Examining the Research on Business Information-Entropy Correlation in the Accounting Process of Organizations

Open business organizations, where information flows, is shared, and exchanged, are more prepared to adapt and survive chaos, uncertainty, and entropy, so they will be more predisposed to change management. The aim of this study is to analyze research trends at the international level on business information–entropy correlation in the accounting process of organizations. Mathematical and statistical techniques were applied to 980 articles during the period 1974–2020, obtaining results on the scientific productivity of the driving agents of this topic: authors, research institutions, countries/territories, and journals. Five lines of research were identified during the period analyzed, which mainly study information theory, maximum entropy, information entropy, decision-making, and enthalpy. Future research should focus on analyzing the evolution of this topic, which forms new thematic axes related to bitcoin market efficiency, business hierarchy information, business model evaluation systems, catastrophic economic collapse, corporate diversification, CSR reports affecting accounting conservatism, economic income accounting, and information loss. Currently, the research presents an upward trend, which allows a growing interest in the subject to be deduced in the academic and scientific community worldwide.     

Valorization Potentials of Rapeseed Meal in a Biorefinery Perspective: Focus on Nutritional and Bioactive Components

Rapeseed meal (RSM), a by-product of oilseed extraction connected to the agri-food and biofuel sectors, is currently used as animal feed and for other low-value purposes. With a biorefinery approach, RSM could be valorized as a source of bio-based molecules for high-value applications. This study provides a chemical characterization of RSM in the perspective of its valorization. A qualitative study of main functional groups by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was integrated with a chemical characterization of macronutrients, minerals by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), phenolic acids and lipid components by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), HPLC-diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/flame ionization detector (GC-MS/FID). The study, conducted on different lots of RSM collected over a one-year period from an oil pressing factory serving a biofuel biorefinery, highlighted a constant quality over time of RSM, characterized by high protein (31–34%), fiber (33–40%) and mineral (5.5–6.8%) contents. Polyphenol extracts showed a significant antioxidant activity and a prevalence of sinapic acid, accounting for more than 85% of total phenolic acids (395–437 mg kg⁻¹ RSM). Results highlight the potentialities of RSM for further valorization strategies that may lead to the creation of new cross-sector interconnections and bio-based value chains with improvement of the economics and sustainability of the bioeconomy sectors involved.     

Mesoporous materials incorporating a zinc(II) complex: Synthesis and direct luminescence quantum yield determination

New luminescent inorganic–organic hybrid materials incorporating the luminescent zinc(II) complex ZnL₂ (λ_em = 457 nm and Φ_em = 4.4% reference values for ZnL₂; HL = chelating ligand resulting from the reaction between salicylaldehyde and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane), covalently bonded to different types of mesoporous silica hosts (namely MCM-41, MCM-48 and SBA-15), were prepared via both the methods of grafting post-synthesis (GPS) and one-pot synthesis (OPS). The products obtained, which form the GPS [(GPS)(Zn/MCM-41), (GPS)(Zn/MCM-48), (GPS)(Zn/SBA-15)] and the OPS [(OPS)(Zn/MCM-41), (OPS)(Zn/MCM-48), (OPS)(Zn/SBA-15)] series, contain the ZnL₂ guest covalently bonded to the silica framework through silicon–oxygen bonds formed when the silane group is placed at the periphery of the Zn(II) coordination sphere. GPS and OPS materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption/desorption, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and UV/vis spectroscopy. For the new mesoporous materials the emission quantum yield (EQY) was measured by means of an integrating sphere combined with a spectrofluorimeter. The ZnL₂ loading (measured by the ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratio calculated from TGA data) for MCM-41 appears to be independent of the synthesis procedure, whereas, for both MCM-48 and SBA-15, the ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratio of the materials obtained via OPS is about four times higher than products obtained from GPS. The ZnL₂ loaded GPS and OPS series show λ_em maxima at about 485 and 455 nm, respectively. Moreover, with reference to EQY (GPS)(Zn/SBA-15) and (OPS)(Zn/SBA-15), although featuring ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratios of 0.13 and 0.45, respectively, they showed similar EQY values: 2% and 5%. On the contrary, (GPS)(Zn/MCM-41) and (OPS)(Zn/MCM-41) which give similar ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratios (0.09 and 0.14) exhibit very different EQY, i.e. 2% and 22%, respectively.     

