Ontogeny of meal patterning in rats and its recapitulation during recovery from lateral hypothalamic lesions.

Investigated the development of feeding patterns in weanling rats and in rats with lateral hypothalamic lesions. 2 experiments were conducted with a total of 39 male albino Sprague-Dawley rats. From 16 to 25 days of age, the weanlings demonstrated a preprandial intake pattern (i.e., a positive correlation between meal size and time since the preceding meal). This subsequently declined while the postprandial relationship (correlation with time until subsequent meal) such that by 30-35 days of age a full adult pattern was observed. Ss recovering from lateral hypothalamic lesions, for a brief period, also demonstrated a preprandial intake pattern. The postprandial relationship was abolished by the lesion. Results suggest that the development of adult meal patterning results from maturation of lateral hypothalamic mechanisms governing meal initiation. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in intraperson variability in mood.

The experience sampling method and palm-top computers were used to obtain 75–200 randomly timed in situ assessments of 11 mood-related items from 54 Ss over 12–24 days. The variability in the distribution of an S's responses to each item was used as an estimate of intrasubject mood variability. Mood variability was stable across time and across situations. The intercorrelations among the individual item variabilities were also substantial; when the items were combined into a mood variability scale, the coefficient alpha was .84. The stability and internal consistency of mood variability could not be reasonably attributed to similarity in item valences, differences among the Ss in the situations they encountered, response biases, or response errors. It was concluded that mood variability is a stable personal characteristic, but additional analyses suggested that it may be independent from other kinds of intraperson variability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of caring for end-stage kidney disease patients: an analysis based on hospital financial transaction records

The costs of care for end-stage renal disease patients continue to rise because of increased numbers of patients. Efforts to contain these costs have focused on the development of capitated payment schemes, in which all costs for the care of these patients are covered in a single payment. To determine the effect of a capitated reimbursement scheme on care of dialysis patients (both hemodialysis [HD] and peritoneal dialysis [PD]), complete financial records (all reimbursements for inpatient and outpatient care, as well as physician collections) of dialysis patients at a single medical center over 1 year were analyzed. For the period from July 1994 to July 1995, annualized cost per dialysis patient-year averaged $63,340, or 9.8% higher than the corrected estimate from the U.S. Renal Data Service (USRDS; $57,660). The "most expensive" 25% of patients engendered 44 to 48% of the total costs, and inpatient costs accounted for 37 to 40% of total costs. Nearly half of the inpatient costs resulted from only two categories (room charges and inpatient dialysis), whereas other categories each made up a small fraction of the inpatient costs. PD patients were far less expensive to care for than HD patients, due to reduced hospital days and lower cost of outpatient dialysis. Care for a university-based dialysis population was only slightly more expensive than estimates predicted from the USRDS. These results validate the USRDS spending data and suggest that they can be used effectively for setting capitated rates. Efforts to control costs without sacrificing quality of care must center on reducing inpatient costs, particularly room charges and the cost of inpatient dialysis.     

Frequency shift filtering technique

A heterodyne continuous time active filter is described. Control over the operating has been achieved without external components, through a tunable local oscillator. It has been possible to build a single chip filter that may be tuned from very low frequencies up to 70 kHz in a single range