Downregulation of Serum and Distal Ileum Fibroblast Growth Factor19 in Bile Acid Diarrhoea Patients.

BACKGROUND: Bile acid diarrhoea or BAD is a common but little recognised cause of chronic diarrhoea. Few of these patients in China have been diagnosed due to a lack of diagnostic options. AIMS: To clarify the diagnostic value of serum fibroblast growth factor19 (FGF19) in BAD patients. METHODS: We reported on 60 chronic diarrhoea patients and 80 healthy volunteers (HV). Based on the 90th percentile levels of serum 7a-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one (C4) of HV, these patients were divided into BAD group (C4 ≥ 90th) and non-bile acid diarrhoea group (NBAD, C4 < 90th). Serum FGF19 in the two clinical groups and HV group were compared, as was distal ileum FGF19 in clinical groups. The diagnostic value of serum FGF19 for BAD was evaluated. RESULTS: The 90th percentile of serum C4 in HV group was 65.87 ng/ml. Serum FGF19 concentrations in BAD group (Median 69.28 pg/ml; n = 23) were significantly lower than those in HV (Median 122.18 pg/ml; n = 80) and NBAD (Median 129.57 pg/ml; n = 29) groups. FGF19 mRNA of the distal ileum in BAD group, was lower than that in NBAD group, P = 0.002. The rate of FGF19 protein low expression of distal ileum in BAD and NBAD group were 78.3% and 48.3%, P = 0.027. Using an ROC curve, statistical analysis yielded a threshold FGF19 concentration of 117.3 pg/ml (AUC, 0.906; 91.3% sensitivity, 79.3% specificity) for a clinical diagnosis of BAD. CONCLUSIONS: Serum and distal ileum expression of FGF19 significantly decreased in BAD patients. The suggested clinical ranges for serum FGF19 < 117.3 pg/ml has high sensitivity and specificity for BAD patients with a normal structural and histological ileum.

Optical Limiting and Theoretical Modelling of Layered Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanosheets.

Nonlinear optical property of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) nanosheet dispersions, including MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2, was performed by using Z-scan technique with ns pulsed laser at 1064 nm and 532 nm. The results demonstrate that the TMDC dispersions exhibit significant optical limiting response at 1064 nm due to nonlinear scattering, in contrast to the combined effect of both saturable absorption and nonlinear scattering at 532 nm. Selenium compounds show better optical limiting performance than that of the sulfides in the near infrared. A liquid dispersion system based theoretical modelling is proposed to estimate the number density of the nanosheet dispersions, the relationship between incident laser fluence and the size of the laser generated micro-bubbles, and hence the Mie scattering-induced broadband optical limiting behavior in the TMDC dispersions.

Facile fabrication of wafer-scale MoS2 neat films with enhanced third-order nonlinear optical performance.

Wafer-scale MoS2 neat films with controllable thicknesses were successfully fabricated by vacuum filtering liquid-exfoliated MoS2 dispersions. The obtained MoS2 filtered thin films were systematically characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the fabricated scalable MoS2 films have a smooth surface and high optical homogeneity verified by AFM and a collimated 532 nm beam, respectively. We investigated the ultrafast nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the filtered films by an open aperture Z-scan method using 515 and 1030 nm femtosecond laser pulses. Saturable absorption was observed at both 515 and 1030 nm with the figure of merit (FOM) values as ∼3.3 × 10(-12) esu cm and ∼3.4 × 10(-14) esu cm, respectively. The observation of ultrafast NLO performance of the MoS2 filtered films indicates that vacuum filtration is a feasible method for the fabrication of optical thin films, which can be expanded to fabricate other two-dimensional films from the corresponding dispersions. This easy film fabrication technology will greatly enlarge the application of graphene analogues including graphene in photonic devices, especially of MoS2 as a saturable absorber.

Broadband ultrafast nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction of layered molybdenum dichalcogenide semiconductors.

A series of layered molybdenum dichalcogenides, i.e., MoX2 (X = S, Se and Te), were prepared in cyclohexyl pyrrolidinone by a liquid-phase exfoliation technique. The high quality of the two-dimensional nanostructures was verified by transmission electron microscopy and absorption spectroscopy. Open- and closed-aperture Z-scans were employed to study the nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction of the MoX2 dispersions, respectively. All the three-layered nanostructures exhibit prominent ultrafast saturable absorption (SA) for both femtosecond (fs) and picosecond (ps) laser pulses over a broad wavelength range from the visible to the near infrared. While the dispersions treated with low-speed centrifugation (1500 rpm) have an SA response, and the MoS2 and MoSe2 dispersions after higher speed centrifugation (10,000 rpm) possess two-photon absorption for fs pulses at 1030 nm, which is due to the significant reduction of the average thickness of the nanosheets; hence, the broadening of band gap. In addition, all dispersions show obvious nonlinear self-defocusing for ps pulses at both 1064 nm and 532 nm, resulting from the thermally-induced nonlinear refractive index. The versatile ultrafast nonlinear properties imply a huge potential of the layered MoX2 semiconductors in the development of nanophotonic devices, such as mode-lockers, optical limiters, optical switches, etc.