Continuous recordings of the coral bleaching process on Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan, over about 50 days using an underwater camera equipped with a lens wiper.

The colours of the hermatypic corals Porites sp. and Acropora cytherea at Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan, were photographed continuously, from 19 July to 6 September 2016, by an underwater camera equipped with a lens wiper. The average seawater temperature during the study period was 29.

Dehydration of main-chain amides in the final folding step of single-chain monellin revealed by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy.

Kinetic IR spectroscopy was used to reveal beta-sheet formation and water expulsion in the folding of single-chain monellin (SMN) composed of a five-stranded beta-sheet and an alpha-helix. The time-resolved IR spectra between 100 mus and 10 s were analyzed based on two consecutive intermediates, I(1) and I(2), appearing within 100 mus and with a time constant of approximately 100 ms, respectively. The initial unfolded state showed broad amide I' corresponded to a fluctuating conformation.

Solvation and desolvation dynamics in apomyoglobin folding monitored by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy.

Solvation and desolvation dynamics around helices during the kinetic folding process of apomyoglobin (apoMb) were investigated by using time-resolved infrared (IR) spectroscopy based on continuous-flow rapid mixing devices and an IR microscope. The folding of apoMb can be described by the collapse and search mechanism, in which the initial collapse occurring within several hundreds of microseconds is followed by the search for the correct secondary and tertiary structures. The time-resolved IR measurements showed a significant increase in solvated helix possessing a component of amide I' at 1633 cm(-1) within 100 mus after initiating the folding by a pD jump from pD2.

Composite of Au nanoparticles and molecularly imprinted polymer as a sensing material.

A molecularly imprinted polymer with immobilized Au nanoparticles (Au-MIP) is reported as a novel type of sensing material. The sensing mechanism is based upon the variable proximity of the Au nanoparticles immobilized in the imprinted polymer, which exhibits selective binding of a given analyte accompanied by swelling that causes a blue-shift in the plasmon absorption band of the immobilized Au nanoparticles. Using adrenaline as the model analyte, it was shown that molecular imprinting effectively enhanced the sensitivity and selectivity, and accordingly, Au-MIP selectively detects the analyte at 5 microM.