The efficiency of a cooling fin of given weight is measured by the amount of heat dissipated per unit time by the fin. It is known that the efficiency of a given fin can be altered by changing the shape of the fin. In this paper we determine the shape of the most efficient fin of given weight and length, and thickness h.

A new species of nemacheilid loach, Triplophysa longliensis, is described from Yudonghe River, a small tributary of Pearl River in Guizhou Province, China. It can be distinguished from other valid Triplophysa loaches by the following combination of characters: body smooth and scaleless; head tapering; lips thin and smooth; posterior chamber of gas bladder highly developed, long, bag-shaped, tip...

Zebrafish fins have a proximal skeleton of endochondral bones and a distal skeleton of dermal bones. Recent experimental and genetic studies are discovering mechanisms to control fin skeleton morphogenesis. Whereas the endochondral skeleton has been extensively studied, the formation of the dermal skeleton requires further revision. The shape of the dermal skeleton of the fin is generated in it...

The median fins in extant actinopterygians are the product of millions of years of evolution. During this time, different developmental patterns for the dorsal and anal fins emerged leading to a high variation in median fin morphology and ontogeny. In this study, the development of anal and dorsal fins in atheriniforms is described and its consequences for the current phylogenetic hypothesis ar...

A FIN-learning machine M receives successive values of the function f it is learning and at some moment outputs a conjecture which should be a correct index of f. FIN learning has 2 extensions: (1) If M ips fair coins and learns a function with certain probability p, we have FIN hpi-learning. (2) When n machines simultaneously try to learn the same function f and at least k of these machines ou...

This paper describes the modeling and control development of a bio-inspired unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) propelled by four pectoral fins. Based on both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental fin data, we develop a UUV model that focuses on an accurate representation of the fin-generated forces. Models of these forces span a range of controllable fin parameters, as well as take...

This paper presents a design of an underwater vehicle mimicking undulating fins of fish. To mimic the actual flexible fin of real fish, a fin-like mechanism is modeled with a series of connecting linkages. By virtue of a specially designed strip, each link is able to turn and slide with respect to the adjacent link. The driving linkages are used to form a mechanical fin consisting of several fi...

The Dlx5 and Dlx6 genes encode homeodomain transcription factors essential for the proper development of limbs in mammalian species. However, the role of their teleost counterparts in fin development has received little attention. Here, we show that dlx5a is an early marker of apical ectodermal cells of the pectoral fin buds and of the median fin fold, but also of cleithrum precursor cells duri...

l We review here the results obtained during the past several years in a series of computational and experimental investigations aimed at understanding the origin of high-force production in the flapping wings of insects and the flapping and deforming fins of fish and the incorporation of that information into bioinspired vehicle designs. We summarize the results obtained on pectoral fin force ...