fiogf49gjkf0d
Gizmorama - August 3, 2015
Good Morning,
The key to helping those suffering obesity lose weight is an inflatable balloon device. No, seriously. This story sounds completely silly, but after reading it, you'll be amazed. I certainly was!
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives
***
*-- FDA approves balloon for weight loss --*
SILVER SPRING, Md. - An inflatable balloon device has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to help obese patients lose weight without surgery.
Unlike LAP-band and gastric bypass, the new device, called the ReShape Dual Balloon, does not change the shape of the stomach. Instead, a balloon is inserted through the mouth, into the stomach, and inflated with a sterile solution. By filling space in the stomach, triggering feelings of fullness, and possibly by other mechanisms researchers said they don't yet understand, the balloon can be left in for up to six months to help patients lose weight.
"In the past, bariatric surgeons have had few options to offer patients who did not qualify for bariatric surgery," said Dr. Ninh Nguyen, past president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, in a press release. "The approval of ReShape opens up a new opportunity for these patients or patients who are not ready for surgery, by providing an effective nonsurgical treatment to help them with their weight loss and a path to a healthier lifestyle."
The balloon was tested in a clinical trial with 326 patients between the age of 22 and 60 who had at least 1 obesity-related health condition, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Researchers gave half the group the balloon, and a control group underwent the endoscopic, out-patient procedure but did not have the balloon inserted.
When the device was removed six months after insertion, participants in the group that received the balloon had on average lost 14.3 pounds, while members of the control group lost about 7.3 pounds each. Six months after the device was removed, patients who'd had the balloon inserted kept off an average of 9.9 pounds of the 14.3 they lost with the implant.
"For those with obesity, significant weight loss and maintenance of that weight loss often requires a combination of solutions including efforts to improve diet and exercise habits," said Dr. William Maisel, acting director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in a press release. "This new balloon device provides doctors and patients with a new non-surgical option that can be quickly implanted, is non-permanent, and can be easily removed."
*-- Researchers reshape solar spectrum to turn more light to electricity --*
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Researchers have developed a technique for capturing photons that normally bypass photovoltaic cells inside solar panels. The technology promises to boost solar cell efficiency.
Currently, solar cells aren't capable of absorbing photons in the visible and near-infrared regions of the solar spectrum. But researchers at the University of California, Riverside created a new filter made of a unique hybrid material that captures, converts and combines these elusive photons into higher-energy spectral bands.
"The infrared region of the solar spectrum passes right through the photovoltaic materials that make up today's solar cells," Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry at Riverside, explained in a press release.
"This is energy lost, no matter how good your solar cell," added Ming Lee Tang, an assistant professor of chemistry. "The hybrid material we have come up with first captures two infrared photons that would normally pass right through a solar cell without being converted to electricity, then adds their energies together to make one higher energy photon."
The "upconverted" photon is absorbed by the photovoltaic materials inside today's solar panels. Researchers say they are, in effect, "reshaping the solar spectrum."
The researchers' hybrid material is a combination of inorganic and organic materials. A inorganic mix of cadmium selenide and lead selenide semiconductor nanocrystals work to absorb and convert visible light to near-infrared and vice versa, while an organic compound coating serves to combine the converted photons.
"Put simply, the inorganics in the composite material take light in; the organics get light out," Bardeen explained.
Bardeen says their research -- which was published this week in the journal Nano Letters -- could have applications outside of the solar energy industry.
"The ability to move light energy from one wavelength to another, more useful region, for example, from red to blue, can impact any technology that involves photons as inputs or outputs."
Missed an Issue? Visit the Gizmorama Archives