U.S. academic libraries: understanding their web presence and their relationship with economic indicators

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1001-0The main goal of this research is to analyze the web structure and performance of units and services belonging to U.S. academic libraries in order to check their suitability for webometric studies. Our objectives include studying their possible correlation with economic data and assessing their use for complementary evaluation purposes. We conducted a survey of library homepages, institutional repositories, digital collections, and online catalogs (a total of 374 URLs) belonging to the 100 U.S. universities with the highest total expenditures in academic libraries according to data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. Several data points were taken and analyzed, including web variables (page count, external links, and visits) and economic variables (total expenditures, expenditures on printed and electronic books, and physical visits). The results indicate that the variety of URL syntaxes is wide, diverse and complex, which produces a misrepresentation of academic libraries’ web resources and reduces the accuracy of web analysis. On the other hand, institutional and web data indicators are not highly correlated. Better results are obtained by correlating total library expenditures with URL mentions measured by Google (r = 0.546) and visits measured by Compete (r = 0.573), respectively. Because correlation values obtained are not highly significant, we estimate such correlations will increase if users can avoid linkage problems (due to the complexity of URLs) and gain direct access to log files (for more accurate data about visits).Orduña Malea, E.; Regazzi, JJ. (2014). U.S. academic libraries: understanding their web presence and their relationship with economic indicators. Scientometrics. 98(1):315-336. doi:10.1007/s11192-013-1001-0S315336981Adecannby, J. (2011). 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Pharmaceutical Cost Management in an Ambulatory Setting Using a Risk Adjustment Tool

© 2014 Vivas-Consuelo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Background Pharmaceutical expenditure is undergoing very high growth, and accounts for 30% of overall healthcare expenditure in Spain. In this paper we present a prediction model for primary health care pharmaceutical expenditure based on Clinical Risk Groups (CRG), a system that classifies individuals into mutually exclusive categories and assigns each person to a severity level if s/he has a chronic health condition. This model may be used to draw up budgets and control health spending. Methods Descriptive study, cross-sectional. The study used a database of 4,700,000 population, with the following information: age, gender, assigned CRG group, chronic conditions and pharmaceutical expenditure. The predictive model for pharmaceutical expenditure was developed using CRG with 9 core groups and estimated by means of ordinary least squares (OLS). The weights obtained in the regression model were used to establish a case mix system to assign a prospective budget to health districts. Results The risk adjustment tool proved to have an acceptable level of prediction (R2 0.55) to explain pharmaceutical expenditure. Significant differences were observed between the predictive budget using the model developed and real spending in some health districts. For evaluation of pharmaceutical spending of pediatricians, other models have to be established. Conclusion The model is a valid tool to implement rational measures of cost containment in pharmaceutical expenditure, though it requires specific weights to adjust and forecast budgets.This study was financed by a grant from the Fondo de Investigaciones de la Seguridad Social Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS PI12/0037). The authors would like to thank members (Juan Bru and Inma Saurf) of the Pharmacoeconomics Office of the Valencian Health Department. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessary reflect those of the afore-named. Any errors are the authors' responsibility. We would also like to thank John Wright for the English editing.Vivas Consuelo, DJJ.; Usó Talamantes, R.; Guadalajara Olmeda, MN.; Trillo Mata, JL.; Sancho Mestre, C.; Buigues Pastor, L. (2014). Pharmaceutical Cost Management in an Ambulatory Setting Using a Risk Adjustment Tool. 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Kinetics of the reaction of hydrazine with 2-hydroxy-l-naphthaldehyde

423-426Hydrazine in aqueous solution reacts with 2-hydroxy-l-naphthaldehyde in ethanol leading slowly to highlyinsoluble yellow reaction product. Based on UV-Vis, IR and mass spectrophotometric studies, the compound is characterized as an aldazine, 2,2'-dihydroxy-l-naphthaldazine. Kinetics of the reaction has been followed by spectrophotometric measurements of the absorbance of the reaction product as a function of time. Under excess [2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde] the reaction follows a pseudo-first order kinetics. Under excess [hydrazine], also the reaction follows a pseudo-first order kinetics. Yet important kinetic differences have been found between both the processes. Under excess of 2-hydroxy-l-naphthaldehyde, the reaction is controlled thermally, under excess of hydrazine, the rate constant is temperature independent. According to these results the process takes place in two steps with the formation of an intermediate product. The mathematical treatment of the kinetic results is consistent with the proposed mechanism