the feeds that have been implemented. These results will be discussed. For the third study, we carried out extensive investigates into the mutual coupling effects amidst wireless laptop antennas for a MIMO system implementation. For a laptop use, it is required to determine the best location, optimum spacing, and orientations of these antennas in order to achieve the maximum benefits of the system’s diversity. First, we studied the coupling between two antennas as a function of their spacing, types, and orientations. Subsequently, we extended the study to a controlled multi-antenna system for a MIMO implementation. Design rules for such implementation have been derived and will be discussed in detail.

Landfills are one of the major sources of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential (GWP) ~23 times higher than that of carbon dioxide (CO2). Although some effective strategies have been formulated to prevent methane emissions from large landfills, many landfills allow methane to be freely emitted to the atmosphere. In such situations, it is often proposed to stimulate methanotrophs, a group of bacteria that consume methane, in the cover soil to prevent fugitive methane emissions. Several factors, however, must be addressed to make such a biogenic removal mechanism effective. First, methanotrophic activity can be inhibited by nonmethane organic compounds (NMOCs) that are commonly found in landfill soil gas. Second, although methanotrophs can be easily stimulated with the addition of nitrogenous fertilizers, biogenic production of nitrous oxide with a GWP ~296 times higher than that of carbon dioxide, is also stimulated. To consider these issues, two general areas of research were performed. First, a dimensionless number was developed based on Michaelis-Menten kinetics that describes the effects of the presence of multiple NMOCs on methanotrophic growth and survival. This model was validated via experimental measurements of methanotrophic growth in the presence of varying amounts of NMOCs. Second, the effects of nutrient amendments on methane oxidation and nitrous oxide production were examined by constructing soil microcosms using landfill cover soils. Here, it was shown that the addition of ammonium in the presence of phenylacetylene stimulated methane oxidation but inhibited nitrous oxide production. Furthermore, to understand the methanotrophic community structure and activity in response to these amendments, DNA microarray and transcript analyses were performed. The results indicated the predominance of Type II methanotrophs but that Type I methanotrophs responded more significantly to these amendments. Also, substantial activity of pMMO-expressing methanotrophs was observed, suggesting that these methanotrophs were responsible for nitrous oxide production. Collectively, these data demonstrate that methanotrophic activity and community structure can be differentially affected by both landfill gas composition and amendments, thus providing insights as how best to manipulate methanotrophic processes to better mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.