The effect of Covid-19 emergence on religiosity: Evidence from Singapore.

How do people deal with events they cannot control? Religious beliefs and practices are common responses to uncontrollable situations. We analyzed the responses of Singaporeans surveyed between November 2019 and March 2020-just before and just after Covid-19 hit the region-to understand how the beliefs and actions of both religious and non-religious people were affected by the emergence of the previously unknown virus. We find that after the emergence of Covid-19, religious respondents reported significantly higher levels of belief and service attendance frequency, while prayer frequency was not affected. We argue that the decrease in perceived controllability over people's lives explains these results. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the dynamics of religious beliefs and practices during times of uncertainty.

The Two Dimensional Vibrational Echo of a Nitrile Probe of the Villin HP35 Protein.

2D IR spectroscopy was used to probe the hydrophobic core structure of the 35-residue Villin headpiece subdomain, HP35, by monitoring the C≡N vibrational stretching band of a cyano substituted phenylalanine (Phe). The presence of two humps in the vibrational frequency distribution in the folded equilibrium state is revealed. They represent two states that exchange more slowly than ca. 10 ps. The two CN stretch mode peak frequencies (and their equilibrium populations) are 2228.7 (44%) and 2234.5 cm(-1) (56%). The two CN modes have different frequency-frequency correlation times of 7.4 ps and 1.6 ps respectively. These results suggest that the population with the higher frequency CN group is partly exposed whereas the other CN mode experiences a hydrophobic like environment.

Ultrafast relaxation and 2D IR of the aqueous trifluorocarboxylate ion.

The asymmetric stretching vibration of the amphiphilic trifluoroacetate ion and its (13)C=(16)O isotopologue in D(2)O were investigated with infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultrafast infrared pump probe, and two dimensional vibrational photon echo techniques and simulations. Trifluoroacetate ions have a nonexponential depopulation of the first vibrational excited state, which is well described by a kinetic mechanism involving a temperature dependent solvent assisted relaxation to the symmetric stretch mode. The vibrational spectrum of the asymmetric stretch of the (13)C=(16)O isotopologue presents an unusual spectral shape. The frequency-frequency autocorrelation function shows a static term not present in the (13)C=(16)O form, which is caused by an accidental degeneracy with a combinational mode. A newly developed frequency map for carboxylate is used to characterize the processes and dynamics observed in the frequency fluctuations of the carboxylate asymmetric stretch mode in aqueous solution. An assignment of the molecular processes that govern the frequency fluctuations is suggested from an analysis of the solvation shell configurations obtained from molecular dynamics simulations.

Water-induced relaxation of a degenerate vibration of guanidinium using 2D IR echo spectroscopy.

The nearly degenerate asymmetric stretch vibrations near 1600 cm(-1) of the guanidinium cation in D-glycerol/D(2)O mixtures having different viscosity were studied by 2D IR photon echo spectroscopy. The polarization-dependent photon echo signal shows two separate frequency distributions in the 2D spectrum in D(2)O, even though only one band is evident from inspection of the linear FTIR spectrum. The split components are more clearly seen at higher viscosity where the distortion of the molecule from 3-fold symmetry is even more evident. The interactions with solvent induce energy transfer between the degenerate component modes on the time scale of 0.5 ps. The energy transfer between modes is directly observed in 2D IR and distinguished by the waiting time dependence of the cross peaks from the transfers between configurations of the distorted ion and solvent. The 2D IR analysis carried out for various polarization conditions gave frequency-frequency auto- and cross-correlation functions for the degenerate components which derive from the solvent induced wagging of the -ND(2) groups of the guanidinium ion.

Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy of a degenerate mode of guanidinium chloride.

Nearly degenerate asymmetric stretches with perpendicular transition dipole moments of the deuterated guanidinium cation (DGdm(+)) in D(2)O and D-glycerol/D(2)O mixtures at 1600 cm(-1) were investigated by linear FTIR spectroscopy and polarization dependent femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. The vibrational coupling of the asymmetric stretches of guanidinium occurs within 0.5 ps and leads to fast decay of the anisotropy to a level of 0.1. A systematic study of the influence of the coherence transfer on pump-probe signals is given. Following this decay, the anisotropy decays with a time constant of 4.1 ps in D(2)O by rotational diffusion about an axis perpendicular to the DGdm(+) mean plane. The presence of aggregation was demonstrated for concentrations higher than 0.2 M.

Correlation of the vibrations of the aqueous azide ion with the O-H modes of bound water molecules.

Dual frequency two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR) has been used to investigate the dynamics of the azide-water solvation shell. The memory of the azide transition frequencies is detected in the echo emitted by the OH stretching mode of the ion-bound water molecules. There is a significant positive correlation of the two frequency distributions that decays on a 140 fs time scale. The result confirms that the O-H bond of water molecules in the solvent shell have frequency fluctuations that are considerably slowed from those that are known in bulk water. The positive correlation is attributed to cooperative interactions of coordinated water molecules with an azide ion.