Synthesis and Exon-Skipping Properties of a 3′-Ursodeoxycholic Acid-Conjugated Oligonucleotide Targeting DMD Pre-mRNA: Pre-Synthetic versus Post-Synthetic Approach

Steric blocking antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) are promising tools for splice modulation such as exon-skipping, although their therapeutic effect may be compromised by insufficient delivery. To address this issue, we investigated the synthesis of a 20-mer 2′-OMe PS oligonucleotide conjugated at 3′-end with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) involved in the targeting of human DMD exon 51, by exploiting both a pre-synthetic and a solution phase approach. The two approaches have been compared. Both strategies successfully provided the desired ASO 51 3′-UDC in good yield and purity. It should be pointed out that the pre-synthetic approach insured better yields and proved to be more cost-effective. The exon skipping efficiency of the conjugated oligonucleotide was evaluated in myogenic cell lines and compared to that of unconjugated one: a better performance was determined for ASO 51 3′-UDC with an average 9.5-fold increase with respect to ASO 51.     

Dipole polarizability pseudospectra and C6 dispersion coefficients for H2–H2

Pseudostate decomposition of static dipole polarizabilities for ground state H₂⁺ from a Givens-Householder diagonalization of the excitation operator (

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H" height="17" width="20">₀−E₀) over an N-term basis of appropriate symmetry allows for a rapidly convergent evaluation of C₆ dispersion coefficients for H₂⁺–H₂⁺. 27-term pseudospectra of hypergeneralized James functions with a 30-term GGJ⁺ unperturbed wavefunction with an optimized scale factor δ=0.918 at R=2₀ give C₆ and γ₆ values that are accurate to no less than nine significant figures.     

Self-propagating frontal copolymerization

The application of self-propagating frontal polymerization (FP) to synthesize copolymers has been investigated. Frontal copolymerizations of methyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid (MMA–MAA), acrylic acid and methacrylic acid (AA–MAA), and styrene and methacrylic acid (STY–MAA) with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator have been performed. The measured front velocities have been compared with the results of a suitably developed model. This is based on the pseudokinetic approach, accounts for the depropagation reaction, and is fully predictive; i.e., it does not include any adjustable parameter (although one had to be used for the specific experimental setup used in this work). An explicit, simplified solution of the model has been obtained using the constant pattern approximation. The microstructures of copolymers produced in bulk and by FP have been analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry. Their comparison indicates that self-propagating frontal copolymerization provides a substantial improvement in the uniformity of the chain composition distribution. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 1117–1126, 1998     

End group chemistry of fluoro-oligomers: Highly selective syntheses of diepoxy,diallyl, and tetraol derivatives

Different synthetic methods for the preparation of polyfunctional fluorinated oligomers were explored and the results compared. Fluoropolyether macromonomers bearing epoxy, allyl, and polyhydroxy end groups were synthesized and spectroscopically characterized. For obtaining a polyol (namely tetraol) functionality, a highly selective route was the reaction of the fluoropolyether macrodiol ZDOL with allylic halides and subsequent oxidation reaction at the CC double bond by means of peroxyacids. This approach made it possible to obtain a segmented structure RH-RF-RH in which the molecular body RF consisted of a perfluoropolyether block endcapped by two hydrogenated segments RH, where RH = − CH₂OCH₂CH(OH)CH₂OH. Unlike other more conventional syntheses, which always produce byproducts and higher molecular weight species such as RH-(RF-RH)_n-RF-RH or RH-RF-(RH)_n-, the described method offers high yields and selectivity. The fluoropolyether polyfunctional derivatives offer the possibility to prepare a variety of highly crosslinked fluorinated materials and, owing to their well defined regularly segmented structures, they also constitute interesting models for the understanding of basic structure-property relations of fluoro-oligomers and their copolymers. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The spherilene process: Linear polyethylenes

The Spherilene process associates to a low cost gas phase technology the flexibility in the product mix. New grades, HP-LLDPE, offer a better benefit/cost balance.     

Novel Basic Isoflavones as Inhibitors of Bone Resorption

A number of aminoalkoxy analogues of ipriflavone (=7‐(1‐methylethoxy)isoflavone) were prepared and examined for their capacity to inhibit bone resorption induced by bovine parathyroid hormone fragment 1 – 34. Good‐to‐high activities were found for 7‐(aminoalkoxy)isoflavone analogues. Their activity was influenced by a number of structural features, among which the length of the basic side chain, the basicity of the amino group, and the nature and position of substituents on the 3‐phenyl ring. 4′‐(Aminoalkoxy)ipriflavone derivatives were less active.