Optical Properties of Mixed Nanofluids Containing Carbon Nanohorns and Silver Nanoparticles for Solar Energy Applications.

Different kinds of nanofluids show peculiar characteristics. In this work, a mixed nanofluid consisting of single-wall carbon nanohorns and silver nanoparticles aqueous suspensions is prepared and optically characterized, in the perspective to merge the favorable optical characteristics of carbon nanohorn-based nanofluids to the good thermal properties of silver-nanofluids. For the samples, both the spectral extinction and the scattering albedo at discrete wavelengths have been investigated. The silver nanoparticle plasmonic peak in the visible range further improves the overall nanofluid sunlight absorption properties, opening interesting perspectives for using such mixed nanofluids as solar absorber and heat transfer media in solar thermal collectors.

Better red than dead: carotenoid-based mouth coloration reveals infection in barn swallow nestlings.

Nestling birds solicit food from their parents by displaying their open brightly coloured gapes. Carotenoids affect gape colour, but also play a central role in immunostimulation. Therefore, we hypothesize that, by differentially allocating resources to nestlings with more brightly coloured gapes, parents favour healthy offspring which are able to allocate carotenoids to gape coloration without compromising their immune defence. We demonstrated that, in the barn swallow Hirundo rustica, (i) parents differentially allocate food to nestlings with an experimentally brighter red gape, (ii) nestlings challenged with a novel antigen (sheep red blood cells, SRBCs) have less bright gape colour than their control siblings, (iii) nestlings challenged with SRBCs but also provided with the principal circulating carotenoid (lutein) have more brightly coloured red gapes than their challenged but unsupplemented siblings and (iv) the gape colour of nestlings challenged with SRBCs and provisioned with lutein exceeds that of siblings that were unchallenged. This suggests that parents may favour nestlings with superior health by preferentially feeding offspring with the brightest gapes.

Determination of reference values for optical properties of liquid phantoms based on Intralipid and India ink.

A multi-center study has been set up to accurately characterize the optical properties of diffusive liquid phantoms based on Intralipid and India ink at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. Nine research laboratories from six countries adopting different measurement techniques, instrumental set-ups, and data analysis methods determined at their best the optical properties and relative uncertainties of diffusive dilutions prepared with common samples of the two compounds. By exploiting a suitable statistical model, comprehensive reference values at three NIR wavelengths for the intrinsic absorption coefficient of India ink and the intrinsic reduced scattering coefficient of Intralipid-20% were determined with an uncertainty of about 2% or better, depending on the wavelength considered, and 1%, respectively. Even if in this study we focused on particular batches of India ink and Intralipid, the reference values determined here represent a solid and useful starting point for preparing diffusive liquid phantoms with accurately defined optical properties. Furthermore, due to the ready availability, low cost, long-term stability and batch-to-batch reproducibility of these compounds, they provide a unique fundamental tool for the calibration and performance assessment of diffuse optical spectroscopy instrumentation intended to be used in laboratory or clinical environment. Finally, the collaborative work presented here demonstrates that the accuracy level attained in this work for optical properties of diffusive phantoms is reliable.

Perturbative forward solver software for small localized fluorophores in tissue.

In this paper a forward solver software for the time domain and the CW domain based on the Born approximation for simulating the effect of small localized fluorophores embedded in a non-fluorescent biological tissue is proposed. The fluorescence emission is treated with a mathematical model that describes the migration of photons from the source to the fluorophore and of emitted fluorescent photons from the fluorophore to the detector for all those geometries for which Green's functions are available. Subroutines written in FORTRAN that can be used for calculating the fluorescent signal for the infinite medium and for the slab are provided with a linked file. With these subroutines, quantities such as reflectance, transmittance, and fluence rate can be calculated.

Yolk androgens in the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica): a test of some adaptive hypotheses.

Maternal effects such as androgen in avian eggs can mediate evolutionary responses to selection, allowing manipulation of offspring phenotype and promoting trans-generational adaptive effects. We tested the predictions of two adaptive hypotheses that have been proposed to explain female variation in yolk androgen allocation in birds, using the barn swallow Hirundo rustica as a model. We found no support for the first hypothesis proposing that yolk androgen varies as a function of breeding density in order to prepare offspring for different breeding densities. However, we found experimental support for the hypothesis that female yolk androgen allocation depends on mate attractiveness and that it constitutes an example of differential allocation. Females increased the concentration of androgens in their eggs when mated to males with experimentally elongated tails. Female phenotypic quality as measured by arrival date and clutch size was positively related to egg androgen concentration, consistent with the hypothesis that this is a costly investment, constrained by female condition. We found correlative evidence of a direct relationship between egg androgen concentration and performance of offspring as measured by mass increase.

The design of complex sexual traits in male barn swallows: associations between signal attributes.

Variation in the expression of sexually selected traits among individuals is widely investigated on the premise that these traits evolved to signal male quality. Significant repeatabilities of sexual signals and their associations with condition, mating success, survivorship and age may be the signatures of sexual selection. However, little is known about the relationship between these sexual attributes. Here we studied 28 acoustic and visual traits in the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, that may potentially function in sexual selection. Based on effect sizes calculated at the between-individual level, we assessed the relationship between repeatability, condition-dependence, attractiveness, age-dependence and viability indicator value of sexual traits using sexual signals as the units of analyses. Those traits that showed high within-year repeatability also showed high between-year repeatability, indicating that between-individual variation is consistent within and among seasons. In addition, age-dependence of traits, probably causing between-year variation, was negatively related to between-year repeatability. Condition-dependence was negatively correlated with effect sizes for the extent to which traits predicted viability. Therefore, traits that are positively related to immediate condition are those that are negatively related to survival, which may be the signature of a trade-off between current and future reproductive success ultimately reflecting signal reliability. No other significant relationship was found between trait attributes. We conclude that multiple sexual signals reflect different aspects of male quality in the barn swallow.