Factors associated with intentions to adhere to colorectal cancer screening follow-up exams

BACKGROUND: To increase adherence rate to recommendations for follow-up after abnormal colorectal cancer (CRC) screening results, factors that inhibit and facilitate follow-up must be identified. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with intention to adhere to CRC screening follow-up exams. METHODS: During a 4-week period in October 2003, this survey was conducted with 426 subjects participating in a community-based CRC screening program in Nagano, Japan. Study measures included intention to adhere to recommendation for clinical follow-up in the event of an abnormal fecal occult blood test (FOBT) result, perceived susceptibility and severity of CRC, perceived benefits and barriers related to undergoing follow-up examination, social support, knowledge of CRC risk factors, health status, previous CRC screening, personality and social demographic characteristics. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses on intention to adhere to recommendations for follow-up were performed. RESULTS: Among the 288 individuals analyzed, approximately 74.7% indicated that they would definitely adhere to recommendations for follow-up. After controlling for age, gender, marital status, education, economic status, trait anxiety, bowel symptoms, family history of CRC, and previous screening FOBT, analyses revealed that lower levels of perceived barriers, higher levers of perceived benefits and knowledge of CRC risk factors were significantly associated with high intention respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that future interventions should focus on reducing modifiable barriers by clarifying misperceptions about follow-up, promoting the acceptance of complete diagnostic evaluations, addressing psychological distress, and making follow-up testing more convenient and accessible. Moreover, educating the public regarding the risk factors of CRC and increasing understanding of the benefits of follow-up is also important

Highly emissive excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) inspired 2-(2′-hydroxy)benzothiazole–fluorene motifs: spectroscopic and photophysical properties investigation

Accepted 11 Sep 2015Tuning or switching of the solid state luminescence of organic materials is an attractive target for both basic research and practical applications. In the present study, solid state emissive compounds with very high quantum efficiencies (Φ[F] up to 68%) were achieved by chemical alteration of the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) 2-2′-hydroxy benzothiazole (HBT) unit. Five ESIPT inspired compounds based on fluorene were synthesized via Suzuki coupling reaction. Their photophysical properties were studied by means of steady state absorption, emission spectra and a time resolved emission method in solid as well as in solution of different polarities. The fluorophores showed absorption in the UV region and emission in the visible region with large Stokes shift (∼232 nm). Efficient yellow emissive compounds showed very high quantum yields (Φ[F] = 55–68%) in the solid state, which are the highest quantum yields in the solid state to the best of our knowledge, for fluorene based ESIPT molecules. The fluorescence lifetime in the solid state is between 3.48–5.21 ns, while it is 5–10 fold less in chloroform (0.52–0.75 ns) solution. The optical properties of these compounds are sensitive towards the polarity of the medium. The structural properties, such as X-ray single crystal analyses, DSC and TGA were studied, and the lack of stacking and/or hydrogen bonding interactions around HBT motifs reveals enough room for ESIPT in the series of molecules even in their solid state. The DFT computations were performed to support experimental results and the calculations are well in line with the experimental results. These suggest high quantum efficiency ascribed to the large orbital energy difference between HOMOs and LUMOs of enol and keto forms transformed via ESIPT, and hence, singlet energy localization onto the keto form. The intra-molecular charge transfer nature between fluorene and HBT units plays a key role for the localization of energy on HBT motifs in their excited states

CO2 regulates molecular rotor dynamics in porous materials

A crystalline hydrogen-bonded framework with permanent porosity, built by rod-like struts and engineered to bear ultra-fast molecular rotors between two triple bonds, offers the possibility of controlling the rotational rates upon CO2 adsorption. CO2 enters the pores from the gas phase and reduces the rotational rates from the extremely fast regime of 107 Hz at 216 K to 105 Hz. The CO2-rotor interaction was evident from the 2H NMR response to the dynamics of the rotors in contact with CO2 in the crystal structure

Optical and Structural Properties of ESIPT Inspired HBT–Fluorene Molecular Aggregates and Liquid Crystals

In bulk materials, positional isomers not only help in understanding how slight difference in molecular structure alters the crystal packing and optical properties, but also play a key role in developing new type of materials for functional applications. A detailed study on the photophysical properties of fluorene–HBT positional isomers in solution and in the solid state providing a molecular level understanding of the factors which influence fluorescence behavior is reported. Two molecules <b>Ia</b> and <b>IIa</b> were synthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction and their photophysical properties were compared to positional isomers <b>Ib</b> and <b>IIb</b>. Crystal structure analyses and density functional theory (DFT) computation studies were performed to understand structure–properties relation and the results reveal that changing substitution pattern has a marked influence on their packing modes and luminescence properties. Strong noncovalent interactions (π–π) in the solid state hamper the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process which causes fluorescence quenching in the solid state (<b>Ia</b> and <b>IIa</b> = Φ_f, 28–40%; <b>Ib</b> and <b>IIb</b> = Φ_f, 55–67%). Compounds show solvent–responsive and aggregation induced emission (AIE) properties. Bent structures of <b>Ia</b> with double and symmetric substitution of ESIPT motifs exhibit particularly unique condensed phase upon heating, confirmed as a nematic liquid crystalline phase, and this is the first report on the ESIPT and AIE active liquid crystalline materials with a banana-shaped molecule