Correction to: Analysing the Combined Health, Social and Economic Impacts of the Corona Virus Pandemic Using Agent­Based Social Simulation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s11023-020-09527-6.].

Analysing the Combined Health, Social and Economic Impacts of the Corovanvirus Pandemic Using Agent-Based Social Simulation.

During the COVID-19 crisis there have been many difficult decisions governments and other decision makers had to make. E.g. do we go for a total lock down or keep schools open? How many people and which people should be tested? Although there are many good models from e.g. epidemiologists on the spread of the virus under certain conditions, these models do not directly translate into the interventions that can be taken by government. Neither can these models contribute to understand the economic and/or social consequences of the interventions. However, effective and sustainable solutions need to take into account this combination of factors. In this paper, we propose an agent-based social simulation tool, ASSOCC, that supports decision makers understand possible consequences of policy interventions, but exploring the combined social, health and economic consequences of these interventions.

Employee shirking and overworking: modelling the unintended consequences of work organisation.

Underworking (i.e. shirking) and overworking of employees can have detrimental effects for the individual and the organisation. We develop a computational model to investigate how work structure, specifically the way in which managers distribute work tasks amongst employees, impacts work intensity and working time. The model draws on theories from economics, psychology and management, and on empirical observations. The simulations show that when managers correctly estimate task difficulty, but undervalue the employee's competence, opportunities for shirking are provided due to longer deadlines. Similarly, if managers overvalue the employee's competence, they set tighter deadlines leading to overwork. If task difficulty is misjudged, initially only influence on employee working time is observed. However, it gradually generates competence misjudgements, indirectly impacting the employee's effort level. An interaction between competence misjudgement and task uncertainty slows the manager's ability to correctly estimate employee competence and prolongs initial competence misjudgements. The study highlights the importance of applying dynamic modelling methods, which allows for testing theory assumptions in silico, generating new hypotheses and offers a foundation for future research. Practitioner summary: A computational model was developed to investigate how the structure of work allocation influences opportunities for shirking and overworking by employees. The paper demonstrates how dynamic modelling can be used to explain workplace phenomena and develop new hypotheses for further research. Abbreviations: KSA: knowledge, skills, attitudes; MIT: motivation intensity theory.

Application and Integration of Live Streaming from Leading Robotic Centres Can Enhance Surgical Education.

Internet-based video-streaming enables us to share surgical knowledge and to study leading surgeons while they operate in their home institutions, and is widely accessible to trainees. Planned developments include enriched learning experiences with improved user friendliness, interactivity, and real-time feedback.