Warner Pacific College

The main objective of this research program is to design, manufacture, and demonstrate a miniaturized, multi-process, monitoring system (mMPMS) for boiler condition management and easy system deployment to obtain a higher spatial resolution. This system will facilitate a Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) philosophy that actively monitors the health of assets to predict and prevent failures and maximize availability and generating capacity at a reduced cost. CBM systems can provide boiler data that the advanced process control (APC) system can utilize for plant performance optimization, which is increasingly relevant as coal power plants shift from predominantly base-load operation to predominantly transient operation involving large load swings. The mMPMS is based on an electrochemical sensor that provides a real-time indication of the risk of damage to key locations in the radiant or convective section of a coal-fired boiler such as metal loss rates, heat flux, metal surface temperature, and deposit thickness. These indications can be utilized to optimize boiler performance as well as improve boiler availability in conjunction with corresponding operating conditions. This monitoring system was developed and tested in the high-temperature regions of coal-fired utility boilers in this project but can be applied to many other industries and applications as well. This project leveraged the existing electrochemical noise-based monitoring system and the new sensor design is small enough to be installed through the webbing of the waterwalls without the need for long shut-downs to bend tubes and to make it feasible to obtain high spatial resolution in the boiler. Data is transferred to the plant distributed control system (DCS) and any other control system. The sensor body that houses the sensor assembly was designed to ensure good conductive contact with boiler tubes to ensure the sensor is held at an identical temperature to the tube surface temperature. The data acquisition and signal conditioning modules were redesigned into a small footprint with optimized cooling of the module. System software was developed specifically for the new signal conditioning module and is compatible with plant PLCs. After the preliminary testing at a pilot-scale facility, the three mMPMS were installed at a full-scale pulverized coal-fired plant, PacifiCorp’s Hunter 3. The systems were demonstrated over 20,000 hours at the plant during regular operation. Also, the sensor data was fed to the plant’s advanced process control system to evaluate the corrosion control by the operation changes and utilized to understand the impacts of load cycling with different ramping up and down speeds. At the end of the project, the systems were converted to the permanent installation at the power plant to be used with the advanced process control system installed at the plant.

INTRODUCTIONThe importance of ultrasound regarding its depth and breadth across medical fields continues to expand in development and use while affordability improves for the user and patient. Sonoanatomy is important for interpreting the anatomical architecture adjacent to the probe. Medical educators responsible for teaching ultrasound are faced with two obstacles, teaching how to drive the ultrasound technology and understanding the surface, static and dynamic sonoanatomy of the regions of the body.AIMThe aim of this study was to identify and teach sonoanatomy with ultrasound which limits or removes driving the knobology associated with traditional ultrasound technology.METHODSLiterature search was conducted to identify an ultrasound probe system which is handheld, cordless, with no buttons and uses artificial intelligence to provide diagnostic quality imaging. An upper division baccalaureate semester cadaver dissection course (pre healthcare Gen Z students N=14) which included sonoanatomy teaching and examination with a traditional cart ultrasound probe system was the arena to introduce such technology. Students rotated during every dissection lab to practice ultrasound probe positioning, image acquisition and anatomy interpretation.RESULTSClarius handheld wireless multiprobe ultrasound‐probe‐system compatible with Apple and Android mobile devices was identified and used equally with traditional cart ultrasound. Students were successfully taught surface and regional sonoanatomy in lectures and tutorials using exam results.DISCUSSIONClarius is shock and water resistant and utilizes automated AI with a real time automated time‐gain‐compensation (TGC) engine. Traditional ultrasound systems require users adjusting several TGC controls (knobs) to optimize imaging and often when changing scanning planes, attenuation variance forces users to adjust TGC often resulting in failed images adding to the learning curve. Clarius automated AI overrides user interaction with TGC controls if desired. Analyzing each single ultrasound image captured during scanning at rates of 30 frames per second, gain can be tuned with high level precision to 1mm, all in real‐time, with instant feedback resulting in quality images.CONCLUSIONStudents preferred not having to adjust knobs and performed better acquiring quality images with Clarius probe system on cadaver and simulation exercises then with a traditional ultrasound cart system. This pilot project suggests more Clarius ultrasound studies could be used to train novices in healthcare.

