Exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields alters the behaviour, physiology and stress protein levels of desert locusts

Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are present throughout the modern world and are derived from many man-made sources including overhead transmission lines. The risks of extremely-low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields are particularly poorly understood especially at high field strengths as they are rarely encountered at ground level. Flying insects, however, can approach close to high field strength transmission lines prompting the question as to how these high levels of exposure affect behaviour and physiology. Here we utilise the accessible nervous system of the locust to ask how exposure to high levels of ELF EMF impact at multiple levels. We show that exposure to ELF EMFs above 4 mT leads to reduced walking. Moreover, intracellular recordings from an identified motor neuron, the fast extensor tibiae motor neuron, show increased spike latency and a broadening of its spike in exposed animals. In addition, hind leg kick force, produced by stimulating the extensor tibiae muscle, was reduced following exposure, while stress-protein levels (Hsp70) increased. Together these results suggest that ELF EMF exposure has the capacity to cause dramatic effects from behaviour to physiology and protein expression, and this study lays the foundation to explore the ecological significance of these effects in other flying insects

The Fe addition as an effective treatment for improving the radiation resistance of fcc NixFe1-x single-crystal alloys

Funding Information: Financial support from the National Science Center , Poland through the PRELUDIUM 21 Program in the frame of grant no. 2022/45/N/ST5/02980 is gratefully acknowledged. This work was co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Education and Sciences through the project RaDeNiS ( 5003/LATR/2019/0 ). We acknowledge support from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under NOMATEN Teaming grant agreement No. 857470 and from the European Regional Development Fund via the Foundation for Polish Science International Research Agenda Plus Program grant No. MAB PLUS/2018/8 . The Research Council of Norway is acknowledged for the support of the Norwegian Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Facility, NorFab , project number 295864 . | openaire: EC/H2020/857470/EU//NOMATENIn this work, five different compositions of fcc Ni and NixFe1-x single crystal alloys namely Ni, Ni0.88Fe0.12, Ni0.77Fe0.23, Ni0.62Fe0.38, Ni0.38Fe0.62 were irradiated by 1.5 MeV 58Ni ions at room temperature in a wide fluence range (4 × 1013 to 4 × 1015 ions/cm2). The role of Fe addition on the radiation resistance of the NixFe1-x single crystals was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ion channeling technique (RBS/C) and nanoindentation techniques. The Multi-Step Damage Accumulation analysis revealed the cross-sections for damage formation significantly decreases for Ni0.38Fe0.62 and Ni0.62Fe0.38 as compared to that in pure Ni single crystal, which is consistent with RBS/C and TEM results. The results of nanoindentation show that Ni0.62Fe0.38 alloy possesses the highest hardness (2.96 GPa) among the other compositions in a pristine state. To interpret this result, hybrid Monte Carlo/ Molecular dynamics simulations were used to check the presence of the ordered crystal phase structure for NixFe1-x binary alloys. The simulation results have shown that depending on the iron content, we deal with different amounts of FeNi3 (L12) phase. This result revealed that in Ni0.62Fe0.38 alloy, nanoprecipitate FeNi3 (L12) phase (around 20%) is formed inside the disordered matrix, which could be one of the main reasons for the high hardness of this alloy before irradiation. Additionally, we have found adding iron reduced the number and size of the defects (as a result of ion irradiation) in NixFe1-x because the Fe element is more stable than Ni, which results from the electron configuration of both elements in the excited state. Therefore, the more iron in the material, the fewer defects are created.Peer reviewe