Properties and evolution of emission in molecular aggregates of a perylene ammonium derivative in polymer matrices

Accepted 27 Jul 2015Size-dependent fluorescent properties of aggregates of a perylene ammonium derivative (PeryAm) were studied by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. Quantitative analyses of aggregated states in aqueous solution indicated that the aggregation proceeded through dimer units of PeryAm. The fluorescence of the aggregate in the PVA film prepared from the aqueous solution continuously redshifted with an increase in the concentration of PeryAm in the mother liquor while keeping the absorption spectra in almost the same band shapes. Fluorescence anisotropy values of aggregates in the PVA film were dependent on the monitoring wavelength, and time profiles of the fluorescence at longer wavelengths showed a rapid increase just after the pulsed excitation. These results indicated efficient energy transfer to the stable sites in aggregates. Fluorescence microscopy images showed that aggregates were segregated in the PVA film and the color of the emission was dependent on the size of the aggregate. Under the steady-state irradiation, the emission color of the aggregates changed from green to yellow, which was attributable to the association of a small cluster of PeryAm with the green emission resulting in the formation of yellow-colored aggregates. On the basis of these results, we have discussed the mechanisms and dynamics of the aggregation and size-dependent emission in aggregates.ArticlePHOTOCHEMICAL & PHOTOBIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 14(10):1896-1902 (2015)journal articl

The political power of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights was created in 1969 with the purpose to protect and interpret the American Convention on Human Rights and other treaties. Like any international court, it lacks traditional measures to enforce its decisions, having to resort to the willingness of states to have its sentences fulfilled. In this context, does the Inter-American Court have political power? What would be the indicators of the effectiveness of the Court in fulfilling its mandate? In this research, I rely on the lessons learned from the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights and identify five variables which are regarded as evidence of an international court's power: compliance with sentences, increase in caseload, legal doctrines, supremacy of rulings and domestic courts'; support. I find significant evidence to corroborate the theory that the Inter-American Court has political power to apply and improve human rights in the Americas

Pass-Through of Exchange Rate Changes and Macroeconomic Shocks to Domestic Inflation in East Asian Countries

We examine the pass-through effects of exchange rate changes on the domestic prices among the East Asian countries using the conventional pass-through equation and a VAR analysis. First, dynamics of pass-through from the exchange rate to import prices and consumer prices is analyzed using the conventional model of pass-through based on the micro-foundations of the exporter's pricing behavior. Both the short-run and long-run elasticities of the exchange rate pass-through are estimated. Second, a vector autoregression (VAR) technique is applied to the pass-through analysis. A Choleski decomposition is used to identify structural shocks and to examine the pass-through of each shock to domestic price inflation by the impulse response function and variance decomposition analyses. Both the conventional analysis and VAR analysis show that while the degree of exchange rate pass-through to import prices is quite high in the crisis-hit countries, the pass-through to CPI is generally low, with a notable exception of Indonesia. The VAR analysis shows that the size of the pass-through of monetary shocks is even larger in Indonesia. Thus, it was Indonesia's accommodative monetary policy as well as the high degree of the CPI responsiveness to exchange rates that contributed to high domestic price inflation, resulting in the loss of its export competitiveness, even when the currency depreciated sharply in nominal terms in 1997-98.

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要旨ありがん統計データおよびその解析研究ノー

Rice bran extract containing acylated steryl glucoside fraction decreases elevated blood LDL cholesterol level in obese Japanese men

People who frequently consume whole grains show a lower incidence of arteriosclerotic disease than people who consume primarily refined grains.We examined whether or not rice bran extract containing the acylated steryl glucosides (ASG) fraction decreases blood LDL cholesterol levels in obese Japanese men with high blood levels of LDL cholesterol. The study utilized a randomized, double-blind design. A total of 51 subjects were randomly allocated to either a rice bran extract containing ASG fraction (RB-ASG) group or a placebo group. Subjects in the RB-ASG group received 30-50 mg/day of RB-ASG, and the placebo group took 9 capsules/day for 12 weeks. Before and after intake, height, weight, body fat percentage, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured, blood was collected, and visceral fat area, subcutaneous fat area, and abdominal circumference were determined based on umbilical computed tomography. Percentage decreases in blood LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, LDL/HDL ratio, abdominal circumference and subcutaneous fat area were significantly better in the RB-ASG group than in the placebo group. These findings suggest that RB-ASG fraction may reduce blood LDL cholesterol levels and the risk of arteriosclerosis in obese Japanese men with high LDL cholesterol levels

