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IntroductionThe aim of this research was to clarify the mechanism through which baicalin exerts its inhibitory effects on Aeromonas hydrophila infection.MethodsThe antibacterial efficacy of baicalin was assessed by determining its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against A. hydrophila. Various parameters, including the growth curve, cell wall integrity, biofilm formation, AKP content, and morphological alterations of A. hydrophila, were analyzed. In vivo experiments involved the administration of A. hydrophila 4 h postintraperitoneal injection of varying doses of baicalin to induce infection, with subsequent monitoring of mortality rates. After a 3 d period, liver, spleen, and intestinal tissues were harvested to evaluate organ indices, antioxidant and immune parameters, as well as intestinal microbial composition.ResultsThe findings indicated that baicalin treatment resulted in the disruption of the cell wall of A. hydrophila, leading to the loss of its normal structural integrity. Furthermore, baicalin significantly inhibited biofilm formation and facilitated the release of intracellular proteins (P < 0.05). In vivo, baicalin enhanced the survival rates of yellow catfish infected with A. hydrophila. Compared to the control group, the liver index of yellow catfish was elevated, while the spleen and intestinal indices were reduced in the baicalin-treated group (P < 0.05). Additionally, baicalin at an appropriate dosage was found to increase levels of SOD, GSH, CAT, ACP, and AKP in yellow catfish (P < 0.05), while simultaneously decreasing MDA accumulation and the mRNA expression of inflammatory markers such as Keap1, IL1, IFN-γ, and TNF-α, (P < 0.05). Moreover, baicalin significantly enhanced the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) count in A. hydrophila-infected yellow catfish (P < 0.05), restoring the abundance of Barnesiellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Plesiomonas, and UBA1819 (P < 0.05).DiscussionIn summary, baicalin demonstrates the potential to improve the survival rate of yellow catfish subjected to A. hydrophila infection, augment antioxidant and immune responses, mitigate inflammation, and enhance intestinal microbial diversity.

Based on the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS) databases, this article analyzes the deductive context, cooperation network, and research hotspots of land development rights (LDR) research in the Chinese and international literature by using CiteSpace software, and it also explores the implications of this research for the theory and practice of national territory spatial planning (NTSP) in China. The results show that (1) the literature on LDR in Chinese and international journal articles initially appeared in 1995 and 1973, respectively, researches in China experienced three stages: embryonic fluctuating development, rapid growth and stable development, and wave development, while international researches experienced two stages: embryonic fluctuating and a gradually increasing development. (2) Among these scholars and research institutions, there is no obvious difference between Chinese and international scholars, while the Renmin University of China and the State University System of Florida are the research institutions with the largest number of Chinese and international journal articles, respectively. (3) In terms of publishing journals, international journals mainly focus on land policy, cities, and resource fields, while Chinese journals mainly focus on the agricultural economy, civil and commercial law, economic systems, and macroeconomic management fields. (4) The direction and scale of thematic research vary greatly, with Chinese research mainly conducted from the perspectives of rights attribution and benefits distribution, while international research mainly focuses on the operation of the right-to-development system and its impact on the environment. In the future, studies focus on China's need to strengthen the research and institutional practice of LDR at the legal level, value level, and extension level following national conditions, formulate a land value-added benefit distribution system with efficiency and fairness, and strengthen the practice of LDR in China's NTSP based on the differences between urban and rural development.

A distributed improved robust integral line-of-sight (RILOS) guidance-based sliding mode controller is designed for multiple underactuated autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) to perform cooperative maritime search operations. First, a parallel circle search pattern is designed based on the detection range of ASVs, which can provide the reference formation shape. Second, an improved RILOS method is presented by introducing an integral term into the improved robust LOS method, which can counteract the disadvantageous effect of the unknown sideslip angle and kinematic discrepancy simultaneously. Third, distributed improved RILOS guidance is presented by integrating the extended second-order consensus algorithm into the improved RILOS method; then, the desired heading angle and desired velocity are generated for the control system simultaneously. Finally, the fuzzy logic system is integrated into the sliding mode control (SMC) method to approximate the unknown nonlinear function; then, a distributed improved RILOS guidance-based SMC controller is presented for multiple ASVs. The closed-loop signals are proved to be stable by the Lyapunov theory. The effectiveness of the presented method is verified by multiple simulations.

