Jieun Lee

Ensemble and Single-Molecule Spectroscopic Study on Excitation Energy Transfer Processes in 1,3-Phenylene-Linked Perylenebisimide Oligomers

1,3-Phenylene-bridged perylenebisimide dimer (PBI2) and trimer (PBI3) were prepared along with monomer reference (PBI1) using perylene imide-anhydride 5 as a key precursor. 3,3-Dimethylbut-1-yl substituents were introduced at the 2,5-positions of perylenebisimide (PBI) to improve the solubilities of PBI oligomers. Actually, no serious aggregation of PBI2 and PBI3 was detected in their dilute CH(2)Cl(2) solutions. Under these conditions, intramolecular electronic interactions among PBI chromophores have been revealed by measuring the photophysical properties at their ensemble and single-molecule levels. The excitation energy transfer times of PBI2 (0.16 ps) and PBI3 (0.60 ps) were determined from the two different observables, anisotropy depolarization, and singlet-singlet annihilation, respectively, which are considered as the incoherent Förster-type energy hopping (EEH) times as compared with the EEH time constant (1.97 ps) calculated on the basis of the Förster mechanism. The relatively short EEH times compared to similar PBI oligomers can be attributed to 1,3-phenylene linker, which assures a short distance between the chromophores and, as a consequence, makes it hard to treat the PBI unit as a point dipole. The limitation of point-dipole approximation to describe the PBI oligomers and additional through-bond type interactions can be attributed as the causes of the discrepancies in excitation energy transfer times. Considering these photophysical properties, we can suggest that 1,3-phenylene-linked PBI oligomers have potentials as molecular photonic devices including the artificial light-harvesting system.

Excitonic coupling in linear and trefoil trimer perylenediimide molecules probed by single-molecule spectroscopy.

Perylenediimide (PDI) molecules are promising building blocks for photophysical studies of electronic interactions within multichromophore arrays. Such PDI arrays are important materials for fabrication of molecular nanodevices such as organic light-emitting diodes, organic semiconductors, and biosensors because of their high photostability, chemical and physical inertness, electron affinity, and high tinctorial strength over the entire visible spectrum. In this work, PDIs have been organized into linear (L3) and trefoil (T3) trimer molecules and investigated by single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to probe the relationship between molecular structures and interchromophoric electronic interactions. We found a broad distribution of coupling strengths in both L3 and T3 and hence strong/weak coupling between PDI units by monitoring spectral peak shifts in single-molecule fluorescence spectra upon sequential photobleaching of each constituent chromophore. In addition, we used a wide-field defocused imaging technique to resolve heterogeneities in molecular structures of L3 and T3 embedded in a PMMA polymer matrix. A systematic comparison between the two sets of experimental results allowed us to infer the correlation between intermolecular interactions and molecular structures. Our results show control of the PDI intermolecular interactions using suitable multichromophoric structures.

The effect of sports event tourism on event attitude and the brand equity of sportswear sponsors

The present study aims to understand the process through which sports event tourism experiences mediate event attitude and, consequently, the brand equity of sportswear sponsors. First, the results of the study show that of the four experiential components of sports event tourism (i.e., “sense”, “feel”, “think”, and “relate”), the “feel” and “relate” components were identified as antecedent variables that create positive event attitudes. Second, event attitude was found to have a significant effect on brand awareness and brand image, but the relationship between event attitude and brand loyalty was rejected. Third, for the brand equity of sportswear sponsors, brand awareness positively affected brand image and loyalty, and brand image positively affected brand loyalty. The results of the present study provide foundational data for sportswear marketers that engage in sports event sponsorship as a strategic marketing tool and for those who seek to devise effective communication strategies to increase brand equity through sports event tourism.

Single-molecule fluorescence dynamics of a butadiyne-linked porphyrin dimer: the effect of conformational flexibility in host polymers

We have investigated the single-molecule fluorescence dynamics of a butadiyne-linked porphyrin dimer (Z2B) depending on the density of the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) matrix (5, 10, 25, and 50 mg ml(-1)). By recording single-molecule fluorescence intensity trajectories and fluorescence lifetimes, we observed more frequent one-step photobleaching behavior, less frequent on-off behavior, and narrower fluorescence lifetime distributions in lower densities of PMMA polymer. In contrast, more enhanced photostability was observed in higher densities of PMMA polymer. These results are explained by a difference in the molecular surroundings depending on the change in PMMA polymer density, suggesting that the individual photophysical properties of Z2B are strongly associated with their conformations and molecular surroundings in the solid state. Our studies will provide further information on the structure/surroundings relationship of single molecules in the solid state.

The role of electronic coupling in linear porphyrin arrays probed by single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy

Single-molecule photophysical properties of two families of linear porphyrin arrays have been investigated by single-molecule fluorescence detection techniques. Butadiyne-linked arrays (Z(N)B) with extensive π-conjugation perform as photostable one-quantum systems. This demonstration has been suggested by the long-lasting initial emissive state and subsequent discrete one-step photobleaching in the fluorescence intensity trajectories (FITs). As in the behavior of a one-quantum system, Z(N)B shows anti-bunching data in the coincidence measurements. On the other hand, in directly-linked arrays (Z(N)) with strong dipole coupling, each porphyrin moiety keeps individual character in photobleaching dynamics. The stepwise photobleachings in the FITs account for this explanation. Most of the FITs of Z(N) do not carry momentary cessation of fluorescence emission, which has been explained by the strongly bound electron-hole pair of Frenkel exciton that suppresses charge transfer between the molecule and surrounding polymers. These results give insight into the influences of interchromophorinc interactions between porphyrin moieties in the multiporphyrin arrays on their fluorescence dynamics at the single-molecule level.

