• Title/Summary/Keyword: Feathers

Search Result 145, Processing Time 0.029 seconds

Microstructures in Blue Feathers of the Common Kingfisher

  • Lee, Eunok;Bae, Haejin;Jeon, Deok-Jin;Ji, Seungmuk;Yeo, Jong-Souk;Kim, Jinhee
    • Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
    • /
    • v.2 no.1
    • /
    • pp.21-25
    • /
    • 2021
  • We measured the sizes of microstructures and the reflectance of blue feathers in the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). The colors were mainly produced in the barbs, which were composed of keratin sponge layers with air spaces and melanin rods. The reflectance spectra of back and tail feathers of the Common Kingfisher showed a peak with a broad plateau in the visible wavelength, whereas those of the wing feathers showed peaks in ultraviolet and visible and short-wavelengths. Moreover, the reflectance of back and tail feathers was higher than that of wing feathers. The blue color of the feathers comes from the keratin sponge layer due to coherent scattering. The back and tail feathers are composed of the keratin sponge layer only, and the wing feathers are composed of the keratin sponge layer and the keratin honeycomb structure. Due to the difference in these structures, it supposed that the reflectance is different. Determining why the reflectance spectra of the back and tail feathers were flattened will require further study.

An Overview of Feathers Formation, Moults and Down Production in Geese

  • Kozak, J.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.24 no.6
    • /
    • pp.881-887
    • /
    • 2011
  • Feathers are one of the integument appendages that form the outer covering, or plumage, on birds. The goslings hatch with a downy coat of feathers formed in embryonic development. They moult the natal plumage into juvenile feathers between 3-5 weeks of age and than moult that juvenile plumage into adult plumage between 8-11 weeks of age. Feather weight of an adult goose makes up about 6.2% of its total body weight. Heritability of the feather production ability is relatively low ($h^2$ = 0.35). Within species or genotype, the quantity and composition of the plumage are affected by genetics (age, body weight or body surface area, feathering rate, sex) and environmental factors (nutrition and production system, weather, microclimate). After slaughter some 90-220 g marketable feathers can be obtained per goose. The yield of feathers and down from each hand-harvesting amounts to between 80 to 120 g per goose, depending upon the frequency and degree of completeness of the harvesting.

A Study on the Bee-chy-mo (배취모소고)

  • 김영재
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
    • /
    • v.38
    • /
    • pp.359-368
    • /
    • 1998
  • Bee-chy is the name of a bird as well as of a jade. This study is about Bee-chy-mo which only Royalty had used in the Shilla period. Bee-chy is a bird which belongs to Alcedinid-ae, and is called as“Ruddy Kingfish”,“Black-capped Kignfish”,“Common Kingfish”. It is distributed all over the world only except for the South Pole. The colors of Black-capped Kingfish and Common Kingfish's feathers are bright green or deep blue. The feather was so beautiful that people already used it in ancient China. Feather garments as well as decorations with Kingfish feathers were popularized in Tang period. Bee-chy-mo was used by attaching Kingfish feathers to decorations or weaving clothes with Kingfish feathers.

  • PDF

Moult Patterns of Tail Feathers of Immature Steller's Sea Eagle(Haliaeetus pelagicus)raised in Captivity (사육상태에서 참수리(Haliaeetus pelagicus) 미성조 꼬리깃의 깃갈이 방식)

  • Kang, Seung-Gu;Lee, In-Sup
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
    • /
    • v.22 no.4
    • /
    • pp.435-441
    • /
    • 2008
  • This study conducted a survey on the moulting sequence subsequent to age of Haliaeetus pelagicus raised in captivity at the Ornithology Laboratory attached to Kyungsung University for about six years from November, 2000 until July, 2006. The survey indicated that the moult of rectrices usually began in July and continued until April of the next year and most of the rectrices were replaced by one-time moult. Usually, about two thirds of the tail feathers were replaced while the rest were replaced no later than April of the next year, and the moult also continued during the wintertime. The total number of rectrices was 14, and the moult progressed alternately on a systematic basis. The progress of the moult for female & male was made on four stages and three stages respectively and the characteristic shown on every stage of the moult was that the left & right tail feathers progressed symmetrically and not until one stage of progress almost completed did the next stage began. The color of the juvenile steller's sea-eagle was dotted with black spots on its original white color and there existed regular black belt on its feather's fringes; however, it was difficult to identify its age by tail feathers only because there was almost no difference in color between feathers ranging from the first to the third generation(1st-3rd summer feathers). In addition, this research took the different amounts of black-speckled pattern appearing by individual into consideration. There existed slight black speckles in white color feathers of the fourth generation(the 4th summer feathers) while showing a big difference compared to the 3rd generation feathers. The 5th generation feathers[the 5th summer feathers]were found to be equipped with perfect tail feathers having virgin white of a steller's sea-eagle after completing its 4th molt. When observing a steller's sea-eagle in the open air, it is necessary for an observer to have a deliberate examination in judging its age belonging to the 1st-3rd generation feathers, and it is considered that the changes of other parts of feathers should be also observed besides tail feathers.

