Des Plaines Research Articles

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Have Degree, Will Travel

Lillian Gonzalez works as a traveling nurse at seven hospitals in Las Vegas, NV. The author wishes to acknowledge Anne Nowlin, a nurse journalist in Des Plaines, IL, for her contribution to this article. Contact author: [email protected]. AJN Student Extra is a special feature for students and faculty. The editorial advisory committee is Michael Desjardins, BSN, RN (chairperson), Faith Vander Linden, BSN, RN, Kristine Fortney, BSN, RN, and Allison Webel.

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Upcoming Critical Care Meetings

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

Hydrodynamic and geomorphologic dispersion: scale effects in the Illinois River Basin

The objective of this work is to determine the relative effects of hydrodynamic and geomorphologic dispersion on the hydrological response of the Illinois River Basin (IRB) as scale increases. The specific hypothesis that was tested is that as basin size increases, the river network structure, as compared to channel hydrodynamic properties, plays an increasingly dominant role in determining the hydrologic response. The analysis was performed on eight of the major watersheds in the IRB in order to provide an adequate representation of basins that contain streams of order six or greater. The basins studied include the Des Plaines, Mackinaw, Vermilion, Fox, La Moine, Spoon, Kankakee, and the Sangamon, and have magnitudes ranging from order six to order eight. The geometric and hydrodynamic properties were derived from the analysis of digital elevation model data and from the hydraulic geometry equations for various subcatchments of the IRB put forth by Stall and Fok [Univ. of Ill. Water Res. Center Res. Rep. 15, 1968]. The hydrodynamic and geomorphologic dispersion coefficients were determined for each order stream of the eight basins and for constant flow frequencies, then compared. The results contradict the original hypothesis, for at small scales, geomorphologic dispersion tends to dominate, the extent of which depends upon the flow frequency, and at large scales, geomorphologic dispersion is less dominant. This occurs because of the behavior of the path lengths of a stream network, which geomorphologic dispersion depends upon. In addition, at high flow frequencies the geomorphologic dispersion dominates, and at low frequencies the hydrodynamic dispersion begins to play an increasingly important role, although the geomorphologic dispersion still dominates. This dominance suggests that the geomorphologic parameters of a watershed could be more important in characterizing the hydrologic response of a river basin than hydrodynamic parameters.

Membrane improves DMFC performance

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) of Des Plaines, Illinois, USA, has developed a new membrane which, it claims, has substantially improved the system performance of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). This is a short news story only. Visit www.filtsep.com for all the latest filtration industry news.

GTI fuel cell test reaches endurance milestone

The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in Des Plaines, Illinois recently reached a major project milestone in its PEM fuel cell development program, when its researchers reported that a novel uncoated metal bipolar separator plate has surpassed one year (more than 8760 h) of endurance testing. This is a short news story only. Visit www.re-focus.net for the latest renewable energy industry news.

Illinois 2H 2 launched as public-private partnership

The Illinois Coalition and the state’s Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity have established Illinois 2H 2 to create an industry cluster centered on the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier. The organization resulted from an April conference of industry leaders at the Gas Technology Institute in Des Plaines, where there was overwhelming support for formalizing a public-private partnership to capitalize on national momentum and the state’s inherent strength in this emerging industry. This is a short news story only. Visit www.re-focus.net for the latest renewable energy industry news

Thermal And Chemical Stability Of Baseline And Improved Crystalline Silicotitanate#

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) is evaluating technologies for removing radioactive cesium (137Cs) from the supernate solutions stored in the high-level waste tanks at the site. Crystalline silicotitanate (CST) sorbent (IONSIV® IE-911, UOP LLC, Des Plaines, IL), which is very effective at removing cesium from high-salt solutions, was one of three technologies that were tested. Small-scale batch and column tests conducted last year using samples of production batches of CST showed potential problems with CST clumping and loss of cesium capacity after extended contact with the simulant solutions. Similar tests using samples of a baseline and improved granular CST and the CST powder used to make both granular samples were performed this year to compare the performance of the improved CST. The column tests showed that the baseline CST generated more precipitates of sodium aluminosilicate than the improved CST. The sodium aluminosilicate formed bridges between the CST granules, causing clumps of CST to form in the column. Clumps were visible in the baseline CST column after 1 month of operation and in the improved CST column after 2 months. The cesium capacity of the CST samples from the column tests with recirculating simulant decreased slightly as the run time increased. Most of this decrease could be attributed to the weight of cancrinite (a sodium aluminosilicate) on the CST samples. Tests conducted last year using production batch samples of CST showed a more pronounced drop in cesium capacity under comparable conditions. A column test using the improved CST and once-through simulant showed few problems during 5 months of operation. The pressure drop through the column remained low; however, the CST in the column was clumped together when the final samples were taken after 5 months. The final sample taken from the top 1 cm of the column showed a 65% drop in cesium capacity compared with all the other samples from this column. This sample also contained the highest concentration of cancrinite, but the weight of cancrinite would only account for a small fraction of the drop in cesium capacity by simple dilution of the CST. The CST in the batch tests stored at elevated temperatures in average simulant formed clumps, but this occurred at a slower rate than that observed last year during comparable tests using production batch samples of CST. Storage at elevated temperatures caused a gradual decrease in cesium capacity as the storage time increased, with a loss in capacity of up to 20% after 5 to 6 months at 80°C. The results for the baseline and improved CST samples were essentially the same for these batch tests. #The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.

