Comparison of kinematics and joint moments calculations for lower limbs during gait using markerless and marker-based motion capture.

Objective: This study aimed at quantifying the difference in kinematic and joint moments calculation for lower limbs during gait utilizing a markerless motion system (TsingVA Technology, Beijing, China) in comparison to values estimated using a marker-based motion capture system (Nokov Motion Capture System, Beijing, China). Methods: Sixteen healthy participants were recruited for the study. The kinematic data of the lower limb during walking were acquired simultaneously based on the markerless motion capture system (120 Hz) and the marker-based motion capture system (120 Hz). The ground reaction force was recorded synchronously using a force platform (1,200 Hz). The kinematic and force data were input into Visual3D for inverse dynamics calculations. Results: The difference in the lower limb joint center position between the two systems was the least at the ankle joint in the posterior/anterior direction, with the mean absolute deviation (MAD) of 0.74 cm. The least difference in measuring lower limb angles between the two systems was found in flexion/extension movement, and the greatest difference was found in internal/external rotation movement. The coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) of the lower limb three joint moments for both systems exceeded or equaled 0.75, except for the ad/abduction of the knee and ankle. All the Root Mean Squared Deviation (RMSD) of the lower limb joint moment are below 18 N·m. Conclusion: The markerless motion capture system and marker-based motion capture system showed a high similarity in kinematics and inverse dynamic calculation for lower limbs during gait in the sagittal plane. However, it should be noted that there is a notable deviation in ad/abduction moments at the knee and ankle.

BmC/EBPZ gene is essential for the larval growth and development of silkworm, Bombyx mori.

The genetic male sterile line (GMS) of the silkworm Bombyx mori is a recessive mutant that is naturally mutated from the wild-type 898WB strain. One of the major characteristics of the GMS mutant is its small larvae. Through positional cloning, candidate genes for the GMS mutant were located in a region approximately 800.5 kb long on the 24th linkage group of the silkworm. One of the genes was Bombyx mori CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein zeta (BmC/EBPZ), which is a member of the basic region-leucine zipper transcription factor family. Compared with the wild-type 898WB strain, the GMS mutant features a 9 bp insertion in the 3'end of open reading frame sequence of BmC/EBPZ gene. Moreover, the high expression level of the BmC/EBPZ gene in the testis suggests that the gene is involved in the regulation of reproduction-related genes. Using the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout system, we found that the BmC/EBPZ knockout strains had the same phenotypes as the GMS mutant, that is, the larvae were small. However, the larvae of BmC/EBPZ knockout strains died during the development of the third instar. Therefore, the BmC/EBPZ gene was identified as the major gene responsible for GMS mutation.

A Pluripotential Neutrophil-Mimic Nanovehicle Modulates Immune Microenvironment with Targeted Drug Delivery for Augmented Antitumor Chemotherapy.

The limited therapeutic outcomes and severe systemic toxicity of chemotherapy remain major challenges to the current clinical antitumor therapeutic regimen. Tumor-targeted drug delivery that diminishes the undifferentiated systemic distribution is a practical solution to ameliorating systemic toxicity. However, the tumor adaptive immune microenvironment still poses a great threat that compromises the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy by promoting the tolerance of the tumor cells. Herein, a pluripotential neutrophil-mimic nanovehicle (Neutrosome(L)) composed of an activated neutrophil membrane-incorporated liposome is proposed to modulate the immune microenvironment and synergize antitumor chemotherapy. The prominent tumor targeting capability inherited from activated neutrophils and the improved tumor penetration ability of Neutrosome(L) enable considerable drug accumulation in tumor tissues (more than sixfold that of free drug). Importantly, Neutrosome(L) can modulate the immune microenvironment by restricting neutrophil infiltration in tumor tissue, which may be attributed to the neutralization of inflammatory cytokines, thus potentiating antitumor chemotherapy. As a consequence, the treatment of cisplatin-loaded Neutrosome(L) performs prominent tumor suppression effects, reduces systemic drug toxicity, and prolongs the survival period of tumor-bearing mice. The pluripotential neutrophil-mimic nanovehicle proposed in this study can not only enhance the tumor accumulation of chemotherapeutics but also modulate the immune microenvironment, providing a compendious strategy for augmented antitumor chemotherapy.

Genetic and transcriptome analysis of the smb mutant in Bombyx mori.

