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Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is one of the most frequently performed clinical procedures and therapies to improve tissue oxygen delivery in hospitalized patients worldwide. Generally, the cross-match is the mandatory test in place to meet the clinical needs of RBC transfusion by examining donor-recipient compatibility with antigens and antibodies of blood groups. Blood groups are usually an individual's combination of antigens on the surface of RBCs, typically of the ABO blood group system and the RH blood group system. Accurate and reliable blood group typing is critical before blood transfusion. Serological testing is the routine method for blood group typing based on hemagglutination reactions with RBC antigens against specific antibodies. Nevertheless, emerging technologies for blood group testing may be alternative and supplemental approaches when serological methods cannot determine blood groups. Moreover, some new technologies, such as the evolving applications of blood group genotyping, can precisely identify variant antigens for clinical significance. Therefore, this review mainly presents a clinical overview and perspective of emerging technologies in blood group testing based on the literature. Collectively, this may highlight the most promising strategies and promote blood group typing development to ensure blood transfusion safety.

Platelets play a significant role in the innate and adaptive processes of immunity and inflammation. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an autoimmune disease that is widely understood to be caused by a combination of genetic predisposition, aberrant immune responses, etc. To examine the relationships between genetically determined platelet indices and IBD, we conducted a Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Data associated with platelet count (PLT), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), plateletcrit (PCT) were used from the UK Biobank. The outcome data, including IBD, Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), were from the FinnGen database. The inverse variance-weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, weighted median methods were used for MR analyses. The MR estimations from the IVW approach show a significant connection between PLT and IBD. Similarly, PCT and IBD have a relationship following the IVW and MR-Egger approaches. While PLT and PCT have strong relationships with CD, according to the findings of all three approaches respectively. Nevertheless, PDW was the only relevant indicator of UC. The only significant result was IVW's. Our findings suggest that the fluctuation of platelet indicators is of great significance in the development of IBD. PLT and PCT have a close association with IBD and CD, respectively; PDW only has a connection with UC. Platelets play an important role in the progression of IBD (UC, CD).

RT-qPCR is the accepted technique for the quantification of microRNA (miR) expression: however, stem-loop RT-PCR, the most frequently used method for quantification of miRs, is time- and reagent-consuming as well as inconvenient for scanning. We established a new method called 'universal stem-loop primer' (USLP) with 8 random nucleotides instead of a specific sequence at the 3' end of the traditional stem-loop primer (TSLP), for screening miR profile and to semi-quantify expression of miRs. Peripheral blood samples were cultured with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), and then 87 candidate miRs were scanned in cultured T cells. By USLP, our study revealed that the expression of miR-150-5p (miR-150) decreased nearly 10-fold, and miR-155-5p (miR-155) increased more than 7-fold after treated with PHA. The results of the dissociation curve and gel electrophoresis showed that the PCR production of the USLP and TSLP were specificity. The USLP method has high precision because of its low ICV (ICV<2.5%). The sensitivity of the USLP is up to 103 copies/µl miR. As compared with the TSLP, USLP saved 75% the cost of primers and 60% of the test time. The USLP method is a simple, rapid, precise, sensitive, and cost-effective approach that is suitable for screening miR profiles.

Postharvest strawberry is susceptible to gray mold disease caused by Botrytis cinerea , which seriously damage the storage capacity of fruits. Biological control has been implicated as an effective and safe method to suppress plant disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate the postharvest disease control ability of Bacillus cereus AR156 and explore the response of strawberry fruit to this biocontrol microorganism. Bacillus cereus AR156 treatment significantly suppressed gray mold disease and postponed the strawberry senescence during storage. The bacterium pretreatment remarkably enhanced the reactive oxygen-scavenging and defense-related activities of enzymes. The promotion on the expression of the encoding-genes was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) that significantly increased the expression of the marker genes of salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway, such as PR1 , PR2 , and PR5 , instead of that of the jasmonic acid (JA)/ethylene (ET) pathway, which was also shown. Moreover, through transcriptome profiling, about 6,781 differentially expressed genes (DEGS) in strawberry upon AR156 treatment were identified. The gene ontology (GO) classification and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment indicated that AR156 altered the transcription of numerous transcription factors and genes involved in the SA-related plant disease resistance, metabolism, and biosynthesis of benzoxazinoids and flavonoids. This study offered a non-antagonistic Bacillus as a method for postharvest strawberry storage and disease control, and further revealed that the biocontrol effects were arisen from the induction of host responses on the transcription level and subsequent resistance-related substance accumulation.

