The contribution of goal specificity to goal achievement in collaborative goal setting for the management of asthma.

Background: Goal setting was investigated as part of an implementation trial of an asthma management service (PAMS) conducted in 96 Australian community pharmacies. Patients and pharmacists identified asthma-related issues of concern to the patient and collaboratively set goals to address these. Although goal setting is commonly integrated into disease state management interventions, the nature of goals, and their contribution to goal attainment and health outcomes are not well understood.

Design of a prospective clinical study on the agreement between the Continuous GlucoseMonitor, a novel device for CONTinuous ASSessment of blood GLUcose levels, and the RAPIDLab® 1265 blood gas analyser: The CONTASSGLU study.

Background: Although a device is needed to continuously measure blood glucose levels within an intensive care setting, and several large-scale prospective studies have shown that patients might benefit from intensive insulin, potassium, or glucose therapy during intensive care, no devices are currently available to continuously assess blood glucose levels in critically ill patients. We conceived the study described here to evaluate the clinical use of the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) performed via a central vein, and to determine the impact of phenomena, such as drift and shift, on the agreement between the CGM and a RAPIDLab® 1265 blood gas analyser (BGA).

Methods/design: In the CONTinuous ASSessment of blood GLUcose (CONTASSGLU) study, up to 130 patients under intensive care will be fitted with the CGM, an ex vivo device that continuously measures blood glucose and lactate levels.

Field to fuel: developing sustainable biorefineries.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) can be used as a scientific decision support technique to quantify the environmental implications of various biorefinery process, feedstock, and integration options. The goal of DuPont's integrated corn biorefinery (ICBR) project, a cost-share project with the United States Department of Energy, was to demonstrate the feasibility of a cellulosic ethanol biorefinery concept. DuPont used LCA to guide research and development to the most sustainable cellulosic ethanol biorefinery design in its ICBR project and will continue to apply LCA in support of its ongoing effort with joint venture partners.

Issues in the use of cochlear implants with prelingually deaf children.

Approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration with deaf adults and prelingually deafened children above age two, the success of cochlear implants lacks supporting independent evaluative documentation. Allen et al (1993) compared hearing thresholds of profoundly deaf children with and without implants. Children with implants had an unaided threshold of 109.