Phylogeny, biogeography and diversification patterns of side-necked turtles (Testudines: Pleurodira)

Pleurodires or side-necked turtles are today restricted to freshwater environments of South America, Africa– Madagascar and Australia, but in the past they were distributed much more broadly, being found also on Eurasia, India and North America, and marine environments. Two hypotheses were proposed to explain this distribution; in the first, vicariance would have shaped the current geographical distribution and, in the second, extinctions constrained a previously widespread distribution. Here, we aim to reconstruct pleurodiran biogeographic history and diversification patterns based on a new phylogenetic hypothesis recovered from the analysis of the largest morphological dataset yet compiled for the lineage, testing which biogeographical process prevailed during its evolutionary history. The resulting topology generally agrees with previous hypotheses of the group and shows that most diversification shifts were related to the exploration of new niches, e.g. littoral or marine radiations. In addition, as other turtles, pleurodires do not seem to have been much affected by either the Cretaceous– Palaeogene or the Eocene–Oligocene mass extinctions. The biogeographic analyses highlight the predominance of both anagenetic and cladogenetic dispersal events and support the importance of transoceanic dispersals as a more common driver of area changes than previously thought, agreeing with previous studies with other non-turtle lineages.Fil: Ferreira, Gabriel S.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil. Senckenberg Centre For Human Evolution And Palaeoenvironment; Alemania. Universität Tübingen; AlemaniaFil: Bronzati Filho, Mario. Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie; AlemaniaFil: Langer, Max C.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Sterli, Juliana. Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Reduction of power envelope fluctuations in OFDM signals by using neural networks

One of the main drawbacks of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) are the large fluctuations of its power envelope. In this letter, a novel and efficient scheme based on Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Networks (NN) is proposed. The NN synthesizes the Active Constellation Expansion - (ACE) technique which is able to drastically reduce envelope fluctuations. This is achieved with much lower complexity, faster convergence, and better performance compared to previously available methods.This work has been partly funded by the projects MULTI-ADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02), COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010), and the AECI Program of Research Cooperation with Morocco.Publicad

Reduction of the envelope fluctuations of multi-carrier modulations using adaptive neural fuzzy inference systems

In this paper, a novel scheme for reducing the envelope fluctuations in multi-carrier signals applying Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) is proposed and analyzed. Once trained with signals with very low envelope fluctuations, such as those obtained by the Active Constellation Expansion - Approximate Gradient Project (ACE-AGP) algorithm, ANFIS approximately reaches a similar reduction as with ACE-AGP for multi-carrier signals without the complexity and the large convergence time of conventional ACE-AGP. We show that our approach is less complex than other previous schemes and with better performanceThis work has been partly funded by projects MULTI-ADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02), COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010) and AECI Program of Research Cooperation with Morocco (A/027714/09)Publicad

High power amplifier pre-distorter based on neural-fuzzy systems for OFDM signals

In this paper, a novel High Power Amplifier (HPA) pre-distorter based on Adaptive Networks - Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals is proposed and analyzed. Models of Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA) and Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA), both memoryless and with memory, have been used for evaluation of the proposed technique. After training, the ANFIS linearizes the HPA response and thus, the obtained signal is extremely similar to the original. An average Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) of 10-6 can be easily obtained with our proposal. As a consequence, the Bit Error Rate (BER) degradation is negligible showing a better performance than what can be achieved with other methods available in the literature. Moreover, the complexity of the proposed scheme is reducedThis work was supported in part by projectsMULTIADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02) and AECI Program of Research Cooperation with MoroccoPublicad

Influence of Fibre Reinforcement on the Long-Term Behaviour of Cracked Concrete

The influence of fibre reinforcement on the long-term behaviour of cracked concrete is analysed in this work by means of a creep test. Nine concrete mixes were prepared (7 SFRCs and 2 conventional RCs) based on two basic mix designs. Concretes type I were conceived for structural precast applications and concretes type II reproduce a general purpose. Fibre dosages and conventional reinforcements were varied to represent a wide spectrum of post-peak flexural responses. In all cases with fibre reinforcement steel fibres were used. Conventional RC specimens were reinforced with two steel rebars. In addition to the variables of mix design of concrete, there are two significant variables related to the creep test: the pre-crack opening level (CMODpn) and the stress level (Ic) sustained during the test. Creep tests were performed by applying a constant flexural load on notched pre-cracked specimens and controlling crack opening evolution. Some of the specimens developed a sudden increase of crack opening deformations during the creep test. Creep coefficients and Crack Opening Rates were calculated and analysed. Creep coefficients show significant dependence on the analysed variables. The results of this experimental campaign show that creep of SFRC specimens may be similar to a traditional RC

