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In situ exposure of electric fields of 11 microwave ovens is assessed in an occupational environment and in an office. Measurements as a function of distance without load and with a load of 275 ml of tap water were performed at distances of <1 m. The maximal measured field was 55.2 V m(-1) at 5 cm from the oven (without load), which is 2.5 and 1.1 times below the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection reference level for occupational exposure and general public exposure, respectively. For exposure at distances of >1 m, a model of the electric field in a realistic environment is proposed. In an office scenario, switching on a microwave oven increases the median field strength from 91 to 145 mV m(-1) (+91 %) in a traditional Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) deployment and from 44 to 92 mV m(-1) (+109 %) in an exposure-optimised WLAN deployment., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Purpose: We investigated the temporal variation of the induced magnetic field due to the transverse and the longitudinal gradient coils in tungsten collimators arranged in hexagonal and pentagonal geometries with and without gaps between the collimators., Methods: We modeled x-, y-, and z-gradient coils and different arrangements of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) collimators using FEKO, a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation tool. A time analysis approach was used to generate the pulsed magnetic field gradient. The approach was validated with measurements using a 7T MRI scanner., Results: Simulations showed an induced magnetic field representing 4.66% and 0.87% of the applied gradient field (gradient strength = 500 mT/m) for longitudinal and transverse gradient coils, respectively. These values can be reduced by 75% by adding gaps between the collimators for the pentagonal arrangement, bringing the maximum induced magnetic field to less than 2% of the applied gradient for all of the gradient coils., Conclusion: Characterization of the maximum induced magnetic field shows that by adding gaps between the collimators for an integrated SPECT/MRI system, eddy currents can be corrected by the MRI system to avoid artifact. The numerical model was validated and was proposed as a tool for studying the effect of a SPECT collimator within the MRI gradient coils., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

This paper describes the design, calibration, and measurements with a personal, distributed exposimeter (PDE) for the on-body detection of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields due to Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) networks. Numerical simulations show that using a combination of two RF nodes placed on the front and back of the body reduces the 50% prediction interval (PI50) on the incident free-space electric-field strength (Equation is included in full-text article.). Median reductions of 10 dB and 9.1 dB are obtained compared to the PI50 of a single antenna placed on the body using a weighted arithmetic and geometric average, respectively. Therefore, a simple PDE topology based on two nodes, which are deployed on opposite sides of the human torso, is applied for calibration and measurements. The PDE is constructed using flexible, dual-polarized textile antennas and wearable electronics, which communicate wirelessly with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connected receiver and can be unobtrusively integrated into a garment. The calibration of the PDE in an anechoic chamber proves that the PI50 of the measured (Equation is included in full-text article.)is reduced to 3.2 dB. To demonstrate the real-life usability of the wireless device, a subject was equipped with the PDE during a walk in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Using a sample frequency of 2 Hz, an average incident power density of 59 nW m was registered in the WiFi frequency band during this walk.

Two radio-frequency personal exposimeters (PEMs) worn on both hips are calibrated on a subject in an anechoic chamber. The PEMs' response and crosstalk are determined for realistically polarised incident electric fields using this calibration. The 50 % confidence interval of the PEMs' response is reduced (2.6 dB on average) when averaged over both PEMs. A significant crosstalk (up to a ratio of 1.2) is measured, indicating that PEM measurements can be obfuscated by crosstalk. Simultaneous measurements with two PEMs are carried out in Ghent, Belgium. The highest exposure is measured for Global System for Mobile Communication downlink (0.052 mW m(-2) on average), while the lowest exposure is found for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System uplink (0.061 μW m(-2) on average). The authors recommend the use of a combination of multiple PEMs and, considering the multivariate data, to provide the mean vector and the covariance matrix next to the commonly listed univariate summary statistics, in future PEM studies., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

In this paper, we investigate multilayered lossy and heterogeneous media for wireless body area networks (WBAN) to develop a simple, fast and efficient analytical in-to-out body path loss (PL) model at 2.45 GHz and, thus, avoid time-consuming simulations. The PL model is an antenna-independent model and is validated with simulations in layered medium, as well as in a 3D human model using electromagnetic solvers.