Institutions of higher learning are located within the context of neighborhoods. But to what degree do they see themselves as neighbors? What does it mean to be an engaged institutional neighbor? Inspired by this question, I utilize place-based community engagement principles, combined with self-study research methods, to trace the development of the Ministry and Community Engagement Program at Warner Pacific University. I begin by locating our university theologically within the Wesleyan-Holiness and social justice movements—and also placing our university geoculturally—in our urban location in the Pacific Northwest. Next, I trace the evolution of one curricular program through four rounds of discoveries and adjustments in our self-study inquiry. Lastly, I outline our key learnings and their potential implications for Christian higher education with a concluding gesture at an answer to that guiding question—what does it mean to be an engaged institutional neighbor?

The transmission system in the Pacific Northwest is highly coupled among utilities. To meet NERC MOD-033 requirements for validating dynamic performance in this region, a validation process focusing on large disturbances' system-wide response was designed to take into account the interaction of all dynamic components in a wide area. Unlike plant level or local disturbance validation studies, such a system level validation process brings new challenges that require a collaborative approach to evaluate factors including power flow conditions, event sequence, and model limitations. The principles, methodology and performance criteria for this process are discussed in this paper, and supported by a validation study for a disturbance having both large frequency and voltage impact.

Restoration of access to lost habitat for threatened and endangered fishes above currently impassable dams represents a major undertaking. Biological monitoring is critical to understand the dynamics and success of anadromous recolonization as, in the case of Oncorhynchus mykiss, anadromous steelhead populations are reconnected with their conspecific resident rainbow trout counterparts. We evaluate three river systems in the Lower Columbia River basin: the White Salmon, Sandy, and Lewis rivers that are in the process of removing and/or providing passage around existing human-made barriers in O. mykiss riverine habitat. In these instances, now isolated resident rainbow trout populations will be exposed to competition and/or genetic introgression with steelhead and vice versa. Our genetic analyses of 2,158 fish using 13 DNA microsatellite (mSAT) loci indicated that within each basin anadromous O. mykiss were genetically distinct from and significantly more diverse than their resident above-dam trout counterparts. Above long-standing natural impassable barriers, each of these watersheds also harbors unique rainbow trout gene pools with reduced levels of genetic diversity. Despite frequent releases of non-native steelhead and rainbow trout in each river, hatchery releases do not appear to have had a significant genetic effect on the population structure of O. mykiss in any of these watersheds. Simulation results suggest there is a high likelihood of identifying anadromous x resident individuals in the Lewis and White Salmon rivers, and slightly less so in the Sandy River. These genetic data are a prerequisite for informed monitoring, managing, and conserving the different life history forms during upstream recolonization when sympatry of life history forms of O. mykiss is restored.

O bem-estar espiritual conecta-se ao significado da vida de maneira ampla, possibilitando o equilíbrio emocional, a qualidade de vida e o desenvolvimento de valores éticos e morais que podem interferir nas questões biológicas, psicológicas e sociais do indivíduo. Este estudo objetivou avaliar o bem-estar espiritual em doutorandos de uma universidade comunitária de Pelotas-RS a fim de verificar sua associação com fatores sociodemográficos e autoavaliação de saúde e vida. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, com amostra de conveniência, que examinará o bem-estar espiritual em doutorandos de Programas de Pós-Graduação. Os participantes responderam ao questionário com fatores sociodemográficos, autoavaliação da saúde e da vida e ao instrumento – versão longa da Escala de Bem-Estar Espiritual (EBE) – que são autoaplicáveis. Foram utilizados os testes t, ANOVA e correlação de Pearson para a análise. Os resultados apresentaram maiores escores de bem-estar espiritual e religioso em doutorandos que têm alguma religião, realizam práticas religiosas e tem frequência na atividade; observou-se correlação significativa do bem-estar religioso com a renda familiar. O estudo mostra a importância do bem-estar espiritual como fator de proteção em questões sociais, psicológicas e profissionais, principalmente em momentos tensos e de sobrecarga em que vivem os doutorandos.Palavras-chave: Espiritualidade, Religião, Educação Superior

