ASTF: Visual Abstractions of Time-Varying Patterns in Radio Signals

A time-frequency diagram is a commonly used visualization for observing the time-frequency distribution of radio signals and analyzing their time-varying patterns of communication states in radio monitoring and management. While it excels when performing short-term signal analyses, it becomes inadaptable for long-term signal analyses because it cannot adequately depict signal time-varying patterns in a large time span on a space-limited screen. This research thus presents an abstract signal time-frequency (ASTF) diagram to address this problem. In the diagram design, a visual abstraction method is proposed to visually encode signal communication state changes in time slices. A time segmentation algorithm is proposed to divide a large time span into time slices.Three new quantified metrics and a loss function are defined to ensure the preservation of important time-varying information in the time segmentation. An algorithm performance experiment and a user study are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the diagram for long-term signal analyses.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

The development of laser powder bed fused nano-TiC/NiTi superelastic composites with hierarchically heterogeneous microstructure and considerable tensile recoverable strain

In this study, we fabricated the TiC nanoparticles decorated NiTi-based superelastic composites via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology. Different from reactionlessness between TiC and NiTi in the conventional processes, high energy density of laser beam triggered strong diffusion behavior of carbon atoms from TiC nanoparticles and resulted in the precipitation of TiCx and attendant Ni-rich even Ti-rich intermetallics. Interestingly, these nanoprecipitates distributed along the intricate network of connected dislocations, architecting a novel submicron-scale cellular reinforcement structure and facilitating the formation of a hierarchically heterogeneous microstructure. The migration and distribution of TiC nanoparticles as well as the forming mechanism of the submicron cellular reinforcement structure were then elaborated. The study indicated laser scanning speed had significant influence on the distribution of TiC nanoparticles, the size of cellular structure and the matrix grain orientation. At the optimized parameter, the LPBF-fabricated nano-TiC/NiTi composites exhibited a weak orientation texture along the building direction, finer cellular structure and a considerable steady recoverable strain of 2.3% at a maximum tensile loading of 300 MPa

Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a fungal disease that devastates global wheat production, with losses of billions of dollars annually. Unlike foliar diseases, FHB occurs directly on wheat spikes (inflorescences). The infection lowers grain yield and also causes the grain to be contaminated by mycotoxins produced by the Fusarium pathogen, thus imposing health threats to humans and livestock. Although plant breeders have improved wheat resistance to FHB, the lack of wheat strains with stable FHB resistance has limited progress

Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB), a fungal disease caused by Fusarium species that produce food toxins, currently devastates wheat production worldwide, yet few resistance resources have been discovered in wheat germplasm. Here, we cloned the FHB resistance gene Fhb7 by assembling the genome of Thinopyrum elongatum, a species used in wheat distant hybridization breeding. Fhb7 encodes a glutathione S-transferase (GST) and confers broad resistance to Fusarium species by detoxifying trichothecenes through de-epoxidation. Fhb7 GST homologs are absent in plants, and our evidence supports that Th. elongatum has gained Fhb7 through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from an endophytic Epichloë species. Fhb7 introgressions in wheat confers resistance to both FHB and crown rot in diverse wheat backgrounds without yield penalty, providing a solution for Fusarium resistance breeding

Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB), a fungal disease caused by Fusarium species that produce food toxins, currently devastates wheat production worldwide, yet few resistance resources have been discovered in wheat germplasm. Here, we cloned the FHB resistance gene Fhb7 by assembling the genome of Thinopyrum elongatum, a species used in wheat distant hybridization breeding. Fhb7 encodes a glutathione S-transferase (GST) and confers broad resistance to Fusarium species by detoxifying trichothecenes through de-epoxidation. Fhb7 GST homologs are absent in plants, and our evidence supports that Th. elongatum has gained Fhb7 through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from an endophytic Epichloë species. Fhb7 introgressions in wheat confers resistance to both FHB and crown rot in diverse wheat backgrounds without yield penalty, providing a solution for Fusarium resistance breeding