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Hummingbirds are perhaps the most exquisite bird species because of their prominent iridescence, created by stacks of melanosomes in the feather barbules. The feather colours crucially depend on the nanoscopic dimensions of the melanosome, and the displayed iridescence can distinctly vary, dependent on the spatial organization of the barbs and barbules. We have taken the genus Coeligena as a model group, with species having feathers that strongly vary in their spatial reflection properties. We studied the feather morphology and the optical characteristics. We found that the coloration of Coeligena hummingbirds depends on both the Venetian-blind-like arrangement of the barbules and the V-shaped, angular arrangement of the barbules at opposite sides of the barbs. Both the nanoscopic and microscopic organization of the hummingbird feather components determine the bird's macroscopic appearance.

Among the many richly coloured birds, hummingbirds with their brilliant colouration are outstanding. We studied the plumage of male and female Blue-throated Starfrontlet,Coeligena helianthea, which exhibits a marked sexual dichromatism. The wide diversity of coloured feathers (blue, purple, golden, green, red) makes it an attractive species to investigate the structural basis of the colouration and to study the connection between the displayed colours and the perception by conspecifics. We analysed the optical properties of the feather barbules, applying spectrophotometry, scatterometry, and electron microscopy. Using the anatomical results, the spectral data can be interpreted by optical modelling. The reflectance spectra of the feathers of maleC. heliantheastrikingly overlap with the spectral sensitivities of bird photoreceptors, which suggests that the feather and photoreceptor spectra are tuned.

Morpho butterflies are universally admired for their iridescent blue coloration, which is due to nanostructured wing scales. We performed a comparative study on the coloration of 16 Morpho species, investigating the morphological, spectral and spatial scattering properties of the differently organized wing scales. In numerous previous studies, the bright blue Morpho coloration has been fully attributed to the multi-layered ridges of the cover scales' upper laminae, but we found that the lower laminae of the cover and ground scales play an important additional role, by acting as optical thin film reflectors. We conclude that Morpho coloration is a subtle combination of overlapping pigmented and/or unpigmented scales, multilayer systems, optical thin films and sometimes undulated scale surfaces. Based on the scales' architecture and their organization, five main groups can be distinguished within the genus Morpho, largely agreeing with the accepted phylogeny.

The male Anna's hummingbird features a brightly reddish-pink reflecting gorget, due to large stacks of melanosomes in the feather barbules, arranged in layers separated by keratin. Direct observations together with detailed scatterometry demonstrated that the barbules reflect incident light in an approximately specular manner. The structural colouration is iridescent, i.e. varies with a changing angle of light incidence. Spectrophotometrical measurements of the barbule reflectance and absorbance can be well interpreted with calculated spectra obtained with a transfer matrix method for optical multilayers, using anatomical data and measured refractive index spectra. The organization of the reflectors as a Venetian blind presumably functions to create a high spectral contrast of the male's plumage during courtship.

Butterflies belonging to the nymphalid subfamily, Morphinae, are famous for their brilliant blue wing coloration and iridescence. These striking optical phenomena are commonly explained as to originate from multilayer reflections by the ridges of the wing scales. Because the lower lamina of the scales of related nymphalid butterflies, the Nymphalinae, plays a dominant role in the wing coloration, by acting as a thin film reflector, we investigated single blue scales of three characteristic Morpho species: M. epistrophus, M. helenor and M. cypris. The experimental data obtained by spectrophotometry, scatterometry and scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that also in the Morpho genus the lower lamina of both the cover and ground scales acts as an optical thin film reflector, contributing importantly to the blue structural coloration of the wings. Melanin pigment has a contrast-enhancing function in a sub-class of ground scales. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00359-016-1084-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Ultrastructures in butterfly wing scales can take many shapes, resulting in the often striking coloration of many butterflies due to interference of light. The plethora of coloration mechanisms is dazzling, but often only single mechanisms are described for specific animals.Results: We have here investigated the male Rajah Brooke's birdwing, Trogonoptera brookiana, a large butterfly from Malaysia, which is marked by striking, colorful wing patterns. The dorsal side is decorated with large, iridescent green patterning, while the ventral side of the wings is primarily brown-black with small white, blue and green patches on the hindwings. Dense arrays of red hairs, creating a distinct collar as well as contrasting areas ventrally around the thorax, enhance the butterfly's beauty. The remarkable coloration is realized by a diverse number of intricate and complicated nanostructures in the hairs as well as the wing scales. The red collar hairs contain a broad-band absorbing pigment as well as UV-reflecting multilayers resembling the photonic structures of Morpho butterflies; the white wing patches consist of scales with prominent thin film reflectors; the blue patches have scales with ridge multilayers and these scales also have centrally concentrated melanin. The green wing areas consist of strongly curved scales, which possess a uniquely arranged photonic structure consisting of multilayers and melanin baffles that produces highly directional reflections.Conclusion: Rajah Brooke's birdwing employs a variety of structural and pigmentary coloration mechanisms to achieve its stunning optical appearance. The intriguing usage of order and disorder in related photonic structures in the butterfly wing scales may inspire novel optical materials as well as investigations into the development of these nanostructures in vivo.