More than 600 mutations have been discovered in the history of silkworm domestication. It is important to study the formation mechanism of these mutations to further understand the life and development process of silkworms and agricultural pest control. The silkworm mutant smb was isolated from silkworm strain NCV, and transcriptome analysis was performed on the silkworm mutant. 796 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected at 48 h of the second instar stage with 669 genes significantly upregulated and 127 genes significantly downregulated. During the GO enrichment analysis, it was found that the enrichment of biological processes was mainly concentrated in proteolysis, carbohydrate metabolism, aminoglycan metabolism, organic substance metabolism, protein metabolism and so on. Based on the analysis of KEGG pathways, it revealed that the pathways enriched in lysosomes, AMPK signaling, fatty acid metabolism, PPAR signaling, galactose metabolism, and protein digestion and absorption were the most significant. Through these most significantly enriched GO terms and KEGG pathways, DEGs consistent with the phenotypic characteristics of the smb mutant were identified, including small body size, slow development, and successive death after the fourth instar. These results provided experimental evidence for the potential formation mechanism of smb mutants.

Nanozyme-Integrated Thermoresponsive In Situ Forming Hydrogel Enhances Mesenchymal Stem Cell Viability and Paracrine Effect for Efficient Spinal Cord Repair.

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has emerged as a promising strategy for the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the hostile microenvironment of SCI, which can adversely affect the survival and paracrine effect of the implanted MSCs, severely limits the therapeutic efficacy of this approach. Here, we report on a ceria nanozyme-integrated thermoresponsive in situ forming hydrogel (CeNZ-gel) that can enable dual enhancement of MSC viability and paracrine effect, leading to highly efficient spinal cord repair. The sol-gel transition property of the CeNZ-gel at body temperature ensures uniform coverage of the hydrogel in injured spinal cord tissues. Our results demonstrate that the CeNZ-gel significantly increases the viability of transplanted MSCs in the microenvironment by attenuating oxidative stress and, more importantly, promotes the secretion of angiogenic factors from MSCs by inducing autophagy of MSCs. The synergy between the oxidative stress-relieving effect of CeNZs and the paracrine effect of MSCs accelerates angiogenesis, nerve repair, and motor function recovery after SCI, providing an efficient strategy for MSC-based SCI therapy.

The Contributions of Trace Elements on Molecular Subtype-Specific Colorectal Cancer.

Purpose: Although growing studies have reported the disturbances of trace elements (TEs) homeostasis was closely associated with the occurrence of colorectal cancer (CRC), the clinical value of TEs in CRC with different molecular subtypes was largely unknown. This study aimed to explore the correlation between KRAS mutations/MSI status and serum TEs levels in patients with CRC. Methods: The serum concentrations of 18 TEs were detected by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICP-MS). MSI status (two mononucleotides: BAT25, BAT26, three dinucleotides: D2S123, D5S346, and D17S250), KRAS (G516T, G517A, G518C, G520T, G521A, G522C, and G532A) mutations were detected by the multiplex fluorescent PCR and the real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR, respectively. The correlations among KRAS mutations/MSI status, demographic and clinical characteristics, and TEs were analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis. Results: The propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was adopted to minimize differences between groups. Before PSM, 204 CRC patients were recruited in this study, including 123 KRAS-negative patients and 81 KRAS-positive patients according to the test results of KRAS mutations, and 165 MSS patients and 39 MSI patients based on MSI detection. After PSM, the serum concentration of Mn was significantly lower in CRC patients with KRAS mutations than those without KRAS mutations, and a significant negative correlation was observed between Mn and Pb in the KRAS-positive cases. CRC patients carrying MSI had a significantly lower level of Rb compared to MSS patients. Importantly, Rb was significantly positively correlated with Fe, Mn, Se, and Zn in patients with MSI. Collectively, all our data indicated that the occurrence of different molecular events might be accompanied by different alterations in types and levels of serum TEs. Conclusions: CRC patients with different molecular subtypes presented different alterations in types and levels of serum TEs. Mn was significantly negatively correlated with the KRAS mutations, and Rb was noticeably negatively correlated with the MSI status, indicating certain TEs might contribute to the pathogenesis of molecular subtype-specific colorectal cancer.

Transcriptome analysis of anorexic and preferred silkworms (Bombyx mori) on artificial diet.

