Ionic liquid-functional MCM-41 as a high effective catalyst for the synthesis of isatylidene malononitrile via Knoevenagel condensation

Ionic liquid functional MCM-41 was synthesized, characterized and used as heterogeneous catalyst for the Knoevenagel condensation of isatins with malononitrile. A series of corresponding isatylidene malononitrile were obtained in high isolated yield (96–99%) at room temperature in a short time. The heterogeneous catalyst can be easily recovered by centrifugation and showed almost no loss of activity over 10 recycle experiments. At the same time, the gram-scale experiments showed excellent yields and provided a highly effective method for scale up applications.     

A characterization of the uniform rule based on new robustness properties

We study the problem of allocating a divisible good among a group of people. Each person’s preferences are single-peaked. We consider situations in which there might be more of the resource to be assigned than was planned, or there might be less of the resource. Two robustness properties are formulated, which we call one-sided composition up and one-sided composition down. We show that only one rule satisfies irrelevance of null agents, the equal-division lower bound, and our robustness properties. This rule is the uniform rule.     

Estimation of potential gains from bank mergers: A novel two-stage cost efficiency DEA model

This paper develops a novel two-stage cost efficiency model to estimate and decompose the potential gains from Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). In this model, a hypothetical DMU is defined as a combination of two or more candidate DMUs. The hypothetical DMU would surpass the traditional Production Possibility Set (PPS). In order to solve the problem, a Merger Production Possibility Set (PPS_M) is constructed. The model minimizes the total cost of the hypothetical DMU while maintaining its outputs at the current level, and estimates the overall merger efficiency by comparing its minimal total cost with its actual cost. Moreover, the overall merger efficiency could be decomposed into technical efficiency, harmony efficiency, and scale efficiency. We show that the model can be extended to a two-stage structure and these efficiencies can be decomposed to both sub-systems. To show the usefulness of the proposed approach, we applied it to a real dataset of top 20 most competitive Chinese City Commercial Banks (CCBs). We concluded that (1) there exist considerably potential gains for the proposed merged banks. (2) It is also shown that the main impact on potential merger gains are from technical and harmony efficiency. (3) As an interesting result we found that the scale effect works against the merger, indicating that it is not favorable for a full-scale merger.     

Robust investment–reinsurance optimization with multiscale stochastic volatility

This paper investigates the investment and reinsurance problem in the presence of stochastic volatility for an ambiguity-averse insurer (AAI) with a general concave utility function. The AAI concerns about model uncertainty and seeks for an optimal robust decision. We consider a Brownian motion with drift for the surplus of the AAI who invests in a risky asset following a multiscale stochastic volatility (SV) model. We formulate the robust optimal investment and reinsurance problem for a general class of utility functions under a general SV model. Applying perturbation techniques to the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman–Isaacs (HJBI) equation associated with our problem, we derive an investment–reinsurance strategy that well approximates the optimal strategy of the robust optimization problem under a multiscale SV model. We also provide a practical strategy that requires no tracking of volatility factors. Numerical study is conducted to demonstrate the practical use of theoretical results and to draw economic interpretations from the robust decision rules.     

熵极小动力系统的复杂性

设X是一个紧致度量空间,f:X→X是一个连续映射,(X,f)是熵极小的.该文首先证明了f是强遍历的;另外,如果还假设X中存在f的一个真的(拟)弱几乎周期点,则得到f具有正拓扑熵且对任意的n1,f~n是遍历敏感依赖的.因此,f在Li-Yorke和Takens-Ruelle意义下是混沌的.该文所得结论改进和推广了最近的一些结论.     

弹弓效应原理简析

文章用速度变换和矢量图对"弹弓效应"的加速原因做出了较为简洁直观的解释,以关于"弹弓效应"的一个简例.分析"弹弓效应"中的加速条件,得出能使入射物体被加速的偏转角范围.与通常所采用的两体碰撞理论相比较,此方法更能凸显"弹弓效应"的加速机理,且能有效避免冗繁的数学运算.将"弹弓效应"与粒子散射问题对照分析,得出两者之间的可类比性.因而可由散射问题中的散射角关于瞄准距离的公式类比推出"弹弓效应"中偏转角与瞄准距离之间的关系.文章还将"弹弓效应"的思想推广到了一般尺度上的两体问题.     

Optimal consumption and investment problem with random horizon in a BMAP model

In this paper, we consider the consumption and investment problem with random horizon in a Batch Markov Arrival Process (BMAP) model. The investor invests her wealth in a financial market consisting of a risk-free asset and a risky asset. The price processes of the riskless asset and the risky asset are modulated by a continuous-time Markov chain, which is the phase process of a BMAP. The possible consumption or investment are restricted to a sequence of random discrete time points which are determined by the same BMAP. The investor has only consumption opportunities at some of these random time points, has both consumption and investment opportunities at some other random time points, and can do nothing at the remaining random time points. The object of the investor is to select the consumption–investment strategy that maximizes the expected total discounted utility. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the consumption–investment opportunity and the economic state on the value functions and consumption–investment strategies. The general solution and the exact solution under the assumption that the consumption and the terminal wealth are evaluated by the power utility are obtained. Finally, a numerical example is presented.     

Preserving the Rothschild–Stiglitz type of increasing risk with background risk

Background risk refers to a risk that is exogenous and is not subject to transformations by a decision-maker. In this paper, we extend the definition of the Rothschild–Stiglitz type of increasing risk to a background risk framework. We theoretically investigate a more general definition of increase in risk in the presence of background risk. The results suggest that an extended concept of expectation dependence plays a vital role.     

Analysis of a busy period queuing system with balking,reneging and motivating

Queuing model is widely applied in production, inventory and service industries. It is fundamental to improve the performance of queuing model by characterizing the practical queuing characteristics. In this paper, we consider impatient behaviors of customers who possibly balk and renege in a multi-server busy period queuing system, and study strategic behavior of the service provider who attempts to improve service rate when the system is busy. The piecewise curves with threshold structure are used to construct the dynamic inputting probability, dynamic service degree and dynamic reneging rate, and they are introduced to model the balking, motivating and reneging behaviors of the busy queue. The steady-state probabilities and the performance measures of the proposed model are derived. Finally, an empirical example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed model by comparing it with the queuing model in literature.