Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

A comparison of spontaneous combustion susceptibility of coal from the Benue trough according to rank

This study investigated spontaneous combustion susceptibility of coal according to the rank. To estimate the spontaneous combustion susceptibility of coal, both crossing-point temperature (CPT) measurement and gas analysis by using gas chromatography (GC) were performed. For the experiment, Ihuoma coal, Orlu lignite, and Onyeama coal and Owukpa coal that are sub- bituminous coal, Obi/Lafia bituminous coal was used. The lignite such as Ihuoma coal contains more functional groups that easily react to oxygen more so than Onyeama and Owukpa coals. Also, Onyeama and Owukpa coal more functional groups than Obi/Lafia coal. For this reason, the lignite is more easily oxidized than sub-bituminous coal and sub-bituminous more easily oxidized than bituminous at low temperature, which results in high O2 consumption, increase in CO and CO2 generation, and low CPT. Although the CPT of Onyeama coal and Owukpa coal is identical to each other as they are the sub-bituminous, Owukpa coal has a lower initial oxidation temperature (IOT) and maximum oxidation temperature (MOT) than those of Onyeama coal. This means that although each coal has the same rank and CPT, spontaneous combustion susceptibility of coal may vary because the initial temperature of the coal at which oxidation begins may be different due to the substances that participate in oxidation.Key Words: Coal rank, cross-point-temperature, spontaneous combustion, low temperature oxidation

Cross-Fertilisation Between Human-Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two disciplines that followed parallel trajectories for about four decades. They also both complement each other and overlap in various problem-rich domains. This chapter is far from being exhaustive, but provides a representative story of how HCI and AI cross-fertilise each other since their inception. It reviews the following domains: intelligent user interfaces and more specifically conversational animated affective agents; capitalisation, formulation and use of ergonomic knowledge for the design and evaluation of interactive systems; synergy between visualisation and data mining

The LIFE TRIAD of emergency general surgery

Emergency General Surgery (EGS) was identified as multidisciplinary surgery performed for traumatic and non-traumatic acute conditions during the same admission in the hospital by general emergency surgeons and other specialists. It is the most diffused surgical discipline in the world. To live and grow strong EGS necessitates three fundamental parts: emergency and elective continuous surgical practice, evidence generation through clinical registries and data accrual, and indications and guidelines production: the LIFE TRIAD