The cyclomatic number, denoted by $ \gamma $, of a graph $ G $ is the minimum number of edges of $ G $ whose removal makes $ G $ acyclic. Let $ \mathscr{G}_{n}^{\gamma} $ be the class of all connected graphs with order $ n $ and cyclomatic number $ \gamma $. In this paper, we characterized the graphs in $ \mathscr{G}_{n}^{\gamma} $ with minimum general Randić index for $ \gamma\geq 3 $ and $ 1\leq\alpha\leq \frac{39}{25} $. These extend the main result proved by A. Ali, K. C. Das and S. Akhter in 2022. The elements of $ \mathscr{G}_{n}^{\gamma} $ with maximum general Randić index were also completely determined for $ \gamma\geq 3 $ and $ \alpha\geq 1 $.

Freeness occupies an important position in the study of hyperplane arrangements. In this paper, we conclude the freeness of three special classes of signed graphic arrangements based on the addition–deletion theorem and Abe’s free path theory.

In this paper, an improved robust line-of-sight (RLOS) guidance-based fuzzy sliding mode controller is presented to control underactuated ships to conduct the cooperative maritime search operation under the presented improved creeping line search method. First, considering that the ship cannot perform turning with corners, an improved creeping line search method is presented by integrating the Bezier method into the traditional creeping line search method to smooth the transition points with corners and employing the cubic spline interpolation method to generate continuous reference paths. Second, an improved RLOS guidance method is presented for the first time by exploring the idea of robust adaptive control to mitigate the chattering effect of the RLOS guidance. Third, the fuzzy logic system with approximate ability is integrated into the design of sliding mode controller to handle unknown nonlinear model dynamics and environmental disturbances. Finally, an improved RLOS guidance-based fuzzy sliding mode controller is presented. The closed-loop stability is guaranteed by the Lyapunov theorem. Comparative simulations are conducted to illustrate the advantages and verify the effectiveness of the presented method.

For the widely used multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), there exist singularities in the parameter space where Fisher information matrix (FIM) degenerates on these subspaces. The singularities seriously influence the learning dynamics of MLPs which have attracted many researchers’ attentions. As FIM plays key role in investigating the singular learning dynamics of MLPs, it is very important to obtain the analytical form of FIM. In this paper, for the bipolar activation function based MLPs with general Gaussian input, by choosing bipolar error function as the activation function, the analytical form of FIM are obtained. Then the validity of obtained results are verified by taking two experiments.

Iron is a trace metal that is found in animals, plants, and the human body. Human iron absorption is hampered by plant iron shortage, which leads to anemia. Leafy vegetables are one of the most direct and efficient sources of iron for humans. Despite the fact that ferrotrophic disorder is common in calcareous soil, however, non-heading Chinese cabbage performs a series of reactions in response to iron deficiency stress that help to preserve iron homeostasis in vivo. In this study, we discovered that iron deficiency stress caused leaf yellowing and impeded plant development in both iron-deficient and control treatments by viewing or measuring phenotypic, chlorophyll content, and Fe2+ content in both iron-deficient and control treatments. We found a total of 9213 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in non-heading Chinese cabbage by comparing root and leaf transcriptome data with iron deficiency and control treatments. For instance, 1927 DEGs co-expressed in root and leaf, including 897 up-regulated and 1030 down-regulated genes, respectively. We selected some key antioxidant genes, hormone signal transduction, iron absorption and transport, chlorophyll metabolism, and transcription factors involved in the regulation of iron deficiency stress utilizing GO enrichment, KEGG enrichment, multiple types of functional annotation, and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA). This study identifies prospective genes for maintaining iron homeostasis under iron-deficient stress, offering a theoretical foundation for further research into the molecular mechanisms of greater adaptation to iron-deficient stress, and perhaps guiding the development of iron-tolerant varieties.

