UNASSIGNED: There is an ongoing scientific discussion, that anti-cancer effects induced by radiofrequency (RF)-hyperthermia might not be solely attributable to subsequent temperature elevations at the tumor site but also to non-temperature-induced effects. The exact molecular mechanisms behind said potential non-thermal RF effects remain largely elusive, however, limiting their therapeutical targetability.
UNASSIGNED: Therefore, we aim to provide an overview of the current literature on potential non-temperature-induced molecular effects within cancer cells in response to RF-electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF).
UNASSIGNED: This literature review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. For this purpose, a MeSH-term-defined literature search on MEDLINE (PubMed) and Scopus (Elsevier) was conducted on March 23rd, 2024. Essential criteria herein included the continuous wave RF-EMF nature (3 kHz - 300 GHz) of the source, the securing of temperature-controlled circumstances within the trials, and the preclinical nature of the trials.
UNASSIGNED: Analysis of the data processed in this review suggests that RF-EMF radiation of various frequencies seems to be able to induce significant non-temperature-induced anti-cancer effects. These effects span from mitotic arrest and growth inhibition to cancer cell death in the form of autophagy and apoptosis and appear to be mostly exclusive to cancer cells. Several cellular mechanisms were identified through which RF-EMF radiation potentially imposes its anti-cancer effects. Among those, by reviewing the included publications, we identified RF-EMF-induced ion channel activation, altered gene expression, altered membrane potentials, membrane oscillations, and blebbing, as well as changes in cytoskeletal structure and cell morphology.
UNASSIGNED: The existent literature points toward a yet untapped therapeutic potential of RF-EMF treatment, which might aid in damaging cancer cells through bio-electrical and electro-mechanical molecular mechanisms while minimizing adverse effects on healthy tissue cells. Further research is imperative to definitively confirm non-thermal EMF effects as well as to determine optimal cancer-type-specific RF-EMF frequencies, field intensities, and exposure intervals.

Wearable sensors are rapidly gaining influence in the diagnostics, monitoring, and treatment of disease, thereby improving patient outcomes. In this review, we aim to explore how these advances can be applied to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We begin by (i) introducing limitations in current flexible/stretchable RF coils and then move to the broader field of flexible sensor technology to identify translatable technologies. To this goal, we discuss (ii) emerging materials currently used for sensor substrates, (iii) stretchable conductive materials, (iv) pairing and matching of conductors with substrates, and (v) implementation of lumped elements such as capacitors. Applicable (vi) fabrication methods are presented, and the review concludes with a brief commentary on (vii) the implementation of the discussed sensor technologies in MRI coil applications. The main takeaway of our research is that a large body of work has led to exciting new sensor innovations allowing for stretchable wearables, but further exploration of materials and manufacturing techniques remains necessary, especially when applied to MRI diagnostics.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess evidence of long-term effects of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) on indicators of cognition, including domains of learning and memory, executive function, complex attention, language, perceptual motor ability and social cognition, and of an exposure-response relationship between RF-EMF and cognition.
METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo and the EMF-Portal on September 30, 2022 without limiting by date or language of publication. We included cohort or case-control studies that evaluated the effects of RF exposure on cognitive function in one or more of the cognitive domains. Studies were rated for risk of bias using the OHAT tool and synthesised using fixed effects meta-analysis. We assessed the certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach and considered modification by OHAT for assessing evidence of exposures.
RESULTS: We included 5 studies that reported analyses of data from 4 cohorts with 4639 participants consisting of 2808 adults and 1831 children across three countries (Australia, Singapore and Switzerland) conducted between 2006 and 2017. The main source of RF-EMF exposure was mobile (cell) phone use measured as calls per week or minutes per day. For mobile phone use in children, two studies (615 participants) that compared an increase in mobile phone use to a decrease or no change were included in meta-analyses. Learning and memory. There was little effect on accuracy (mean difference, MD -0.03; 95% CI -0.07 to 0.02) or response time (MD -0.01; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.02) on the one-back memory task; and accuracy (MD -0.02; 95%CI -0.04 to 0.00) or response time (MD -0.01; 95%CI -0.04 to 0.03) on the one card learning task (low certainty evidence for all outcomes). Executive function. There was little to no effect on the Stroop test for the time ratio ((B-A)/A) response (MD 0.02; 95% CI -0.01 to 0.04, very low certainty) or the time ratio ((D-C)/C) response (MD 0.00; 95% CI -0.06 to 0.05, very low certainty), with both tests measuring susceptibility to interference effects. Complex attention. There was little to no effect on detection task accuracy (MD 0.02; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.08), or response time (MD 0.02;95% CI 0.01 to 0.03), and little to no effect on identification task accuracy (MD 0.00; 95% CI -0.04 to 0.05) or response time (MD 0.00;95% CI -0.01 to 0.02) (low certainty evidence for all outcomes). No other cognitive domains were investigated in children. A single study among elderly people provided very low certainty evidence that more frequent mobile phone use may have little to no effect on the odds of a decline in global cognitive function (odds ratio, OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.42 to 1.58, 649 participants) or a decline in executive function (OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.37 to 3.05, 146 participants), and may lead to a small, probably unimportant, reduction in the odds of a decline in complex attention (OR 0.67;95%CI 0.27 to 1.68, 159 participants) and a decline in learning and memory (OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.29 to 1.99, 159 participants). An exposure-response relationship was not identified for any of the cognitive outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review and meta-analysis found only a few studies that provided very low to low certainty evidence of little to no association between RF-EMF exposure and learning and memory, executive function and complex attention. None of the studies among children reported on global cognitive function or other domains of cognition. Only one study reported a lack of an effect for all domains in elderly persons but this was of very low certainty evidence. Further studies are needed to address all types of populations, exposures and cognitive outcomes, particularly studies investigating environmental and occupational exposure in adults. Future studies also need to address uncertainties in the assessment of exposure and standardise testing of specific domains of cognitive function to enable synthesis across studies and increase the certainty of the evidence.
UNASSIGNED: This review was partially funded by the WHO radioprotection programme and prospectively registered on PROSPERO CRD42021257548.