The silkworm, Bombyx mori, is an important oligophagous economic insect and feeding habits of different silkworm varieties to artificial diet are different. Research on the mechanisms of feeding habits on artificial diet, and breeding of silkworm varieties adapted on artificial diet, which is a necessary condition for industrial silkworm rearing, is currently lacking. For an artificial diet, Xin was anorexic, whereas Haoyue A showed a strong appetite. When the two varieties were crossed, the F1 generation showed a poor appetite for the artificial diet and had a setae dispersion rate of <50 %. However, the F2 generation, self-bred progeny of F1, had a good appetite for the artificial diet, with a setae dispersion rate of 70 %. Herein, transcriptome analysis was conducted on the F2 generation, comparing individuals with anorexic and preferred feeding habits, and 2188 differential genes were identified, with 1524 genes up-regulated and 934 genes down-regulated. Several genes were identified to contribute to feeding habits, such as genes involved olfactory system, energy supply, and cell proliferation and differentiation. GO enrichment revealed a large number of DEGs related to behavior, growth, signaling, developmental process, response to stimulation, and other pathways. Furthermore, proteins closely related to feeding were expressed differently. Some DEGs were selected for qRT-PCR, and results indicated the reliability of the DEG results. The DEGs between individuals with anorexic and preferred feeding habits were screened by RNA-Seq technology, which provides a reliable reference to study molecule mechanisms of feeding habits on artificial diet.

Neuronal Serpina3n is an endogenous protector against blood brain barrier damage following cerebral ischemic stroke.

Ischemic stroke results in blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, during which the reciprocal interaction between ischemic neurons and components of the BBB appears to play a critical role. However, the underlying mechanisms for BBB protection remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that Serpina3n, a serine protease inhibitor, was significantly upregulated in the ischemic brain, predominantly in ischemic neurons from 6 hours to 3 days after stroke. Using neuron-specific adeno-associated virus (AAV), intranasal delivery of recombinant protein, and immune-deficient Rag1-/- mice, we demonstrated that Serpina3n attenuated BBB disruption and immune cell infiltration following stroke by inhibiting the activity of granzyme B (GZMB) and neutrophil elastase (NE) secreted by T cells and neutrophils. Furthermore, we found that intranasal delivery of rSerpina3n significantly attenuated the neurologic deficits after stroke. In conclusion, Serpina3n is a novel ischemic neuron-derived proteinase inhibitor that counterbalances BBB disruption induced by peripheral T cell and neutrophil infiltration after ischemic stroke. These findings reveal a novel endogenous protective mechanism against BBB damage with Serpina3n being a potential therapeutic target in ischemic stroke.

Advanced Therapies for Traumatic Central Nervous System Injury: Delivery Strategy Reinforced Efficient Microglial Manipulation.

Traumatic central nervous system (CNS) injuries, including spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, are challenging enemies of human health. Microglia, the main component of the innate immune system in CNS, can be activated postinjury and are key participants in the pathological procedure and development of CNS trauma. Activated microglia can be typically classified into pro-inflammatory (M1) and anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotypes. Reducing M1 polarization while promoting M2 polarization is thought to be promising for CNS injury treatment. However, obstacles such as the low permeability of the blood-brain barrier and short retention time in circulation limit the therapeutic outcomes of administrated drugs, and rational delivery strategies are necessary for efficient microglial regulation. To this end, proper administration methods and delivery systems like nano/microcarriers and scaffolds are investigated to augment the therapeutic effects of drugs, while some of these delivery systems have self-efficacies in microglial manipulation. Besides, systems based on cell and cell-derived exosomes also show impressive effects, and some underlying targeting mechanisms of these delivery systems have been discovered. In this review, we introduce the roles of microglia play in traumatic CNS injuries, discuss the potential targets for the polarization regulation of microglial phenotype, and summarize recent studies and clinical trials about delivery strategies on enhancing the effect of microglial regulation and therapeutic outcome, as well as targeting mechanisms post CNS trauma.

A Method for Detection of Corn Kernel Mildew Based on Co-Clustering Algorithm with Hyperspectral Image Technology.

