Equilibrium balking strategies for a clearing queueing system in alternating environment

We consider a Markovian clearing queueing system, where the customers are accumulated according to a Poisson arrival process and the server removes all present customers at the completion epochs of exponential service cycles. This system may represent the visits of a transportation facility with unlimited capacity at a certain station. The system evolves in an alternating environment that influences the arrival and the service rates. We assume that the arriving customers decide whether to join the system or balk, based on a natural linear reward-cost structure. We study the balking behavior of the customers and derive the corresponding Nash equilibrium strategies under various levels of information.     

Antioxidants and inflammatory disease: synthetic and natural antioxidants with anti-inflammatory activity

Oxidants play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a number of disorders such as inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, psoriasis and contact dermatitis leading to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress may be defined as an imbalance between cellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense mechanisms. ROS (e.g., superoxide radical, peroxynitryl, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide) are constantly produced as a result of metabolic reactions in living systems. The aim of this review is to describe recent developments in the study of antioxidants and their role in preventing the formation of ROS. The processes associated with inflammatory responses are complex and often involve ROS. There are many mediators, which initiate and amplify the inflammatory response such as histamine, serotonin, pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1B (IL-1b) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), inflammatory cells (leukotrienes, macrophages), metabolic products of arachidonic acid (thomboxane A(2), prostaglandins and leukotrienes). The first part of this review focuses on the role of ROS in inflammation. The second part concerns synthetic antioxidants with antiinflammatory activity, and the third part addresses naturally occurring antioxidants with antiinflammatory activity.     

Algorithmic analysis of the Geo/Geo/c retrial queue

In this paper, we consider a discrete-time queue of Geo/Geo/c type with geometric repeated attempts. It is known that its continuous counterpart, namely the M/M/c queue with exponential retrials, is analytically intractable due to the spatial heterogeneity of the underlying Markov chain, caused from the retrial feature. In discrete-time, the occurrence of multiple events at each slot increases the complexity of the model and raises further computational difficulties. We propose several algorithmic procedures for the efficient computation of the main performance measures of this system. More specifically, we investigate the stationary distribution of the system state, the busy period and the waiting time. Several numerical examples illustrate the analysis.     

Equilibrium balking strategies in the observable single-server queue with breakdowns and repairs

We consider the Markovian single-server queue that alternates between on and off periods. Upon arriving, the customers observe the queue length and decide whether to join or balk. We derive equilibrium threshold balking strategies in two cases, according to the information for the server’s state.     

A tractable LIBOR model with default risk

We develop a model for the dynamic evolution of default-free and defaultable interest rates in a LIBOR framework. Utilizing the class of affine processes, this model produces positive LIBOR rates and spreads, while the dynamics are analytically tractable under defaultable forward measures. This leads to explicit formulas for CDS spreads, while semi-analytical formulas are derived for other credit derivatives. Finally, we give an application to counterparty risk.     

Effect of the deaeration on the adsorption of some cationic surfactants at the mercury/electrolyte solution interface

The effect of the deaeration on the adsorption of three cationic surfactants cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (CDBACl), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (OTAB) at the mercury/electrolyte solution interface is studied. The deaeration is studied using either nitrogen or helium and the effect of deaeration process and time is also studied. In all cases an effect of the deaeration time is found which is mainly observed at potentials where a condensed film is formed. Capacity-time curves at the potentials where the film is formed show a nucleation and growth mechanism with induction time that depends on the deaeration time. The deaeration slows down the kinetics of the film formation but does not change the equilibrium capacitance value of the film. The decrease of the dissolved gas from the water that perturbs its structure is perhaps the main reason for the behaviour observed during the adsorption of these surfactants.     

Building a new mind set in tomorrow fashion development through circular strategy models in the framework of waste management

Energy, food, and clothing are the three main components of humanity. Each one individually and all together contribute to climate change and CO₂ emissions, to the consumption of natural resources, as well as influencing social attitude and behaviour. The global trends of the fashion industry are projected to expand in value from $1.5 trillion in 2020 to about $2.25 trillion by 2025, presenting that the fashion request is on continual growth. As natural resources (e.g., water) to produce clothes and shoes are limited nowadays, more resource-efficient production pathways must be identified; moreover, natural materials must replace plastic fibres, natural colours must replace synthetic ones, and ‘buy-and throw-way philosophy’ must turn into ‘buy-less-and-these-are-needed’ as so to reduce the environmental footprint of the fashion sector. This work emphasized the necessity of developing a new business circular model for the fashion industry with the potential of providing plethora of economic opportunities in the framework of waste management. Clear vision and new strategy development in the fashion sector is proposed, including the involvement of customers, businesses and policy makers, driven by the promotion of circular economy through knowledge exchange, education as well as regulatory relief measures for a synergic transition towards the circularity of the fashion industry.     

On the adsorption and condensed film formation of binary mixtures of dodecyl-, tetradecyl-, hexadecyl-, and octadecyl-trimethylammonium bromides at the mercury–electrolyte interface

The adsorption and condensed film formation on mercury at the negative potential region for binary mixtures of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (OTAB) is studied in KBr at various temperatures from 5 to 45 °C. The formation of the CTAB condensed film is hindered with the addition of DTAB and TTAB. There are interactions between unlike hydrophobic chains. The strong interactions between the CTAB molecules do not take place when DTAB or TTAB is present above a certain concentration. This hindering is more pronounced in the case of TTAB compared to the same DTAB concentration, i.e. the increase of the chain length hinders the film formation. The initially adsorbed molecules play a templating role in the kinetics of the film formation and in the self-assembling of the molecules. The initial induction time strongly depends on the temperature. The less surface active CTAB can hinder the OTAB film formation in binary mixtures. Also, increased interaction between OTAB and CTAB can be observed, indicating synergy effects in the film formation in some cases. The temperature range that the film is formed can be changed using mixtures of surfactants. Thus, the development of the film can become impossible, more difficult or even easier. Hysteresis phenomena are observed. The capacity versus time curves in the case that condensed film is formed are treated with the Avrami plot formulation, giving values between 1.5 and 2 indicating a progressive one dimensional nucleation with constant growth rate or a decrease of the nucleation rate during the overall film formation. There is generally a marked effect of the chain length of the alkyl chain on the film formation.     

C−H Oxygenation Reactions Enabled by Dual Catalysis with Electrogenerated Hypervalent Iodine Species and Ruthenium Complexes

The catalytic generation of hypervalent iodine(III) reagents by anodic electrooxidation was orchestrated towards an unprecedented electrocatalytic C?H oxygenation of weakly coordinating aromatic amides and ketones. Thus, catalytic quantities of iodoarenes in concert with catalytic amounts of ruthenium(II) complexes set the stage for versatile C?H activations with ample scope and high functional group tolerance. Detailed mechanistic studies by experiment and computation substantiate the role of the iodoarene as the electrochemically relevant species towards C?H oxygenations with electricity as a sustainable oxidant and molecular hydrogen as the sole by‐product. para‐Selective C?H oxygenations likewise proved viable in the absence of directing groups.