No abstract

Because of differences in case-mix across states, state-level case-mix-adjusted end-stage renal disease (ESRD) incident rates are reported in each United States Renal Data System Annual Data Report to make the across-state comparisons valid. The adjusted rates were estimated by the direct adjustment method, a widely used method for adjusted event rate calculation, based on observed category-specific ESRD incident rates in each state (called the observation-based method). However, when some adjusting categories in a state are small, the adjusted rate and the standard error for this state as estimated by this method may be inaccurate. This report proposes a model-based method that can overcome the disadvantages of the observation-based method and can be extended to continuous adjusting variables. National ESRD incident data and national population data from 1990 to 1999 were used. State-level adjusted ESRD incident rates were estimated by both the observation- and the model-based methods. For the model-based method, a Poisson regression model was used to estimate category-specific ESRD incident rates. For large-population states, both observation- and model-based methods produced similar estimates for adjusted ESRD incident rates. For small-population states, however, the observation-based method produced year-to-year estimates of adjusted ESRD incident rates that varied considerably and also had very large standard errors. In contrast, the model-based method produced stable estimates. The model-based method can overcome the disadvantages of the observation-based method for estimating state-level adjusted ESRD incident rates, especially for small states.

Experiments were conducted to assess the effect of carbendazim, plant extracts and bio control agents on the physical, microbial and biochemical qualities of vacuum packed banana. The banana fruits treated with carbendazim (bavistin) had better shelf life when compared to bananas treated with plant extracts as a pretreatment before vacuum packaging. Among the plant extracts, fungicidal effect was better in the case of neem oil when compared with the leaf extracts. The firmness of the fruit was better in bavistin and neem oil treated fruits than in leaf extract treated fruits. The biocontrol agent Trichoderma viride was found to be better in controlling the microbial population than Pseudomonas fluorescens. The shelf life of vacuum packed banana fruit was 21 days. The approximate cost involved in vacuum packaging of banana is one rupee per kg of fruit. The residual level of fungicide present in the one-week vacuum stored banana was lower than the admissible limit.