consultation; and (iii) establish a short-term web-based followup to define drug efficacy and adapt treatment accordingly. Thus, in this particular situation the diagnosis of AIH may be given without histology, if typical biochemical and serological results are followed by a convincing treatment response. Prove of the diagnosis can be undertaken later, either by a relapse upon therapy reduction, or a follow-up liver biopsy when conditions are safer. As already reported in China, 8 advanced liver cirrhosis and decompensated patients can be monitored with a webbased system and all non-urgent medical visits should be postponed until the emergency is over. Urgent procedures (i.e. paracentesis) should be organised using a COVID-19-free path in the hospital, another COVID-19-free facility or home care. Finally, we recommend strict adherence to standard social distancing protocols and social isolation and emphasise, in cirrhotic patients, the importance of vaccination for Streptococcus pneumoniae and seasonal flu and of reinforcing social distancing measures. Further data are needed in order to demonstrate the real impact of COVID-19 infection in immunocompromised patients. Until then, and while vaccination is not available, we suggest continuing a cautious approach during low-level seasonal persistence of COVID-19 in the years to come.Although we cannot currently evaluate the efficacy of our management protocol, we believe this framework might be a useful tool for management of AILD for the time being.

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The kinetics of reactions of trithionate and tetrathionate via different reaction pathways were studied in near-neutral solutions. In the case of trithionate, the predominant degradation reaction is hydrolysis to thiosulfate and sulfate. The pseudofirst-order rate constant is independent of pH and measured to be (6.2 ± 0.2) × 10(-7) s(-1) for the pH range of 5.5-10.5. With tetrathionate, the reaction in both neutral and alkaline solutions occurs via a thiosulfate catalyzed rearrangement reaction to trithionate and pentathionate followed by their further reactions. The data suggest that when thiosulfate is completely absent, this first step will not occur, and in the presence of thiosulfate, the rate of the first step is independent of pH in the pH range 6-8. The secondary reactions include the hydrolysis of trithionate and the further rearrangement and degradation of pentathionate. This mechanism explains the dominant reaction products for both neutral and alkaline solutions. In the presence of thiosulfate and at near-neutral pH, the rearrangement reactions dominate over the degradation reactions and exhibit second-order kinetics, with the rate constants in the pH range of 6-8 determined to be (4.24 ± 0.26) and (1.89 ± 0.18) × 10(-4) M(-1) s(-1) for tetra- and pentathionates, respectively. At extremely low thiosulfate concentrations, the main secondary reaction is the hydrolysis of trithionate at pH< 7, and at pH > 7, the degradation of pentathionate.

Abstract:A novel free piston expander-linear generator (FPE-LG) integrated unit was proposed to recover waste heat efficiently from vehicle engine. This integrated unit can be used in a small-scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system and can directly convert the thermodynamic energy of working fluid into electric energy. The conceptual design of the free piston expander (FPE) was introduced and discussed. A cam plate and the corresponding valve train were used to control the inlet and outlet valve timing of the FPE. The working principle of the FPE-LG was proven to be feasible using an air test rig. The indicated efficiency of the FPE was obtained from the p-V indicator diagram. The dynamic characteristics of the in-cylinder flow field during the intake and exhaust processes of the FPE were analyzed based on Fluent software and 3D numerical simulation models using a computation fluid dynamics method. Results show that the indicated efficiency of the FPE can reach 66.2% and the maximal electric power output of the FPE-LG can reach 22.7 W when the working frequency is 3 Hz and intake pressure is 0.2 MPa. Two large-scale vortices are formed during the intake process because of the non-uniform distribution of velocity and pressure. The vortex flow will convert pressure energy and kinetic energy into thermodynamic energy for the working fluid, which weakens the power capacity of the working fluid.

We present a Raman investigation of the temperature effect of single and few layer MoTe2 at an electronic device working temperature range from 300 K to 500 K. We observe linear frequency red-shifts with increasing temperature for the first order Raman active E12g, A1g, Raman inactive B12g mode, and the second order ω2 mode, which can be attributed to the anharmonic effect of the interatomic potential energy. The temperature coefficients of the out-of-plane vibrational B12g modes and inplane vibrational E12g modes are similarly around −0.013 cm−1/K, while lower than that of out-of-plane vibration A1g mode at −0.009 cm−1/K. The temperature coefficient of ω2 mode is −0.00521 cm−1/K, approximately half of those of the first order modes, and the temperature coefficient of transverse acoustic TA (M) mode is indirectly deduced as −0.0102 cm−1/K, which shows the corresponding Mo-Te stretching bonds of TA (M) mode behavior similarly to those of optical Raman vibrations. Our work thus provides temperature dependent lattice vibration information of MoTe2 and could be potentially useful in future optoelectronic devices based on MoTe2 related two dimensional materials.