The Use of feral Pigeon's (Columba livia) Feathers as a Monitor for Lead Pollution in Korea (비둘기 깃털을 이용한 납 오염 모니터링)

  • 남동하;이두표;구태회
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
    • /
    • v.16 no.3
    • /
    • pp.233-238
    • /
    • 2002
  • In this study, we investigated the lead exposure conditions using feathers of pigeons as a monitor for lead pollution from rural (Duckjeok Island), central urban (Seoul), and industrial complex areas (Yochon, Ansan, Ulsan, and Busan) in Korea. The feathers were taken from breast body parts and their lead analysis was performed without washing the feathers to reflect lead particles attached to the surface. The tissue lead concentrations were also compared with levels of atmospheric concentrations. The lead levels in the feathers were increased when the atmospheric lead levels were higher, so that the lead levels in the feathers of the pigeons from the industrial complex area with highest atmospheric lead levels were about four times greater than those of the rural areas. A positive correlation was found between the lead concentration of the pigeon's livers and feathers in rural, and the Yochon industrial complex area with the lowest lead levels. This result means that most of lead in feathers is transported from body tissues during the molting period without attached atmospheric lead. Thus, the feather lead concentrations could be discussed in the light of the metabolism known to occur between the liver and feathers. However, there were not significant correlations in the other areas with higher atmospheric lead levels, and observed relatively higher lead accumulation ratio in feathers than in livers compared with rural and the Yochon industrial complex areas. It is therefore suggested that the former was more exposure conditions and mainly influenced by outer pollutant sources than by the metabolism as the latter.

A Study on Data Preprocessing for the Activity-Travel Simulator: A Case of FEATHERS Seoul (활동기반 시뮬레이터 입력 자료의 전처리 방안에 대한 연구: FEATHERS Seoul을 사례로)

  • Cho, Sungjin;Hwang, Jeong Hwan;Bellemans, Tom;Kochan, Bruno;Lee, Won Do;Choi, Keechoo;Joh, Chang-Hyeon
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
    • /
    • v.32 no.5
    • /
    • pp.531-543
    • /
    • 2014
  • Research on activity-based travel demand forecasting and activity-travel simulator has received an international attention for the last two decades. Ways to develop the activity-based simulator may be manifold. It is obvious that importing an existing simulator that has been proven internationally likely reduces the development cost and the risk of failure. By definition of the activity-based approach, however, the details of an activity-based simulator inevitably relies on particular social, economic and cultural characteristics of the society where the simulator is developed. When importing such a simulator from overseas, the researcher should be aware of the importance of tuning the system for the society to which the imported system is applied. There are many potential works on this, including for example the tuning of data structure that is likely different form of the original system. The authors are yet aware of certain research on those. The current paper aims to report the result of transforming the input data for applying the existing activity-travel simulator to Seoul. The paper first introduces FEATHERS that was developed in Belgium having Albatross which is the core of system. FEATHERS Seoul that is under development and modified version of the original FEATHERS is briefly described and the related problems are discussed. The paper then explored to resolve and to alleviate such problems.

Local TIGRESS Simulations of Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies

  • Kim, Woong-Tae;Kim, Chang-Goo;Ostriker, Eve C.
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
    • /
    • v.46 no.1
    • /
    • pp.51.1-51.1
    • /
    • 2021
  • Spiral arms greatly affect gas flows and star formation in disk galaxies. We use local 3D simulations of vertically-stratified, self-gravitating, gaseous disks under a stellar spiral potential to study the effects of spiral arms on galactic star formation as well as formation of gaseous spurs/feathers. We adopt the TIGRESS framework to handle radiative heating and cooling, star formation, and ensuing supernova (SN) feedback. We find that more than 90% of star formation takes place inside spiral arms. The global star formation rate (SFR) in models with spiral arms is enhanced by less than a factor of 2 compared to the no-arm counterpart. This supports the picture that spiral arms do not trigger star formation but rather redistribute star-forming regions. Correlated SN feedback produces interarm feathers in both magnetized and unmagnetized models. These feathers live short, have parallel magnetic fields along their length, and are bounded by SN feedback in the lateral direction, in contrast to instability-induced feathers formed in our previous isothermal simulations.

