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The purpose of this paper is to verify whether the horizontal grab bar for the toilet and the bathtub suggested by the Code du bâtiment du Québec conform to users’ preferences. Perceived effort, comfort and safety were considered.

In total, 31 adults and seniors using manual and powered wheelchairs were asked to test different grab bar configurations for both the toilet and bathtub. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate participants’ perceptions and preferences after the trials with each grab bar. Effort was measured using the ten-level Borg scale, while participants’ comfort and safety were assessed with a five-point Likert scale. Participants were finally invited to express an overall personal preference between the two grab bar used in each setup.

Participants showed preference for an L-shaped grab bar for the toilet, and a horizontal grab bar for the bathtub. The authors’ results differ from the recommendations of the barrier-free design standards of the province of Quebec’s construction code, which states that horizontal grab bars should be used for the toilet and bathtub.

This study suggest that despite the limited sample, there is an undeniable need for testing norms for public spaces, whenever is possible and has a direct effect on end-users, before publishing them.

Patron banning is widely used in response to disorderly behaviours in/around licensed venues, but there has been limited analysis of specific policies. This paper explores key findings in relation to police-imposed barring notices in Western Australia (WA).

WA Police provided de-identified data for 4,023 barring notices imposed between 2011 and 2020 and offender records for each recipient, to 30 June 2020. The data were analysed to identify patterns and trends in relation to ban length, recipient type and associated offending.

Mean ban lengths increased across the period (from 4.46 months in 2015 to 6.82 months in 2019). Longer initial bans (of 6–12 months) were associated with a lower likelihood of a subsequent ban – with each additional month associated with an 11.4% increase in the likelihood of not receiving a second ban. Across the dataset, some notable anomalies were identified for individuals categorised as prolific offenders.

Research examining the effects of patron banning is limited but, to date, has generally not supported presumptions of improved patron behaviour. WA adopts an individualised approach to barring notice lengths, following review of the incident and offender. The findings suggest that, while barring policy is appropriate, a number of operational refinements can help WA Police to optimise their behavioural effect/s.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an analytic method to calculate the slot leakage reactance of stator bar strands in alternative current machines whose stator windings have multiple bars per layer and using deficient transposition.

Based on the analysis of deficient transposition, the calculation model of mutual slot leakage reactance between any two strands in one bar is established. The subsection integral method is presented to calculate the slot leakage reactance and analytic function is listed. A pump motor used in nuclear power is taken as an example, and the slot self leakage reactance of any strand in its top layer winding and the slot mutual leakage reactance between one strand and other strands in the same bar are calculated depending on the method described above. The slot leakage reactance of all strands in the top layer winding is calculated when different transposition angles are applied in stator bars.

The results show that subsection integral method is effective in calculating the slot leakage reactance of stator bar strands of deficient transposition. The slot leakage reactance distribution of all strands is obtained. The transposition angle has a great impact on the slot leakage reactance distribution of stator bar strands.

This paper presents an available method to calculate the slot leakage reactance of any strands in alternative current machine whose stator windings have multiple bars per layer and using deficient transposition, and discusses the impact of transposition angle on the slot leakage reactance. The conclusion can lay the foundation of the effective calculation of circulating current losses in stator bars with deficient transposition.

IN today's battle for greater productivity management is cast in a cardinal role. Like a military commander, it has first to recognize the nature and purpose of the opponent and then formulate the best strategy to encompass his defeat. One element in that is to know the strength and quality of the available resources, ways in which to improve both, and then deploy them to the best advantage.

Gas explosion is one of the most major types of accident in mining projects, and the flame front with high temperature is major hazardous factor induced by this kind of accident. Support engineering provides an available way to solve problems related to ground movements, but very likely has a great influence on the gas explosion accident process, especially the flame propagation, and then aggravates mining risk. However, until now it has not been received much attention from scientific works. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A commercial CFD software package AutoReaGas suitable for gas explosion is used to carry out the numerical investigation of gas explosion process in a straight coal tunnel with typical support engineering, especially the unsteady explosion field and the flame propagation process in it.

Support engineering composed by multiple bars take positive influence on flame acceleration: the flame speed is much faster than that under no support bars, and the smaller support spacing induces greater flame speed near the ignition. The support bars also exert negative influence on flame acceleration: the larger support spacing induces greater flame speed in most region of the tunnel. Furthermore, a traditional viewpoint that denser obstacles induce greater explosion effects is one-sided according to this study.

At present, no one concerns the aggravating influence of support engineering on accident risk in practical mining projects because of small geometric dimension. This work examines the effect of steel support system on evolution processes of gas explosion accidents, especially the flame propagation. The conclusions provide quantitative scientific basis for this kind of the accidents in risk evolution and accident investigation of mining engineering.

Reports the results of empirical research into the graduate recruitment and selection practices adopted by SMEs, and the skills being sought by employers in that sector. Describes in detail the research methods, which included interviews with large organisations to determine, alongside existing research, the extent of characteristics of SME graduate recruitment which might be particular to that sector. Findings and interpretations suggest that, in common with large organisations, SMEs value what are now termed transferable skills, although there are some differences of emphasis between the two sectors. There appears to be greater difference in the selection methods employed, though this is not as great or significant as might be expected or predicted. An important difference between the two sectors suggested by the research is the expectations placed on graduate recruits by employers in the two sectors. Unlike large employers which are more likely to provide graduate development programmes, SMEs expect an immediate contribution from graduate recruits. The implications of these similarities and differences will be explored in the final article of this series.

This paper aims to present a graphical comparison method for construction schedules, which illustrates the differences for each individual activity. The method overlays the observed differences on a bar chart creating a representation of whether each activity is ahead, on or behind schedule at a given date.

The method is implemented using a Microsoft Project add-in (plug-in). The paper demonstrates the method and its potential uses with three illustration cases: a time impact analysis, an alternative analysis for the selection of subcontractors and a multi-baseline analysis of an as-built schedule.

The cases included in the paper show that the proposed method uses a simplified and familiar attribute comparison for each activity in a schedule. The method affords flexibility in presenting differences between schedules such as the start/finish dates or duration. As the method does not rely on a specific software application or analysis method, it can be implement to different software applications as well as performance or delay analysis techniques. The method also makes it possible to present multiple and selective baseline comparisons overlaid on an updated or as-built schedule.

The method graphically presents a comparison of start dates, durations and finish dates for each activity that can be integrated with any schedule. The method can be used for forensic analysis as well as project control measures during construction. As the method does not rely on any specific performance or delay calculation method, it can be applied to any forensic analysis technique and delay analysis.

Large sandbars resulted from the instability of loose sedimentary materials are very common in lowland rivers. These, not only, interrupt the inland waterways at low flow, but also make the channels highly unstable forming anabranches, influencing bank erosion, and so on. Groins have key roles to play in such cases. Formation processes of sandbars and their interactions with groins become very urgent to learn for better management of river engineering. RIC-Nays, a two-dimensional model for flow and morphology, is utilized in this study. Computation results reveal that different initial conditions lead to different equilibrium states, and periodic boundary conditions with a small computation domain tend to stabilize multiple bars. Intrusion of groins accelerates the flow in the main channel, which triggers the sediment movement there. Thus the bars move downstream reducing their scale and finally they disappear from the main channel.