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Molting is a key solution to growth restriction in insects. The periodic synthesis and degradation of chitin, one of the major components of the insect epidermis, is necessary for insect growth. MicroRNA (miRNA) have been implicated in molting regulation, yet their involvement in the interplay interaction between the chitin synthesis pathway and 20-hydroxyecdysone signaling remains poorly understood. In this study, soluble trehalase (Tre1) and phosphoacetylglucosamine mutase (PAGM) were identified as targets of conserved miR-8-3p and miR-2a-3, respectively. The expression profiles of miR-8-3p- SfTre1 and miR-2a-3- SfPAGM exhibited an opposite pattern during the different developmental stages, indicating a negative regulatory relationship between them. This relationship was confirmed by an in vitro dual-luciferase reporter system. Overexpression of miR-8-3p and miR-2a-3 by injection of mimics inhibited the expression of their respective target genes and increased mortality, leading to death in the pre-molting, and molting death phenomena. They also caused a decrease in chitin content and expression levels of key genes in the chitin synthesis pathway (SfTre1 , SfTre2 , SfHK , SfG6PI , SfGFAT , SfGNA , SfPAGM , SfUAP , SfCHS1 , SfCHS1a , and SfCHS1b). Conversely, the injection of miRNA inhibitors resulted in the upregulation of the expression levels of these genes. Following 20E treatment, the expression levels of miR-8-3p and miR-2a-3 decreased significantly, while their corresponding target genes increased significantly. These results indicate that miR-8-3p and miR-2a-3 play a regulatory role in the molting of Sogatella furcifera by targeting SfTre1 and SfPAGM , respectively. These findings provide new potential targets for the development of subsequent new control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An energy efficient tracking algorithm（EETA） was proposed,which reduced energy consumption in sensor network by introducing an event-driven sleep scheduling mechanism.EETA gave tradeoffs between real time and energy efficiency by letting a maximum number of sensor nodes outside tracing area stay asleep,and reduced the computation complexity to O（N） by formulating the location predication of an object as a state estimation problem of sensor node,in-stead of building a complex model of its trajectory.Meanwhile,EETA located the object by using adaptive weighted cen-troid algorithm with complexity of O（N）.The method was evaluated with a network of 64 sensor nodes,as well as an analytical probabilistic model.The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.

The simulation of blast furnace slag was prepared by pure chemical reagents. Test methods like DSC, XRD and SEM were used to study the effect of Al2O3 and MgO content on crystallization of blast furnace slag during fiber formation. The results show that as Al2O3 and MgO contents in the sample changed, blast furnace slag was crystallized at the average temperature below 1232 K. When the ratio of Mg/Al in the samples is 0.6 calculated by Kissinger equation, crystallization activation energy is at the maximum value and the system is in the most stable condition. The sample crystallization phases are mainly calcium akermanite (2CaO·MgO·2SiO2) and gehlenite (2CaO·Al2O3·SiO2). Secondary crystallization phases are anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8), wollastonite minerals (WOLLA) and pyroxene minerals (cPyrA). Meanwhile, the principal crystallization phases of the samples are different types and have different contents, and the microstructures of the sample sections are different due to the difference between MgO/Al2O3 ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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