The BioEnterics Intragastric Balloon (BIB) is a saline-filled balloon recommended to remain in the gastric cavity for a maximum of 6 months. Is this short period sufficient to change patients' ...lifestyle and eating practices to maintain weight reduction after BIB removal?
100 patients who received a BIB were included in this prospective study and followed for 1 year after BIB removal. The post-implantation follow-up visits took place monthly, during which the patient was seen by the surgeon, dietitian, and if necessary, psychologist.
At BIB removal, mean weight loss for the group was 12.0 kg. Mean percent excess weight loss (%EWL) was 39.8%. 12 months after removal of the BIB, mean weight loss was 8.6 kg and mean %EWL was 26.8% for the group as a whole.
The results 1 year after removal of the BIB were encouraging. Because the BIB is a temporary non-surgical and non-pharmaceutical treatment for obesity that is reversible and repeatable, we recommend it to patients who have previously failed traditional methods of weight reduction. Careful patient follow-up is of primary importance in avoiding complications and supporting efficacy of the treatment. Although 1 year follow-up cannot be considered long term, these results are encouraging. Concurrent behavior modification is needed for durable weight loss.
The authors have been using the new saline-filled BioEnterics intragastric balloon (BIB) since 1995.
By now, more than 650 BIBs have been implanted on our Unit.
Because of close collaboration between ...the engineers and the users, and after several modifications, an easy-to-use balloon is available. In addition, we have developed 3 instruments which provide easy and quick removal of the BIB.
The device, supported by a competent motivated team, is another modality available for weight loss.
Since 1998 feed forward neural networks have been successfully applied to select candidates of hadronic W-decays measured at different center of mass-energies by the DELPHI collaboration at the Large ...Electron Positron collider at CERN. To prepare the final publication, the neural network was adapted to all center of mass-energies. Detailed studies were performed concerning the level of preselection, the choice of network parameters and especially of the network architecture. The number of hidden nodes was optimized by testing different pruning methods. All studies and results will be discussed.
DELPHI data collected at centre-of-mass energies up to 208 GeV have been analysed to search for charginos, neutralinos and sfermions in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model ...(MSSM) with R-parity conservation. No evidence for a signal was found in any of the channels. The results of each search were used to derive limits on production cross-sections and particle masses. In addition, the combined result of all searches excludes regions in the parameter space of the constrained MSSM, leading to limits on the mass of the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and other supersymmetric particles.
The production of single- and multi-photon events has been studied in the reaction e(+) e(-) --> gamma(gamma) + invisible particles. The data collected with the DELPHI detector during the years 1999 ...and 2000 at centre-of-mass energies between 191 GeV and 209 GeV was combined with earlier data to search for phenomena beyond the Standard Model. The measured number of light neutrino families was consistent with three and the absence of an excess of events beyond that predicted by the Standard Model processes was used to set limits on new physics. Both model-independent searches and searches for new processes predicted by supersymmetric and extra-dimensional models have been made. Limits on new non-standard model interactions between neutrinos and electrons were also determined.
Two aryloxyterephthalic acids and two 2,5-bis(alkoxy)terephthalic acids were synthesized and polycondensed with hydroquinone (HQ), methylhydroquinone (MeHQ), phenylhydroquinone (PhHQ), or ...4,4‘-dihydroxybiphenyl (DHBP). Eleven out of the possible 16 polyesters were selected for the preparation of blends with commercial poly(ε-caprolactone), PCL, as the matrix. The properties of blends containing 1, 2, 4, or 8 wt % of the rigid-rod polymer were studied. The optical microscopy revealed birefringence for the entire blend below the melting temperature (T m) of the rigid-rod polymer. The lyotropic character vanished and phase separation took place above the T m of the rigid-rod polymer. The lyotropic blends (PCL acting as a solvent) showed a significant mechanical reinforcement effect, when examined by melt rheology and stress−strain measurements. This effect depended largely on the aromatic character of the substituents. The most surprising and important finding is the formation of lyotropic blends from a rigid-rod polyester which is not liquid crystalline as a neat material.
