Many passerine birds lay white eggs with reddish brown speckles produced by protoporphyrin pigment. However, the function of these spots is contested. Recently, the sexually selected eggshell coloration (SSEC) hypothesis proposed that eggshell color is a sexually selected signal through which a female advertises her quality (and hence the potential quality of her future young) to her male partn...

Birds' eggshells are renowned for their striking colours and varied patterns. Although often considered exceptionally diverse, we report that avian eggshell coloration, sampled here across the full phylogenetic diversity of birds, occupies only 0.08-0.10% of the avian perceivable colour space. The concentrations of the two known tetrapyrrole eggshell pigments (protoporphyrin and biliverdin) are...

The mineral phase of shell repair in the Manila clam Venerupis philippinarum affected by brown ring disease (BRD) was characterised at various scales and at various stages of shell repair by confocal Raman microspectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. Spherulitic and quadrangular aragonite microstructures associated with polyene pigments were clearly observed. Von Kossa staining showed th...

  Introduction: In the present study, we investigated the role of gold-silica shell-core nanoparticle in megavoltage irradiation of MCF7 breast cancer cells.   Materials and Methods: gold-silicon oxide shell-core nanoparticles (NPs) were obtained by conjugation of gold nanoparticle with amine or thiol functionalized silica nanoparticles (AuN@SiO2 and AuS@SiO...

Among several adaptive explanations proposed to account for variation in avian egg color, that related to sexual selection is of particular interest because of its possible generality. Briefly, it proposes that because biliverdin (the pigment responsible for blue-green eggshell coloration) is an antioxidant, deposition in the eggshell by laying females may signal the capacity of females to cont...

BACKGROUND The exceptional diversity of coloration found in avian eggshells has long fascinated biologists and inspired a broad range of adaptive hypotheses to explain its evolution. Three main impediments to understanding the variability of eggshell appearance are: (1) the reliable quantification of the variation in eggshell colours; (2) its perception by birds themselves, and (3) its relation...

The basal amygdaloid complex (BAC) topographically projects to the nucleus accumbens (Acb) in patchy, inhomogeneous patterns. These termination patterns may be related to the histological features of the Acb that define the shell, core, and adjacent ventral caudate-putamen (CPv), and the ventral striatal compartments providing output to different autonomic, motor, and endocrine targets. Knowled...

BACKGROUND One possibility suggested regarding female post-mating strategies is differential allocation into offspring investment. Female birds produce not only the largest, but also most colourful eggs of all oviparous taxa. Larger eggs provide space for bigger embryos, or more nutrition for their development, but the question why eggs are more colourful and why there is variation in eggshell ...

Studies of the spectral reflectance of the eggs of 25 species of birds from nine families disclosed uniformly high reflectance (often above 90 percent) in the near infrared. This property is associated with the presence of the eggshell pigments protoporphyrin and the bilins. These pigments allow coloration for cryptic or other purposes with minimum solar heating, a combination not possible with...

introduction: the novel development of the (hba) sperm- hyaluronan binding assay has now been routinely used in some laboratories worldwide to predict sperm maturity and functionality. the purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between hba score and histone deficiency, protamine content and dna fragmentation. methods: during april- march 2012 patients who were enrolled at shiraz-...