Background/Aims: The purpose of this study is to explore the immunoregulatory role of microRNA-21 (miR-21) targeting of the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway in macrophages in response to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) infection. Methods: After infection with BCG, mouse RAW246.7 cells were assigned into control, BCG, miR-21 mimic + BCG, mimic-negative control (NC) + BCG, miR-21 inhibitor + BCG, inhibitor-NC + BCG, BCG + TAK242 (an inhibitor of the TLR4 signaling pathway), and miR-21 inhibitor + TAK242 + BCG groups. Western blotting and qRT-PCR were used to detect the expression of miR-21, TLR4 and MyD88. The levels of TNF-a, IL-6 and IL-10 were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cell viability was measured using an MTT assay. Cell apoptosis and necrosis rates were detected using flow cytometry. Results: Compared with the control group, miR-21 expression and levels of TNF-a, IL-6 and IL-10, as well as cell apoptosis and necrosis rates, were elevated, while expression of TLR4 and MyD88, as well as cell viability, were reduced in BCG infection groups. Compared with the BCG group, miR-21 expression was increased in the miR-21 mimic + BCG group but decreased in the miR-21 inhibitor + BCG and miR-21 inhibitor + TAK242 + BCG groups. The expression of TLR4 and MyD88, as well as the cell viability, were decreased, while levels of TNF-a, IL-6 and IL-10, as well as cell apoptosis and necrosis rates, were increased in the miR-21 mimic + BCG and TAK242 + BCG groups. The opposite trends were found in the miR-21 inhibitor + BCG group. Compared with the TAK242 + BCG group, the miR-21 inhibitor + TAK242 + BCG group had higher expression of TLR4 and MyD88 as well as higher cell viability and lower levels of TNF-a, IL-6, IL-10, cell apoptosis and necrosis rates. However, the miR-21 inhibitor + TAK242 + BCG group exhibited the opposite trends when compared with the miR-21 inhibitor + BCG group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that miR-21 can negatively modulate the TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway, resulting in decreased cell viability, increased cell apoptosis and increased levels of inflammatory factors following BCG infection in macrophages.

Blast furnace ironmaking plays an important role in modern industry and the development of the economy. A reasonable ingredient scheme is crucial for energy efficiency and emission reduction in blast furnace production. Determining the right blast furnace ingredients is a complicated process; therefore, this study examines the optimization of the ingredient ratio. In this paper a model of the blast furnace ingredients is established by considering cost of per ton iron, CO2 emissions, and the theoretical coke ratio as the objective functions; ingredient parameters, process parameters, main and by-product parameters as variables; and the blast furnace smelting theory and equilibrium equation as constraints. Then, the model is solved by using an improved grey wolf optimization algorithm and an improved multi-objective grey wolf optimization algorithm. Using the data collected from the steel mill, the conclusion is that multi-objective optimization can consider the indexes of each target, so that the values of all the targets are excellent; we also compared the multi-objective solution results with the original production scheme of the steel mill, and we found that using the blast furnace ingredient scheme optimized in this study can reduce the cost of iron per ton, CO2 emissions per ton, and the theoretical coke ratio in blast furnace production by 350 CNY/t, 1000 kg/t, and 20 kg/t, respectively, compared with the original production plan. Thus, steel mill decision makers can choose the blast furnace ingredients according to different business strategies and the actual needs of steel mills can be better met.