Hyperspectral imaging can simultaneously acquire spectral and spatial information of the samples and is, therefore, widely applied in the non-destructive detection of grain quality. Supervised learning is the mainstream method of hyperspectral imaging for pixel-level detection of mildew in corn kernels, which requires a large number of training samples to establish the prediction or classification models. This paper presents an unsupervised redundant co-clustering algorithm (FCM-SC) based on multi-center fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering and spectral clustering (SC), which can effectively detect non-uniformly distributed mildew in corn kernels. This algorithm first carries out fuzzy c-means clustering of sample features, extracts redundant cluster centers, merges the cluster centers by spectral clustering, and finally finds the category of corresponding cluster centers for each sample. It effectively solves the problems of the poor ability of the traditional fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm to classify the data with complex structure distribution and the complex calculation of the traditional spectral clustering algorithm. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm could describe the complex structure of mildew distribution in corn kernels and exhibits higher stability, better anti-interference ability, generalization ability, and accuracy than the supervised classification model.

Stimulation by Exosomes from Hypoxia Preconditioned Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells Facilitates Mesenchymal Stem Cells Angiogenic Function for Spinal Cord Repair.

Revascularization treatment is a critical measure for tissue engineering therapies like spinal cord repair. As multipotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have proven to regulate the lesion microenvironment through feedback to the microenvironment signals. The angiogenic capacities of MSCs have been reported to be facilitated by vein endothelial cells in the niche. As emerging evidence demonstrated the roles of exosomes in cell-cell and cell-microenvironment communications, to cope with the ischemia complication for treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury, the study extracts the microenvironment factors to stimulate angiogenic MSCs through using exosomes (EX) derived from hypoxic preconditioned (HPC) human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The HPC treatment with a hypoxia time segment of only 15 min efficiently enhanced the function of EX in facilitating MSCs angiogenesis activity. MSCs stimulated by HPC-EX showed significant tube formation within 2 h, and the in vivo transplantation of the stimulated MSCs elicited effective nerve tissue repair after rat spinal cord transection, which could be attributed to the pro-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory impacts of the MSCs. Through the simulation of MSCs using HPC-tailored HUVEC exosomes, the results proposed an efficient angiogenic nerve tissue repair strategy for spinal cord injury treatment and could provide inspiration for therapies based on stem cells and exosomes.

Hypoxia-stimulated mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes loaded by adhesive hydrogel for effective angiogenic treatment of spinal cord injury.

Due to the limited efficacy of current clinical treatment strategies, functional recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) remains a knotty problem to be solved. Apart from anti-inflammation and cell replenishing treatments, accumulating evidence implies that promoting angiogenesis would also potentially benefit tissue regeneration after SCI. In this research, inspired by the role of exosomes in cell-cell communication and exosomal alteration resulting from cells under stress, exosomes were engineered through hypoxia stimulation to mesenchymal stem cells and were proposed as an alternative for promoting angiogenesis in SCI therapy. Hypoxia-stimulated exosomes (hypo-Exo) were transplanted into the injured spinal cord via encapsulation in a peptide-modified adhesive hydrogel for pro-angiogenic therapy of SCI. The adhesive peptide PPFLMLLKGSTR-modified hyaluronic acid hydrogel replenished the spinal cavity caused by SCI and achieved the local delivery of exosomes. The hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha content in hypo-Exo was significantly increased, resulting in the overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor in the endothelial cells surrounding the transplant system. Ultimately, prominent angiogenesis and functional recovery after injury were demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo, indicating the immense potential of hydrogel-encapsulated hypo-Exo in treating central nervous system trauma and other ischemia diseases.

Comparative analysis of testis transcriptome between a genetic male sterile line (GMS) and its wild-type 898WB in silkworm, Bombyx mori.

The silkworm, Bombyx mori, is an important model organism of lepidopteran insects, and its testis is a main male reproductive organ and spermatogenesis place. Studying the testis helps to understand the mechanisms of genetic sterility of lepidopteran insects and to achieve sterile insect technique (SIT) for pest control. Herein, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis of testes between three biological replicates of the GMS mutant and wild strain 898WB, respectively. In total, 1872 up-regulated genes and 1823 down-regulated genes were identified in the testis of the GMS mutant. Several genes contribute significantly to spermatogenesis and testis development, such as "serine/threonine protein kinase", "organic cation transporter protein", "tyrosine protein kinase", "lncRNAs" and "immune-associated genes". The KEGG pathway analysis shows that the DEGs were annotated to 123 pathways, and 10 pathways were significantly enriched, such as "metabolic pathway", "biosynthesis of amino acids", and "phagosome-lysosome pathway", which are associated with testis development and spermatogenesis. The results of the qPCR expression were consistent with the RNA-seq data, which shows that the RNA-seq results were accurate. The DEGs of the testes between GMS mutant and 898WB were screened by RNA-Seq technology, which provides a reliable reference to understand the molecule mechanism of male sterility of the GMS mutant.

