Konkuk University

About: Konkuk University is a education organization based out in Seoul, South Korea. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Apoptosis. The organization has 13405 authors who have published 27027 publications receiving 506313 citations.

Size-dependent fluorescence properties of [n]cycloparaphenylenes (n = 8–13), hoop-shaped π-conjugated molecules

Abstract: Hoop-shaped π-conjugated molecules such as cycloparaphenylene (CPP) have attracted the attention of many chemists because they exhibit interesting properties due to the distorted π-electron system. To gain a systematic understanding of the properties that result from distorted π-electron systems, it is important to know precisely how these properties depend on the hoop size. In the present study, we have investigated the size dependence of the fluorescence properties of CPPs. The fluorescence spectra of smaller CPPs showed red-shifted fluorescence peaks, smaller fluorescence quantum yields, and longer lifetimes, when compared to those of larger ones. One of the important factors that gave rise to these fluorescence properties of smaller CPPs was greater structural relaxation from the Franck–Condon state, which is a postulation supported by theoretical calculations. The structural relaxation in the picosecond domain was experimentally detected by the fluorescence upconversion method. The present results are an important example that confirms steric factors strongly governing the fluorescence properties of a molecule.

Proline Accumulation Influenced by Osmotic Stress in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiotic Plants

Abstract: Salinity and drought are the major osmotic stress limitations that affect plant growth and crop yield in agriculture worldwide. The alternative response mediated by plants in response to salinity and drought are principally proline accumulation which regulates stress combat strategies owing to sustainable production in the realm of agricultural production even under severe stress. Symbiotic and soil associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are regarded as efficient biofertilizers in several crops under these stresses. Summarily AMF is renowned for effective scavengers of free radicals in soil thereby increasing soil parameters optimal for plant growth. AMF contribute to augment host plant tolerance to stress specifically salinity and drought. Mycorrhizal colonization positively regulates root uptake of available nutrients and enhance growth even when bestowed by water constraints which has contributory roles due to proline accumulation providing several intriguing research on AMF symbiosis pertaining to plant productivity and yield. Mycorrhizal plants and their non-mycorrhizal counterparts show varied expression pattern regarding proline amass. Hence, the precise role of proline with respect to stress tolerance and equivocal mechanisms involved in evasion of osmotic stress has not been extensively reviewed earlier. Further molecular forecasting in this arena is still an underexploited research field. This review comprehensively addresses the observable facts pertaining to proline accumulation upon AMF association and adherence relevant to stress tolerance and host plant efficiency and efficacy.

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to W + W - in the fully leptonic final state in pp collisions at √{ s} = 7 TeV

Abstract: A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to W+W- in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is reported. The data are collected at the LHC with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. The W+W- candidates are selected in events with two charged leptons and large missing transverse energy. No significant excess of events above the standard model background expectations is observed, and upper limits on the Higgs boson production relative to the standard model Higgs expectation are derived. The standard model Higgs boson is excluded in the mass range 129-270 GeV at 95% confidence level.