Reversal of diabetes in rats using GLP-1-expressing adult pancreatic duct-like precursor cells transformed from acinar to ductal cells.

Pancreatic injury induces replacement of exocrine acinar cells with ductal cells. These ductal cells have the potential to regenerate the pancreas, but their origin still remains unknown. It has been reported that adult pancreatic acinar cells have the potential to transdifferentiate to ductal progenitor cells. In this regards, we established novel adult pancreatic duct-like progenitor cell lines YGIC4 and YGIC5 and assessed the usefulness of these ductal progenitors in the cell therapy of diabetic rats. Acinar cells were cultured from pancreata of male Sprague Dawley rats and gradually attained ductal cell characteristics, such as expression of CK19 and CFTR with a concomitant down-regulation of amylase expression over time, suggesting transdifferentiation from acinar to ductal cells. During cell culture, the expression of Pdx-1, c-Kit, and vimentin peaked and then decreased, suggesting that transdifferentiation recapitulated embryogenesis. Overexpression of pancreas development regulatory genes and CK19, as well as the ability to differentiate into insulin-producing cells, suggests that the YGIC5 cells had characteristics of pancreatic progenitor cells. Finally, YGIC5 cells coexpressing Green fluorescent protein (GFP) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 under the activation of a zinc-inducible metallothionein promoter were intravenously infused to STZ-induced diabetic rats. Hyperglycemia was ameliorated with elevation of plasma insulin, and GFP-positive donor cells were colocalized in the acinar and islet areas of recipient pancreata following zinc treatment. In conclusion, after establishing pancreatic progenitor cell lines YGIC4 and YGIC5 under the concept of acinar to ductal transdifferentiation in vitro, we demonstrate how these adult pancreatic stem/progenitor cells can be used to regulate adult pancreatic differentiation toward developing therapy for pancreatic disease such as diabetes mellitus.Pancreatic injury induces replacement of exocrine acinar cells with ductal cells. These ductal cells have the potential to regenerate the pancreas, but their origin still remains unknown. It has been reported that adult pancreatic acinar cells have the potential to transdifferentiate to ductal progenitor cells. In this regards, we established novel adult pancreatic duct-like progenitor cell lines YGIC4 and YGIC5 and assessed the usefulness of these ductal progenitors in the cell therapy of diabetic rats. Acinar cells were cultured from pancreata of male Sprague Dawley rats and gradually attained ductal cell characteristics, such as expression of CK19 and CFTR with a concomitant down-regulation of amylase expression over time, suggesting transdifferentiation from acinar to ductal cells. During cell culture, the expression of Pdx-1, c-Kit, and vimentin peaked and then decreased, suggesting that transdifferentiation recapitulated embryogenesis. Overexpression of pancreas development regulatory genes and CK19...

Robust PCA Based on Incoherence With Geometrical Interpretation

Robust principal component analysis, which extracts low-dimensional data from high-dimensional data, can also be regarded as a source separation problem of the sparse error matrix and the low-rank matrix. Until recently, various methods have attempted to precisely predict the discrete rank function by assigning a weight to the nuclear norm. However, if the weights are not in ascending order, the algorithms will diverge and exhibit high computational complexity. Moreover, from the viewpoint of source separation, these methods overlook the fact that two components must be sufficiently different for accurate demixing. In this paper, we employ the incoherence term with convex shape, which considers that components must appear different from one another for boosting separability. Since it is intractable to directly exploit mutual incoherence defined in linear algebra, we guarantee the incoherence by indirectly making the sparse matrix lack the low-rank property by using the duality norm principle. This approach can also be associated with the null space. To analyze the results of the proposed algorithm geometrically, we measure the geodesic distance between the tangent spaces of the manifolds of two separate components. As this distance increases, the degree of dissimilarity of the two components is adequately assured; thus, separation succeeds. Furthermore, this paper is the first to provide insights into the relationship between source separation conditions and the derivatives of the nuclear norm and

Low rank matrix recovery via augmented lagrange multiplier with nonconvex minimization

L_{1}

Image Separation Based on Augmented Lagrange Multiplier Using Rank Prior

norm. Experiments are conducted on still image separation and background subtraction to confirm the superiority of the proposed methods both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Comprehensive understanding of risk and protective factors related to adolescent pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review

In recovery problem, nuclear norm as a convex envelope of rank function is widely used. However, nuclear norm minimization problem tends not to identify optimal solution, so recently, other heuristic surrogate functions such as nonconvex logdet are utilized to recover sparser signal. In this paper, to handle nonconvex optimation problem, a modified Augmented Lagrange Multiplier Method (ALMM) is developed using weighted nuclear norm instead of nuclear norm which conventional ALMM treats for convex optimization. We experiment on real images in Matrix Completion problem with diverse nonconvex, and show that instead of solving a simple convex problem, nonconvex optimization problem can reconstruct a low rank matrix more accurately and the convergence rate is faster with having higher average PSNR.