Synergistic effects of multiple enzymes from industrial Aspergillus niger strain O1 on starch saccharification.

BACKGROUND: Starch is one of the most important renewable polysaccharides in nature for production of bio-ethanol. The starch saccharification step facilitates the depolymerization of starch to yield glucose for biofuels production. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger (A. niger) is the most used microbial cell factory for production of the commercial glucoamylase. However, the role of each component in glucoamylases cocktail of A. niger O1 for starch saccharification remains unclear except glucoamylase. RESULTS: In this study, we identified the key enzymes contributing to the starch saccharification process are glucoamylase, α-amylase and acid α-amylase out of 29 glycoside hydrolases from the 6-day fermentation products of A. niger O1. Through the synergistic study of the multienzymes for the starch saccharification in vitro, we found that increasing the amount of α-amylase by 5-10 times enhanced the efficiency of starch saccharification by 14.2-23.2%. Overexpression of acid α-amylase in strain O1 in vivo increased the total glucoamylase activity of O1 cultures by 15.0%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study clarifies the synergistic effects among the components of glucoamylases cocktail, and provides an effective approach to optimize the profile of saccharifying enzymes of strain O1 for improving the total glucoamylase activity.

Risk factors for developing high-output ileostomy in CRC patients: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Anastomotic leakage is one of the most serious postoperative complications of rectal cancer. Prophylactic ileostomy has been widely used to reduce the risk and severity of complications of anastomotic leakage. However, prophylactic ileostomy itself has some complications, and ileostomy high output syndrome (HOS) is one of them. This study was performed to explore the risk factors of HOS in ileostomy. METHODS: A total of 114 patients with HOS were screened out from 494 eligible ileostomy patients in the last 5 years. The relationship between HOS and the clinicopathological data was analyzed using the Chi-square test and Fisher's exact probability. Multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression. RESULTS: The incidence of HOS was 23.07% in this study. Dehydration was the most common symptom of HOS (37.7%). There was no clear correlation between HOS occurrence with sex, age, gross typing, histological grade, tumor location, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage (p > 0.05). The incidence of HOS was 14/18 in inflammatory bowel disease patients, 18/28 in diabetes mellitus patients, and 23/72 in neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy patients, 13/17 in total colectomy and abdominal infection patients. Multivariate analysis showed that they are risk factors for HOS (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: HOS occurred occasionally but rarely studied and lacks attention. Inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus, neoadjuvant radiotherapy chemotherapy, total colectomy and abdominal infection are the risk factors for HOS.

The Relationship Between the Contact Force at the Ankle Hook and the Hamstring Muscle Force During the Nordic Hamstring Exercise.

A novel device has been developed to assess eccentric hamstring strength during the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) by measuring the contact force at the ankle hook (brace). The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between the force measured at the ankle hook and the hamstring force estimated by a low extremity model. Thirteen male college sprinters were recruited to perform NHE on an instrumented device Nordbord (Vald Performance, Australia). Contact forces were measured at a sampling rate of 50 Hz at the hooks using the uniaxial load cells. 3D kinematics were measured simultaneously at a sampling rate of 200 Hz using a 16-camera motion analysis system (Vicon Motion Analysis, Oxford, United Kingdom) during the NHE. The data were processed with Visual 3D (C-Motion, Germantown, MD, United States) and OpenSim (NCSRR, Stanford, CA, United States) to calculate the knee joint center's coordinates and hamstring moment arms during NHE. A static low extremity model was built to estimate the hamstring force during NHE. We have observed a significant but not very high correlation (r 2 = 0.58) between peak hamstring force and the peak contact force at the ankle hook. The peak contact force measured at the ankle hook can only explain a little more than half of the variations in peak hamstring muscle forces during NHE. Caution must be exercised when assessing the eccentric hamstring strength using the ankle contact force during NHE.

Engineered LPMO Significantly Boosting Cellulase-Catalyzed Depolymerization of Cellulose.