GM1 ganglioside is known to be involved in the amyloid-associated diseases and it is a crucial factor for the assembly of amyloid proteins on lipid-rafts, which are lipid structures located on the synaptic plasma membranes. Due to its slow aggregation rate, we employed salmon calcitonin (sCT) as a suitable probe representative of amyloid proteins, to study the interaction between this class of proteins and a membrane model. Here, we prepared a neuronal membrane model by depositing onto mica two Langmuir-Blodgett films in liquid-condensed phase: the outer monolayer was characterized by high content of GM1 (50%) and minority parts of cholesterol and POPC (25–25%), while the inner one by plain POPC. To deeply investigate the interaction of sCT with this model and the role-played by GM1, we prepared the outer leaflet adding sCT at a concentration such that the number of proteins equals that of GM1. Atomic Force Microscopy revealed the occurrence of two distinct kinds of flat surfaces, with globular aggregates localized exclusively on top of the highest one. To unravel the nature of the interaction, we studied by ζ-potential technique liposomes composed as the outer leaflet of the model. Results demonstrated that an electrostatic interaction sCT-GM1 occurred. Finally, to investigate the interaction thermodynamics between sCT and the outer leaflet, Langmuir films as the outer monolayer and containing increasing content of sCT were studied by compression isotherms and Brewster Angle Microscopy experiments. Based on the all body of results we propose an interaction model where GM1 plays a pivotal role., Highlights • Membrane models mimicking the occurrence of lipid-rafts and sCT, were investigated. • Atomic Force Microscopy shows sCT globular aggregates onto very flat surfaces. • ξ-potential data indicate that electrostatic interaction occurs between sCT and GM1. • Thermodynamic data of the outer leaflet reveal that sCT aggregate outside the film. • GM1, one component of the lipid-rafts, result to trigger the interaction.

Depending on the species, the individual scales of butterfly wings have a longitudinal gradient in structure and reflectance properties, as shown by scanning electron microscopy and microspectrophotometry. White scales of the male Small White, Pieris rapae crucivora, show a strong gradient in both the density in pigment granules and the reflectance. After pigment extraction by aqueous ammonia, scales of male P. r. crucivora closely resemble the unpigmented scales of female P. r. crucivora. Only a minor gradient exists in the white and orange scales of the male Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines. Pigment extraction of orange scales of A. cardamines causes bleaching. Partial bleaching transforms the scales so that they resemble certain scales of Phoebis philea that have a natural extreme gradient. Reflectance measurements on an artificial stack of two overlapping scales as well as on the scale stacks existing on intact and partially denuded wings of the Large White, Pieris brassicae, quantitatively demonstrate the reflectance enhancement by scale stacking. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The colors of butterfly wings are determined by the structural as well as pigmentary properties of the wing scales. Reflectance spectra of the wings of a number of pierid butterfly species, specifically the small white, Pieris rapae, show that the long-wavelength reflectance of the scales in situ, on the wing, is distinctly higher than that of single, isolated scales. An optical model explains that this is due to multiple scattering on overlapping scales by treating the layers of scales on both sides of the wing as a stack of incoherently scattering plates. The model sheds new light on the adaptive significance and evolution of butterfly wing patterns. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

In this study, Intermediate Body Positions refers to a group of spontaneous gestures assumed by people interacting with surrounding objects, which are in between biped-erect and sitting-standard. Furniture that motivates the sitting-standard posture is usually found in outdoors as the only option to rest; therefore users adopt different objects to rest their body. In this study, we observed the common postures adopted in public spaces while spontaneously using objects which were not designed to rest the body. The study conducted the evaluation of three Intermediate Body Positions and two control postures (sitting and standing) with two different finishing surfaces (rough and smooth), and the registration of the angles and forces in the points of support with a Dinagoniometer. The posture’s performance was evaluated in terms of time of permanence, energy expenditure and subjective perceived exertion measured in five male models in laboratory conditions. These results were compared with the angles and forces measured at each point of support. We have found that the interaction of the body with different types of materials and at different positions is crucial, since they specify not only the biophysical reaction of the body, but the individual perception. These results permitted to establish a number of design principles for furniture and public spaces.