Introduction: High-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity impairs clearance of cholesterol through the Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT) pathway, with downregulation in hepatic expression of cholesterol and bile acid transporters, namely ABCG5/8 and ABCB11, and reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC). In the current study, we hypothesized that the development of hepatosteatosis, secondary to adipose-tissue dysfunction, contributes to obesity-impaired RCT and that such effects could be mitigated using the anti-inflammatory drug sodium salicylate (NaS). Materials and methods: C57BL/6J mice, fed HFD ± NaS or low-fat diet (LFD) for 24 weeks, underwent glucose and insulin tolerance testing. The 3H-cholesterol movement from macrophage-to-feces was assessed in vivo. HDL-CEC was determined ex vivo. Cytokine secretion from adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells was measured ex vivo. Liver and HDL proteins were determined by mass spectrometry and analyzed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Results: NaS delayed HFD-induced weight gain, abrogated priming of pro-IL-1β in SVFs, attenuated insulin resistance, and prevented steatohepatitis (ectopic fat accumulation in the liver). Prevention of hepatosteatosis coincided with increased expression of PPAR-alpha/beta-oxidation proteins with NaS and reduced expression of LXR/RXR-induced proteins including apolipoproteins. The latter effects were mirrored within the HDL proteome in circulation. Despite remarkable protection shown against steatosis, HFD-induced hypercholesterolemia and repression of the liver-to-bile cholesterol transporter, ABCG5/8, could not be rescued with NaS. Discussions and conclusions: The cardiometabolic health benefits of NaS may be attributed to the reprogramming of hepatic metabolic pathways to increase fatty acid utilization in the settings of nutritional overabundance. Reduced hepatic cholesterol levels, coupled with reduced LXR/RXR-induced proteins, may underlie the lack of rescue of ABCG5/8 expression with NaS. This remarkable protection against HFD-induced hepatosteatosis did not translate to improvements in cholesterol homeostasis.

Human emotion recognition is an important issue in human–computer interactions, and electroencephalograph (EEG) has been widely applied to emotion recognition due to its high reliability. In recent years, methods based on deep learning technology have reached the state-of-the-art performance in EEG-based emotion recognition. However, there exist singularities in the parameter space of deep neural networks, which may dramatically slow down the training process. It is very worthy to investigate the specific influence of singularities when applying deep neural networks to EEG-based emotion recognition. In this paper, we mainly focus on this problem, and analyze the singular learning dynamics of deep multilayer perceptrons theoretically and numerically. The results can help us to design better algorithms to overcome the serious influence of singularities in deep neural networks for EEG-based emotion recognition.

The number and proportion of female flowers per plant can directly influence the yield and economic benefits of cucurbit crops. Ethephon is often used to induce female flowers in cucurbits. However, the mechanism through which it affects floral sex differentiation in pumpkin is unknown. We found that the application of ethephon on shoot apical meristem of pumpkin at seedling stage significantly increased the number of female flowers and expedited the appearance of the first female flower. These effects were further investigated by transcriptome and hormone analyses of plants sprayed with ethephon. A total of 647 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, among which 522 were upregulated and 125 were downregulated. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that these genes were mainly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO). The results suggests that ethylene is a trigger for multiple hormone signaling, with approximately 4.2% of the identified DEGs involved in ethylene synthesis and multiple hormone signaling. Moreover, ethephon significantly reduced the levels of jasmonic acid (JA), jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine (JA-ILE), and para-topolin riboside (pTR) but increased the levels of 3-indoleacetamide (IAM). Although the level of 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid was not changed, the expression of ACO genes, which code for the enzyme catalyzing the key rate-limiting step in ethylene production, was significantly upregulated after ethephon treatment. The results indicate that the ethephon affects the transcription of ethylene synthesis and signaling genes, and other hormone signaling genes, especially auxin responsive genes, and modulates the levels of auxin, jasmonic acid, and cytokinin (CK), which may together contribute to femaleness.