The quality of molten iron not only has a significant impact on the strength, toughness, smelting cost and service life of cast iron but also directly affects the satisfaction of users. The establishment of timely and accurate blast furnace molten iron quality prediction models is of great significance for the improvement of the production efficiency of blast furnace. In this paper, Si, S and P content in molten iron is taken as the important index to measure the quality of molten iron, and the 989 sets of production data from a No.1 blast furnace from August to October 2020 are selected as the experimental data source, predicting the quality of molten iron by the I-GWO-CNN-BiLSTM model. First of all, on the basis of the traditional data processing method, the missing data values are classified into correlation data, temporal data, periodic data and manual input data, and random forest, the Lagrangian interpolation method, the KNN algorithm and the SVD algorithm are used to complete them, so as to obtain a more practical data set. Secondly, CNN and BiLSTM models are integrated and I-GWO optimized hyperparameters are used to form the I-GWO-CNN-BiLSTM model, which is used to predict Si, S and P content in molten iron. Then, it is concluded that using the I-GWO-CNN-BiLSTM model to predict the molten iron quality can obtain high prediction accuracy, which can provide data support for the regulation of blast furnace parameters. Finally, the MCMC algorithm is used to analyze the influence of the input variables on the Si, S and P content in molten iron, which helps the steel staff control the quality of molten iron in a timely manner, which is conducive to the smooth running of blast furnace production.

Multiple synthetic beacons are required for atmospheric-turbulence compensation in an extended-field-of-view multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) telescope. In this paper, we report on the first successful implementation of a microsecond-pulse sodium guidestars constellation laser system, based on a small angle precise polarized combining and splitting technology. At Lijiang Observatory of China, four-ways ∼20 W yellow laser beam with kHz repetition-rate and hundred- μ s pulse width were projected into the sky through one small-aperture launching telescope, and generated a distinctive four-point grouping on a field of view of 40″ with variable configurations of linear, parallelogram, rhomboid and square. The sodium return signal could easily avoid Rayleigh light interference by the pulse synchro controlling technology delivering a higher spatial resolution. Moreover, the increase in return photons for alternated circularly and alternated linearly polarized light has been investigated. We believe that the above results could serve as a future reference for the MCAO system on large-aperture telescopes worldwide.

Based on the analytical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this paper decomposed the driving factors under institutional logic and technological logic, and empirically tested the driving path of the low-carbon behavior (LCB) of contractors from the perspective of corporate cognition. Moreover, this study further explored the differences in driving factors under different logic orientations and the formation mechanism of decoupling of heterogeneous LCB. The findings of this paper are as follows. Firstly, institutional logic and technological logic jointly drive the LCB of contractors. Perceived behavior control is not a sufficient condition. Secondly, institutional logic is more effective than technological logic in terms of the direction and coefficient of the driving path. Thirdly, institutional pressure does not directly lead to the decoupling of LCB of contractors but is mediated by intrinsic motivation. These findings provide support and help to the decision makers to cultivate and improve the level of contractors’ LCB in China and many other such countries that are similarly involved.

Although hypothermia therapy is effective to treat neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy,many neonatal patients die or suffer from severe neurological dysfunction.Erythropoietin is considered one of the most promising neuroprotective agents.We hypothesized that erythropoietin combined with hypothermia will improve efficacy of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treatment.In this study,41 neonates with moderate/severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy were randomly divided into a control group（hypothermia alone for 72 hours,n = 20） and erythropoietin group（hypothermia ＋ erythropoietin 200 IU/kg for 10 days,n = 21）.Our results show that compared with the control group,serum tau protein levels were lower and neonatal behavioral neurological assessment scores higher in the erythropoietin group at 8 and 12 days.However,neurodevelopmental outcome was similar between the two groups at 9 months of age.These findings suggest that erythropoietin combined with hypothermia reduces serum tau protein levels and improves neonatal behavioral neurology outcome but does not affect long-term neurodevelopmental outcome.