The Effect Of Carbonate, Oxalate, And Peroxide On The Cesium Loading Of Ionsiv® Ie-910 And Ie-911#

This study investigated the effect of salt solution chemistry on cesium loading of IONSIV® IE-911 (UOP LLC, Des Plaines, IL). The Savannah River Site (SRS) explored the use of this sorbent to remove cesium from the 35-million gallons of nuclear waste—supernatant and salt cake—stored on site. The proposed project has a cost estimated between $1.14 to $1.35 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy identified this technology as a backup in the Record of Decision. This study focused on salt solutions with different levels of carbonate, oxalate, and peroxide. The experiments examined the influence of these trace components on the performance of the sorbent, as even apparent minor variances in performance can dramatically influence the life-cycle cost of the project. Cesium loading on IE-911 increased with carbonate content in the simulated salt solution. Over the range of concentration (0 to 0.7 M) expected in SRS waste, the cesium loading increased by 38%. The variance likely results from a shift in sodium activity in the solution for increasing carbonate concentration. Removing (0-M) oxalate from simulated “average” salt solution had no effect on cesium loading. Peroxide at 0.1 M decreased the cesium loading on IE-911 by 16%. The expected peroxide concentration in average SRS waste is estimated as 2.6×10−6 M. At this concentration level, interpolation of the data suggests no peroxide effect on cesium loading. #The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract No. DE-AC09-96SR18500. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.

SCCM EVENTS

Submissions to this section are limited to academic and noncommercial institutions and must be received 6 months before the event. Contact: Critical Care Medicine, 701 Lee Street, Suite 200, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Telephone: 847-827-6869; Fax: 847-827-6886; E-mail: [email protected]

William Campbell Dickison: A Biographical Tribute and Bibliography

Abstract William Campbell Dickison, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and internationally noted plant anatomist and morphologist, died on 22 November 1999. This tribute chronicles his life journey and elucidates his accomplishments in and contributions to botany. William Campbell Dickison (Fig. 1) was a plant anatomist and morphologist of international distinction. His life journey took him to the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi, region, to Des Plaines and Macomb, Illinois, to the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, to the deserts of Arizona, to the mountains of Virginia, and finally to the North Carolina college town of Chapel Hill. He was influenced by experiences in each of these settings. This biographical tribute greatly expands on insights of BilI's life and accomplishments given by Gensel (2000), Wheeler (2000), White (2000), and Burk (2001). Even though William C. Dickison was weakened by his long battle against bonemarrow cancer, he was reading final page ...

The effectiveness of occluder contact lenses in improving occlusion compliance in patients that have failed traditional occlusion therapy.

Management of infants and young children with dense amblyopia, including that which results from unilateral congenital cataracts, is challenging because of noncompliance with occlusion therapy. Occluder contact lenses (OCLs) have been described to successfully improve visual acuity in patients with amblyopia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of OCLs in improving occlusion compliance in infants and young children with dense amblyopia who had failed traditional occlusion therapy. Thirteen patients were fit in their nonamblyopic eye with OCLs provided by Wesley Jessen (Des Plaines, IL). All patients had dense amblyopia as diagnosed by a pediatric ophthalmologist. Nine of the 13 patients had deprivational amblyopia associated with unilateral aphakia, 2 patients had strabismic amblyopia, and the other 2 had mixed mechanism amblyopia. All patients had failed traditional occlusion methods. Occlusion was prescribed on a part-time basis to prevent occlusion amblyopia to the better-seeing eye. Compliance with the OCLs was determined by questioning the parents as to whether the prescribed occlusion time was accomplished. Five of the 13 patients (38.4%) did not succeed in the initial 1-mo trial period because of parental difficulties with lens handling. Four patients (30.7%) achieved partial success, as they were able to wear the lens between 4 to 14 mo, at which time they learned to remove the occluder lens. The four remaining patients (30.7%) successfully wore the occluder lenses until the conclusion of the study, a time period ranging from 26 to 60 mo. No complications resulted from OCLs. OCLs can provide an alternative to achieving occlusion compliance after the failure of traditional occlusion therapy in infants and young children with dense amblyopia.