To investigate the changes of cortico-cortical connectivity during odor stimulation of subjects classified by occupation, the mutual information content of EEGs was examined for general workers, perfume salespersons and professional perfume researchers. Analysis of the averaged-cross mutual information content (A-CMI) from the EEGs revealed that among the professional perfume researchers changes in the A-CMI values during odor stimulation were more apparent in the frontal region of the brain, while for the general workers and perfume salespersons such changes were more conspicuous in the overall posterior temporal, parietal and frontal regions. These results indicate that the brains of professional perfume researchers respond to odors mainly in the frontal region, reflecting the function of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) due to the occupational requirement of these subjects to discriminate or identify odors. During odor stimulation, the perfume salespersons, although relatively more exposed to odors than the general workers, showed similar changes to the general workers. The A-CMI value is in inverse proportion to psychological preferences of the professional perfume researchers and perfume salespersons, though this is not the case with the general workers. This result suggests that functional coupling for people who are occupationally exposed to odors may be related to psychological preference.

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Summary In this study, redox couple metal components (M═Mn) were introduced in a catalyst design. Main catalytic components (M═Fe, Co, Ni, or Cu) were combined with Mn, resulting in spinel‐structured M2MnO4 for applications to the propane steam reforming reaction as catalysts. Hydrogen selectivity and propane conversions over spinel‐structured 30.0 wt% M2MnO4 loaded on 70.0 wt% γ‐Al2O3 support were comparable. The Ni2MnO4/Al2O3 exhibited extremely stable catalytic performance for 3 recycling tests. Catalytic activities decreased in the order Ni2MnO4/Al2O3 > Co2MnO4/Al2O3 > Fe2MnO4/Al2O3 > Cu2MnO4/Al2O3 > Mn2O3/Al2O3. A mechanism for propane steam reforming over M2MnO4 was suggested, and it was found that the catalytic performance for the reforming reaction was closely related to the stability of metal oxidation states via Mn oxide assistance. Furthermore, this study suggested that the Mn oxide delivered oxygen to the main catalytic active site, in particular the Ni component, leading to the rapid cracking and oxidation of C3H8, C2H4, and CH4, and increased hydrogen production.

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