Long-term dietary intervention of the hydrolyzed feather meal on microbiota composition of adult female dogs.

This research delves into the impact of substitution of 7% of poultry meal (PM) with hydrolyzed feather meal (HFM) on the animal performance and fecal microbiota of dogs. The study was conducted on six adult female English setter dogs, split into control (CTR), and treated (TRT) dietary treatment groups, with similarity for age, initial body weight, and body condition score. During 45-days, body weight, body condition score, muscle condition score, fecal consistency score and microbiota were monitored at the beginning of the trial and after 3, 7, 15 and 45 days. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed for these parameters over the whole period of the trial, neither in relation to diet, nor to time, nor to the interaction diet x time. Significant differences were observed for alpha between diets and the TRT group displayed higher evenness compared to the CTR group. Beta diversity analysis revealed distinctions in microbiota composition between the CTR and TRT groups, with the former demonstrating higher biodiversity. Discriminant analysis highlighted 9 significant taxa and 6 of them were significantly different at the Kruskal Wallis test between diets. The results showed an increase in relative abundance (RA) for the CTR group of Streptococcus, Colinsella stercoris, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Bacteroides coprophilus. Conversely, higher RA was observed in the TRT group for Peptostreptococcaceae and Bacteroides uniformis. These findings indicated that the inclusion of hydrolyzed feather meal in the diet of dogs is well accepted and do not have adverse effects in the parameters analyzed.

Microwave-Based Subsurface Characterization through a Combined Finite Element and Variable Exponent Spaces Technique.

A microwave characterization technique to inspect subsurface scenarios is proposed and numerically assessed in this paper. The approach is based on a combination of finite element electromagnetic modeling and an inversion procedure in Lebesgue spaces with variable exponents. The former allows for description of the measurement system and subsurface scenario with high accuracy, while the latter exploits the adaptive definition of exponent function to achieve improved results in the regularized solution of the inverse scattering problem. The method has been assessed with numerical simulations regarding two-layered environments with both planar and non-planar air-soil interfaces. The results show the capabilities of the method of detecting buried objects in different operative conditions.

Through-the-Wall Microwave Imaging: Forward and Inverse Scattering Modeling.

The imaging of dielectric targets hidden behind a wall is addressed in this paper. An analytical solver for a fast and accurate computation of the forward scattered field by the targets is proposed, which takes into account all the interactions of the electromagnetic field with the interfaces of the wall. Furthermore, an inversion procedure able to address the full underlying non-linear inverse scattering problem is introduced. This technique exploits a regularizing scheme in Lebesgue spaces in order to reconstruct an image of the hidden targets. Preliminary numerical results are provided in order to initially assess the capabilities of the developed solvers.

Mapping the Dielectric Properties of Unknown Targets by Using a Network of Microwave Sensors: A Proof-of-Concept.

The subject of this paper is the possible use of a network of microwave sensors to achieve a map of the electromagnetic properties of unknown targets. The basic idea is to use a set of microwave sensors to illuminate a region of interest and to measure the resulting axial component of the electric field. Measurements are then processed by means of a technique based on inverse-scattering, which provides an estimate map of the dielectric values of the area under examination, allowing to discriminate among possible targets. In order to initially evaluate the feasibility of the proposed approach, numerical results in a simulated environment are preliminarily considered and discussed. Furthermore, an initial test on experimental data in a simplified configuration is also presented.

Three-dimensional electromagnetic imaging of dielectric targets by means of the multiscaling inexact-Newton method.

A novel approach for three-dimensional electromagnetic imaging is presented. This technique is a combination of an iterative multiscaling approach with an inexact-Newton method. The multiscaling procedure allows one to iteratively focus the region of interest on the detected target, whereas the inexact-Newton method provides an efficient regularized solution of the nonlinear electromagnetic inverse scattering problem for each scaling step. The proposed method is validated against numerical data with different configuration settings. A preliminary experimental validation is also reported.

Electromagnetic subsurface prospecting by a multifocusing inexact Newton method within the second-order Born approximation.

In this paper the reconstruction of a shallow buried object is addressed by an electromagnetic inverse scattering method based on combining different imaging modalities. In particular, the proposed approach integrates the inexact Newton (IN) method with an iterative multiscaling approach. Moreover, the use of the second-order Born approximation is exploited. A numerical validation is provided concerning the potentialities arising by combining the regularization capabilities of the IN method and the effectiveness of the multifocusing strategy to mitigate the nonlinearity and ill-posedness of the inversion problem. Comparisons with the standard "bare" approach in terms of accuracy, robustness, noise levels, and computational efficiency are also included.

Electromagnetic subsurface prospecting by a fully nonlinear multifocusing inexact Newton method.

An electromagnetic inverse scattering procedure for the reconstruction of shallow buried objects in a homogeneous half-space is proposed. The approach is based on the numerical solution of the integral equations that model inverse scattering relationships, and it extends to strong scatterers the imaging capabilities of a previously proposed approach relying on approximated formulations. The inversion is based on the synergic application of a multifocusing strategy based on the iterative multiscaling approach along with an efficient regularization scheme based on the inexact Newton method. Numerical results corroborate the mathematical description to assess capabilities and current limitations of the proposed fully nonlinear technique.

Electromagnetic imaging within the contrast-source formulation by means of the multiscaling inexact Newton method.

We introduce a new imaging technique that integrates the inexact Newton method into a multifocusing scheme within the contrast-source formulation of the inverse scattering problem. Representative results from an extensive validation concerned with both synthetic and experimental scattering data are reported to assess, also through comparisons, advantages and limitations of the proposed approach in terms of accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency.