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Several studies have highlighted that the formation of aroma in nuts can be attributed to the oxidation and degradation of substrates or Maillard reaction (MR) occurring during heat processing. The available information regarding pumpkin seeds, valued for their nutritional content, bioactive compounds, and distinctive aroma, following various heat treatment methods, is scarce. Therefore, an investigation was conducted to elucidate the potential formation mechanism of key volatile compounds (K-VOCs) in pumpkin seeds subjected to various heat processing methods by examining the relationship between MR, lipid oxidation, sensory attributes, and K-VOCs. The results indicate that lipid oxidation and degradation, as well as the formation of MR compounds, were observed in pumpkin seeds subjected to air frying (AF), microwave roasting (MV), and oven roasting (OR), respectively. The formation of the aromas described as 'roasted', 'caramellic', and 'fatty' in cooked pumpkin seeds is primarily linked to the presence of specific compounds. These compounds include 2-methylpyrazine, 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, and 2-pentylfuran, which contribute to the 'roasted' odor, and 2-ethyl-5-methyl-pyrazine and hexanol, which are associated with the 'caramellic' and 'fatty' odors, respectively. Additionally, the presence of hexanol and 2,4-decadienal further enhances the overall aroma profile of cooked pumpkin seeds. Meanwhile, the formation of 'fatty', 'roasted', and 'caramellic' odors are dependent on the oxidation of lipids and MR induced by OR, MV and AF, respectively. At last, this study offers a distinctive perspective on the potential formation mechanism of K-VOCs in cooked pumpkin seeds triggered by MV, AF, and OR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The general sluggish clearance kinetics of functional inorganic nanoparticles tend to raise potential biosafety concerns for in vivo applications. Renal clearance is a possible elimination pathway for functional inorganic nanoparticles delivered through intravenous injection, but largely depending on the surface physical chemical properties of a given particle apart from its size and shape. Results: In this study, three small-molecule ligands that bear a diphosphonate (DP) group, but different terminal groups on the other side, i.e., anionic, cationic, and zwitterionic groups, were synthesized and used to modify ultrasmall Fe3O4 nanoparticles for evaluating the surface structure-dependent renal clearance behaviors. Systematic studies suggested that the variation of the surface ligands did not significantly increase the hydrodynamic diameter of ultrasmall Fe3O4 nanoparticles, nor influence their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement effects. Among the three particle samples, Fe3O4 nanoparticle coated with zwitterionic ligands, i.e., Fe3O4@DMSA, exhibited optimal renal clearance efficiency and reduced reticuloendothelial uptake. Therefore, this sample was further labeled with 99mTc through the DP moieties to achieve a renal-clearable MRI/single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) dual-modality imaging nanoprobe. The resulting nanoprobe showed satisfactory imaging capacities in a 4T1 xenograft tumor mouse model. Furthermore, the biocompatibility of Fe3O4@DMSA was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo through safety assessment experiments. Conclusions: We believe that the current investigations offer a simple and effective strategy for constructing renal-clearable nanoparticles for precise disease diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents have received considerable interest due to their superior magnetic properties. To increase the biocompatibility and blood circulation time, polyethylene glycol (PEG) is usually chosen to decorate IONPs. Although the surface effect induced by the PEGylation has an impact on the relaxometric properties of IONPs and can subsequently affect the imaging results, the occurrence of particle aggregation has troubled researchers to deeply explore this correlation. To shed light on this relationship, three diphosphonate PEGs with molecular weights of 1000, 2000, and 5000 Da were used to replace the hydrophobic oleate ligands of 3.6 nm and 10.9 nm IONPs. Then, the contrast enhancement properties of the resultant "aggregation-free" nanoparticles were carefully evaluated. Moreover, related theories were adopted to predict certain properties of IONPs and to compare with the experimental data, as well as obtain profound knowledge about the impacts of the PEG chain length on transverse relaxivity (r2) and longitudinal relaxivity (r1). It was found that r2 and the saturated magnetization of the IONPs, independent of particle size, was closely related to the chain length of PEG. The results unveiled the correlation between the chain length of the coated PEG and the relaxometric properties of IONPs, providing valuable information which might hold great promise in designing optimized, high-performance IONPs for MRI-related applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing concern regarding climate change, academics and practitioners are devoting attention to corporate environmental sustainability development. However, corporate environmental responsibility as an outcome of corporate governance (CG) practice is also constrained by national culture as an institutional factor, and research on the relationship between CG and environmental sustainability performance (ESP) with consideration for national culture remains scarce. Therefore, this study investigates the ESP data of Forbes' listed multinational corporations (MNCs) through content analysis and applies STATA software with stepwise regression models to empirically test the relationship between CG and MNCs' ESP and the moderating effects of national culture on this relationship. The results show that board independence and board size positively affect MNCs' ESP, and the relationship between board independence and MNCs' ESP is negatively moderated by masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Our results emphasize the importance of CG in environmental decision-making by board management supervision enhancement and explain how national culture affects ESP because of its influence on CG. Our study explains the agency effect of board composition on MNCs' environmental sustainability development and the influence of national culture, which establishes a link between CG, ESP, and national culture. Moreover, policymakers and MNCs' suggestions for enhancing ESP through CG measures, while considering national culture, are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of process mining, it is worth noting that process mining techniques assume that the resulting event logs can not only continuously record the occurrence of events but also contain all event data. However, like in IoT systems, data transmission may fail due to weak signal or resource competition, which causes the company's information system to be unable to keep a complete event log. Based on a incomplete event log, the process model obtained by using existing process mining technologies is deviated from actual business process to a certain degree. In this paper, we propose a method for repairing missing activities based on succession relation of activities from event logs. We use an activity relation matrix to represent the event log and cluster it. The number of traces in the cluster is used as a measure of similarity calculation between incomplete traces and cluster results. Parallel activities in selecting pre-occurrence and post-occurrence activities of missing activities from incomplete traces are considered. Experimental results on real-life event logs show that our approach performs better than previous method in repairing missing activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LiMoO·1.8Tb(MoO) crystal, a kind of solid solution crystal, was grown in air by the top seeded solvent growth method in a LiMoO flux. The lattice parameters of the crystal were determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. The absorption coefficient of the crystal was investigated at wavelengths from 400 to 1500 nm at room temperature. Valence states of Tb ions in LiMoO·1.8Tb(MoO) crystal were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement. Verdet constants for the LiMoO·1.8Tb(MoO) crystal at 532, 633 and 1064 nm wavelengths were measured by the extinction method. They are −341, −239 and −75 rad m T, respectively. The results show that the crystal has a larger magneto-optical figure of merit than terbium gallium garnet at wavelength of 633 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]