Let $X$ be an $n$-dimensional, finite, simply connected CW complex and set $\alpha_X =\limsup_i \frac{\log\mbox{ rank}\, \pi_i(X)}{i}$. When $0\lt \alpha_X\lt \infty$, we give upper and lower bound for $ \sum_{i=k+2}^{k+n} \textrm{rank}\, \pi_i(X) $ for $k$ sufficiently large. We show also for any $r$ that $\alpha_X$ can be estimated from the integers rk$\,\pi_i(X)$, $i\leq nr$ with an error bound depending explicitly on $r$.

We investigate the number of integral solutions possessed by a pair of diagonal cubic equations in a large box. Provided that the number of variables in the system is at least fourteen, and in addition the number of variables in any non-trivial linear combination of the underlying forms is at least eight, we obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of integral solutions consistent with the product of local densities associated with the system.

Let $\lambda$ be a fixed integer exceeding $1$ and $s_n$ any strictly increasing sequence of positive integers satisfying $s_n\le n^{15/14+o(1)}.$ In this paper we give a version of the large sieve inequality for the sequence $\lambda^{s_n}.$ In particular, we obtain nontrivial estimates of the associated trigonometric sums ``on average" and establish equidistribution properties of the numbers $\lambda^{s_n} , n\le p(\log p)^{2+\varepsilon}$, modulo $p$ for most primes $p.$