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) play a crucial role in the enzymatic depolymerization of cellulose through oxidative cleavage of the glycosidic bond in the highly recalcitrant crystalline cellulose region. Improving the activity of LPMOs is of considerable importance for second-generation biorefinery. In this study, we identified a beneficial amino acid substitution (N526S) located in the cellulose binding module (CBM) of HcLPMO10 (LPMO of Hahella chejuensis) using directed evolution. The improved variant HcLPMO10 M1 (N526S) exhibits 2.1-fold higher activity for the H2O2 production, 2.7-fold higher oxidation activity, and 1.9-fold higher binding capacity toward cellulose compared with those of the wild type (WT). Furthermore, M1 shows 2.1-fold higher activity for degradation of crystalline cellulose in synergy with cellulase, compared to the WT. Structural analysis through molecular modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation revealed that the substitution N526S located in the CBM likely stabilizes the cellulose binding surface and enhances the binding capacity of HcLPMO10 to cellulose, thereby enhancing enzyme activity. These findings demonstrate the important role of the CBM in the catalytic function of LPMO.

Determination of the optimal detection time of circulating tumor cells for the postoperative monitoring of colorectal cancer.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are widely used in cancer screening and monitoring. The present study focused on investigating the optimal time for the postoperative CTC detection in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) to obtain more accurate results and facilitate subsequent treatment. By subtraction enrichment immunofluorescence in situ hybridization detection of CTCs, the present study demonstrated that different postoperative detection times in CRC substantially influenced the CTC numbers. In total, 134 subjects were enrolled. Among 10 healthy individuals and 20 preoperative patients with CRC, no CTCs were identified in the healthy subjects, and CTCs were detected in 85% (17/20) of the preoperative patients. In total, 104 postoperative patients with CRC (53 males and 51 females) with a mean average age of 57.63 years were studied. The total CTC detection rate was 81.73% (85/104) and the mean average CTC numbers in patients with tumor stage (T) T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 4.00, 3.33, 5.90 and 5.64 per 7.50 ml of peripheral blood, respectively. The CTC number trends in these four tumor stages within 5, 6, 7 and 10 postoperative days were variable, and were the most stable at 7 days. Gradual upward trends in CTC numbers were observed after 5, 6 and 7 postoperative days, and this upward trend was more obvious after 7 days. Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that CTC detection in CRC should be performed after at least 7 postoperative days rather than within 7 postoperative days.

Self-Assembled Binary Photonic Crystals under the Active Confinement and Their Light Trapping.

The self-assembly of oppositely charged colloidal ellipsoids and spheres under active confinement is first proposed to achieve long-range ordered photonic crystals. Compared with the conventional passive confinement, a characteristic of the active confinement is that boundaries are movable. Our Brownian dynamics simulations show that dynamic steady structures, similar to quasi-2D colloidal crystals, can be obtained under the strong confinement when the two boundaries periodically oscillate together. The in-plane structures can be regulated by changing the charge ratio of the two kinds of particles. These dynamic steady structures are determined by the minimum electrostatic energy with the aid of increased mobility of confined particles, which are not available in equilibrium. Numerical simulations verify that light can be perfectly confined in this dielectric binary photonic slab without any radiation, which corresponds to a typical optical bound state with divergent lifetime and ultrasharp spectral profile. Given the changeable geometry of this photonic slab, the trapped optical field might be applicable to enhanced light-matter interactions. In addition, for thicker layers, layer-by-layer ordered structures occur spontaneously, driven by the active confinement, while no global order occurs in the passive confinement. Our results show that the boundary motion can become an important factor affecting self-assembled structure and function.

The prognostic role of Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5 in gastric cancer: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The prognostic value of Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) in gastric cancer remains controversial. To further investigate this relationship, we performed meta-analyses to systematically review the association between LGR5 expression and various clinical parameters in gastric cancer patients. METHOD: Eligible studies from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wangfang (Database of Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology) and CBM (China Biological Medicine) databases were evaluated to investigate the association of LGR5 expression with overall survival (OS) and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer. RESULTS: LGR5 overexpression was significantly associated with poor OS in patients with gastric cancer (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.02-2.69). LGR5 overexpression was also significantly associated with TNM stage (TIII/TIV vs TI/TII: OR 5.42, 95% CI 1.02-28.72) and lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative: OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.06-5.0). CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis indicates that LGR5 may be a predictive factor for invasion and metastasis, and poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.