Balancing operating revenues and occupied refurbishment costs 1: problems of defining project success factors and selecting site planning methods

In planning the refurbishment of railway stations the spatial needs of the contractor and of the ongoing business stakeholders have to be balanced. A particular concern is the disruptive effect of construction works upon pedestrian movement. RaCMIT (Refurbishment and Customer Movement Integration Tool) was a research project aimed at addressing this problem. The objective of the research was to develop a decision protocol facilitating optimisation of overall project value to the client's business. This paper (the first of two) presents a framework for considering public disruption in occupied refurbishment using two case studies in large railway stations as examples. It briefly describes new tools which (combined with existing techniques) assist decision making in the management of disruption. It links strategic with sitebased decision making and suggests how public disruption may be treated as a variable to be jointly optimised along with traditional criteria such as time, cost and quality. Research observations as well as current literature suggest that for overall decision-making, opportunities may be lost (under current practice) for minimising joint project cost/revenue disruption, and, for spatio-temporal site decision-making, effective and efficient tools now exist to model both sides of the construction site boundary

The right place at the right time: assisting spatio-temporal planning in construction

21st - 24th October 2003 This paper describes research carried out for requirements capture in the development of a computer-based decision support tool (VIRCON) for space-time scheduling and visualisation of construction tasks. The focus was on pre-tender work and involved interviews with construction planners. Both space-time scheduling and visualisation of tasks are largely informal/intuitive processes for planners. They form an important part of the planner\'s risk identification function. Planners tend to opt for a robust spatio-temporal schedule rather than an optimal one. They require decision support tools that are quick and easy to use rather than highly sophisticated. The research highlights the extent to which construction planning is a communicative and co-operative activity in addition to a complex problem-solving one. Questions arise about the cost to the client of non-involvement by the construction planner at the design stage, the costs of short pre-tender periods, inadequate design data and sub-optimal construction periods specified in tender documents

Space, society and construction refurbishment

Researchers in the Space Syntax group at UCL have shown distinct sets of patterns relating spatial configurations and observed movement within the built environment. They have also demonstrated how patterns of control and exclusion are implied by spatial organisation. Analytical tools have been developed to measure the extent of these patterns and so enable comparative analysis of different spaces. Axial analysis subjects grids of spaces to modelling through long lines of sight to create axial maps whose properties have been found to be associated with both pedestrian and vehicular movement, in particular, low levels of wayfinding complexity. Visibility Graph Analysis uses areas of visibility from individual points as a basis for mapping the inter-relationship of spaces and associated movement and space use by pedestrians within and between buildings. Such tools have wide application. An example is presented through the examination of the problem of phased construction refurbishment in a combined railway and retailing environment and the effect of such works in reshaping the spatial characteristics of an ongoing business which depends upon public access. Previous research findings are confirmed and demonstrate the usefulness of Space Syntax analysis in predicting the effect of spatial disruption in a commercial environment. © 2006 RICS, The Bartlett School, UCL and the contributors First published

Balancing operating revenues and occupied refurbishment costs 2: a Space Syntax approach to locating hoardings

By placing hoardings in publicly accessible areas while carrying out phased occupied refurbishments, a contractor is temporarily redesigning that area. This reconfiguration affects the normal pedestrian flows through such areas. A technique for the analysis of such flows has been developed under a general area of research called Space Syntax. This demonstrates the extent to which visual barriers both constrain and promote pedestrian movement. The main analytical techniques used are Axial analysis and Visibility Graph Analysis which are based upon lines or areas of visibility. Empirical evidence is presented in observations carried out at London Victoria Station before and during a small refurbishment project involving the temporary closure of a single entrance. This evidence is in line with previous Space Syntax studies. The relationship between changes in the station configuration and visitor numbers to retail outlets suggests the need to place hoardings in such a way that both movement and browsing areas remain spatially separated but visually connected. This is also suggested by previous Space Syntax studies and is incorporated into a brief set of general guidelines for clients and contractors to assist the minimisation of disruption to pedestrian movement in publicly accessible areas

Corporate manslaughter, regulation and 'seeking to profit'

One of the concepts included in current draft legislation on corporate manslaughter is that of seeking to profit. The paper seeks to examine this concept and whether the assumptions underlying it are valid. Firstly, the concept is examined in terms of managerial economics, where it is argued that there is no necessarily direct trade-off between profit and safety expenditure. It is also difficult to disentangle expectation of profit and actual profit realisation in relation to a single cost factor. Recent literature on longer-term managerial decision making suggests that there is a range of company attitudes to both profit and safety which do not necessarily trade one off against the other. Other research suggests widespread ignorance among senior managers about actual safety-related expenditure. Turning to the public sector, it is possible to find a safety-economic gain trade-off both in government operating practice and in decision making about the introduction of regulations. Health and safety regulations themselves are not always appropriate or practical in all situations and in some cases may bring into question project viability. The paper concludes that the assumptions underlying the concept of seeking to profit are invalid and that it should be omitted from the legislation. © 2006 RICS, The Bartlett School, UCL and the contributors First published

Non-additive beliefs and game theory

Probability;Game Theory;Uncertainty

Anesthesia Alarm Fatigue Policy Recommendations: The Path of Development

Healthcare workers are inundated with alarms every minute, yet 80-95% of these alarms do not result in provider intervention. False alarms cause a “cry-wolf” phenomenon among providers resulting in cognitive stress and workflow interruptions. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the perceptions of alarm fatigue and alarm management of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) and Anesthesiologists. This Likert-scale questionnaire was sent to approximately 150 anesthesia providers at NorthShore University HealthSystem (NSUHS) through an online survey. Data analysis revealed anesthesia trainees and providers with less total years in practice and less clinical experience exhibit statistically significant (p=0.011), higher levels (10.60%) of alarm fatigue and associated provider distress. A p value of 0.007 indicated students appreciate significantly higher levels (11.76%) of alarm fatigue than their CRNA colleagues. In conjunction with survey responses, a survey development table based on evidence and current endorsements in the literature was used to guide proposed policy recommendations for the anesthesia department at NSUHS. Future work involves adoption and implementation of the policy and evaluation to determine if it improved provider workflow, their alarm fatigue experience or patient safety

Fine-grained timing using genetic programming

In previous work, we have demonstrated that it is possible to use Genetic Programming to minimise the resource consumption of software, such as its power consumption or execution time. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which Genetic Programming can be used to gain fine-grained control over software timing. We introduce the ideas behind our work, and carry out experimentation to find that Genetic Programming is indeed able to produce software with unusual and desirable timing properties, where it is not obvious how a manual approach could replicate such results. In general, we discover that Genetic Programming is most effective in controlling statistical properties of software rather than precise control over its timing for individual inputs. This control may find useful application in cryptography and embedded systems