The aim of this review is to assess the impact of cell phone radiation effects on green plants. Rapid progress in networking and communication systems has introduced frequency- and amplitude-modulated technologies to the world with higher allowed bands and greater speed by using high-powered radio generators, which facilitate high definition connectivity, rapid transfer of larger data files, and quick multiple accesses. These cause frequent exposure of cellular radiation to the biological world from a number of sources. Key factors like a range of frequencies, time durations, power densities, and electric fields were found to have differential impacts on the growth and development of green plants. As far as the effects on green plants are concerned in this review, alterations in their morphological characteristics like overall growth, canopy density, and pigmentation to physiological variations like chlorophyll fluorescence and change in membrane potential etc. have been found to be affected by cellular radiation. On the other hand, elevated oxidative status of the cell, macromolecular damage, and lipid peroxidation have been found frequently. On the chromosomal level, micronuclei formation, spindle detachments, and increased mitotic indexes etc. have been noticed. Transcription factors were found to be overexpressed in many cases due to the cellular radiation impact, which shows effects at the molecular level.

BACKGROUND: The technological applications of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) have been steadily increasing since the 1950s exposing large proportions of the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) is assessing the potential health effects of exposure to RF-EMF.
OBJECTIVE: To systematically assess the effects of exposure to RF-EMF on self-reported non-specific symptoms in human subjects and to assess the accuracy of perceptions of presence or absence of RF-EMF exposure.
METHODS: Eligibility criteria: experimental studies carried out in the general population and in individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to EMF (IEI-EMF), in any language.
METHODS: Medline, Web of Science, PsycInfo, Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos, Embase and EMF portal, searched till April 2022. Risk of Bias (ROB): we used the RoB tool developed by OHAT adapted to the topic of this review.
RESULTS: we synthesized studies using random effects meta-analysis and sensitivity analyses, where appropriate.
RESULTS: Included studies: 41 studies were included, mostly cross over trials and from Europe, with a total of 2,874 participants.
RESULTS: considering the primary outcomes, we carried out meta-analyses of 10 exposure-outcomes pairs. All evidence suggested no or small non-significant effects of exposure on symptoms with high (three comparisons), moderate (four comparisons), low (one comparison) and very low (two comparisons) certainty of evidence. The effects (standard mean difference, where positive values indicate presence of symptom being exposed) in the general population for head exposure were (95% confidence intervals) 0.08 (-0.07 to 0.22) for headache, -0.01 (-0.22 to 0.20) for sleeping disturbances and 0.13 (-0.51 to 0.76) for composite symptoms; and for whole-body exposure: 0.09 (-0.35 to 0.54), 0.00 (-0.15 to 0.15) for sleeping disturbances and -0.05 (-0.17 to 0.07) for composite symptoms. For IEI-EMF individuals SMD ranged from -0.19 to 0.11, all of them with confidence intervals crossing the value of zero. Further, the available evidence suggested that study volunteers could not perceive the EMF exposure status better than what is expected by chance and that IEI-EMF individuals could not determine EMF conditions better than the general population.
CONCLUSIONS: Limitations of evidence: experimental conditions are substantially different from real-life situations in the duration, frequency, distance and position of the exposure. Most studies were conducted in young, healthy volunteers, who might be more resilient to RF-EMF than the general population. The outcomes of interest in this systematic review were symptoms, which are self-reported. The available information did not allow to assess the potential effects of exposures beyond acute exposure and in elderly or in chronically ill people. It cannot be ruled out that a real EMF effect in IEI-EMF groups is masked by a mix with insensitive subjects. However, studies on symptoms reporting and/or field perceptions did not find any evidence that there were particularly vulnerable individuals in the IEI-EMF group, although in open provocation studies, when volunteers were informed about the presence or absence of EMF exposure, such differences were consistently observed.
