Pricing policies for selling indivisible storable goods to strategic consumers

Annals of Operations Research - We study the dynamic pricing problem faced by a monopolistic retailer who sells a storable product to forward-looking consumers. In this framework, the two major...     

Sustainable Drying and Torrefaction Processes of Miscanthus for Use as a Pelletized Solid Biofuel and Biocarbon-Carrier for Fertilizers

Miscanthus is resistant to dry, frosty winters in Poland and most European Union countries. Miscanthus gives higher yields compared to native species. Farmers can produce Miscanthus pellets after drying it for their own heating purposes. From the third year, the most efficient plant development begins, resulting in a yield of 25–30 tons of dry matter from an area of 1 hectare. Laboratory scale tests were carried out on the processes of drying, compacting, and torrefaction of this biomass type. The analysis of the drying process was conducted at three temperature levels of the drying agent (60, 100, and 140 °C). Compaction on a hydraulic press was carried out in the pressure range characteristic of a pressure agglomeration (130.8–457.8 MPa) at different moisture contents of the raw material (0.5% and 10%). The main interest in this part was to assess the influence of drying temperature, moisture content, and compaction pressure on the specific densities (DE) and the mechanical durability of the pellets (DU). In the next step, laboratory analyses of the torrefaction process were carried out, initially using the Thermogravimetric Analysis TGA and Differential Scaning Calorimeter DSC techniques (to assess activation energy (EA)), followed by a flow reactor operating at five temperature levels (225, 250, 275, 300, and 525 °C). A SEM analysis of Miscanthus after torrefaction processes at three different temperatures was performed. Both the parameters of biochar (proximate and ultimate analysis) and the quality of the torgas (volatile organic content (VOC)) were analyzed. The results show that both drying temperature and moisture level will affect the quality of the pellets. Analysis of the torrefaction process shows clearly that the optimum process temperature would be around 300–340 °C from a mass loss ratio and economical perspective.     

The Role of Information in Managing Interactions from a Multifractal Perspective

In the framework of the multifractal hydrodynamic model, the correlations informational entropy–cross-entropy manages attractive and repulsive interactions through a multifractal specific potential. The classical dynamics associated with them imply Hubble-type effects, Galilei-type effects, and dependences of interaction constants with multifractal degrees at various scale resolutions, while the insertion of the relativistic amendments in the same dynamics imply multifractal transformations of a generalized Lorentz-type, multifractal metrics invariant to these transformations, and an estimation of the dimension of the multifractal Universe. In such a context, some correspondences with standard cosmologies are analyzed. Since the same types of interactions can also be obtained as harmonics mapping between the usual space and the hyperbolic plane, two measures with uniform and non-uniform temporal flows become functional, temporal measures analogous with Milne’s temporal measures in a more general manner. This work furthers the analysis published recently by our group in “Towards Interactions through Information in a Multifractal Paradigm”.     

A Ca2+‐, Mg2+‐, and Zn2+‐Based Dendritic Contractile Nanodevice with Two pH‐Dependent Motional Functions

A contractile dendritic motional device is reported where metal ions with biological importance—Ca²⁺ (the main regulatory and signaling species of the natural muscles), Mg²⁺, and Zn²⁺—initiate two kinds of motional functions. The first motional function is the metal‐ion‐induced contraction of a linear strand into a Z‐shaped dinuclear complex, and the second one is the change of the height of Z‐shaped complexes via transmetalation. By means of the pH‐dependent counterligand tren, the two motional features of the machine can depend on alternate additions of acid and base. An optical response is associated with the conversion of the linear form (which is yellow) into the metalated Z‐shaped one (which is red).     

Block designs signed over groups of order 2n3m

We introduce a new piecewise construction technique for generalised Bhaskar Rao designs and the concepts of generalised Bhaskar Rao block design pieces and holey generalised Bhaskar Rao block designs. We prove composition theorems for these designs. Using this construction technique and the theory of group representations, and the representations of $2$-groups over the field with $3$ elements, we show that the established necessary conditions for the existence of generalised Bhaskar Rao designs of block size $3$ are sufficient for all groups of order $2^n{3}^m$.