Spontaneous Activation of Event Details in Episodic Future Simulation

Episodic future simulation is supported by both the retrieval and recombination of episodic details. It remains unclear, however, how individuals retrieve episodic details from memory to construct possible future scenarios; for this people must use details related to the planned future events appropriately. A potentially relevant cognitive process is the spontaneous activation of intention observed in prospective memory (i.e., the intention superiority effect). Previous studies on prospective memory have shown that the approximation of retrieval opportunities for future intentions activate related information, suggesting that the intention superiority effect is context-sensitive. We hypothesized that the same cognitive process underlies future simulation—that is, details related to future events should spontaneously become activated at the appropriate moment of future simulation to make that simulation plausible. In Experiment 1, participants took part in future experiments and formed intentions to perform particular actions for the next experiments. Subsequently, they imagined events that could occur up until they arrived at the experimental room on the day of the next experiment. During this exercise, they did not imagine engaging in the required experimental task. We measured the conceptual activation of intention-related information via a recognition task using intended action words as targets. The results showed the intention superiority effect—concepts related to participants’ future intentions became active when envisioning future events approaching the next experiment. In Experiments 2 and 3, we ensured that the intention superiority effect in future simulation was context-sensitive by adding a control condition that required participants to imagine events other than the approaching future experiments. These results indicated that concepts related to the intended actions were spontaneously activated when imagined future events became both temporally and spatially close to the future simulation. Our finding suggests that spontaneous activation of details approaching the context of a future simulation helps in constructing plausible future scenarios

Impacts of the Basle Capital Standard on Japanese Banks' Behavior

This paper examines how the risk based capital standards, the so-called Basle Accord between 1990 and 1993. As the Japanese stock prices fell, banks' latent capital gains, which are part of tier II capital, became smaller. Empirical findings are consistent with a view that banks with lower capital ratios tended to issue more subordinated debts (tier II) and to reduce lending (risk assets).

Validation and Calibration of Models for Reaction-Diffusion Systems

Space and time scales are not independent in diffusion. In fact, numerical simulations show that different patterns are obtained when space and time steps ($\Delta x$ and $\Delta t$) are varied independently. On the other hand, anisotropy effects due to the symmetries of the discretization lattice prevent the quantitative calibration of models. We introduce a new class of explicit difference methods for numerical integration of diffusion and reaction-diffusion equations, where the dependence on space and time scales occurs naturally. Numerical solutions approach the exact solution of the continuous diffusion equation for finite $\Delta x$ and $\Delta t$, if the parameter $\gamma_N=D \Delta t/(\Delta x)^2$ assumes a fixed constant value, where $N$ is an odd positive integer parametrizing the alghorithm. The error between the solutions of the discrete and the continuous equations goes to zero as $(\Delta x)^{2(N+2)}$ and the values of $\gamma_N$ are dimension independent. With these new integration methods, anisotropy effects resulting from the finite differences are minimized, defining a standard for validation and calibration of numerical solutions of diffusion and reaction-diffusion equations. Comparison between numerical and analytical solutions of reaction-diffusion equations give global discretization errors of the order of $10^{-6}$ in the sup norm. Circular patterns of travelling waves have a maximum relative random deviation from the spherical symmetry of the order of 0.2%, and the standard deviation of the fluctuations around the mean circular wave front is of the order of $10^{-3}$.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Int. J. Bifurcation and Chao

Parental gender influences their intention to HPV vaccinate their children, and the association between HPV and COVID-19 vaccination intentions

Oka E., Ueda Y., Yagi A., et al. Parental gender influences their intention to HPV vaccinate their children, and the association between HPV and COVID-19 vaccination intentions. Vaccine: X 17, 100441 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100441.Purpose: The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased public awareness of infectious diseases and interest in vaccines, including the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. We investigated differences between parental gender and intentions to vaccinate their child for HPV and COVID-19. Methods: We analyzed data from Japan's COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS), a web-based cross-sectional survey of 2,444 respondents in 2021. Results: Females were more knowledgeable and more afraid of HPV and COVID-19 than males. The proportions of females in favor of, or against, HPV vaccination was higher than among males. The fathers’ intention for HPV vaccination was significantly associated with the child's gender, knowledge regarding HPV, and intention to inoculate with the COVID-19 vaccine. The mothers’ intention was also associated with her knowledge of HPV and her intention to seek the COVID-19 vaccine, but it included a greater fear of HPV infection. Both male and female parents favored the COVID-19 vaccine over the HPV vaccine. Parents approving of COVID-19 vaccination believed in the overall efficacy of vaccines and were more receptive to opinions from the administration and physicians, even if the parent was currently against HPV vaccination. Conclusions: Mothers were more knowledgeable about HPV and more favorable to vaccinate their child for HPV than fathers. The intention to have children COVID-19 vaccinated was also higher than for HPV vaccination. During this period of heightened public interest in vaccines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a good time to educate and inform the public about HPV