Solar and terrestrial radiations explain continental-scale variation in bird pigmentation.

Animals living on the earth's surface are protected from the damaging effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation by melanin pigments that color their integument. UV levels that reach the earth's surface vary spatially, but the role of UV exposure in shaping clinal variations in animal pigmentation has never been tested. Here, we show at a continental scale in Europe that golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos reared in territories with a high solar UV-B radiation exposure deposit lower amounts of the sulphurated form of melanin (pheomelanin) in feathers and consequently develop darker plumage phenotypes than eagles from territories with lower radiation exposure.

[Dislocation of lens particles during cataract surgery].

Background: The charts of 46 patients with dislocated lens particles during cataract surgery were reviewed. Forty patients had trans-pars plana vitrectomy; 5 were treated medically and one had retinal detachment repair only.

Material And Methods: The following complications were associated with dislocated lens particles: uveitis 87%, glaucoma 66%, corneal edema 71%, retinal detachment 5%.

Ocular metastasis of pulmonary oat cell carcinoma.

Decreased vision may be the initial symptom of metastatic disease. A case of metastasis to the choroid from the lung is presented together with a discussion of metastatic disease to the eye. Differential diagnosis of metastatic lesions and malignant melanoma is explored.