Expression of carboxylesterase 2 in colorectal tumor tissues and serum carboxylesterase 2 levels at different stages of the disease were investigated by Western blotting. Carboxylesterase 2 was decreasing in tumor tissues from TNM stages 0 through IV (n = 20); the expression of carboxylesterase 2 was similar between “normal” and tumor tissues (n = 20); serum carboxylesterase 2 levels were similar among patients at different stages of the disease. These results indicate that local expression of carboxylesterase 2 is downregulated following progression of the disease; carboxylesterase 2 expression is altered in histology “normal” tissues from stages I through IV before histopathological changes.

Ferrovalley materials with spontaneous valley polarization are the key to valleytronics applications. Therefore, it is important to find materials with relatively large valley polarization. In this work, we theoretically designed two novel two-dimensional ferrovalley materials namely XI₂ (X = Sc, Y), which have both high Curie temperature and large valley polarization. The Curie temperature of monolayer ScI₂ and YI₂ are 138 K and 58 K, the large valley polarization of 97 meV and 108 meV are also predicted in monolayer ScI₂ and YI₂. The anomalous valley Hall effect is also proposed based on the valley contrasting Berry curvature. In addition, strain engineering can effectively modulate the valley polarization and Curie temperature of monolayer XI₂ (X = Sc, Y). The Curie temperature of ScI₂ increases with increasing strain, and the valley polarization of YI₂ increases with increasing strain. Our findings suggest that monolayer XI₂ (X = Sc, Y) is a promising material for valleytronics.

In this theoretical study, a photonic crystal coupled-cavity waveguide created on polymer substrate was demonstrated to provide high-performance slow light with low group-velocity dispersion and large normalized delay–bandwidth product. Combined with structural-parameter optimization, the normalized delay–bandwidth product was enhanced to a large value of 0.809, and the group-velocity dispersion was on the order of 10 4 ( p s 2 / k m ) . Furthermore, the optimized coupled-cavity waveguide had tunability capabilities by changing the external pump laser power. Importantly, while adjusting the slow light, the normalized delay–bandwidth product values remained above 0.8, which was necessary to maintain the performance of optical buffering devices.