On permutation trinomials of type x2ps+r+xps+r+λxr

We determine all permutation trinomials of type x(2ps+r) + x(ps+r) + lambda x(r) over the finite field F-pt when (2p(s) + r)(4) < p(t). This partially extends a previous result by Bhattacharya and Sarkar in the case p = 2, r = 1. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Complete (k,3)-arcs from quartic curves

Complete (Formula presented.) -arcs in projective planes over finite fields are the geometric counterpart of linear non-extendible Near MDS codes of length (Formula presented.) and dimension (Formula presented.). A class of infinite families of complete (Formula presented.) -arcs in (Formula presented.) is constructed, for (Formula presented.) a power of an odd prime (Formula presented.). The order of magnitude of (Formula presented.) is smaller than (Formula presented.). This property significantly distinguishes the complete (Formula presented.) -arcs of this paper from the previously known infinite families, whose size differs from (Formula presented.) by at most (Formula presented.)

Non-minimum tensor rank Gabidulin codes

The tensor rank of some Gabidulin codes of small dimension is investigated. In particular, we determine the tensor rank of any rank metric code equivalent to an 8-dimensional Fq-linear generalized Gabidulin code in Fq4×4. This shows that such a code is never minimum tensor rank. In this way, we detect the first infinite family of Gabidulin codes which are not minimum tensor rank

Response to Dr Greenwood’s Comments on “Extending the Double-Hertz Model to Allow Modeling of an Adhesive Elliptical Contact”

© 2018, The Author(s). An adhesive elliptical contact is normally found in microscale applications that involve cylindrical solids, crossing at an angle between 0° and 90°. Currently, only one model is available to describe the elliptical contact’s surface interaction: the approximate Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR) model which is limited to soft materials. In this paper, a new adhesive elliptical model is developed for a wide range of adhesive contacts by extending the double-Hertz theory, where adhesion is modeled by the difference between two Hertzian pressure distributions. Both Hertzian pressures are assumed to have an equivalent shape of contact areas, the only difference being in size. Assuming that the annular adhesive region is obtained by the area difference between the two Hertzian contact areas, the pull-off force curves can be calculated. In the limiting case of an adhesive circular contact, the results are very close to results from the existing models. However, for an adhesive elliptical contact in the JKR domain, lower pull-off forces are predicted when compared to the JKR values. Unlike the developed model, the shape of the JKR contact area varies throughout contact. Results show, particularly for conditions close to the JKR domain, that it is important to take into account that the adhesive region is the result of the two Hertzian contact areas having a non-equivalent shape

WATER\u2013BUDGET AS A TOOL TO EVALUATE THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF GROUNDWATER RESOURCES (ISONZO PLAIN, NE ITALY)

Water budget, hydrogeology, Soča/Isonzo River, climate chang

Interannual analysis of high spatially-resolved δ18O and δ2H data in precipitation across North-East Italy

Stable water isotopes are widely-used tracers to investigate hydrological processes occurring in the atmosphere and to determine the geospatial origin of water, i.e. to acquire useful information about the hydrological cycles over catchment basins and to find the origin of water recharging rivers, aquifers, and springs. Mapping the isotopic composition of precipitation provides hydrological and climate information at regional and global scales. However, the isotopic composition of precipitation is usually analyzed at large scales with a limited spatial resolution. In Italy, a few studies mapped the oxygen stable isotopes using annually-averaged data, not accounting for the strong seasonality of the isotopic composition linked to climatic and weather factors. To partially fill this gap, the present study proposes a detailed analysis of more than 2250 isotope data (δ18O, δ2H, and deuterium excess) related to precipitations collected in the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) region (Italy) with monthly or seasonal frequency in 36 sites between 1984 and 2015. The FVG region lies at the north-eastern end of Italy, bordering Austria in the North and Slovenia in the East, and extends over ~7.9·103 km2. From a hydrogeological point of view, FVG is an interesting case study. Large highly-permeable carbonate aquifers are present in the Alps and Prealps, while the southern part of the region is characterized by an alluvial plain, split by the spring belt into two sectors: the High Plain in the North, characterized by an highly-permeable unconfined aquifer, and the Low Plain in the South, characterized by a system of confined and artesian aquifers. All the aquifers are recharged by the effective precipitations which in the FVG exhibits among the highest annual precipitation rates in Italy (with peaks >3000 mm/year). For the present research, the isotopic data were used: (i) to analyze the spatial and seasonal variability of isotopic composition; (ii) to relate water isotopes with orography and weather parameters collected from meteorological stations as well as using ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis; (iii) to reconstruct the local meteoric water lines across the FVG at annual and seasonal bases; (iv) to quantify interannual trends and analyze their spatial distribution; and (iv) to model the spatial distribution of isotope content in precipitation and create annual and seasonal maps

