Eggshell blue-green colouration (BGC) is caused by the pigment biliverdin which has antioxidant capacities. Eggshell BGC has therefore been interpreted as being costly for the female and therefore a ...signal of female quality (‘sexual signalling hypothesis’). Southern rockhopper penguins
Eudyptes chrysocome
exhibit both a reversed hatching asynchrony and a brood reduction strategy. First-laid (A-)eggs are smaller and hatch on average 1 day after second-laid (B-)eggs, with B-eggs usually producing the only surviving chick. According to the sexual signalling hypothesis, we predicted a positive relationship between BGC and both female body mass and egg mass, and consequently within clutches a stronger BGC in B-eggs than A-eggs. Furthermore, we expected a negative relationship between BGC and clutch initiation date. Contrasting these expectations, we found no effect of female body mass or egg mass on BGC, and BGC in A-eggs increased with clutch initiation date, while there was no effect in B-eggs. Within clutches, A-eggshells were more intensely blue-green coloured than B-eggshells. Concluding, our results appear to contradict the sexual signalling hypothesis. We, however, did not measure pigment concentrations and solely relied on BGC from eggshell photospectrometry, assuming that biliverdin concentrations were positively correlated with BGC. We therefore caution that before precluding the sexual signalling hypothesis, future studies that include measurements of eggshell pigment concentrations in addition to BGC are necessary. Altogether, a better understanding of the biological meaning of biliverdin, its biochemical synthesis and antioxidative function in the avian body is urgently needed.
Propofol has been reported to cause discolouration of urine and hair. A case of green discolouration of the liver is reported in a 56-year-old man after long-term sedation with propofol in the ...intensive care unit. After discontinuation of propofol the discolouration of the liver disappeared. This phenomenon is due to metabolism of propofol which may lead to a phenolic green chromophore which is conjugated in the liver and excreted in the urine.
We demonstrate novel high-performance electrochromic polymer (LGC-D148) films which contain a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) as the acceptor and thiophene with 2,5-difluorophenylene-dithiophene as the ...donor. The polymer films undergo highly reversible and long-term stable electrochemical reactions and exhibit distinctive redox peaks. In situ optical measurements reveal that the LGC-D148 films have green/transparent electrochromism with a fast switching speed and a coloration efficiency of >900cm2/C.
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•Films of polymer show highly stable and reversible electrochemical performances.•Green/transparent switching can be achieved readily.•The polymer films have a fast response time and high coloration efficiency.
Abstract
Alfalfa (Medicago varia Mart.) is the most important forage crop for considerable amount of regions of the Russian Federation and throughout the entire world. Assessment of the stability and ...resistance of alfalfa varieties to a complex of leaf-spotting diseases under various environmental conditions is important for breeding programs as a tool for selecting the best varieties and breeding samples. In the course of a three-year experiment (2016-2018) there were tested the productivity and resistance to a complex of leaf spotting diseases of a commercial variety Krasnoyaruzhskaya 1 and breeding populations with high multifoliate expression (evident multi-leaf phase – mf-multi-leaf mutations) obtained on its basis in several cycles (I-III) of periodic (recurrent) selection. Six alfalfa-breeding populations were tested in two ecotopes on two soil differences: plot 1-ecotope of field crop rotation; plot 2-ecotope of a plowed meadow in the floodplain of the river Oskol in Chernyansky district, Belgorod region (meadow ecotope). The data obtained were analyzed by the method of two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) according to a 2x4 scheme with the calculation of LSD 0.05. There were evaluated organized factors: factor A — selection feature: A1 (G) – high multifoliate expression (mf-mutation) without the manifestation of anthocyanin color of the stem (green color of the stem); A2 (AN) – high multifoliate expression (mf-mutation) with an evident anthocyanin color of the stem (purple color of the stem); factor B – a recurrence selection cycle: C-0, C-1, C-2, C-3. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to identify the close relationships between the studied indicators. It has been established that three cycles of recurrent selection are effective for increasing multifoliate expression in alfalfa breeding populations without increasing inbreeding depression based on seed productivity. Multifoliate forms are resistant to the development of leaf-spotting diseases and their prevalence. The most stable are the forms in which selection for the expression of the mf-mutation was carried out simultaneously with the increase in the index of the anthocyanin color of the stem. For a more effective assessment of the resistance of alfalfa breeding populations to leaf-spotting in Central Russia, comparative testing must be carried out simultaneously under conditions of favorable ecotopes of field crop rotation with fertile black soil rich in humus (chernozem) and in adverse conditions of meadow ecotopes.
With the increasing awareness of sustainability development and public health in the modern society, environmentally-friendly coloration process draws tremendous attention in the textile industry. ...Toxic heavy metal mordants are forbidden to be used in the application of natural colorants in the coloration process. In this study, an environmentallyfriendly coloration process with natural colorants on various synthetic textile materials was developed in the presence of dopamine, whose in-situ self-polymerization could produce rich polyphenolic coloration anchors. Using the proposed method, various synthetic textile materials could be easily coloured with natural colorants in a simple process, which is especially suitable to those materials which are difficult to be colored. Compared with the control process, synthetic textile materials were endowed with better exhaustions of natural colorants, as verified by their deeper colour appearance and higher K/S values. The colored materials were also characterized by colorimetric analysis as well as scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopic analysis, which also confirmed the successful application of the proposed coloration process. Moreover, the proposed strategy could also be applied on a wide variety of materials. It is an innovative green coloration process in the textile material fields.
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