Moments of the hadronic invariant mass and of the lepton energy spectra in semileptonic B decays have been determined with the data recorded by the DELPHI detector at LEP. From measurements of the ...inclusive b-hadron semileptonic decays, and imposing constraints from other measurements on b- and c-quark masses, the first three moments of the lepton energy distribution and of the hadronic mass distribution, have been used to determine parameters which enter into the extraction of |Vcb| from the measurement of the inclusive b-hadron semileptonic decay width. The values obtained in the kinetic scheme are:\(\begin{array}{*{20}l}{{m_{b} {\left( {1\;{\text{GeV}}} \right)}} \hfill} & { = \hfill} & {{4.591 \pm 0.062 \pm 0.039 \pm 0.005\;{\text{GeV/c}}^{2} ,} \hfill} \\{{m_{c} {\left( {1\;{\text{GeV}}} \right)}} \hfill} & { = \hfill} & {{1.170 \pm 0.093 \pm 0.055 \pm 0.005\;{\text{GeV/c}}^{{\text{2}}} {\text{,}}} \hfill} \\{{\mu ^{2}_{\pi } {\left( {1\;{\text{GeV}}} \right)}} \hfill} & { = \hfill} & {{0.399 \pm 0.048 \pm 0.034 \pm 0.087\;{\text{GeV}}^{{\text{2}}} {\text{,}}} \hfill} \\{{ \ifmmode\expandafter\tilde\else\expandafter\~\fi{\rho }^{3}_{D} } \hfill} & { = \hfill} & {{0.053 \pm 0.017 \pm 0.011 \pm 0.026\;{\text{GeV}}^{{\text{3}}} ,} \hfill} \\\end{array} \)and include corrections at order 1/mb3. Using these results, and present measurements of the inclusive semileptonic decay partial width of b-hadrons at LEP, an accurate determination of |Vcb| is obtained: \({\left| {V_{{cb}} } \right|} = 0.0421 \times {\left( {1 \pm 0.014_{{{\text{meas}}{\text{.}}} \pm 0.014_{{{\text{fit}}} \pm 0.015_{{{\text{th}}{\text{.}}} } \right)}\)
A search for single top production (e(+)e(-) --> t (c) over bar) via flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) was performed using the data taken by the DELPHI detector at LEP2. The data analyzed have ...been accumulated at center-of-mass energies ranging from 189 to 208 GeV. Limits at 95% confidence level were obtained on the anomalous coupling parameters kappa(gamma) and kappa(Z). (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Oscillations in the B-s(0)- <(B-s(0))over bar> system were studied in events selected from about 4.3 million hadronic Z(0) decays registered by DELPHI between 1992 and 2000. This paper presents ...updates of two published analyses (11, 12). The first analysis, which utilizes leptons emitted with large momentum transverse to a jet, was improved by means of a better algorithm for the vertex reconstuction and a new algorithm for flavour-tagging at production time. The second analysis, which utilizes D-s-lepton events, was improved by optimizing the treatment of proper time resolution. No signal of B-s(0) oscillations was observed and limits on the mass difference between the physical B-s(0) states were obtained to be: Deltam(s)>8.0 ps-1 at the 95% C.L. with a sensitivity of Deltam(s)= 9.1 ps(-1) in the high p(t) lepton analysis and Deltam(s)>4.9 ps(-1) at the 95% C.L. with a sensitivity of Deltam(s)=8.6 ps(-1) in the D-s-lepton analysis. Previously published results on these analyses are superseded. The combination of these results with those obtained in other independent analyses previously performed in DELPHI (D-s-hadron, exclusive B-s(0), inclusive vertex) gives: Deltam(s)>8.5 ps(-1) at the 95% C.L. with a sensitivity of Deltam(s)=12.0 ps(-1).
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