  • PDF

Chemical Composition and Biological Feed Value of Autoclaved Poultry By-products for Poultry (가압열처리한 도계부산물의 화학적 조성과 닭에 대한 생물학적 사료가치)

  • 이규호
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
    • /
    • v.24 no.4
    • /
    • pp.185-191
    • /
    • 1997
  • In order to obtain the basic information needed to utilize poultry by-products as feed resources, the yielding ratio, chemical composition and nutrient bioavailability of 5 offal components such as autoclaved head, feet, viscera, blood and feathers were investigated. Yielding ratios of head, feet, viscera, blood and feathers were 2.93% 4.78%, 10.98%, 3.91% and 4.83%, respectively. The crude protein contents of feathers (86.71%) and blood (82.99%) were higher than those of viscera (64.67%), feet (58.76%) and head (49.51%) , Inversely, the crude fat contents of blood (6.96%) and feathers (2.96%) were lower than those of head (26.19%), viscera (23.96%) and feet (13.73%). The crude ash contents of feet (21.69%) and head (20.38%) were higher than those of other by-products (0.96∼8.62%). The macro-mineral contents of head and feet were higher than those of other components, and the iron content of blood was higher than the other by-products. The total amino acid contents of poultry by-products showed the same trend as the crude protein contents. In addition, the Iysine content of feathers was very low compared to its high protein content. The essential amino acid contents of feathers were poorer than those of other offal components. Among the 5 offal components, the feathers showed the poorest amino acid availabilities. The ME contents were highest in viscera, and head, blood, feathers and feet. in decreasing order.

  • PDF

Molting Patterns of Flight Feathers of Immature Steller's Sea Eagle(Haliaeetus pelagicus) Raised in Captivity (사육상태에서 자란 참수리(Haliaeetus pelagicus) 미성조 날개깃의 깃갈이 방식)

  • Kang, Seung-Gu;Lee, In-Sup
    • Journal of Life Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.58-64
    • /
    • 2009
  • This study was conducted to know the molting sequence and the aging points of flight feathers of steller's sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus). For this study, two captive immature steller's sea eagles raised at the Ornithology Laboratory attached to Kyungsung University were surveyed for five years from Nov. 2000 to Nov. 2005. The survey indicated that the first molting began in July of the second year, and the primaries of P1-3, the secondaries of S18-19 (female), S17-18 (male), and S1 and S4 were replaced by one-time with second generation feathers. Generally molting stopped during the winter period, but a few feathers continued to molt during the winter. The two secondaries of S18-19 (female) and S17-18 (male) always molted every year but some of the juvenile secondaries (male: S10, S11, etc) retained for 2 or 3 years. In the molting order of primaries, the first molting started at P1 and it proceeded to P10 of outside. In the secondaries, the first molting started at S17(male) and S19(female), and it proceeded to outside. After that molting it started at S1 and proceeded to inside. In the other secondaries, the pattern of molting which proceeded in the mid-part of the secondaries was usually beginning in several different points at the same time. The molting seemed as if it depends on both the conditions of the individuals and the environment, so it was very difficult to explain the molting pattern in the mid-part of the secondaries. The longer quills (P7, P8) required for more than 68 days to develop. In the comparison of the length in the remiges between the first and the second generation feathers, the first generation feathers were the larger than that of the second. And the reduction of the length between the second and the third generation feathers was a few. The reduction of the length between the third and the fourth generation feathers was slight. The juvenile primaries were dark brown with a whitish base, which could be observed until the second or the third generation feathers (in their third or fourth winter plumage).

Preparation of chicken feather protein hydrolysates and isolation of iron-binding peptides (닭털 단백질로부터 가수분해물 제조 및 철분 결합 펩타이드의 분리)

  • Kim, Nam Ho;Choi, Dong Won;Song, Kyung Bin
    • Food Science and Preservation
    • /
    • v.20 no.3
    • /
    • pp.435-439
    • /
    • 2013
  • As byproducts of chicken slaughtering, chicken feathers are produced and mostly discarded without proper treatment, which results in serious environment pollution. Therefore, the appropriate treatment and utilization of chicken feathers are needed. In particular, chicken feathers can be used as protein sources for the preparation of protein hydrolysates, considering that chicken feathers have a large amount of proteins. In this study, chicken feather protein hydrolysates were prepared and their iron-binding peptides were isolated. Chicken feather protein was extracted from feathers of slaughtered chicken, and its hydrolysates were prepared via hydrolysis with Flavourzyme for 8 h. Then the chicken feather protein hydrolysates were ultra-filtered to obtain small peptide fractions and fractionated using Q-Sepharose and Sephadex G-15 columns to isolate their iron-binding peptides. Two major fractions were produced from each of the Q-Sepharose ion exchange chromatography and the Sephadex G-15 gel filtration chromatography. Among the fractions, the peptide fraction with a high iron-binding activity level, F12, was isolated. These results suggest that chicken feather protein hydrolysates can be used as iron supplements.