A method for managing and/or treating obesity and/or overweight and/or for inducing weight loss. The method includes orally administering to a patient a composition capable of being transformed into a hydrogel foam after its introduction into the patient stomach. The hydrogel foam occupies at least 20% of the volume of the patient stomach.

An embodiment includes a system comprising: an iodine containing thermoset open-cell shape memory polymer (SMP) foam that is x-ray visible; wherein (a) the SMP foam is configured to expand from a compressed secondary state to an expanded primary state in response to thermal stimulus, (b) the SMP foam is a poly(urethane-urea-amide). Other embodiments are described herein.

The invention relates to novel a high-volume swelling hydrogel which comprises a plurality of pores which are defined by an interpenetrating network, and/or a semi-interpenetrating network and/or simple cross-linked arrangement of a plurality of one or more species of hydrophilic polymers, optionally together with one or more biocompatible polymers and optionally together with one or more plasticising agents, characterised in that at least some of the pores are at least partially collapsed and/or flattened, and further characterised in that the interpenetrating network and/or semi-interpenetrating network and/or cross-linked arrangement which defines the collapsed and/or flattened pores is substantially unbroken. The invention also relates to a process for preparing such hydrogels, and to their use as an appetite suppressant.

A method and system are used to enhance a marker material to include a plurality of air bubbles. The method of manufacturing a marker includes enhancing a marker material to include a plurality of air bubbles using at least a first EFD and a second EFD. The method may include cycling repeatedly through a transfer process between a first container and a second container. A system for enhancing a marker material includes a transfer apparatus configured to receive a marker material and a selected amount of air. The system comprises a first EFD coupled to a first end of the transfer apparatus and a second EFD coupled to a second end of the transfer apparatus.

Disclosed are an electrically conductive hydrogel having a graphene network and a method for fabricating the same. The electrically conductive hydrogel is fabricated by thermal annealing of granular hydrogel, and thus it has a porous structure, excellent electrical conductivity, and improved compressive modulus and yield stress. Accordingly, the electrically conductive hydrogel may be advantageously used in biomedical applications, such as scaffolds for tissue engineering, bioelectrodes, and biosensors.

The present invention relates to a dry foam comprising agar-agar characterized by an elasticity modulus from 0.02 to 0.6 MPa, particularly from 0.15 to 0.6 MPa, more particularly from 0.3 to 0.4 MPa, a manufacturing process thereof and the uses thereof in particular as an embolization agent.

The present disclosure relates to a super absorbent polymer and a method for preparing the same. More specifically, it relates to a super absorbent polymer having an aspect ratio of particles above a certain level with large roughness, thereby exhibiting an improved absorption rate, and to a method for preparing the same.

The present invention includes a hydrogel and a method of making a porous hydrogel by preparing an aqueous mixture of an uncrosslinked polymer and a crystallizable molecule; casting the mixture into a vessel; allowing the cast mixture to dry to form an amorphous hydrogel film; seeding the cast mixture with a seed crystal of the crystallizable molecule; growing the crystallizable molecule into a crystal structure within the uncrosslinked polymer; crosslinking the polymer around the crystal structure under conditions in which the crystal structure within the crosslinked polymer is maintained; and dissolving the crystals within the crosslinked polymer to form the porous hydrogel.

Polymeric based closed cell foams, such as shape memory polymer foams, contain bubbles. Making these bubbles continuous is called reticulation. Disclosed are embodiments of a device and method to controllably reticulate polymer-based closed cell foams by puncturing the membranes of these polymer-based closed cell foams.

An embodiment includes a system comprising: a monolithic shape memory polymer (SMP) foam having first and second states; wherein the SMP foam includes: (a) polyurethane, (b) an inner half portion having inner reticulated cells defined by inner struts, (c) an outer half portion, having outer reticulated cells defined by outer struts, surrounding the inner portion in a plane that provides a cross-section of the SMP foam, (d) hydroxyl groups chemically bound to outer surfaces of both the inner and outer struts. Other embodiments are discussed herein.