CONCLUSIONS: available evidence suggests that acute RF-EMF below regulatory limits does not cause symptoms and corresponding claims in the everyday life are related to perceived and not to real EMF exposure status.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization is coordinating an international project aimed at systematically reviewing the evidence regarding the association between radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure and adverse health effects. Reproductive health outcomes have been identified among the priority topics to be addressed.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of RF-EMF exposure on male fertility of experimental mammals and on human sperm exposed in vitro.
METHODS: Three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus and EMF Portal) were last searched on September 17, 2022. Two independent reviewers screened the studies, which were considered eligible if met the following criteria: 1) Peer-reviewed publications of sham controlled experimental studies, 2) Non-human male mammals exposed at any stage of development or human sperm exposed in vitro, 3) RF-EMF exposure within the frequency range of 100 kHz-300 GHz, including electromagnetic pulses (EMP), 4) one of the following indicators of reproductive system impairment:Two reviewers extracted study characteristics and outcome data. We assessed risk of bias (RoB) using the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) guidelines. We categorized studies into 3 levels of overall RoB: low, some or high concern. We pooled study results in a random effects meta-analysis comparing average exposure to no-exposure and in a dose-response meta-analysis using all exposure doses. For experimental animal studies, we conducted subgroup analyses for species, Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and temperature increase. We grouped studies on human sperm exposed in vitro by the fertility status of sample donors and SAR. We assessed the certainty of the evidence using the GRADE approach after excluding studies that were rated as \"high concern\" for RoB.
RESULTS: One-hundred and seventeen papers on animal studies and 10 papers on human sperm exposed in vitro were included in this review. Only few studies were rated as \"low concern\" because most studies were at RoB for exposure and/or outcome assessment. Subgrouping the experimental animal studies by species, SAR, and temperature increase partly accounted for the heterogeneity of individual studies in about one third of the meta-analyses. In no case was it possible to conduct a subgroup analysis of the few human sperm in vitro studies because there were always 1 or more groups including less than 3 studies. Among all the considered endpoints, the meta-analyses of animal studies provided evidence of adverse effects of RF-EMF exposure in all cases but the rate of infertile males and the size of the sired litters. The assessment of certainty according to the GRADE methodology assigned a moderate certainty to the reduction of pregnancy rate and to the evidence of no-effect on litter size, a low certainty to the reduction of sperm count, and a very low certainty to all the other meta-analysis results. Studies on human sperm exposed in vitro indicated a small detrimental effect of RF-EMF exposure on vitality and no-effect on DNA/chromatin alterations. According to GRADE, a very low certainty was attributed to these results. The few studies that used EMP exposure did not show effects on the outcomes. A low to very low certainty was attributed to these results.
CONCLUSIONS: Many of the studies examined suffered of severe limitations that led to the attribution of uncertainty to the results of the meta-analyses and did not allow to draw firm conclusions on most of the endpoints. Nevertheless, the associations between RF-EMF exposure and decrease of pregnancy rate and sperm count, to which moderate and low certainty were attributed, are not negligible, also in view of the indications that in Western countries human male fertility potential seems to be progressively declining. It was beyond the scope of our systematic review to determine the shape of the dose-response relationship or to identify a minimum effective exposure level. The subgroup and the dose-response fitting analyses did not show a consistent relationship between the exposure levels and the observed effects. Notably, most studies evaluated RF-EMF exposure levels that were higher than the levels to which human populations are typically exposed, and the limits set in international guidelines. For these reasons we cannot provide suggestions to confirm or reconsider current human exposure limits. Considering the outcomes of this systematic review and taking into account the limitations found in several of the studies, we suggest that further investigations with better characterization of exposure and dosimetry including several exposure levels and blinded outcome assessment were conducted.
BACKGROUND: Protocols for the systematic reviews of animal studies and of human sperm in vitro studies were published in Pacchierotti et al., 2021. The former was also registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021227729 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID = 227729) and the latter in Open Science Framework (OSF Registration DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/7MUS3).

