Technical Application’s Background

 

Task One:
Prepare a 200- to 300-word history about the National Critical Technology (NCT) technical application your team has selected to solve a local or national problem.

 

Sudden infant death syndrome was not recognized as a distinct entity until the mid-1940s; acceptance of existence came in during the 1970s. In 2014 Dr. Hannah Kinney researched into SIDS showing that a cause for SIDS is from brainstem abnormalities that were not at all normal preceding their deaths.  These abnormalities damage circuits that help regulate heart rate, breathing, temperature during sleep, and blood pressure.

 

The number of cases has declined by more than 50 percent since 1990 because of a campaign to encourage parents to place infants on their backs to sleep.  Other factors that may leave a baby at a higher risk of dying from SIDS are known to be: babies who sleep on soft surfaces or have loose bedding and are covered by many blankets, babies who share a bed with other children, adults or pets, mothers who smoke during pregnancy, exposure to passive smoke from smoking by mothers, fathers, and others in the household, mothers who are younger than 20 at the time of their first pregnancy, babies born to mothers who had no or late prenatal care, premature or low birth weight babies. Also breastfeeding may help babies arouse from sleep and avoid potentially dangerous infections and researchers recommend that babies sleep in same room where their parents sleep. Swaddling is also helpful because it may reduce the risk when practiced safely. 

 

Task Two:

Cite three detailed examples of research done in the past 3 to 5 years which focused on the NCT technical application your team selected. Include: the funding agency, the principal investigator's name, and the institution where the research is or was being conducted.

 

1. University of Texas at Arlington researchers obtained a patent for a device whose aim is to develop a sensitive wireless sensor system that can detect carbon dioxide exhaled by babies as they sleep. Electrical Engineering professor J.C. Chiao, doctoral candidate Hung Cao, and Heather Beardsley, a research engineer at UT Arlington’s Automation & Robotics Research Institute, were the primary researchers/investigators.  Funding for research is on the behalf of the consortium.  UT Arlington is partnering with UNT Health Science Center on this project.  

 

2. During the 2011 Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, researchers at the Tyndall National Institute, UCC, Cork, presented a microchip sensor that can detect a person’s respiratory rate without any contact with the person under observation. The team leader was Dr. Domenico Zito.

 

3. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Micro integration IZM in Berlin, led by Dr. Franz Baer, have developed a wearable baby romper that comes complete with sensor that are designed to immediately indicate if a baby stops breathing.

 

Task Three:

Based on the research your team has done, explain how the NCT application chosen has advanced scientific knowledge.

 

Detection for SIDS has advanced scientific knowledge into a way to detect a syndrome that has no cure. Through research, SIDS has been known to regulate heart rate, breathing, and temperature during sleep. Although SIDS has no known cure, this research has opened a way to detect and hopefully react to the signs of this syndrome taking place.