Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 3, no. 2

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: 1. Samuel Mutendi of the Zion Christian Church: Interpretations of a Prophet by Dana L. Robert Biographies by M. L. Daneel and Vengesai Chimininge. 2. African Retrospect and Prospect: A Christian view from Cameroon - Interview with Paul Nchoji Nkwi, with Jonathan Bonk, interviewer. 3. Recent Print and Digital Resources Related to Christianity in Africa

Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 4, no. 1

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: 1. Introducing African Christian Biography. 2. Modern African Church History and the Streetlight Effect. 3. Both African and Christian. 4. Musicians and Composers in African Christianity. 5. Yared. 6. John Knox Bokwe. 7. Recent Print and Digital Resources Related to Christianity in Africa. 8. Guidelines for Article Contributors. 9. Suggested Interview Guidelines and Questions. 10. Guidelines for Book Reviewers

Advanced PFBC transient analysis

Transient modeling and analysis of Advanced Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) systems is a research area that is currently under investigative study by the United States Department of Energy`s Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC). The object of the effort is to identify key operating parameters affecting plant performance and then quantify the basic response of major sub-systems to changes in operating conditions. PC-TRAX, a commercially available dynamic software program, was chosen and applied in this modeling and analysis effort. This paper summarizes and describes the development of a series of TRAX-based transient models of Advanced PFBC power plants. These power plants generate a high temperature flue gas by burning coal or other suitable fuel in a PFBC. The high temperature flue gas supports low-Btu fuel gas or natural gas combustion in a gas turbine topping combustor. When utilized, low-Btu fuel gas is produced in a bubbling bed carbonizer. High temperature, high pressure combustion products exiting the topping combustor are expanded in a modified gas turbine to generate electrical power. Waste heat from the system is used to generate and superheat steam for a reheat steam turbine bottoming cycle that generates additional electrical power. Basic control/instrumentation models were developed and modeled in PC-TRAX and used to investigate off-design plant performance. System performance for various transient conditions and control philosophies was studied

40 Gbit/s silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) phase modulator

A 40 Gbit/s electro-optic modulator is demonstrated. The modulator is based on a slotted silicon waveguide filled with an organic material. The silicon organic hybrid (SOH) approach allows combining highly nonlinear electro-optic organic materials with CMOS-compatible silicon photonics technology

Managing plagiarism in programming assignments with blended assessment and randomisation.

Plagiarism is a common concern for coursework in many situations, particularly where electronic solutions can be provided e.g. computer programs, and leads to unreliability of assessment. Written exams are often used to try to deal with this, and to increase reliability, but at the expense of validity. One solution, outlined in this paper, is to randomise the work that is set for students so that it is very unlikely that any two students will be working on exactly the same problem set. This also helps to address the issue of students trying to outsource their work by paying external people to complete their assignments for them. We examine the effectiveness of this approach and others (including blended assessment) by analysing the spread of similarity scores across four different introductory programming assignments to find the natural similarity i.e. the level of similarity that could reasonably occur without plagiarism. The results of the study indicate that divergent assessment (having more than one possible solution) as opposed to convergent assessment (only one solution) is the dominant factor in natural similarity. A key area for further work is to apply the analysis to a larger sample of programming assignments to better understand the impact of different features of the assignment design on natural similarity and hence the detection of plagiarism

Access and metro network convergence for flexible end-to-end network design

This paper reports on the architectural, protocol, physical layer, and integrated testbed demonstrations carried out by the DISCUS FP7 consortium in the area of access - metro network convergence. Our architecture modeling results show the vast potential for cost and power savings that node consolidation can bring. The architecture, however, also recognizes the limits of long-reach transmission for low-latency 5G services and proposes ways to address such shortcomings in future projects. The testbed results, which have been conducted end-to-end, across access - metro and core, and have targeted all the layers of the network from the application down to the physical layer, show the practical feasibility of the concepts proposed in the project

Performance and economics of co-firing a coal/waste slurry in advanced fluidized-bed combustion

This study`s objective was to investigate co-firing a pressurized fluidized-bed combustor with coal and refuse-derived fuel for the production of electricity and the efficient disposal of waste. Performance evaluation of the pressurized fluidized-bed combustor (PFBC) power plant co-fired with refuse-derived fuel showed only slightly lower overall thermal efficiency than similar sized plants without waste co-firing. Capital costs and costs of electricity are within 4.2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, of waste-free operation. The results also indicate that there are no technology barriers to the co-firing of waste materials with coal in a PFBC power plant. The potential to produce cost-competitive electrical power and support environmentally acceptable waste disposal exists with this approach. However, as part of technology development, there remain several design and operational areas requiring data and verification before this concept can realize commercial acceptance. 3 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs

Performance analysis of co-firing waste materials in an advanced pressurized fluidized-bed combustor

The co-firing of waste materials with coal in utility scale power plants has emerged as an effective approach to produce energy and manage municipal wastes. Leading this approach is the atmospheric fluidized-bed combustor (AFBC). It has demonstrated its commercial acceptance in the utility market as a reliable source of power by burning a variety of waste and alternative fuels. The application of pressurized fluidized-bed combustor (PFBC) technology, although relatively new, can provide significant enhancements to the efficient production of electricity while maintaining the waste management benefits of AFBC. A study was undertaken to investigate the technical and economical feasibility of co-firing a PFBC with coal and municipal and industrial wastes. Focus was placed on the production of electricity and the efficient disposal of wastes for application in central power station and distributed locations. Issues concerning waste material preparation and feed, PFBC operation, plant emissions, and regulations are addressed. The results and conclusions developed are generally applicable to current and advanced PFBC design concepts. Wastes considered for co-firing include municipal solid waste (MSW), sewage sludge, and industrial de-inking sludge. Conceptual designs of two power plants rated at 250 MWe and 150 MWe were developed. Heat and material balances were completed for each plant along with environmental issues. With the PFBC`s operation at high temperature and pressure, efforts were centered on defining feeding systems capable of operating at these conditions. Air emissions and solid wastes were characterized to assess the environmental performance comparing them to state and Federal regulations. This paper describes the results of this investigation, presents conclusions on the key issues, and provides recommendations for further evaluation