Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Adsorption separation of condensate oil from produced water using ACTF prepared of oil palm leaves by batch and fixed bed techniques

A novel method is applied to produce amorphous carbon thin film (ACTF) from oil palm leaves. The novel prepared ACTF is in the form of thin films like graphene sheets having winding surface. ACTF was characterized by different methods of characterization: FTIR, BET, SEM, EDX, TEM, and Raman. ACTF employed as an adsorbent to separate emulsified condensate oil from synthetic produced water as a treatment process before reinjection in oil reservoirs. The adsorption performance of batch and fixed bed adsorption systems were investigated. Contact time, initial concentration of condensate oil (Co = 100–2500 mg/l) and temperature were studied by batch experiments. The obtained results indicated that the adsorption capacity and the removal efficiency increased with time up to 132.77 mg condensate/g adsorbent and 66.38% respectively, within 6 h equilibrium time at 308 K. The thermodynamic adsorption experiments conducted at 288, 308 and 318 K, referring exothermic nature of the adsorption process.The performance study of fixed bed adsorption described through the breakthrough curves concept with two parameters: column bed heights (5, 10 and 15 mm) and flow rate (2.2, 5 and 8.4 ml/min). Two models (Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models) were applied to expect different parameters of fixed bed as adsorption capacity and time need for 50% breakthrough. The results exhibited that 2.2 ml /min feed flowrate and 5 mm bed height at 1000 mg/l initial oil condensate concentration were the optimum conditions for the ACTF column. The experimental breakthrough curves showed acceptable fit with the calculated breakthrough profiles obtained by Thomas model. Keywords: ACTF, Condensate oil, Batch adsorption, Fixed-bed column, Thomas model and Yoon–Nelson models, Oil palm leave

Blogging Revisited: The Use of Blogs in ESAP Courses

The technological innovations of the last decades and the appearance of the Web 2.0 have triggered various advancements in the field of education in general and language teaching and learning in particular. The weblog or blog is nowadays one of the most popular Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools used for educational purposes, thus research on the use of blogs in education has seen increasing interest. This paper examines blogging as a learning tool in the instruction of English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) in tertiary education. It explores the possibilities and pedagogical value offered by using weblogs in language learning, as well as university students’ attitudes towards the use of blogs in their language courses