In this study, we synthesized monodispersed polystyrene (PS)-silica core-shell spheres with various shell thicknesses for the fabrication of photonic crystals. The shell thickness of the spheres was controlled by various additions of tetraethyl orthosilicate during the shell growth process. The shrinkage ratio of the inverse opal photonic crystals prepared from the core-shell spheres was signif...

There was a significant difference in the shell strength of chicken eggs with different curvatures of the large end. Holding temperatures of eggs significantly influenced shell strength but not shell membrane strength. There was a significant negative correlation in chicken eggs between shell strength and membrane strength in small and medium curvature groups but not in the large curvature grou...

Shell damage and parasitic infections are frequent in gastropods, influencing key snail host life-history traits such as survival, growth, and reproduction. However, their interactions and potential effects on hosts and parasites have never been tested. Host-parasite interactions are particularly interesting in the context of the recently discovered division of labor in trematodes infecting mar...

Tonic immobility reaction and heterophil:lymphocyte ratio were studied in hens laying pink eggs from three brown egg Spanish breeds (Barred Red Vasca, Red Vasca, Red Villafranquina). There was no significant difference among breeds in terms of tonic immobility duration or heterophil:lymphocyte ratio. Tonic immobility duration was significantly shorter in the pink (220 + or - 23 s) than in the n...

A .—Although the ultimate factors that infl uence the duration of avian incubation periods are well known, we know much less about the proximate mechanisms by which birds adjust incubation period in response to selection. We tested the hypothesis that an adjustment in eggshell porosity is one such proximate mechanism (i.e., that avian species with higher ratios of incubation period to egg size ...

To examine regional variation in strontium (Sr), which at high concentrations may reduce eggshell quality, increase egg breakage and reproductive failure, we analyzed Sr, and calcium (Ca) concentrations and Sr/Ca ratios in eggshells from 20 avian species from California, Texas, Idaho, Kansas, and Michigan. In addition, we included data previously reported from Arizona to expand the regional com...

The decay of the mass-separated, very neutron-rich isotope 93 Br has been studied by γ-spectroscopy. A level scheme of its daughter 93 Kr has been constructed. Level energies, γ-ray branching ratios and multipolarities suggest spins and parities which are in accord with a smooth systematics of the N = 57 isotones for Z ≤ 40, suggesting the N = 56 subshell closure still to be effective in Kr iso...

2014 The energies and transition properties of the even-even N = 28, 50 isotones and Z = 28, 50, 82 isotopes are calculated in the framework of the Tamm-Dancoff and Random Phase Approximation, with an effective central interaction in an extended space consisting of two quasiparticle configurations for the open shell and particle-hole configurations for the closed core. Using the results of the ...