Live Wire - A Low-Complexity Body Channel Communication System for Landmark Identification

This paper presents a robust simplex Body Channel Communication (BCC) system aimed at providing an interactive infrastructure solution for visually impaired people. Compared to existing BCC solutions, it provides high versatility, weara- bility and installability in an environment in a low complexity hardware-software solution. It operates with a ground referred transmitter (TX) and it is based on an asynchronous thresh- old receiver (RX) architecture. Synchronization, demodulation and packetizing and threshold control are completely software defined and implemented using MicroPython. The RX includes Bluetooth® (BT) radio connectivity and a cell-phone application provides push text-to-speech notifications to a smartphone. The hardware achieves a Packet Error Rate (PER) of ∼0.1 at 550 kHz pulse center frequency, Synchronized-On Off Keying (S- OOK) modulation and 1 kbps data rate, for an average current consumption of 44mA

Productive and physiological implications of top-dress addition of branched-chain amino acids and arginine on lactating sows and offspring

BackgroundBranched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), including L-leucine (L-Leu), L-isoleucine (L-Ile), L-valine (L-Val), and L-arginine (L-Arg), play a crucial role in mammary gland development, secretion of milk and regulation of the catabolic state and immune response of lactating sows. Furthermore, it has recently been suggested that free amino acids (AAs) can also act as microbial modulators. This study aimed at evaluating whether the supplementation of lactating sows with BCAAs (9, 4.5 and 9 g/d/sow of L-Val, L-Ile and L-Leu, respectively) and/or L-Arg (22.5 g/d/sow), above the estimated nutritional requirement, could influence the physiological and immunological parameters, microbial profile, colostrum and milk composition and performance of sows and their offspring.ResultsAt d 41, piglets born from the sows supplemented with the AAs were heavier (P = 0.03). The BCAAs increased glucose and prolactin (P < 0.05) in the sows' serum at d 27, tended to increase immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgM in the colostrum (P = 0.06), increased the IgA (P = 0.004) in the milk at d 20 and tended to increase lymphocyte% in the sows' blood at d 27 (P = 0.07). Furthermore, the BCAAs tended to reduce the Chao1 and Shannon microbial indices (P < 0.10) in the sows' faeces. The BCAA group was discriminated by Prevotellaceae_UCG-004, Erysipelatoclostridiaceae UCG-004, the Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group and Treponemaberlinense. Arginine reduced piglet mortality pre- (d 7, d 14) and post-weaning (d 41) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, Arg increased the IgM in the sow serum at d 10 (P = 0.05), glucose and prolactin (P < 0.05) in the sow serum at d 27 and the monocyte percentage in the piglet blood at d 27 (P = 0.025) and their jejunal expression of NFKB2 (P = 0.035) while it reduced the expression of GPX-2 (P = 0.024). The faecal microbiota of the sows in Arg group was discriminated by Bacteroidales. The combination of BCAAs and Arg tended to increase spermine at d 27 (P = 0.099), tended to increase the Igs (IgA and IgG, P < 0.10) at d 20 in the milk, favoured the faecal colonisation of Oscillospiraceae UCG-005 and improved piglet growth.ConclusionFeeding Arg and BCAAs above the estimated requirements for milk production may be a strategy to improve sow productive performance in terms of piglet average daily gain (ADG), immune competence and survivability via modulation of the metabolism, colostrum and milk compositions and intestinal microbiota of the sows. The synergistic effect between these AAs, noticeable by the increase of Igs and spermine in the milk and in the improvement of the performance of the piglets, deserves additional investigation

Diseño, implementación y calibración de un medidor digital de confort térmico

El equipo aquí presentado ha sido desarrollado en el Grupo en Energías Renovables (GER ), contiene sensores que le permiten medir una diversidad de variables ambientales (temperatura ambiente, humedad relativa, presión atmosférica) para, a partir de las mismas, calcular el Índice de Estrés Térmico de personas. Conjuntamente se ha desarrollado un software amigable para la expansión de las capacidades de cálculo del instrumento y para la representación de los datos medidos.