Subset sum phase transitions and data compression

We propose a rigorous analysis approach for the subset sum problem in the context of lossless data compression, where the phase transition of the subset sum problem is directly related to the passage between ambiguous and non-ambiguous decompression, for a compression scheme that is based on specifying the sequence composition. The proposed analysis lends itself to straightforward extensions in several directions of interest, including non-binary alphabets, incorporation of side information at the decoder (Slepian-Wolf coding), and coding schemes based on multiple subset sums. It is also demonstrated that the proposed technique can be used to analyze the critical behavior in a more involved situation where the sequence composition is not specified by the encoder.Comment: 14 pages, submitted to the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen

IN-Palm - Technical Report: an agri-environmental indicator to assess potential nitrogen losses in oil palm plantations

[Extract] IN-Palm is an agri-environmental predictive indicator specific to oil palm plantations based on an operational model. It simulates the risk of nitrogen (N) losses from the field, through 6 loss pathways: ammonia (NH3) volatilisation; N losses through runoff-erosion; nitrous oxide (N2O), dinitrogen (N2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions; and N leaching. Simulations require 21 readily available input variables on crop factors, soil, weather and management practices. Calculations are done for one hectare of palms, for an age of palms chosen by the user, from 1 to 30-year-old

Influenza A virus-derived defective interfering particles for antiviral treatment

Here, we report on genetically engineered, propagation-incompetent influenza A virus (IAV) particles, so-called defective interfering particles (DIPs) that have been suggested as a promising novel antiviral agent. Typically, IAV DIPs harbor a large internal deletion in one of their eight genomic viral RNA (vRNA) segments. Further, DIPs are capable of hijacking cellular and viral resources upon co-infection with fully infectious standard virus (STV), resulting in an antiviral effect. Besides this replication interference, DIP infection also stimulates innate immunity, adding to the antiviral efficacy. So far, DIPs were produced in embryonated chicken eggs. To improve scalability and flexibility of processes as well as to increase product quality, we established a cell culture-based DIP production system [1,2]. This includes the development of a genetically engineered virus-cell propagation system that allows production of DIPs without the need to add infectious STV to complement missing gene functions of DIPs. Specifically, the MDCK suspension cell line generated expresses the PB2 protein [2], encoded by segment 1 (S1) of IAV, which is not expressed by “DI244” - a prototypic, well-characterized DIP harboring a deletion in S1. Using this cell culture-based production process in batch [2,3] and perfusion mode [4] at laboratory scale, we show that we can achieve very high DI244 titers of up to 2.6E+11 DIPs/mL. Infections of mice demonstrated that intranasal administration of the produced DI244 material resulted in no apparent toxic effects and in a full rescue of mice co-treated with an otherwise lethal dose of IAV [2]. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Recensiones [Revista de Historia Económica Año VII Primavera-Verano 1989 n. 2 pp. 489-536]

Alfred W. Crosby. Imperialismo ecológico. La expansión biológica de Europa, 900-1900 (Por Tomás Pérez Vejo).-- Pedro Pérez Herrero. Plata y libranzas: La articulación comercial del México borbónico (Por Carlos Marichal).-- Ramón Lanza García. Población y familia campesina en el Antiguo Régimen (Por Miguel Ángel Melón Jiménez).-- Fernando Cortés Cortés. Esclavos en la Extremadura Meridional en el Siglo XVII (Por Alfonso Rodríguez Grajera).-- Rafael Domínguez Martín. Actividades comerciales Y transformaciones agrarias en Cantabria: 1750-1850 (Por Patricio Pérez).-- Ll. Ferrer Alos. Pagesos, rebassaires i industriáisa la Catalunya central (Segles XVIII i XIX) (Por Josep Pujol Andreu).-- Ramón Garrabou (ed.). La crisis agraria de fines del Siglo XIX (Por Fausto Dopico).-- Actas del II Congreso sobre Archivos Económicos de entidades privadas; Fuentes para la historia de la banca y del comercio en España (Por Santiago M. López).-- Mario Rapoport (comp.). Economía e historia. Contribuciones a la Historia Económica Argentina (Por Carlos Rodríguez Braun).-- Vicente Pérez Moreda y David-Sven Reher (eds.). Demografía histórica en España (Por Josune Aguinaga Roustan).-- Leandro Prados de la Escosura. De Imperio a Nación: Crecimiento y atraso económico en España (1780-1930) (Por Eugene N. White).-- M. Teresa González Calbet. La Dictadura de Primo De Rivera. El directorio Militar (Por Eloy Fernández Clemente)Publicad

Delithiation/lithiation behavior of LiNi<inf>0.5</inf>Mn<inf>1.5</inf>O<inf>4</inf> studied by in situ and ex situ ^6,7Li NMR spectroscopy

Delithiation and lithiation behaviors of ordered spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 and disordered spinel LiNi0.4Mn1.6O4 were investigated by using in situ (in operando) 7Li NMR and ex situ 6Li MAS NMR spectroscopy. The in situ 7Li monitoring of the ordered spinel revealed a clear appearance and subsequent disappearance of a new signal from the well-defined phase Li0.5Ni0.5Mn1.5O4, suggesting the two-phase reaction processes among Li1.0Ni0.5Mn1.5O4, Li0.5Ni0.5Mn1.5O4, and Li0.0Ni0.5Mn1.5O4. Also, for the disordered spinel, Li0.5Ni0.4Mn1.6O4 was identified with a broad distribution in Li environment. High-resolution 6Li MAS NMR spectra were also acquired for the delithiated and lithiated samples to understand the detailed local structure around Li ions. We suggested that the nominal Li-free phase Li0.0Ni0.5Mn1.5O4 can accommodate a small amount of Li ions in its structure. The tetragonal phases Li2.0Ni0.5Mn1.5O4 and Li2.0Ni0.4Mn1.6O4, which occurred when the cell was discharged down to 2.0 V, were very different in the Li environment from each other. It is found that 6, 7Li NMR is highly sensitive not only to the Ni/Mn ordering in LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 but also to the valence changes of Ni and Mn on charge-discharge process