New Elgin hospital goes geothermal - de-chant.com · New Elgin hospital goes geothermal Yearly...
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By Tim De Chant TRIBUNE REPORTER With a twitch of a muscle, the Chinese concave-eared torrent frog brushes off the sounds of thundering rivers, focusing on the one thing that really matters: the siren song of the opposite sex. The males of this rare spe- cies are the only animal known to be able to turn a deaf ear to distracting noises while enhancing the calls of its own kind, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the Na- tional Academy of Science. When the frog is calling for a mate, a piece of cartilage in its eustachian tubes—the ca- nals that connect the ears with the mouth—largely blocks out distracting low- frequency sounds like rush- ing water. Scientists hope their discovery may lead to improved hearing aids. “This probably is the only example we know of in the animal kingdom with this unusual adaptation,” said Albert Feng, professor of mo- lecular and integrative phys- iology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- paign and one of the study’s lead authors. Before they made the acci- dental discovery, Feng and his colleagues were measur- ing how the frog’s unusually thin eardrum responded to sounds. Suddenly, the ear- drum stopped vibrating. “We were scratching our heads,” Feng said. Shining a flashlight into its eustachian tubes, “we saw something, a dark shadow through this transparent eardrum,” he said. “We said, wow, what’s going on there?” Previously, scientists thought frogs’ eustachian tubes were never closed off. “It’s strange from top to bottom,” said Mark Bee, an assistant professor in ecol- ogy, evolution and behavior at the University of Minneso- ta who was not a part of the study. The study has “forced us to rethink everything” about frog hearing, he said. The Chinese frog lives alongside fast-flowing rivers, with birds and insects shrieking over a cacophony of falling water and rushing rapids. The frogs try to shout over one another, too—the amphibian equivalent of the cocktail party problem. Without its adaptation, a frog might not hear a mate. “This frog produces a long 3- or 4-second call that con- sists of little pulses, you know: ‘dat dat dat dat dat dat,’ ” Bee said. The call is 10 percent sound and 90 percent silence, he added, and the ad- aptation may allow the caller to hear other frogs better in the gaps between the bursts. The frogs have inspired Feng to ponder new hearing aids that could gracefully handle noisy environments. Current hearing aids work well in quiet situations, said Bee, “but you put Grandma and her new hearing aid at the dinner table at Christ- mas with 15 other people all talking at the same time, and it doesn’t do her any good.” [email protected] Length: 1.2-2.2 inches Habitat: In vegetation along mountain streams and waterfalls, and moist forests and shrubland Reproduction: Eggs are laid in June. Origin: Zhejiang and Anhui Provinces, China ELIMINATING BACKGROUND NOISE Odorrana tormota How frogs tune out sound SOURCES: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Amphibiaweb.org, Naturwissenschaften; photo courtesy of Albert S. Feng, University of Illinois Skull In males, the eustachian tube opens and closes, protecting the inner ear from low-frequency sound. Underside Chinese concave-eared torrent frog CHICAGO TRIBUNE / Gentry Sleets and Phil Geib Normal function Calling or swallowing Eustachian tube open, unprotected Cartilage horn (acts like a hinge) Muscles not contracted Cartilage horn pulls protective tissue over eustachian tube Muscles contract Frog only has ears for sweetie Rare species can tune out background
Transcript of New Elgin hospital goes geothermal - de-chant.com · New Elgin hospital goes geothermal Yearly...
2 CHICAGO TRIBUNE Ô METRO Ô SECTION 2 Ô TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2008 CL
By Kristen KridelTRIBUNE REPORTER
From the dog days of sum-mer to frigid winter nights,the key to keeping a new El-gin hospital at a cozy temper-ature lies in an 18-foot-deeplake.
Workers this summer aresubmerging about 150 milesof plastic pipe so ShermanHospital can use water fromthe bottom of the 15-acre geo-thermal lake to heat and coolits new facility.
“If the lake was dry, itwould look like a bunch ofcoils and piping connected
together by a bunch of spa-ghetti,” said Warren Lloyd, avice president for KJWW En-gineering Consultants.
The Rock Island-basedcompany designed the hospi-tal’s $4.5 million geothermalheating and cooling system.Officials hope it will mean asavings of about $1 million ayear in energy costs at the fa-cility, scheduled to open nextyear.
