Irrigation System Maintenance

Irrigation system maintenance is necessary to ensure the most efficient use of the water that is being applied. Efficient irrigation is important because over two-thirds of the total water used in the average Utah home is applied to the landscape. With the natural drought cycles that occur in Utah and the growing population, efficient water use is critical. These maintenance recommendations will help you evaluate your irrigation system before using it each spring and also throughout the growing season

Utah State Capitol Grounds Landscape Water Use Assessment

This USU research and Extension report contains an analysis of landscape water use for the Utah State Capitol grounds. It is being provided in response to a legislative request for this information. The Capitol grounds crew requested and received a Water Check in July and August of 2018. It was provided through the Water Check program affiliated with the Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWEL) at Utah State University (USU) Extension. The Water Check program has been offered under contract with Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake & Sandy since 2009 and delivered to customers in the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU) service area as part of Utah’s “Slow the Flow” initiative. The Utah State Capitol’s Water Check report is contained in the Appendix. More recently, the WaterMAPS (Water Management Analysis and Planning Software) team, also part of CWEL at USU Extension, was asked to provide an estimate of the “capacity to conserve” water applied to landscapes at the Capitol. The WaterMAPS program currently has a collaborative USU Extension Water Initiative project with SLCDPU to analyze landscape water use for residential locations within its service area. The WaterMAPS team worked with SLCDPU in preparing this requested Utah State Capitol landscape water use analysis, relying on information and meter data that they prepared and provided. In this report, we focus on presenting the methodology and results of the WaterMAPS analysis for the Utah State Capitol grounds. The analysis looks at landscape water use from 2010‐2018 in order to identify recent patterns and potential opportunities for efficiency and conservation savings

Codimension Two Branes and Distributional Curvature

In general relativity, there is a well-developed formalism for working with the approximation that a gravitational source is concentrated on a shell, or codimension one surface. By contrast, there are obstacles to concentrating sources on surfaces that have a higher codimension, for example, a string in a spacetime with dimension greater than or equal to four. Here it is shown that, by giving up some of the generality of the codimension one case, curvature can be concentrated on submanifolds that have codimension two. A class of metrics is identified such that (1) the scalar curvature and Ricci densities exist as distributions with support on a co-dimension two submanifold, and (2) using the Einstein equation, the distributional curvature corresponds to a concentrated stress-energy with equation of state p equals minus the energy density, where p is the isotropic pressure tangent to the submanifold. This is the appropriate stress-energy to describe a self-gravitating brane that is governed by an area action, or a brane world deSitter cosmology. The possibility of having a different equation of state arise from a wider class of metrics is discussed.Comment: 18 pages; v2 references added; typos corrected, references added; additional references adde

Optimal costs of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis for men who have sex with men.

INTRODUCTION:Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV due to their increased risk of infection. Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effictive HIV-prevention strategy for MSM. Despite evidence of its effectiveness, PrEP uptake in the United States has been slow, in part due to its cost. As jurisdictions and health organizations begin to think about PrEP scale-up, the high cost to society needs to be understood. METHODS:We modified a previously-described decision-analysis model to estimate the cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained, over a 1-year duration of PrEP intervention and lifetime time horizon. Using updated parameter estimates, we calculated: 1) the cost per QALY gained, stratified over 4 strata of PrEP cost (a function of both drug cost and provider costs); and 2) PrEP drug cost per year required to fall at or under 4 cost per QALY gained thresholds. RESULTS:When PrEP drug costs were reduced by 60% (with no sexual disinhibition) to 80% (assuming 25% sexual disinhibition), PrEP was cost-effective (at <$100,000 per QALY averted) in all scenarios of base-case or better adherence, as long as the background HIV prevalence was greater than 10$8,021 per year with no disinhibition, and to $2,548 with disinhibition. CONCLUSION:Results from our analysis suggest that PrEP drug costs need to be reduced in order to be cost-effective across a range of background HIV prevalence. Moreover, our results provide guidance on the pricing of generic emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, in order to provide those at high risk for HIV an affordable prevention option without financial burden on individuals or jurisdictions scaling-up coverage

Correction: Optimal costs of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis for men who have sex with men.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178170.]

Frequent Occurrence of Pain and Prescription Opioid Use for Treatment of Pain Among Women with and at Risk for HIV Infection

Pain is frequent and underreported among HIV+ women. We determined occurrence and severity of pain, and types of pain treatments used among HIV+ and HIV- women. Cross-sectional analyses of pain as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form, and related pain therapies nested in the Women\u27s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). Multiple variable linear regression models examined differences by HIV status in pain severity and pain interference in general activity, mood, ability to walk, work, relationships with others, sleep, and enjoyment of life. Among 1393 HIV+ and 587 HIV- participants with median age 47-48 years, there was no statistically significant difference in pain reported within the past week by HIV status (HIV+ 50% vs. 49% HIV-, p = 0.70). Ratings of pain severity and interference were similar between HIV+ and HIV- women, as was receipt of pain medication (58% HIV+ vs. 56% HIV-). Pain medications most frequently used were: NSAIDS (90% HIV+, 96% HIV-), opioids (65% HIV+, 67% HIV-), topical anesthetics (46% HIV+, 56% HIV-), muscle relaxants (23% HIV+, 14% HIV-), and anticonvulsants (23% HIV+, 14% HIV-). Nearly half of predominantly low income, minority women reported pain in the past week, and two-thirds reported opioid use for pain management. The occurrence, severity, and treatment of pain did not differ by HIV status, nor did report of pain interference with mood or function. Additional research is needed to better characterize pain etiology among HIV+ women in the era of potent antiretroviral therapy, and determine the extent to which pain severity and type of medication used for pain treatment impact HIV disease outcomes

Accumulated quality-adjusted life years gained, cost, and cost-effectiveness of selected scenarios.

<p>Accumulated quality-adjusted life years gained, cost, and cost-effectiveness of selected scenarios.</p