Final Report,Task Force on McKeldin Library Research Commons, University of Maryland Libraries

Higher education institutions are undergoing a fundamental transformation in their role in our society, economic structure, and value system. The University of Maryland (UMD) Libraries find themselves in the midst of this constantly changing environment where new technologies, new pedagogies, new publishing models, and new environments evolve every day. Librarians are being challenged to undertake new roles in order to support the research activities of their user population and to foster research and teaching initiatives across the university. With these trends in mind, the Research Commons Task Force was charged to research and plan for implementing new services and creating new research spaces. To accomplish this task, the Research Commons Task Force consulted the literature and conducted an extensive environmental scan by interviewing those involved in the creation of research commons at other universities, meeting with internal partners, and surveying graduate students and faculty at the University of Maryland. The resulted Final Report is a comprehensive document, which addresses UMD research needs, assessment, staffing, spaces, and technology concerns. It intends to serve as a guide for developing and implementing this model at the UMD Libraries and provides a robust yet flexible framework for the future

GLIMPSE: I. A SIRTF Legacy Project to Map the Inner Galaxy

GLIMPSE (Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire), a SIRTF Legacy Science Program, will be a fully sampled, confusion-limited infrared survey of the inner two-thirds of the Galactic disk with a pixel resolution of \~1.2" using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns. The survey will cover Galactic latitudes |b| <1 degree and longitudes |l|=10 to 65 degrees (both sides of the Galactic center). The survey area contains the outer ends of the Galactic bar, the Galactic molecular ring, and the inner spiral arms. The GLIMPSE team will process these data to produce a point source catalog, a point source data archive, and a set of mosaicked images. We summarize our observing strategy, give details of our data products, and summarize some of the principal science questions that will be addressed using GLIMPSE data. Up-to-date documentation, survey progress, and information on complementary datasets are available on the GLIMPSE web site: www.astro.wisc.edu/glimpse.Comment: Description of GLIMPSE, a SIRTF Legacy project (Aug 2003 PASP, in press). Paper with full res.color figures at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/glimpse/glimpsepubs.htm

Mechanisms of Cisplatin Nephrotoxicity

Cisplatin is a widely used and highly effective cancer chemotherapeutic agent. One of the limiting side effects of cisplatin use is nephrotoxicity. Research over the past 10 years has uncovered many of the cellular mechanisms which underlie cisplatin-induced renal cell death. It has also become apparent that inflammation provoked by injury to renal epithelial cells serves to amplify kidney injury and dysfunction in vivo. This review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of cisplatin nephrotoxicity and discusses how these advances might lead to more effective prevention

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Evaluating mental health care reform:including the clinician, client, and family perspective

This article suggests one direction that theory building might take to develop a stronger conceptual foundation needed to test the effect on clients of reforms in the financing and organization of mental health care delivery systems. The authors recommend that health status outcomes be measured from three perspectives: the client, who can best report his or her own subjective experience of illness; the clinician, who is the best source of information about the client's disease; and the family, which is the best source of information about the effects on members' health status of caring for a mentally ill family member. The authors also recommend that measurement of health status should be multidimensional.</p

Regional variation in service system performance: comparing the perceptions of key stakeholders

Area variation studies rarely focus on perceptions of service system performance in their comparative analyses. Using an instrument designed specifically for assessing key stakeholders\u27 perceptions of the performance of mental health service delivery systems, this study compared three areas in Massachusetts that differ significantly with regard to service system structure and resource allocation. Despite these differences, key stakeholders\u27 perceptions of service adequacy, availability, quality, and coordination did not vary substantially, although the findings suggest that to some extent organizational structure may have more effect than resource availability and allocation on perceptions of key stakeholders within the three systems. These differences were also of far less magnitude than differences in hospitalization rates and other more traditional measures of service system performance. The authors argue that stakeholders\u27 perceptions should be considered, along with other standard performance measures, in evaluating service system performance

Managed mental health experience in Massachusetts

Medicaid managed care experience in Massachusetts indicates that costs can be contained without harmful effects, but future developments will still need careful monitoring

Treatment of long-term psychiatric disorders in the managed care environment: an observational longitudinal study

In the USA, mental health expenditures have been rising at a rate that exceeds other medical expenditures. To control these costs, insurance companies and governmental agencies responsible for health benefit plans have turned to managed care companies who review utilisation of services and who negotiate fee reductions with providers. In this study, we examined changes in patterns of care and per person expenditures among Medicaid enrollees with major mental illness. We found that after the introduction of managed care, per person expenditures were reduced by about 25%, accomplished primarily by limiting hospital admissions. We also found that admissions (and the associated costs) were not shifted to the Department of Mental Health, which funds state hospital long-term care for the indigent. Measures of continuity of care were unchanged during the study period. We conclude that managed care met its cost-containment goals without shifting costs to another state agency