Management of Assets and Compliance through the Application of BIM and Digital Twins: A Platform for Innovation in Building Management

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives asset managers the insight and tools to manage buildings and associated infrastructure more efficiently. BIM is the industry standard model to deliver insight on how a building will perform once built and to manage its performance and asset lifecycles. While BIM processes are established for new buildings, older buildings are not maintained, refurbished, or deconstructed using this method. BIM enables the benefits of efficiency, resource management and compliance. It can overcome uncertainties of building condition and deficient documentation that are prevalent in older buildings. It also acts as a centralised platform, accessible by all stakeholders to hold ‘one version of the truth’. Due to complex built forms and increasing legislative pressure from the government for multiple occupancy buildings, a state-of-the-art overview with an easy to use visualisation of compliance and accountability is required for our existing building stock. From a review a step by step proof of Concept (PoC) digital twin model is proposed. The work will show accountable outcomes that can be validated at each stage, the time and cost saving, as well as Halton Housing’s goals of creating places to be proud of, addressing customer safety, and asset strategy can be achieved. The aim is to assist in creating a healthy organisation by improving IT platforms, making it easier for colleagues to do their jobs and promote brand and reputation, cementing position and maintaining a strong voice in the sector. Furthermore, the review will demonstrate how an existing building can be modelled into a digital twin via a 3D BIM implementation. Starting small with clear phases and utilising data already available, the development proposed offers an exciting innovative cross platform implementation, that aims to explore the ‘art of the possible’ and opportunities to scale-up by adding important assets and integrating IOT sensors to gain further insights. Most importantly, the review highlights the advantages to the business at every stage and can adapt to business assets in an exciting and innovative way

Cross-sectional survey of users of internet depression communities

Background: Internet-based depression communities provide a forum for individuals to communicate and share information and ideas. There has been little research into the health status and other characteristics of users of these communities. Methods: Online cross-sectional survey of Internet depression communities to identify depressive morbidity among users of Internet depression communities in six European countries; to investigate whether users were in contact with health services and receiving treatment; and to identify user perceived effects of the communities. Results: Major depression was highly prevalent among respondents (varying by country from 40% to 64%). Forty-nine percent of users meeting criteria for major depression were not receiving treatment, and 35% had no consultation with health services in the previous year. Thirty-six percent of repeat community users who had consulted a health professional in the previous year felt that the Internet community had been an important factor in deciding to seek professional help. Conclusions: There are high levels of untreated and undiagnosed depression in users of Internet depression communities. This group represents a target for intervention. Internet communities can provide information and support for stigmatizing conditions that inhibit more traditional modes of information seeking

ActEarly: a City Collaboratory approach to early promotion of good health and wellbeing

Economic, physical, built, cultural, learning, social and service environments have a profound effect on lifelong health. However, policy thinking about health research is dominated by the ‘biomedical model’ which promotes medicalisation and an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment at the expense of prevention. Prevention research has tended to focus on ‘downstream’ interventions that rely on individual behaviour change, frequently increasing inequalities. Preventive strategies often focus on isolated leverage points and are scattered across different settings. This paper describes a major new prevention research programme that aims to create City Collaboratory testbeds to support the identification, implementation and evaluation of upstream interventions within a whole system city setting. Prevention of physical and mental ill-health will come from the cumulative effect of multiple system-wide interventions. Rather than scatter these interventions across many settings and evaluate single outcomes, we will test their collective impact across multiple outcomes with the goal of achieving a tipping point for better health. Our focus is on early life (ActEarly) in recognition of childhood and adolescence being such critical periods for influencing lifelong health and wellbeing

Medicine on the line? Computer-mediated social support and advice for people with diabetes

The advent of thousands of Usenet groups on the Internet, covering a vast range of medical and welfare issues and ostensibly devoted to the mutual social support of participating members, has raised the potential for the development of new forms of 'virtual' health care. This article critically analyses the use by people with diabetes of one such Usenet group. It seeks to establish, first, the extent to which such a site provides some demonstrable measure of social support to its participants. This is approached by undertaking a structural analysis of the site to identify the extent of usage, and the nature of supporting interventions using a fivefold classification (instrumental, informational, esteem and social companionship and other). Second, the article attempts to identify any disparity between the lay health-knowledge in evidence and biomedical opinions proffered by the use of a panel of consultant diabetiologists. The results of the analysis suggest that the diabetes newsgroup provides an example of an active forum for largely well-informed participants who routinely use the media as an aid to the reflexive management of their medical condition. It also raises the prospect of a renegotiated relationship between medical knowledge and lay experience based upon shared learning

Predicting uptake of housing services: The role of self-categorization in the theory of planned behaviour.

Abstract: The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and self-categorization theory (SCT) were used to predict homeless people's (n = 80) uptake of housing support services. Homeless people's uptake behaviour was measured one year after a TPB/SCT-based interview schedule was administered. Congruent with previous research, TPB variables were influential predictors of both intention and behaviour. However, the addition of self-categorization variables, such as friendship group norms and identification as a housing support service user, significantly increased the rate prediction for both intention and behaviour, respectively. The implications of the research are firstly, that social cognition models are useful for understanding uptake of housing support services; and secondly, the addition of self-categorization variables aids in exploring the central role that social norms play in understanding the uptake of these services. These findings are discussed in terms of their impact on theory and practice

Life chances in Britain by housing wealth and for the homeless and vulnerably housed

In this paper new findings on the average life expectancy of the population of Britain are reported according to housing wealth. In addition, estimates of mortality rates for rough sleepers, hostel residents, and bed and breakfast residents are presented. The results indicate that the death rates of bed and breakfast residents are four to five times those of the housed population, death rates for hostel residents are seven times greater, and death rates for rough sleepers are 25 times greater than those of the housed population. At the extremes, people living in the most salubrious housing in Britain (holding over £100 000 of equity in their properties) can expect to live, on average, more than twice as long as those sleeping rough on the streets