This study reviews recent research on Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-EMF) exposure in confined environments, focusing on methodologies and parameters. Studies typically evaluate RF-EMF exposure using an electric field and specific absorption rate but fail to consider temperature rise in the tissues in confined environments. The study highlights the investigation of RF-EMF exposure in subterranean environments such as subways, tunnels and mines. Future research should evaluate the exposure of communication devices in such environments, considering the surrounding environment. Such studies will aid in understanding the risks and developing effective mitigation strategies to protect workers and the general public.

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is no evidence that MRI produces harmful effects on premature newborns, as well as short-term and long-term safety issues regarding radiofrequency fields and loud acoustic environment, while the examination that is being performed has not been clearly investigated. MRI of the brain conducted on preterm infants should be part of the diagnostic workup, when necessary. This article is intended to evaluate the short-term safety of MRI performed in preterm infants, when required, by analyzing all vital parameters available before, during, and after the MRI procedures.
METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of the literature on electronic medical databases (PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov) following the Preferred Reported Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We included all preterm infants who underwent MRI whose clinical, hemodynamic, and respiratory parameters were reported. The quality of the included articles was assessed using QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) tool.
RESULTS: Six studies were included with a total of 311 preterm infants. No severe adverse event, such as death, occurred during MRI procedures. Vital signs remained stable in about two-thirds of all patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Given the general clinical safety of MRI, we suggest it as a tool to be used in preterm infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units, when necessary. We further suggest the development of standard protocols to guide the use of MRI in preterm infants to maximize the clinical safety of the procedure.

The power consumption of portable gadgets, implantable medical devices (IMDs) and wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) has reduced significantly with the ongoing progression in low-power electronics and the swift advancement in nano and microfabrication. Energy harvesting techniques that extract and convert ambient energy into electrical power have been favored to operate such low-power devices as an alternative to batteries. Due to the expanded availability of radio frequency (RF) energy residue in the surroundings, radio frequency energy harvesters (RFEHs) for low-power devices have garnered notable attention in recent times. This work establishes a review study of RFEHs developed for the utilization of low-power devices. From the modest single band to the complex multiband circuitry, the work reviews state of the art of required circuitry for RFEH that contains a receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages associated with various circuit architectures are comprehensively discussed. Moreover, the reported receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier are also compared to draw conclusions towards their implementations in RFEHs for sensors and biomedical devices applications.

We present a review outlining the basic mechanism, background, recent technical developments, and clinical applications of aqueous dielectric padding in the field of MRI. Originally meant to be a temporary solution, it has gained traction as an effective method for correcting B1 + inhomogeneities due to the unique properties of the calcium titanate and barium titanate perovskites used. Aqueous dielectric pads have used a variety of high-permittivity materials over the years to improve the quality of MRI acquisitions at 1.5 and 3 T and more recently for 7 T neuroimaging applications. The technical development and assessment of these pads have been advanced by an increased use of mathematical modeling and electromagnetic simulations. These tools have allowed for a more complete understanding of the physical interactions between dielectric pads and the RF coil, making testing and safety assessments more accurate. The ease of use and effectiveness that dielectric pads offer have allowed them to become more commonplace in tackling imaging challenges in more clinically focused environments. More recently, they have seen usage not only in anatomical imaging methods but also in specialized metabolic imaging sequences such as GluCEST and NOEMTR . New colossally high-permittivity materials have been proposed; however, practical utilization has been a continued challenge due to unfavorable frequency dependences as well as safety limitations. A new class of metasurfaces has been under development to address the shortcomings of conventional dielectric padding while also providing increased performance in enhancing MRI images.