The Institute of Electronics and Computer (IEC) is a leading scientific membership society working to advance electronics and computer for the benefit of all. We have a worldwide membership from enthusiatic amateurs to those at the top of their fields in academia, business, education and government. Our purpose is to gather, inspire, guide, represent and celebrate all who share a passion for electronics and computers. And, in our role as a charity, we are here to ensure that electronics and computer delivers on its exceptional potential to benefit society. Alongside professional support for our members, we engage with policymakers and the public to increase awareness and understanding of the value that electronics and computer holds for all of us. With a portfolio including journals, book series, and conference proceedings, we focus on electonics, computer, astronomy and astrophysics, environmental sciences, biosciences, mathematics and education. IEC Science also publishes on behalf of other scientific organisations and represents their needs and those of their members.

The COVID-19 outbreak spreads in a drastic manner across the globe. In order to control the spread of virus, several nations introduced lockdown measures along with some hygienic practices includes wearing mask, washing hands frequently, and maintaining social distance and so on. Imposition of such measures reduces the activities of humans and therefore the concentration of air pollutants has been decreased significantly resulting in enhancement of air quality as an add-on benefit. The increase in air contaminants is mainly due to rise in level of particulate matter (PM) in atmosphere and increased concentration of PM_2.5 leads to several lung-related ailments and cardiovascular diseases. From the previous study, 7.5% of death around the globe is mainly due to presence of air contaminants in the environment. This paper assessed the impact of COVID-19 on air quality in USA, Italy, and France from March 2020 to May 2020. The climate change is mainly attributed due to air pollutants. The effect of air quality can be interpreted well by means of air pollutants in atmosphere, i.e. PM₁₀, PM_2.5, O₃ and NO₂ measured during pre and post lockdown. The air quality index has been improved significantly due to imposition of lockdown measures. The influence of this pandemic enables deep understanding among the public about the importance of clean environment.

In this paper, a single fed polarization reconfigurable antenna is proposed. The antenna consists of a radiating patch incorporated with a diagonal-shaped slot at its center. Four p-i-n diodes are used for polarization reconfiguration. The p-i-n diodes are placed in diagonal slot region. The proposed antenna is designed to operate in three states – linear polarization (LP), left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) by biasing corresponding p-i-n diodes. The antenna gives measured peak gain of 6.2 dBi for LP state and 5.82 dBic for both RHCP and LHCP states. It also achieves 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 5.95% for both RHCP and LHCP configurations. The antenna finds application in areas of modern wireless communication.

This paper presents a tri-band patch antenna integrated with a rectifier circuit for radiofrequency energy harvesting systems. This rectenna is more suitable for low power wireless sensors networks with rechargeable battery supplies. The radiating part is the rectangular patch with corrugated edge tapered at one of its sides operating at tri-band in the WLAN and C band. The rectenna is integrated with a radiating patch reducing the overall size of the rectenna without compromising antenna performances. The rectenna is modeled using an Ansoft HFSS simulator and is fabricated on a low-cost FR₄ substrate. The performances of the rectenna are measured in the anechoic chamber and are in good agreement with simulated results. The antenna achieves a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 100 MHz (2.4–2.5 GHz & 5–5.1 GHz) in the WLAN band in addition to 150 MHz (4–4.15 GHz) in the C band. A DC power output of 298 mV is obtained in the operating bands.