IEEE Standard 1366 offers a method for segmenting reliability performance data to isolate the effects of major events from the underlying year-to-year trends in reliability. Recent analysis by the IEEE Distribution Reliability Working Group (DRWG) has found that reliability performance of some utilities differs from the expectations that helped guide the development of the Standard 1366 method. This paper proposes quantitative metrics to evaluate the performance of the Standard 1366 method in identifying major events and in reducing year-to-year variability in utility reliability. The metrics are applied to a large sample of utility-reported reliability data to assess performance of the method with alternative specifications that have been considered by the DRWG. We find that none of the alternatives perform uniformly "better" than the current Standard 1366 method. That is, none of the modifications uniformly lowers the year-to-year variability in System Average Interruption Duration Index without major events. Instead, for any given alternative, while it may lower the value of this metric for some utilities, it also increases it for other utilities (sometimes dramatically). Thus, we illustrate some of the trade-offs that must be considered in using the Standard 1366 method and highlight the usefulness of the metrics we have proposed in conducting these evaluations.

Adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction links obesity of any cause with cardiometabolic disease, but whether early-life nutritional deficiency can program adipocyte dysfunction independently of obesity is untested. In 3-5-month-old juvenile microswine offspring exposed to isocaloric perinatal maternal protein restriction (MPR) and exhibiting accelerated prepubertal fat accrual without obesity, we assessed markers of acquired obesity: adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels and adipocyte size in intra-abdominal (ABD-AT) and subcutaneous (SC-AT) adipose tissues. Plasma cortisol, leptin and insulin levels were measured in fetal, neonatal and juvenile offspring. In juvenile low-protein offspring (LPO), adipocyte size in ABD-AT was reduced 22% (P = 0.011 v. controls), whereas adipocyte size in SC-AT was increased in female LPO (P = 0.05) and normal in male LPO; yet, adiponectin mRNA in LPO was low in both sexes and in both depots (P < 0.001). Plasma leptin (P = 0.004) and cortisol (P < 0.05) were reduced only in neonatal LPO during MPR. In juveniles, correlations between % body fat and adiponectin mRNA, TNF-α mRNA or plasma leptin were significant in normal-protein offspring (NPO) but absent in LPO. Plasma glucose in juvenile LPO was increased in males but decreased in females (interaction, P = 0.023); plasma insulin levels and insulin sensitivity were unaffected. Findings support nutritional programming of adipocyte size and gene expression and subtly altered glucose homeostasis. Reduced adiponectin mRNA and adipokine dysregulation in juvenile LPO following accelerated growth occurred independently of obesity, adipocyte hypertrophy or inflammatory markers; thus, perinatal MPR and/or growth acceleration can alter adipocyte structure and disturb adipokine homeostasis in metabolically adverse patterns predictive of enhanced disease risk.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the extent to which organizations were prepared for the economic crisis, the nature of responses, and factors that might explain preparedness and modes of response.Design/methodology/approachThe survey conducted in July 2009 and sponsored by the Association for Strategic Planning, sampled 190 US managers involved in strategic planning within organizations. The survey assessed the role strategic planning played during the recent financial crisis.FindingsKey findings include: organizations that used strategic planning to make critical decisions were better able to pursue growth opportunities during the crisis; and organizations that relied on strategic planning during the crisis are more confident about their prospects for near‐term growth.Research limitations/implicationsRepeating this protocol for a sample of executives who have not taken a particular interest in strategic planning as a discipline would create more confidence that the conclusions can be generalized.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests to organizations that an embrace of strategic planning in the form of having a regular process, a senior leader in charge, and involving the entire leadership team makes a significant difference in optimism and future outlook.Originality/valueThe results suggest that an organization's trust and confidence in strategic planning as a decision‐making discipline is a stronger indicator of potential success than the adoption of any particular strategic planning technique or principle.