For $r\in(0,1)$, let $\mu \left( r\right) $ be the modulus of the plane Grötzsch ring $\mathbb{B}^2\setminus[0,r]$, where $\mathbb{B}^2$ is the unit disk. In this paper, we prove that

\begin{equation*}\mu \left( r\right) =\ln \frac{4}{r}-\sum_{n=1}^{\infty }\frac{\theta _{n}}{2n}r^{2n},\end{equation*}

with $\theta _{n}\in \left( 0,1\right)$. Employing this series expansion, we obtain several absolutely monotonic and (logarithmically) completely monotonic functions involving $\mu \left( r\right) $, which yields some new results and extend certain known ones. Moreover, we give an affirmative answer to the conjecture proposed by Alzer and Richards in H. Alzer and K. Richards, On the modulus of the Grötzsch ring, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 432(1): (2015), 134–141, DOI 10.1016/j.jmaa.2015.06.057. As applications, several new sharp bounds and functional inequalities for $\mu \left( r\right) $ are established.

We consider nonlocal equations of the general form

\begin{equation} \left(a*u''\right)(\cdot)+\lambda f\big(\cdot,u(\cdot)\big)=0.\nonumber \end{equation}

It is proved that a function is nondecreasing if it is Baire one and Darboux and fulfills Lusin’s condition (N), and if its derivative is non-negative for almost every point at which the function is derivable. Using this result, a process to formulate various results on the existence and the valuation of indeterminate forms via various monotonicity theorems is illustrated. In particular, the ordinary Bernoulli-L’Hospital rule and some of its variations obtained recenty by A. M. Ostrowski are generalized.