This special issue of Environmental
Engineering and Management Journal is dedicated to
interdisciplinary research and discusses multiple
results addressing environmental issues in
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and
Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB) areas.
Some of the most significant research
directions considered in this issue entail the
electromagnetic pollution together with a survey of
electromagnetic environment in order to analyze and
quantify the biological and health effects of
electromagnetic fields, biological signal changes in
humans exposed to electromagnetic fields,
interactions between electromagnetic fields and living
mater, detection and measurements of bio-magnetic
fields.
In October 2010 we organized the first
International Workshop in EMC and EMB at the
Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Gheorghe
Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania
(www.tuiasi.ro). The significant interest in this event
encouraged us to organize the second edition of the
EMC and EMB Workshop in October 2012.
The papers included in this special issue are
related to the workshop topics, and are extended
versions or new results from some of the active
participants of the EPE 2012 Conference. The first
group of papers is related to a special source of
electromagnetic interference, namely the electrostatic
discharge (ESD) phenomenon and deal with: ESD
generator system, human body model,
emission/susceptibility testing methods. Other very
common electric/magnetic field sources are
considered in following papers, presenting: a
technique to mitigate the power frequency magnetic
field produced in its vicinity by the transport and
distribution power lines; a theoretical investigation of
the ELF magnetic fields produced by typical
configurations of overhead power lines.
Another group of papers focuses on the
optimal design in order to improve the efficiency of
planar structures: improving the performance of the
integrated electromagnetic interference filters or the
design of spiral inductors/transformers, based on
numerical analysis.
Several papers refer to the electromagnetic
field measurement and human exposure assessment,
while others tackle issues such as the field
measurement in an electromagnetic unshielded
environment or an analysis of three dimensional data
generated using acquisition methods such as
computed tomography or weather radar.
Some papers deal with the real-time
processing of electrocardiography (ECG) signals in
order to reduce electromagnetic interference effects
(adaptive filtering on FPGA circuit, Wigner function),
or the real-time monitoring of patients (monitoring of
the heart rate and pacemaker parameters from a
remote location).
Another significant group of papers is
dedicated to biomedical signal monitoring for patients
exposed to certain environmental factors. The
recording and processing of electroencephalographic
(EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) signals are
carried out for persons during magnetotherapy
procedures, in order to identify potential changes of
their biological signal due to magnetic field exposure.
We also included papers presenting wireless
systems based on smart sensor nodes for indoor air
quality and unobtrusive cardio-respiratory
Editorial/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 12 (2013), 6, 1117-1118
Valeriu David received the Electrical Engineering (Electronics and Communications Section)
degree at the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi, Romania in 1983 and the PhD degree
in Electrical Measurement at the same University, in 1998.
He is professor and Ph D supervisor in the Department of Electrical Measurements and Materials,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering - Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi, having
researches and teaching interest in: electric and electronic measurements; measurement in
biomedicine and ecology; survey of the electromagnetic environment; biological effects of
electromagnetic fields; new materials and techniques for electromagnetic shielding.
Profesor Valeriu David is author/coauthor in 10 books, over 130 scientific papers and he has been
involved in about 20 national and international grants.
monitoring; the goals consist in the estimation of the
effect of air quality on the human organism and the
characterization of the exposure to air pollutants.
In another case, several measurements were
taken in order to analyze the short-term heart rate
variation and the morphologic variability of
electrocardiographic signals for detecting mental
stress. Some authors carry out a prospective study on
the identification of the environmental factors which
cause and aggravate dysphonia in patients.
A few papers address the context of
environmental factors which can influence the quality
of atmosphere, water and the human health in the
above-mentioned circumstances, applying specific
tools for the characterization of the parameters taken
in the analysis.
I am confident that such topics, backed up by
important and novel results, will prove of interest to
the readers of EEMJ, especially to those interested in
interdisciplinary topics. The research directions and
outcomes presented in this issue offer multiple
technologies which are easily transferable to the field
of environmental engineering, considering that many
of the techniques and topics from the various
published papers deal with hazards, various types of
pollution sources, and human health issues.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to
Professor Matei Macoveanu, Editor-in-Chief and
Professor Maria Gavrilescu, Managing Editor of the
Environmental Engineering and Management
Journal, for their support and interest in our field of
research.
I am also grateful to all the authors who have
submitted papers, for their unceasing efforts and
availability and willingness to contribute to this issue
of Environmental Engineering and Management
Journal. We hope that this will lead to significant
progresses in all related research and technical fields,
as well as to further developments and new
achievements in the EMC and EMB domains.