The maze of pipes, whichcarry water treated withnon-toxic antifreeze, willserve as heat exchangers inthe $310 million hospital.
Depending on the season,the solution in the pipes willbe heated or cooled by waterat the bottom of the lake,where the temperature won’t
rise above 80 to 85 degrees orfall below 39 degrees. Thegeothermal heat trapped inthe earth helps keep the wa-ter below the surface at afairly constant temperature.
“When it’s minus some-thing outside, 39 degrees isstill warmer,” said CharlesBurnidge, an architect whosits on the Elgin hospital’sboard of directors. “Whenit’s 100 degrees outside, 85 de-grees is still cooler.”
Each room in the 255-bedhospital will have a heatpump that in winter willtransfer heat from the fluidpiped into the rooms, or drawit out in summer.
When the fluid is loopedback to the lake, heat is dissi-pated and the process starts
over.The decision to build the
new hospital on a 154-acresite near the intersection ofRandall and Big TimberRoads prompted criticism.Administrators at ProvenaSt. Joseph Hospital, less thanfour miles away, argued themove might put their facilityout of business.
Officials at Sherman saidthey weren’t trying to deflectcriticism when they ap-proved plans to use a geo-thermal heating and coolingsystem.
“It truly wasn’t” done towin support, Burnidge said.“The decisions Shermanmade were independent. Wewere looking at our hospital,our needs, the community’s
needs and how we could bestserve those needs.”
A hospital in West Burling-ton, Iowa, developed a geo-thermal lake for heating andcooling in the late 1990s. Thesystem at Great River Medi-cal Center saves more than$900,000 a year in energycosts, said John Mercer, ahospital spokesman.
Although the system ismore costly to maintain, thehospital still comes outahead overall through ener-gy savings, Mercer said.
The only downside is thatit can take a little longer thanusual—up to an hour—forthe air in a room to reach thedesired temperature, he said.
Tribune photo by Jim Prisching
Pipe fitter Frank Janczak carries tubing to a 15-acre lake for a $4.5 million geothermal heating and cooling system for Sherman Hospital in Elgin.
New Elgin hospital goes geothermalYearly savings maybe cool $1 million
By Carlos SadoviTRIBUNE REPORTER
Reluctant to go back to tax-payers after the biggest prop-erty tax hike in Mayor Rich-ard Daley’s tenure and twosales tax increases this year,City Hall and Chicago PublicSchools officials are lookingat dipping deeper into reservefunds to fill a nearly $100 mil-lion hole in the new schoolbudget, sources said Monday.
City and school district offi-cials who have been meetingprivately refused to say if theproposed school budget thatcould be introduced as soonas Wednesday will call for in-creased property taxes.
But school officials saidthat this year’s tax increasescaused them to look espe-cially hard at not raisingtaxes, even though the schoolboard repeatedly has raisedproperty taxes over the yearsto balance its budget.
“These are obviously tougheconomic times, and the lastthing we want to do is raisetaxes,’’ said Chicago PublicSchools spokesman MichaelVaughn.
This year, Cook Countyraised the sales tax by 1 per-centage point and the stateraised the sales tax a quarter-point for the CTA. In Novem-ber, Daley pushed an $86 mil-lion property tax increasethrough the City Council.The mayor also controls theschool board by appointingits members and could turnthumbs-down on a propertytax increase.
“[It’s] still being assessed.Because we are facing eco-nomic challenges, it’s in ev-eryone’s best interests tokeep analyzing our options,”Daley spokeswoman Jodi Ka-wada said Monday.
If homeowners aren’t hit upfor more taxes, one option thedistrict has is to further tapits $480 million in reserves.Officials already have saidthey would take $50 million inreserves before they pressedstate lawmakers for moremoney in the spring.
Bond rating agencies sug-gest having between 5 and 15percent of the budget in re-serve funds, Vaughn said.Lowering the reserves toomuch could mean a lowerbond rating which makes itmore expensive to borrowmoney.
The district wanted $190million more from the statebut only will be getting $98million. Vaughn said a lack ofconstruction money from thestate the last several yearshas required the district toborrow money to keep up.
