November 14, 2018

Good Morning,

The harsh rays of the sun have finally met their match thanks to MIT. Scientists have created a heat-deflecting film that when placed on a window could block up to 70 percent of the sun's heat. Cold...indeed.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- MIT researchers develop window coating to deflect most of sun's heat --*

Scientists have developed a heat-deflecting film that could reject up to 70 percent of the sun's heat from a window.

Researchers published the results of tests with the film in a study published Thursday journal Joule published the findings from this new development on Thursday.

The film resembles transparent plastic wrap, implanted with tiny microparticles that contain water that releases when met with temperatures higher than 85 degrees Fahrenheit. After squeezing out the water, the microparticles contract into tight clusters of fiber that repel light.

"It's like a fishnet in water," Nicholas Fang, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a press release. "Each of those fibers making the net, by themselves, reflects a certain amount of light. But because there's a lot of water embedded in the fishnet, each fiber is harder to see. But once you squeeze the water out, the fibers become visible."

About a year ago, Fang began research with scientists at the University of Hong Kong who were eager to develop technology to ward off heat from the inside of buildings during the city's well-known hot summers.

The technology has its financial benefits as well. Air conditioning cost roughly $29 billion to use annually, accounting for 6 percent of all electricity use in the United States. To cut those costs and the inefficiency that come along with heavy air conditioning use, the researchers set out to create technology to protect office buildings from the nasty summer heat in Hong Kong and the U.S.

"Meeting this challenge is critical for a metropolitan area like Hong Kong, where they are under a strict deadline for energy savings," Fang said, in reference to Hong Kong's aim to reduce energy use by 40 percent by the year 2025.

The researchers produced the heat-shielding microparticles solutions, then placed it between two 12-by-12-inch sheets of glass. After applying light from a solar simulator onto the window, they discovered the film pushed back 70 percent of the heat it emitted

"Smart windows on the market currently are either not very efficient in rejecting heat from the sun, or, like some electrochromic windows, they may need more power to drive them, so you would be paying to basically turn windows opaque," Fang said. "We thought there might be room for new optical materials and coatings, to provide better smart window options."

The researchers plan to perform more tests on the film to see if they can improve the technology even more.

*-- Tiny pacemaker prototype avoids open chest surgery for infants --*

A pacemaker protype the size of an almond designed to make procedures for infants less invasive, less painful and more efficient has been tested on pigs.

Dr. Rohan Kumthekar, a cardiology fellow at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., will show off the device and present his abstract Sunday at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018 in Chicago.

Kumthekar believes the process will lead to shorter surgeries, faster recovery times and reduced medical costs.

"Placing a pacemaker in a small child is different than operating on an adult, due to their small chest cavity and narrow blood vessels," Kumthekar said in a press release. "By eliminating the need to cut through the sternum or the ribs and fully open the chest to implant a pacemaker, the current model, we can cut down on surgical time and help alleviate pain."

With the new device, doctors could implant the pacemakers with a tiny incision just below the ribcage.

"The advantage is that the entire surgery is contained within a tiny 1-center incision, which is what we find groundbreaking," Kumthekar said.

Eight piglets were tested without any complications, the researcher said.

In the procedure, a patented two-channel, self-anchoring access port is used to allow a camera to be inserted into the chest to directly visualize the entire procedure.

Then a narrow tube is inserted through the second channel to access the pericardial sac, which is the plastic-like cover around the heart. The leadlet, which is the short extension of the miniature pacemaker, is affixed onto the surface of the heart under direct visualization.

Finally, the pacemaker is inserted into the incision and the skin closed, leaving a tiny scar instead of two large suture lines.

The entire procedure took less than an hour on average, including a median 21 minutes from incision to implantation. Pediatric open-heart surgery could take up to several hours.

"As cardiologists and pediatric surgeons, our goal is to put a child's health and comfort first," Kumthekar said. "Advancements in surgical fields are tending toward procedures that are less and less invasive. ... However, placing pacemaker leads on infants' hearts has always been an open surgery. We are trying to bring those surgical advances into our field of pediatric cardiology to benefit our patients."

He noted many laparoscopic surgeries in adults and children used to be open surgeries, such as appendix and gall bladder removals.

The miniature pacemakers and surgical approach also may be used on adult patients, including those with limited vascular access, such as those born with congenital heart disease, or ones who have had open-heart surgery or previous cardiovascular procedures.

The second phase of testing will involve analyzing how the tailored devices hold up over time before clinical testing and availability for infants.

Kumthekar developed the device in the bioengineering lab of Dr. Charles Berul, who is an electrophysiologist and the chief of cardiology at Children's National.

"The concept of inserting a pacemaker with a 1-centimeter incision in less than an hour demonstrates the power of working with multidisciplinary research teams to quickly solve complex clinical challenges," said Berul, a guiding study author.


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