SUMMARY The wings of the swordtail butterfly Graphium sarpedon nipponum contain the bile pigment sarpedobilin, which causes blue/green colored wing patches. Locally the bile pigment is combined with the strongly blue-absorbing carotenoid lutein, resulting in green wing patches and thus improving camouflage. In the dorsal forewings, the colored patches lack the usual wing scales, but instead have bristles. We have found that on the ventral side most of these patches have very transparent scales that enhance, by reflection, the wing coloration when illuminated from the dorsal side. These glass scales furthermore create a strongly polarized iridescence when illuminated by obliquely incident light from the ventral side, presumably for intraspecific signaling. A few ventral forewing patches have diffusely scattering, white scales that also enhance the blue/green wing coloration when observed from the dorsal side.

The beads in the wing scales of pierid butterflies play a crucially important role in wing coloration as shown by spectrophotometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The beads contain pterin pigments, which in Pieris rapae absorb predominantly in the ultraviolet (UV). SEM demonstrates that in the European subspecies Pieris rapae rapae , both males and females have dorsal wing scales with a high concentration of beads. In the Japanese subspecies Pieris rapae crucivora , however, only the males have dorsal wing scales studded with beads, and the dorsal scales of females lack beads. Microspectrophotometry of single scales without beads yields reflectance spectra that increase slightly and monotonically with wavelength. With beads, the reflectance is strongly reduced in the UV and enhanced at the longer wavelengths. By stacking several layers of beaded scales, pierid butterflies achieve strong colour contrasts, which are not realized in the dorsal wings of female P. r. crucivora . Consequently, P. r. crucivora exhibits a strong sexual dichroism that is absent in P. r. rapae .

The angular and spectral reflectance of single scales of five different butterfly species was measured and related to the scale anatomy. The scales of the pierids Pieris rapae and Delias nigrina scatter white light randomly, in close agreement with Lambert's cosine law, which can be well understood from the randomly organized beads on the scale crossribs. The reflectance of the iridescent blue scales of Morpho aega is determined by multilayer structures in the scale ridges, causing diffraction in approximately a plane. The purple scales in the dorsal wing tips of the male Colotis regina act similarly as the Morpho scale in the blue, due to multilayers in the ridges, but the scattering in the red occurs as in the Pieris scale, because the scales contain beads with pigment that does not absorb in the red wavelength range. The green-yellow scales of Urania fulgens backscatter light in a narrow spatial angle, because of a multilayer structure in the scale body.

Since there are uncertainties about the concentration of free cytosolic Ca2+ reached in a muscle fiber during a transient elicited by electric stimulation, and about the KdCa2+ of the fast dye Magfluo-4, we performed two groups of experiments aimed at calibrating the Ca2+ transients obtained with this dye. For the fiber experiments, we used murine single skeletal muscle fibers obtained from enzymatically dissociated flexor digitorum brevis, loaded with 8-10 μM of the dye in its acetoxymethyl ester form, during 40 min at 21-22°C, to determine Fmax, Fmin and dye compartmentalization. The cells were permeabilized with saponine and exposed to 50 mM of free calcium to intracellularly saturate the dye. Compartmentalization was assessed using digitonin and triton-X100. For our conditions, Fmax and Fmin were 160±14 (n=9, mean±SEM) and 3.4±0.7 (n=6). Dye compartmentalization was found to be less than 10% (n=1). For the in vitro experiments, KdCa2+ (20°C) values of 21.6 μM, 27.8 μM and 29.1 μM were obtained in presence of 0, 1 and 2 mM free Mg2+, respectively. To calculate Ca2+ concentration from the fluorescence signals, we used the methodologies proposed by Grynkiewicz et al. (1985) and by Caputo et al. (1994). Preliminary results, taking into account our data or some values from the literature (Baylor et al. 2009), show single Ca2+ transient's peak between 2 and 7 μM (n=4). We are now calculating the kinetics of Ca2+ transients and the quantitative changes induced by modulating Ca2+ release and sequestration mechanisms in different fiber types. In conclusion, we have calculated the peak Ca2+ concentration after single stimulation in fibers loaded with Magfluo-4. Our preliminary results are comparable to those obtained with other fast Ca2+ dyes, such as Magfura-5, but lower than those reported with Magfura-2.