Vaughn said the district islooking to cut administrativecosts and other programs out-side the classroom such astransportation. LaurenceMsall, president of the CivicFederation, a nonpartisangovernment watchdog group,said that given the decliningenrollment, the districtshould consider paring staff.
The district expects to con-tinue funding successful pro-grams like full-day kinder-garten, the high school trans-formation initiative designedto strengthen curriculumand teacher training pro-grams at high schools thatneed to be improved, Vaughnsaid. They also hope to con-tinue funding programs tar-geting incoming freshmen aswell as beef up reading pro-grams and initiatives to“turn around” eight schoolsin the district.
The school district’s over-all budget is expected to beabout $5.7 billion, about a 6percent increase from lastyear.
Tribune reporter Hal Dardickcontributed to this report.
Schoolsmay needto dip intoreservesSales, real estatetaxes not enough
School in Greece found mid-day napping at least threetimes per week for at least 30minutes reduced heart-dis-ease deaths by about one-third among men and wom-en. The study focused on23,681 Greeks who had nohistory of coronary heartdisease, stroke or cancer.
Napping also takes theedge off sleepiness by addingto cumulative sleep time,said Gregory Belenky, a sleepresearcher at WashingtonState University.
“You can split your sleepup and still have the same ag-gregate effect,” Belenkysaid. “Nap early, nap often.”
Lisa Shives, president ofNorthshore Sleep Medicinein Evanston, disagrees. Typi-cally, people who nap oftenhave a sleeping problem or amedical condition, she said.
One drawback to nappingis sleep inertia—the feelingof disorientation when awak-ing from a deep slumber,
Shives said. People who in-sist on snoozing should keepthe nap to 30 minutes or lessto avoid getting into the deep-sleep cycle, she said.
“If you try to take a nap andit’s too long, you wake up su-per groggy,” said Shives, aspokeswoman for the Ameri-can Academy of Sleep Medi-cine based in Westchester.“That is not a good thing foranyone who needs to workimmediately. They reallyhaven’t made themselves feelbetter.”
But if you’re a napper, restassured: You’re in good com-pany.
Fifty-four percent of the1,000 Americans polled in a2007 survey by the NationalSleep Foundation said theytook at least one nap duringthe previous month. The re-spondents on average took3.5 naps during the month,with an average reported naptime of about an hour.
People are even dozing atwork. One in 10 respondentsto the National Sleep Foun-dation survey said they have
napped at work. About one-third said their employer al-lows them to nap duringbreaks, while 16 percent ofrespondents said their em-ployer provides a place foremployees to nap.
Employees of PerkSpot, aRavenswood company thatmanages employee discountprograms on behalf of em-ployers, have the opportuni-ty to catch up on their zzz’son the office futon, which haspillows but no blanket. Sincethe futon was introduced tothe company about a yearago, a few of the firm’s 10 em-ployees take a nap there eachweek, PerkSpot founderChris Hill said.
“We thought it would be anice place to sit. It justturned into more of a nap-ping-focused piece of furni-ture,” Hill said. “It has beenused on occasion when wepull all-nighters. Get a cou-ple hours sleep on there, thenback to work at 9.”
Instead of catching shut-eye at work, Adam Joffe ofRiver North prefers to nap an
hour at home. Joffe said heenjoys taking a snooze Fri-day evenings after a longweek of working and lawschool at Chicago-Kent Col-lege.
Typically, he will lie on hiscouch at about 6 p.m. andwake up around 7:30 p.m., re-freshed and ready to go outfor the night.
Joffe said he’d like to takemore naps if he had thetime—he was an everydaynapper in college—but he’dnever pay for a quick snooze.
“Nothing beats the com-fort of my own couch,” Joffe,27, said.
Still, other napsters prefera fancier snooze. The Kohlerspa in Burr Ridge has per-formed more than 50 custommassages with restorativenaps since the spa openedApril 21, Kolb said. Aftertheir 60-minute massage, spapatrons stay on the massagetable, and the massage thera-pist covers their eyes with awarm aromatherapy toweland lowers the lights. Pa-trons are awakened 15 min-
utes later to the sound of atuning fork and bowl.
In New York City, the Yelospa charges $15 for a 20-min-ute nap in its YeloCab, a pri-vate space with a recliningchair, cashmere blankets andpurified air. Customerschose the color and intensityof the light in the cabin andtheir hibernation sounds(environmental or music.)