First high resolution measurement of neutron capture resonances in 176Yb at the n_TOF CERN facility

We acknowledge to Richard Henkelmann (ITG Company) and Ulli Koester (ILL) for the 176Yb2O3 sample. F.G.I aknowledges the CERN doctoral student programme. This work was partial financial supported from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Proyectos de I+D+i: PID2020-117969RB-I00), and Junta de Andalucia projects P20-00665 and B-FQM-15-6UGR20.Several international agencies recommend the study of new routes and new facilities for producing radioisotopes with application to nuclear medicine. Lu-177 is a versatile radioisotope used for therapy and diagnosis (theranostics) of cancer with good success in neuroendocrine tumours that is being studied to be applied to a wider range of tumours. Lu-177 is produced in few nuclear reactors mainly by the neutron capture on Lu-176. However, it could be produced at high -intensity accelerator-based neutron facilities. The energy of the neutrons in accelerator-based neutron facilities is higher than in thermal reactors. Thus, experimental data on the Yb-176(n,(sic)) cross-section in the eV and keV region are mandatory to calculate accurately the production of Yb-177, which beta decays to 177Lu. At present, there are not experimental data available from thermal to 3 keV of the Yb-176(n,(sic)) cross-section. In addition, there is no data in the resolved resonance region (RRR). This contribution shows the first results of the Yb-176 capture measurement performed at the n_TOF facility at CERN.Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government PID2020-117969RB-I00Junta de Andalucía P20-00665, B-FQM-15-6UGR2

Neutron capture and total cross-section measurements on 94,95,96Mo at n_TOF and GELINA

This work was supported by the EUFRAT open-access project of the JRC Geel and received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 847594 (ARIEL).Capture and total cross section measurements for 94'95'96 MO have been performed at the neutron time -of-flight facilities, n_TOF at CERN and GELINA at JRC-Geel. The measurements were performed using isotopically enriched samples with an enrichment above 95% for each of the (94'95'96)M0 isotopes. The capture measurements were performed at n_TOF using C6D6 detectors and a new sTED detector. The transmission measurements were performed at a 10 m station of GELINA using a Li-6 glass neutron detector. Preliminary results of these measurements are presented.EUFRAT open-access project of the JRC GeelEuratom 84759

The n_TOF NEAR Station Commissioning and first physics case

The NEAR Station is a new experimental area developed at the n_TOF Facility at CERN. The activation station of NEAR underwent a characterization of the beam following the installation of the new n_TOF Spallation Target. The commissioning of the neutron beam comprises a set of simulations made with the FLUKA code and experimental verification. The experimental determination of the neutron spectrum was made using activation techniques with three separate set-ups. Two set-ups were based on the Multi-foil Activation technique (MAM-1 and MAM-2), and the third set-up relied on the process of neutron moderation and activation of a single material (ANTILoPE). The three set-ups are presented. Also the present plans and future perspectives of the activation station of NEAR are discussed

Characterisation of the n_TOF 20 m beam line at CERN with the new spallation target

The n_TOF facility hosts CERN's pulsed neutron source, comprising two beam lines of different flight paths and one activation station. It is based on a proton beam delivered by the PS accelerator impinging on a lead spallation target. During Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) at CERN (2019-2021), a major upgrade of the spallation target was carried out in order to optimize the performances of the neutron beam. Therefore, the characteristics of n_TOF two experimental areas were investigated in detail. In this work, the focus is on the second experimental area (EAR2), located 20 m above the spallation target. Preliminary results of the neutron energy distribution and beam line energy resolution are presented, compared to previous experimental campaigns and Monte Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code. Moreover, preliminary results of the spatial beam profile measurements are shown