Many combinatorial optimization problems such as the bin packing and multiple knapsack problems involve assigning a set of discrete objects to multiple containers. These problems can be used to model task and resource allocation problems in multi-agent systems and distributed systems, and can also be found as subproblems of scheduling problems. We propose bin completion, a branch-and-bound stra...

[1] During transport, atmospheric aerosol particles experience nonlinear size-dependent deposition processes which affect their size distribution. This implies that the aerosol particle size distribution (PSD) should be well represented in three-dimensional transport models that simulate their transport and their radiative or biogeochemical impacts. In particular, mineral dust aerosols exhibit ...

An instance of the classical bin packing problem consists of a positive real C and a list L = (a1, a2, ..., an) of items with sizes 0 < s(ai) ≤ C, 1 ≤ i ≤ n; a solution to the problem is a partition of L into a minimum number of blocks, called bins, such that the sum of the sizes of the items in each bin is at most the capacity C. The capacity is just a scaling parameter; as is customary, we pu...

This paper presents a proof of the existence of computationally fast probabilistic erasure codes at distance ǫ from being MDS, namely the decoding algorithm is able with high probability to reconstruct the n letter message from any set of (1+ǫ)n letters. It can either be fixed rate or a rateless LT code [10] in that any number of code letters can be produced and each is produced independently o...

First, a hybrid cloud microphysical model was developed that incorporates both Lagrangian and Eulerian frameworks to study quantitatively the effect of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) on the precipitation of warm clouds. A parcel model and a grid model comprise the cloud model. The condensation growth of CCN in each parcel is estimated in a Lagrangian framework. Changes in cloud droplet size di...

Orthogonal packing problems are natural multidimensional generalizations of the classical bin packing problem and knapsack problem and occur in many different settings. The input consists of a set I = {r1, . . . , rn} of d-dimensional rectangular items ri = (ai,1, . . . , ai,d) and a space Q. The task is to pack the items in an orthogonal and non-overlapping manner without using rotations into ...

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the significance of spike timing in somatosensory processing is not a specific feature of the whisker cortex but a more general characteristic of the primary somatosensory cortex. We recorded ensembles of neurons using microwire arrays implanted in the deep layers of the forelimb region of the rat primary somatosensory cortex in response to ...