Pamela Spiegel, a Yelo ac-count executive, said thecompany plans to expand toChicago in the next two yearsbut a location has not yetbeen picked.
Not everyone is a fan ofnaps.
Ryan Wyse of Crystal Lakesaid he wouldn’t pay for anap or take a quick snoozefor free. Wyse said he dislikesnaps because they make himfeel groggy. His former room-mate napped all the time.
“It drove me crazy,” saidWyse, 31. “He was snoring onthe couch. I’m like, ‘Go dosomething.’ ”
»NAPCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
By Tim De ChantTRIBUNE REPORTER
With a twitch of a muscle,the Chinese concave-earedtorrent frog brushes off thesounds of thundering rivers,focusing on the one thingthat really matters: the sirensong of the opposite sex.
The males of this rare spe-cies are the only animalknown to be able to turn adeaf ear to distracting noiseswhile enhancing the calls ofits own kind, according to astudy published Monday inthe Proceedings of the Na-tional Academy of Science.
When the frog is calling fora mate, a piece of cartilage inits eustachian tubes—the ca-nals that connect the earswith the mouth—largelyblocks out distracting low-frequency sounds like rush-ing water. Scientists hopetheir discovery may lead toimproved hearing aids.
“This probably is the onlyexample we know of in the
animal kingdom with thisunusual adaptation,” saidAlbert Feng, professor of mo-lecular and integrative phys-iology at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Cham-paign and one of the study’slead authors.
Before they made the acci-dental discovery, Feng andhis colleagues were measur-ing how the frog’s unusuallythin eardrum responded tosounds. Suddenly, the ear-drum stopped vibrating.
“We were scratching ourheads,” Feng said.
Shining a flashlight intoits eustachian tubes, “we sawsomething, a dark shadowthrough this transparenteardrum,” he said. “We said,wow, what’s going on there?”
Previously, scientiststhought frogs’ eustachiantubes were never closed off.
“It’s strange from top tobottom,” said Mark Bee, anassistant professor in ecol-ogy, evolution and behaviorat the University of Minneso-ta who was not a part of thestudy. The study has “forcedus to rethink everything”about frog hearing, he said.
The Chinese frog livesalongside fast-flowing rivers,with birds and insectsshrieking over a cacophonyof falling water and rushingrapids. The frogs try to shoutover one another, too—theamphibian equivalent of thecocktail party problem.
Without its adaptation, afrog might not hear a mate.
“This frog produces a long3- or 4-second call that con-sists of little pulses, youknow: ‘dat dat dat dat datdat,’ ” Bee said. The call is 10percent sound and 90 percentsilence, he added, and the ad-aptation may allow the callerto hear other frogs better inthe gaps between the bursts.
The frogs have inspiredFeng to ponder new hearingaids that could gracefullyhandle noisy environments.
Current hearing aids workwell in quiet situations, saidBee, “but you put Grandmaand her new hearing aid atthe dinner table at Christ-mas with 15 other people alltalking at the same time, andit doesn’t do her any good.”
Length: 1.2-2.2 inches
Habitat: In vegetation along mountain streams and waterfalls, and moist forests and shrubland
Reproduction: Eggs are laid in June.
Origin: Zhejiang and Anhui Provinces, China
ELIMINATING BACKGROUND NOISE
Odorrana tormota
How frogs tune out sound
SOURCES: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Amphibiaweb.org, Naturwissenschaften; photo courtesy of Albert S. Feng, University of Illinois
Skull
In males, the eustachian tube opens and closes, protecting the inner ear from low-frequency sound.
Underside
Chinese concave-eared torrent frog
CHICAGO TRIBUNE / Gentry Sleets and Phil Geib
Normal function
Calling or swallowing
Eustachian tube open, unprotected
Cartilage horn (acts like a hinge)
Muscles not contracted
Cartilage horn pulls protective tissue over eustachian tube
Muscles contract
Frog only has ears for sweetieRare species cantune out background
Comments, questions and sug-gestions about articles in thissection are welcome.Write:Peter KendallAssociate Managing Editor for Metropolitan News435 N. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: 312-222-3540E-mail: [email protected]
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