A simple formula to determine the human average whole-body SAR (SAR(wb)) under realistic propagation conditions is proposed in the GHz region, i.e. from 1.45 GHz to 5.8 GHz. The methodology is based on simulations of ellipsoidal human body models. Only the exposure (incident power densities) and the human mass are needed to apply the formula. Diffuse scattered illumination is addressed for the first time and the possible presence of a Line-of-Sight (LOS) component is addressed as well. As validation, the formula is applied to calculate the average whole-body SAR(wb) in 3D heterogeneous phantoms, i.e. the virtual family (34 year-old male, 26 year-old female, 11 year-old girl, and 6 year-old boy) and the results are compared with numerical ones--using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method--at 3 GHz. For the LOS exposure, the average relative error varies from 28% to 12% (resp. 14-12%) for the vertical polarization (resp. horizontal polarization), depending on the heteregeneous phantom. Regarding the diffuse illumination, relative errors of -39.40%, -11.70%, 10.70%, and 10.60% are obtained for the 6 year-old boy, 11 year-old girl, 26 year-old female, and 34 year-old male, respectively. The proposed formula estimates well (especially for adults) the SAR(wb) induced by diffuse illumination in realistic conditions. In general, the correctness of the formula improves when the human mass increases. Keeping the uncertainties of the FDTD simulations in mind, the proposed formula might be important for the dosimetry community to assess rapidly and accurately the human absorption of electromagnetic radiation caused by diffuse fields in the GHz region. Finally, we show the applicability of the proposed formula to personal dosimetry for epidemiological research.

For the first time, a personal distributed exposimeter (PDE) for radio frequency (RF) measurements is presented. This PDE is designed based on numerical simulations and is experimentally evaluated using textile antennas and wearable electronics. A prototype of the PDE is calibrated in an anechoic chamber. Compared to conventional exposimeters, which only measure in one position on the body, an excellent isotropy of 0.5 dB (a factor of 1.1) and a 95% confidence interval of 7 dB (a factor of 5) on power densities are measured., (© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Experimentally assessing the whole-body specific absorption rate (SAR(wb) ) in a complex indoor environment is very challenging. An experimental method based on room electromagnetics theory (accounting only the line-of-sight as specular path) is validated using numerical simulations with the finite-difference time-domain method. Furthermore, the method accounts for diffuse multipath components (DMC) in the total absorption rate by considering the reverberation time of the investigated room, which describes all the losses in a complex indoor environment. The advantage of the proposed method is that it allows discarding the computational burden because it does not use any discretizations. Results show good agreement between measurement and computation at 2.8 GHz, as long as the plane wave assumption is valid, that is, at large distances from the transmitter. Relative deviations of 0.71% and 4% have been obtained for far-field scenarios, and 77.5% for the near field-scenario. The contribution of the DMC in the total absorption rate is also quantified here, which has never been investigated before. It is found that the DMC may represent an important part of the total absorption rate; its contribution may reach up to 90% for certain scenarios in an indoor environment., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In this paper, the general public's exposure to FM, GSM, and UMTS over 7 day's time is investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how short-period measurements can be representative for the actual maximal and average exposure during longer periods such as 1 week. Locations of public RF exposure have been categorized according to the type of environment, population density, and the amount of mobile phone traffic. Five different sites have been selected to perform measurements of the electric fields over time. In total 352,800 time samples of the electric field were obtained from the measurement campaign. A factor X is defined as the ratio between the actual maximal value of the temporal measurements and the estimated maximal value from short-period data. Three different methods to assess X are compared and an optimal method is proposed for an in-situ measurement procedure. Median values of X according to the proposed method are 1.05, 0.47, and 0.96, for FM, GSM, and UMTS, respectively. Moreover a factor R is defined as the ratio between the median and maximal value of the momentary temporal field measurements, indicating the level of variation of a certain signal over time. R enables to calculate maximal values from median values and vice versa. Median values of R are 0.92, 0.66, and 0.71 for FM, GSM, and UMTS, respectively. By combining X and R one can estimate the actual maximal and median exposure during longer periods from short-period measurements.