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Presents a case study in systems modelling for product improvement in a large manufacturing company. Summarizes the background to and purpose of systems modelling as a change management tool as a prelude to introducing the case and its use in understanding a particular paradox.

This paper aims to describe the application of system dynamics to enhance traditional cost benefit analysis (CBA) in planning a significant expansion of therapy capacity for mental health treatment in the UK. The aim of the initiative is to benefit the health of individuals, reduce costs to society and the exchequer and increase employment.

The paper describes a conventional CBA and comments on its merits and limitations. The development and use of a system dynamics model of the situation is then described, together with how this complements and supports the conventional analysis and its outcome.

By focussing analysis on the dynamics of people flows over time, simulation is shown to assist understanding of the issue and its potential benefits. The numbers of patients expected to benefit is shown to depend on the treatment capacity, on the sources of people presenting, the number and type of treatment channels and their parameters, the success of treatment, the provision for patients moving between treatment channels, the dynamics of the labour market and employment opportunities.

The paper is totally original and has provided decision support to a large investment on which implementation has begun. The overall methodological conclusion is that dynamic factors are often left out of CBA because they cause too much complexity for decision makers, whereas system dynamics allows these factors to be included without masking the clarity of the case. The paper suggests that CBA and system dynamics are very complementary.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Sea‐Nine Biocide ‐ Rohm and Haas Company announced that Sea‐Nine 211 biocide has been registered for use in marine paints by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Sea‐Nine 211 is the first new generation organic biocide to earn this registration.

This article summarises recent work, commissioned by the Department of Health, which estimated the future need for health and social care services for adults with profound multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) in England. This estimation process involved four stages: identifying children with SEN associated with PMLD; adjusting for the effects of child mortality; estimating the number of adults with PMLD in England; and estimating net changes in the number of adults with PMLD in England. The overall findings suggest sustained and accelerating growth in the number of adults with PMLD in England over the time period 2009‐2026 and hence the need and demand for health and social care services for adults with PMLD.

The purpose of this paper is to describe trends in the age-standardised mortality rate and life expectancy of people with learning disabilities in Sheffield over three decades and to compare these with trends in the general population of England and Wales.

Data were extracted from the Sheffield Case Register and compared with data published by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales.

There was a sustained reduction in age-standardised mortality rates and a sustained increase in life expectancy for people with intellectual disabilities over the 33-year period. These changes are extremely similar to those observed in the general population of England and Wales.

There is little evidence of any closing of the gap in age-standardised mortality rates or life expectancy between people with intellectual disabilities and the general population.

The purpose of this study is to establish an enhanced model of the innovation-decision process (IDP), specifically for construction. As context, innovation diffusion theory (IDT) is concerned with explaining how some innovations successfully stick whilst others fail to propagate. Because theoretical models provide abstracted representations of systems/phenomena, established IDT models can help decision-making units with innovation-related sense-marking and problem-solving. However, these occasionally fail or require enhancement to represent phenomena more successfully. This is apparent whenever middle-range theory seems ill-fitted to the complexity of construction.

Qualitative research via 13 semi-structured interviews occurred, with participants recruited via convenience and purposive sampling strategies. The study forms part of a broader mixed-method study (n = 246) informed by a research philosophy of pragmatism, investigating the applicability of classic IDT to the adoption of four-dimensional (4D) building information modelling (4D BIM) by the UK construction sector.

This diffusion study resulted in the adaptation of an existing IDP model, ensuring a better contextual fit. Classified more specifically as a modular-technological-process innovation, 4D BIM with its potential to provide construction planning improvements is used as a vehicle to show why, for construction, an existing model required theoretical extensions involving additional stages, decision-action points and outcomes.

This model can assist construction industry actors with future adoption/rejection decisions around modular-technological-process innovations. It also aids the understanding of scholars and researchers, through its various enhancements and by reinforcing the importance of existing diffusion concepts of compatibility and trialability, for these innovation types.

An enhanced model of the IDP, specifically for construction, is established. This construction-centric contribution to IDT will be of interest to construction scholars and to practitioners.