Daily News

Posted on Nov. 22: Reports examine role of Library in the academic mission

Two recent reports outline challenges and opportunities for McMaster in ensuring our libraries continue to play a vital role in the academic mission. The report of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the University Library and its Relationship to McMaster's Academic Mission and the Health Sciences Library External Review are posted on the University's Web site. University Provost Ken Norrie and members of the University Planning Committee are inviting feedback from the campus community on the findings and recommendations contained in both documents. "These reports serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of the Library to the teaching and research mission at McMaster and the potential dangers if we neglect it," says Norrie. "Our libraries are among our most important resources and are a crucial component of the academic operation. Academic libraries around the world are in a state of transformation and the change is rapid and unprecedented. The challenge for McMaster, as well as for other academic institutions is to embrace this change, manage it, and, in the end, strengthen and protect a resource that is absolutely essential and integral to our academic mission," says Norrie. Comments on the reports can be sent to Bruce Frank, Secretary of the Board of Governors, by the first week in December. While financial cutbacks have taken their toll on academic libraries, including McMaster, libraries have also been drastically affected by external factors: rapid technological change, the declining value of the Canadian dollar in a largely American book and journal market, and publication monopolies. The reports outline the crisis facing McMaster libraries and others, most notably a decline in intellectual resources. For more details about the reports,

Posted on Nov. 21: Researchers examine policy changes for new moms

The community care component of the Healthy Babies, Healthy Children (HBHC) Postpartum Enhancement program is reaching most postpartum women, according to the results of a study released at the Ontario Public Health Association Conference in Toronto. Nursing professor Wendy Sword and social work professor Susan Watt, of McMaster University, presented the initial findings from a survey of 1,250 women at five hospitals in southern and central Ontario, conducted last winter and spring. This study, called Maternal and Newborn Infant Health Outcomes and Community-Based Service Utilization in Ontario Following Policy Change, is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The expanded HBHC program, announced by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in 1999, responded to concerns about the health and well-being of mothers and their newborn infants. The changes were intended to provide women with the option of staying in hospital for up to 60 hours after a normal birth, a follow-up telephone assessment by a public health nurse within 48 hours of discharge and the offer of a home visit.

Posted on Nov. 20: Peace Studies helps poor women of India

McMaster's Centre for Peace Studies is hosting a Festival of Light fundraising dinner on Sunday, Nov. 24 to help poor rural women in India learn how to improve village life. Funds will go towards training camps that promote peace by teaching women about non-violence, peace and democracy. In these camps, women learn about their rights and responsibilities and essentially about how to stand on their own feet. Many of these women are members of the village council who were elected two years ago after a constitutional reform gave women more power by reserving one-third of the seats in all elected bodies for women. For many, this is their first chance to learn what democracy means. The peace training camps, called Women's Shanti Sena, began last February with an International Peace Conference in Vaishali, India, co-sponsored jointly by the Centre for Peace Studies and an Indian non-governmental organization located in Patna, India. Since that conference, about 2,000 women have been trained with the financial help of the State level UNICEF office. Also at the conference, the Vaishali Sabha People's Assembly became a Vaishali Sabha Peace Movement. There is a great demand for holding similar Women's Peace Training Camps in other parts of India. At the fundraiser, members of the Peace Centre, including religious studies professors Graeme MacQueen and Anne Pearson and biology professor Rama Singh, who participated in the Vaishali Peace Conference, will present their thoughts on the conference as well on the ongoing work of Women's Shanti Sena. The fundraiser takes place at the Michelangelo Banquet Centre and will consist of an exhibit on Vaishali, cultural program (Kathak dance) and an Indian vegetarian dinner. The cost of the dinner is $50 per person (tax receipt) and it will start at 5 p.m. Interested individuals should contact Rama Singh at 905-525-4471 ext. 24378 singh@mcmster.ca

Posted on Nov. 19: Engineering dean claims national innovation award

Research that advances the science of intelligent machining has garnered a national Synergy Award for Innovation for engineering dean Mo Elbestawi. Elbestawi teamed up with eight industrial partners, including Siemens Westinghouse Canada, General Motors, Cobra Machine Tool Co. and Pratt & Whitney Canada at the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute to refine and improve intelligent precision machining. The national innovation award recognizes outstanding achievements in university-industry collaboration. It is co-sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Conference Board of Canada. The university receives a $25,000 NSERC research grant and the industry partner receives a sculpture. Intelligent machining is machining controlled by a computer. Although it is not new technology, researchers are constantly trying to refine the technology to improve productivity and quality. "The machines are usually computerized and unmanned," said Elbestawi. "Just imagine the computer can now make decisions on the fly, so if there is something happening in the cutting process and it needs to speed up or slow down, for example. The idea is that the machine is capable of making the right decision without human intervention."

Posted on Nov. 20: Major study finds patients more likely to die in private for-profit dialysis centres

If Canada switched to for-profit dialysis centres, death rates would increase by eight per cent, according to a major study to be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "The results extend our previous findings of higher death rates in for-profit hospitals," said the study's lead author, Philip Devereaux of McMaster University. "We've now found that the profit motive leads to increased deaths in both hospital and out-patient settings." Devereaux, a clinical scholar in the Department of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences, was the lead investigator on the study.