Abstract: In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure, a managed marketplace analyzes marketplace statistics across different sub-markets to identify a target supply-demand ratio for each sub-market that balances the degree of supply (e.g., for a service such as product delivery) with the degree of consumer demand so as best to achieve a balance of different objectives. In each of various sub-markets, metric values are generated by corresponding prediction models for each of the supply-demand ratios for that sub-market, and the metric values are combined into a single score to determine how well that particular supply-demand ratio achieves the overall objectives of the managed marketplace. For each sub-market, the candidate supply-demand ratio leading to the greatest score is selected as the target ratio. Policies of one or more downstream subsystems are adjusted so as to shift the current supply-demand ratio of the sub-market toward the target optimal supply-demand ratio.

Abstract: There is disclosed a dry film lubricant for use in metal stamping, fabricating and forming operations. The dry film lubricant comprises a wax component suspended in an aqueous solvent. The wax component comprises a saturated wax ester having a carbon chain length from about 28 to about 44 carbons atoms in length surrounding an ester bond. The unsaturated component comprises a phosphite adduct friction modifier and an unsaturated vegetable oil or modified unsaturated vegetable oil.

Abstract: There is disclosed an improved lubricant base composition for incorporation into a wide variety of lubricating compositions. The improved lubricant base composition comprises at least two ingredients selected from jojoba oil, sulfurized jojoba oil, and a phosphite adduct of jojoba oil.