Abstract Background Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been associated with respiratory morbidity and mortality. Identification of interventional measures that are efficacious against PM2.5-induced toxicity may provide public health benefits. This study examined the inhibitory effects of nutritional supplementation with fish oil as a source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E (Vit E) on PM2.5-induced lung toxicity in rats. Method Sixty four male Sprague Dawley rats were gavaged with phosphate buffered saline (PBS), corn oil (5 ml/kg), fish oil (150 mg/kg), or Vit E (75 mg/kg), respectively, once a day for 21 consecutive days prior to intratracheal instillation of PM2.5 (10 mg/kg) every other day for a total of 3 times. Serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALFs) were collected 24 h after the last instillation of PM2.5. Levels of total proteins (TP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), 8-epi-prostaglandin F2α (8-epi-PGF2α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-ɑ (TNF-ɑ) were analyzed for markers of cell injury and inflammation. Additionally, histological alterations of lung tissues were examined by hematoxylin-eosin staining. Result Exposure to PM2.5 resulted in lung toxicity, represented as increased levels of total proteins, LDH, 8-epi-PGF2α, IL-1β and TNF-α, and increased infiltration of inflammatory cells, and decreased SOD in the BALFs, and systemic inflammation, as evinced by increased levels of CRP and IL-6 in serum. Strikingly, supplementation with fish oil but not Vit E significantly ameliorated PM2.5-induced lung toxicity and systemic inflammation. Conclusion PM2.5 exposure induces oxidative stress, lung injury and inflammation, which is ameliorated significantly by fish oil and partially by Vit E.

Development of female flowers is an important process that directly affects the yield of Cucubits. Little information is available on the sex determination and development of female flowers in pumpkin, a typical monoecious plant. In the present study, we used aborted and normal pistils of pumpkin for RNA-Seq analysis and determined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to gain insights into the molecular mechanism underlying pistil development in pumpkin. A total of 3,817 DEGs were identified, among which 1,341 were upregulated and 2,476 were downregulated. The results of transcriptome analysis were confirmed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway. Eighty-four DEGs were enriched in the plant hormone signal transduction pathway, which accounted for 12.54% of the significant DEGs, and most of them were annotated as predicted ethylene responsive or insensitive transcription factor genes. Furthermore, the expression levels of four ethylene signal transduction genes in different flower structures (female calyx, pistil, male calyx, stamen, leaf, and ovary) were investigated. The ethyleneresponsive DNA binding factor, ERDBF3, and ethylene responsive transcription factor, ERTF10, showed the highest expression in pistils and the lowest expression in stamens, and their expression levels were 78- and 162-times more than that in stamens, respectively. These results suggest that plant hormone signal transduction genes, especially ethylene signal transduction genes, play an important role in the development of pistils in pumpkin. Our study provides a theoretical basis for further understanding of the mechanism of regulation of ethylene signal transduction genes in pistil development and sex determination in pumpkin.

The existing overlap singularities in the parameter space significantly affect the learning dynamics of the multilayer perceptrons. From the obtained theoretical learning trajectories near overlap singularity, when the learning process has been affected by the overlap singularity, the influence area of the overlap singularity is just the line space where the two hidden units equal to each other. However, in the practical applications, different case has been observed and the influence area of such singularity may be larger. By analyzing the generalization error of multilayer perceptrons, we find that the error surface is much flatter near overlap singularity and the singularity would have much larger influence area. Finally, the validity of the obtained results are verified by taking an artificial experiment and two real-data experiments.

The reliability of a pitch-plunge hypersonic airfoil in random fluctuating flow with both cubic and freeplay nonlinearity is examined. The Hopf bifurcation and dynamic responses of the hypersonic airfoil are performed. To analyze the reliability, the effects of stochasticity on the dynamic behaviors of the hypersonic airfoil model are discussed in detail. Several unwanted phenomena that result in the failure of the airfoil structure are induced by random fluctuations. Subsequently, the reliability of the airfoil model is defined and analyzed according to the first passage failure criteria. The effects of different parameters on the reliability are investigated. Furthermore, a nonlinear energy sink is introduced to suppress the vibration of the airfoil and enhance the reliability. Two-dimensional reliability regions of the airfoil model are given to provide the safety parameter region. The results show that the reliability of the airfoil model is significantly improved with the nonlinear energy sink. This work will provide new insights into the safety design of hypersonic aircraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]