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Motivated by the sequence reconstruction problem initiated by Levenshtein, reconstruction codes were introduced by Cai \emph{et al}. to combat errors when a fixed number of noisy channels are available. The central problem on this topic is to design codes with sizes as large as possible, such that every codeword can be uniquely reconstructed from any $N$ distinct noisy reads, where $N$ is fixed. In this paper, we study binary reconstruction codes with the constraint that every codeword is balanced, which is a common requirement in the technique of DNA-based storage. For all possible channels with a single edit error and their variants, we design asymptotically optimal balanced reconstruction codes for all $N$, and show that the number of their redundant symbols decreases from $\frac{3}{2}\log_2 n+O(1)$ to $\frac{1}{2}\log_2n+\log_2\log_2n+O(1)$, and finally to $\frac{1}{2}\log_2n+O(1)$ but with different speeds, where $n$ is the length of the code. Compared with the unbalanced case, our results imply that the balanced property does not reduce the rate of the reconstruction code in the corresponding codebook.

Quasi-polycyclic (QP for short) codes over a finite chain ring $R$ are a generalization of quasi-cyclic codes, and these codes can be viewed as an $R[x]$-submodule of $\mathcal{R}_m^{\ell}$, where $\mathcal{R}_m:= R[x]/\langle f\rangle$, and $f$ is a monic polynomial of degree $m$ over $R$. If $f$ factors uniquely into monic and coprime basic irreducibles, then their algebraic structure allow us to characterize the generator polynomials and the minimal generating sets of 1-generator QP codes as $R$-modules. In addition, we also determine the parity check polynomials for these codes by using the strong Gr\"{o}bner bases. In particular, via Magma system, some quaternary codes with new parameters are derived from these 1-generator QP codes.

We study codes with parameters of $q$-ary shortened Hamming codes, i.e., $(n=(q^m-q)/(q-1), q^{n-m}, 3)_q$. Firstly, we prove the fact mentioned in 1998 by Brouwer et al. that such codes are optimal, generalizing it to a bound for multifold packings of radius-$1$ balls, with a corollary for multiple coverings. In particular, we show that the punctured Hamming code is an optimal $q$-fold packing with minimum distance $2$. Secondly, for every admissible length starting from $n=20$, we show the existence of $4$-ary codes with parameters of shortened $1$-perfect codes that cannot be obtained by shortening a $1$-perfect code. Keywords: Hamming graph, multifold packings, multiple coverings, perfect codes.

In this paper, two different Gray-like maps from $Z_p^\alpha\times Z_{p^k}^\beta$, where $p$ is prime, to $Z_p^n$, $n={\alpha+\beta p^{k-1}}$, denoted by $\phi$ and $\Phi$, respectively, are presented. We have determined the connection between the weight enumerators among the image codes under these two mappings. We show that if $C$ is a $Z_p Z_{p^k}$-additive code, and $C^\bot$ is its dual, then the weight enumerators of the image $p$-ary codes $\phi(C)$ and $\Phi(C^\bot)$ are formally dual. This is a partial generalization of [On $Z_{2^k}$-dual binary codes, arXiv:math/0509325], and the result is generalized to odd characteristic $p$ and mixed alphabet. Additionally, a construction of $1$-perfect additive codes in the mixed $Z_p Z_{p^2} ... Z_{p^k}$ alphabet is given.

Long quasi-cyclic codes of any fixed index $>1$ have been shown to be asymptotically good, depending on Artin primitive root conjecture in (A. Alahmadi, C. G\"uneri, H. Shoaib, P. Sol\'e, 2017). We use this recent result to construct good long additive cyclic codes on any extension of fixed degree of the base field. Similarly self-dual double circulant codes, and self-dual four circulant codes, have been shown to be good, also depending on Artin primitive root conjecture in (A. Alahmadi, F. \"Ozdemir, P. Sol\'e, 2017) and ( M. Shi, H. Zhu, P. Sol\'e, 2017) respectively. Building on these recent results, we can show that long cyclic codes are good over $\F_q,$ for many classes of $q$'s. This is a partial solution to a fifty year old open problem.

We show that regular homogeneous two-weight $\mathbb{Z}_{p^k}$-codes where $p$ is odd and $k\geqslant 2$ with dual Hamming distance at least four do not exist. The proof relies on existence conditions for the strongly regular graph built on the cosets of the dual code., Comment: This paper has been submitted in early 2016

In this paper, several classes of three-weight codes and two-weight codes for the homogeneous metric over the chain ring $R=\mathbb{F}_p+u\mathbb{F}_p+\cdots +u^{k-1}\mathbb{F}_{p},$ with $u^k=0,$ are constructed, which generalises \cite{SL}, the special case of $p=k=2.$ These codes are defined as trace codes. In some cases of their defining sets, they are abelian. Their homogeneous weight distributions are computed by using exponential sums. In particular, in the two-weight case, we give some conditions of optimality of their Gray images by using the Griesmer bound. Their dual homogeneous distance is also given. The codewords of these codes are shown to be minimal for inclusion of supports, a fact favorable to an application to secret sharing schemes., Comment: This manuscript in contained in arXiv:1612.00915, thus the authors expect to withdraw it