We elucidated factors that affect decisions made by university students for enrollment in a volunteer fire corps (VFC) for a university campus. Thirty-four of the 197 questionnaire-target students desired enrollment in the VFC. According to the results of multiple logistic regression analysis, whether the student desired enrollment in the VFC or not was explained by the following four factors: likelihood of achievement of both VFC activities and schoolwork, with or without family members involved in a disaster, impact of VFC activities on carrier options, and with or without experience of volunteer activities. Taking appropriate actions with regard to these four factors would lead to an increase in the number of students who desire enrollment in a VFC.

Recently, optical imaging technology in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, λ =1000—1400 nm) window has attracted attention due to the merits of high S/N ratio as well as real-time detection at deeper penetration in biological tissues compared to the light energy in the traditionally-used visible and first near-infrared window (NIR-I, λ=700—1000 nm) regions. As potential small organic NIR-II chromophores, various polymethines and phthalocyanine-based dyes have shown superior biocompatibility, structure designability, and optical wavelength tunability. However, dye instability arising from the small HOMO-LUMO band gap is a common technical drawback that limits the scope of current applications.

In this regard, porphyrins and their analogues could be potential NIR chromophore scaffolds offering new opportunities for optical materials to be used in the fields ranging from light-harvesting to sensing and therapeutic applications. Several skeletal modifications of the porphyrins, such as 1) core expansion, 2) peripheral fusion, and 3) chromophore array, could downshift the wavelength to the NIR-II window along with high photo- and chemical stability. This article describes the synthesis of a series of large π-conjugated “N-confused” porphyrin analogues with inverted pyrrole rings linked at the α and β-positions as key structures to furnish the desired optical properties in the use of optical applications. Furthermore, metal complexation-induced molecular orbital mixing/tuning of the macrocyclic porphyrin scaffolds enabled the fundamental optical and excited-state dynamics.