We demonstrate experimentally that a passerine exploits tail spreading to intercept the downward flow induced by its wings to facilitate the recovery of its posture. The periodic spreading of its tail by the White-eye bird exhibits a phase correlation with both wingstroke motion and body oscillation during hovering flight. During a downstroke, a White-eye's body undergoes a remarkable pitch-down motion, with the tail undergoing an upward swing. This pitch-down motion becomes appropriately suppressed at the end of the downstroke; the bird's body posture then recovers gradually to its original status. Employing digital particle-image velocimetry, we show that the strong downward flow induced by downstroking the wings serves as an external jet flow impinging upon the tail, providing a depressing force on the tail to counteract the pitch-down motion of the bird's body. Spreading of the tail enhances a rapid recovery of the body posture because increased forces are experienced. The maximum force experienced by a spread tail is approximately 2.6 times that of a non-spread tail.

We propose a novel technique that allows oligonucleotides with specific end-modification within a plug in a plug-based microfluidic device to undergo a locally enhanced concentration at the rear of the plug as the plug moves downstream. DNA was enriched and detected in situ upon exploiting a combined effect underlain by an entropic force induced through fluid shear (i.e. a hydrodynamic-repellent effect) and the interfacial adsorption (aqueous/oil interface) attributed to affinity. Flow fields within a plug were visualized quantitatively using micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV); the distribution of the fluid shear strain rate explains how the hydrodynamic-repellent effect engenders a dumbbell-like region with an increased concentration of DNA. The concentration of FAM (6-carboxy-fluorescein)-labeled DNA (FC-DNA) and of TAMRA (tetramethyl-6-carboxyrhodamine)-labeled DNA (TC-DNA), respectively, and the hybridization of probe DNA (modified with FAM) with target DNA (modified with TAMRA) were investigated in devices; a confocal fluorescence microscope (CFM) was utilized to monitor the processes and to resolve the corresponding 2D patterns and 3D reconstruction of the DNA distribution in a plug. TC-DNA, but not FC-DNA, concentrating within a plug was affected by the combined effect so as to achieve a concentration factor (C(r)) twice that of FC-DNA because of the lipophilicity of TAMRA. Using fluorescence resonance-energy transfer (FRET), we characterized the hybridization of the DNA in a plug; the detection limit of a system, improved by virtue of the proposed technique (the locally enhanced concentration), for DNA detection was estimated to be 20-50 nM. This technique enables DNA to concentrate locally in a nL-pL free-solution plug, the locally enhanced concentration to profit the hybridization efficiency and the detection of DNA, prospectively serving as a versatile means to accomplish a rapid DNA detection in a small volume for a Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) system.

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We investigated numerically the hydrodynamic interactions between pectoral-fin vortices and body undulation in a fish swimming with carangiform locomotion at a Reynolds number of 3.3 × 104; the three-dimensional, viscous, incompressible, Navier-Stokes equations were solved with a finite-volume method. For a fish swimming with the pectoral fins abducted, we characterized the wake flow structures, forces, and power consumption with respect to various Strouhal numbers. The numerical results reveal that a pair of vortices is formed immediately behind the abducted pectoral fins of a swimming fish. There exist hydrodynamic interactions between the pectoral-fin vortices and the undulating fish body. For Strouhal numbers in a range 0.2–0.8, the body undulation impedes the shedding of pectoral-fin vortices, resulting in vortices closely attached to the pectoral fins. In contrast, for Strouhal number = 0.1, the pectoral-fin vortices are shed from the pectoral fins and drift downstream. The low-pressure suction forces arising from the shed pectoral-fin vortices facilitate lateral movements of the fish body, decreasing the power consumption. This phenomenon indicates the possibility for an actual fish to harvest energy from the shed pectoral-fin vortices.

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