Bis[2,4-dichloro-6-(ethyl­imino­meth­yl)phenolato-κ2 N,O]nickel(II)

In the title compound, [Ni(C9H8Cl2NO)2], the NiII ion lies on an inversion centre and is coordinated in a slightly distorted square-planar geometry by an N and an O atom from two symmetry-related bidentate 2,4-dichloro-6-(ethyl­imino­meth­yl)phenolate ligands. In the crystal structure, there are short Cl⋯Cl distances of 3.506 (1) and 3.350 (1) Å

Electroacupuncture at PC6 (Neiguan) Improves Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Signaling Pathways Through the Regulation of Neuroendocrine Cytokines in Myocardial Hypertrophic Rats

Electroacupuncture (EA) therapy has been widely accepted as a useful therapeutic technique with low or no risk in the clinical prevention of cardiac hypertrophy. However, the signaling transduction mechanism underlying this effect remains unclear. The current study investigates the effects of EA on the signaling pathways of myocardial hypertrophy (MH) in rats. Up to 40 3-month-old Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into normal, model, PC6 (Neiguan), and LI4 (Hegu) groups, with ten rats in each group. All the rats except for the normal group received 3 mg/kg·d of isoprinosine hydrochloride (ISO) injection into the back skin. The rats in the PC6 and LI4 groups received EA for 14 days. On the 15th day, electrocardiograms were recorded, and the ultrastructure of the myocardial cells was observed. The myocardial hypertrophy indices (MHIs), electrocardiograph (ECG), ultrastructure observation, levels of plasma angiotensin II (Ang II) and endothelin (ET), as well as protein expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and phosphorylation extracellular signal regulating kinase (p-ERK) in the left ventricular myocardial tissue were measured. The results indicated that EA can improve cardiac function in MH rats by modulating upstream neuroendocrine cytokines that regulate the ERK signaling pathways

Relations between near-field enhancements and Purcell factors in hybrid nanostructures of plasmonic antennas and dielectric cavities

Strong near-field enhancements (NFEs) of nanophotonic structures are believed to be closely related to high Purcell factors (FP). Here, we theoretically show that the correlation is partially correct; the extinction cross section ({\sigma}) response is also critical in determining FP. The divergence between NFE and FP is especially pronounced in plasmonic-dielectric hybrid systems, where the plasmonic antenna supports dipolar plasmon modes and the dielectric cavity hosts Mie-like resonances. The cavity's enhanced-field environment can boost the antenna's NFEs, but the FP is not increased concurrently due to the larger effective {\sigma} that is intrinsic to the FP calculations. Interestingly, the peak FP for the coupled system can be predicted by using the NFE and {\sigma} responses. Furthermore, the limits for FP of coupled systems are considered; they are determined by the sum of the FP of a redshifted (or modified, if applicable) antenna and an individual cavity. This contrasts starkly with the behavior of NFE which is closely associated with the multiplicative effects of the NFEs provided by the antenna and the dielectric cavity. The differing behaviors of NFE and FP in hybrid cavities have varied impacts on relevant nanophotonic applications such as fluorescence, Raman scattering and enhanced light-matter interactions

4-Bromo-2,6-dimethyl­anilinium bromide monohydrate

In the title compound, C8H11BrN+·Br−·H2O, a network of N—H⋯O, N—H⋯Br and O—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds helps to consolidate the crystal packing

Creating a Computable Cognitive Model of Visual Aesthetics for Automatic Aesthetics Evaluation of Robotic Dance Poses

Inspired by human dancers who can evaluate the aesthetics of their own dance poses through mirror observation, this paper presents a corresponding mechanism for robots to improve their cognitive and autonomous abilities. Essentially, the proposed mechanism is a brain-like intelligent system that is symmetrical to the visual cognitive nervous system of the human brain. Specifically, a computable cognitive model of visual aesthetics is developed using the two important aesthetic cognitive neural models of the human brain, which is then applied in the automatic aesthetics evaluation of robotic dance poses. Three kinds of features (color, shape and orientation) are extracted in a manner similar to the visual feature elements extracted by human brains. After applying machine learning methods in different feature combinations, machine aesthetics models are built for automatic evaluation of robotic dance poses. The simulation results show that our approach can process visual information effectively by cognitive computation, and achieved a very good evaluation performance of automatic aesthetics

Bis[μ2-bis­(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)methane-κ2 P:P′]bis­(μ4-diphenyl­phosphinato-κ4 O:O:O′:O′)bis­(μ2-trifluoro­acetato-κ2 O:O′)tetra­silver(I) acetonitrile disolvate

In the cation of the title compound, [Ag4(C2F3O2)2(C12H10O2P)2(C25H22P2)2]·2CH3CN, the two independent Ag+ cations are four-coordinated in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry by one P atom from a bis­(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)methane (dppm) ligand, one O atom from a trifluoro­acetate anion and two O atoms from two diphenyl­phosphinate (dpp) ligands. Two dppm ligands, two dpp ligands and two trifluoro­acetate anions bridge four metal atoms, forming a centrosymmetric tetra­nuclear complex. Intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and a weak π–π inter­action [centroid–centroid distance = 3.9804 (13) Å] are also observed