Meals Plus Program—An Innovative Approach for Providing Local Produce to Meals on Wheels Clients

Extension programming often strives to achieve maximum impact on a minimum budget, but when it comes to sourcing local produce, asking farmers to donate sellable commodity can result in a dip into their profits. By connecting community partners, Extension can facilitate collaborations that work in the favor of all participating parties and ultimately provide a valuable service. This model was implemented in the development of the Meals Plus program, an add-on service to Salt Lake County Meals on Wheels (MOW). The Meals Plus program delivered 130–160 shares of local produce weekly to MOW clients during Salt Lake County\u27s 5-month farmers\u27 market season

Guiding Transformation: How Medical Practices Can Become Patient-Centered Medical Homes

Describes in detail eight change concepts as a guide to transforming a practice into a patient-centered medical home, including engaged leadership, quality improvement strategy, continuous and team-based healing relationships, and enhanced access

Sequoia Pitch Moth in Pines

This fact sheet focuses on the sequoia pitch moth (SPM) (Sesiidae: Synanthedon sequoiae). It includes how to identify, life cycle, damage, and management

Simple Sprinkler Performance Testing for Salt Lake County

This fact sheet describes how to perform a site inspection and a sprinkler test so you can irrigate your landscape more efficiently, and provides an irrigation schedule for Salt Lake County

Children learn non-exact number word meanings first

hildren acquire exact meanings for number words in distinctstages. First, they learn one, then two, and then three andsometimes four. Finally, children learn to apply the countingprocedure to their entire count list. Although these stages areubiquitous and well documented, the foundation of thesemeanings remains highly contested. Here we ask whetherchildren assign preliminary meanings to number words beforelearning their exact meanings by examining their responses onthe Give-a-Number task to numbers for which they do not yethave exact meanings. While several research groups haveapproached this question before, we argue that because thesedata do not usually conform to a normal distribution, typicalmethods of analysis likely underestimate their knowledge.Using non-parametric analyses, we show that children acquirenon-exact meanings for small number words like one, two,three, four and possibly for higher numbers well before theyacquire the exact meanings

Preparing and Improving Garden Soil

A great garden starts with healthy soil. In Utah, there are unique considerations for creating and maintaining healthy soils. Native Utah soils are relatively low in organic matter. One of Utah’s most troublesome, pH-related deficiencies is iron chlorosis, a deficiency of plant-available iron. Soil salinity easily increases in Utah. This fact sheet addresses these challenges to help gardeners transform garden soils from brutal to beautiful

Audience Segmentation in Extension Horticultural Programs

Cluster analysis was used to segment horticulture clientele using data from a needs assessment. Gardeners were segmented into two groups based on their horticulture practices. These groups were described using several factors including age and time spent maintaining different garden areas. Results from this study indicate the importance of considering the target audience prior to design and implementation of a gardening certificate program

How Much is Learning Measurement Worth? Assessment Costs in Low-Income Countries

Timely and credible data on student learning has become a global issue in the ongoing effort to improve educational outcomes. With the potential to serve as a powerful diagnostic tool to gauge the overall health and well-being of an educational system, educational assessments have received increasing attention among specialists and the media. Though the stakes are high, relatively little is known about the cost-benefit ratio of various assessments compared to other educational expenditures. This paper presents an overview of four major types of assessments — national, regional, international and hybrid — and the costs that each has incurred within 13 distinct contexts, especially in low-income countries. The findings highlight broad variation in the total cost of assessment and the cost-per-learner. This underscores the importance of implementation strategies that appropriately consider scale, timeliness, and cost-efficiency as critical considerations for any assessment

Impact of obesity on acyclovir-induced nephrotoxicity

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Triamcinolone acetonide (TA), an intermediate acting corticosteroid, is used in the treatment of posterior ocular diseases, such as inflammation, posterior uveitis, and diabetic macular edema. The objective of this investigation was to prepare TA-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (TA-SLNs) and in situ gel (TA-SLN-IG) formulations for delivery into the deeper ocular tissues through the topical route. TA-SLNs were prepared by hot homogenization and ultrasonication method using glyceryl monostearate and Compritol® 888ATO as solid lipids and Tween®80 and Pluronic® F-68 as surfactants. TA-SLNs were optimized and converted to TA-SLN-IG by the inclusion of gellan gum and evaluated for their rheological properties.In vitro transcorneal permeability and in vivo ocular distribution of the TA-SLNs and TA-SLN-IG were studied using isolated rabbit corneas and New Zealand albino rabbits, respectively, and compared with TA suspension, used as control (TA-C). Particle size, PDI, zeta potential, assay, and entrapment efficiency of TA-SLNs were in the range of 200–350 nm, 0.3–0.45, −52.31 to −64.35 mV, 70–98%, and 97–99%, respectively. TA-SLN-IG with 0.3% gellan gum exhibited better rheological properties. The transcorneal permeability of TA-SLN and TA-SLN-IG was 10.2 and 9.3-folds higher compared to TA-C. TA-SLN-IG showed maximum tear concentration at 2 h, indicating an improved pre-corneal residence time, as well as higher concentrations in aqueous humor, vitreous humor and cornea at 6 h, suggesting sustained delivery of the drug into the anterior and posterior segment ocular tissues, when compared to TA-SLN and TA-C. The results, therefore, demonstrate that the lipid based nanoparticulate system combined with the in situ gelling agents can be a promising drug delivery platform for the deeper ocular tissues

Learning First: A Research Agenda for Improving Learning in Low-Income Countries

In 2011, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution spearheaded the development of a common policy agenda on global education entitled A Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries. The report recommended a call to action for a diverse group of international stakeholders to come together to work toward achieving quality education for all. As a part of this larger policy agenda, CUE works with various scholars and organizations to address the many issues within the scope of the Global Compact on Learning