The Effect of Electromagnetic Fields with the Mg2+ Cyclotron Frequency on Mouse Reproductive Performance

The present study is aimed to test whether exposure to electromagnetic fields of very weak intensity (≤1 mT) and low frequency (≤100 Hz) may influence reproductive performance and induce teratogenesis in mice. We speculate that a resonant effect occur when the applied frequency matches the cyclotron frequency of Mg2+ (≈60 Hz) involved in the cell duplication. Four groups of mice (four dams and one male each) were exposed to ?50 μT electromagnetic field continuous irradiation of for 100 days. A control group (four dams and one male) was also examined. The exposed dams exhibited a significantly lower number of offspring per birth than the control ones (11.0 vs. 11.6;P = 0.006). A significantly lower average daily gain of body weight per mouse was observed (0.74 vs. 0.77 g/d;P = 0.002), resulting in a reduction of the average body weight per nest at 11 days of age (404 vs. 463 g;P = 0.048). Post mortem examinations revealed a significant increase in mild chronic hepatic inflammatory findings (28 vs. 0%;P = 0.001) in the offspring and myocardial hypertrophy (25 vs. 0%;P = 0.023) in the dams. The exposure of mice to an electromagnetic field with the cyclotron frequency of Mg2+ during pregnancy caused a measurable effect on the reproductive performance in terms of offspring per birth. This finding may be considered as a warning about the environmental effects of the electromagnetic fields on the stability of individual species and ecosystems.

Assessment of chicken breast shelf life based on bench-top and portable near-infrared spectroscopy tools coupled with chemometrics

Objectives:Near-infra red(NIR)spectroscopy is a rapid technique able to assess meat quality even if its capability to determine the shelf life of chicken fresh cuts is still debated,especially for portable devices.The aim of the study was to compare bench-top and portable NIR instruments in discriminating between four chicken breast refrigeration times(RT),coupled with multivariate classifier models.Materials and Methods:Ninety-six samples were analysed by both NIR tools at 2,6,10 and 14 days post mortem.NIR data were subsequently submitted to partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA)and canonical discriminant analysis(CDA).The latter was preceded by double feature selection based on Boruta and Stepwise procedures.Results:PLS-DA sorted moderate separation of RT theses,while shelf life assessment was more accurate on application of Stepwise-CDA.Bench-top tool had better performance than portable one,probably because it captured more informative spectral data as shown by the variable importance in projection(VIP)and restricted pool of Stepwise-CDA predictive scores(SPS).Conclusions:NIR tools coupled with a multivariate model provide deep insight into the physicochemical processes occurring during storage.Spectroscopy showed reliable effectiveness to recognise a 7-day shelf life threshold of breasts,suitable for routine at-line application for screening of meat quality.