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UA RESEARCH ACTIVITY TOPS CURBING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC
$622M IN FISCAL 2017
he University of Arizona is helping fight statewide
he University of Arizona topped $622 Tand national opioid public health emergencies.
Tmillion in total research and development They have partnered on a $2.2 million Substance Abuse
expenditures for fiscal 2017, surpassing the and Mental Health Services Administration grant to
previous year’s total by more than $18 million. train first responders to recognize the symptoms of
The UA’s total R&D expenditures also opioid abuse and to administer naloxone, a drug used
exceeded the annual target set by the Arizona to counter the effects of opioid overdose and save lives.
Board of Regents by more than $11 million. The partnership is between the UA Mel and Enid
“This jump in expenditures means that Zuckerman College of Public Health and the Arizona
federal agencies, and other organizations that Department of Health Services.
provide funding, are choosing to invest more The UA Center for Rural Health and the ADHS
of their dollars in the University of Arizona,” Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma
says UA President Robert C. Robbins. “The System will work in rural Arizona communities to
grants that bring in millions of dollars are instruct emergency medical services personnel, first
highly competitive. The fact that we are seeing responders, and family and community members on
a bigger share speaks to the reputation of the screening, intervening and referring to treatment.
UA and the hard work and incredible talent of Last June, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey declared a
the faculty members and scientists who are statewide health emergency after ADHS data showed
making discoveries that improve the world.” that 790 Arizonans died from opioid overdoses in
2016 — more than two people per day. The declaration
allowed Arizona to coordinate public health
interventions to address the opioid epidemic.
IMPROVING BUILDING SAFETY More than 1,000 first responders have been trained
DURING EARTHQUAKES to carry and administer naloxone, more than 3,600
naloxone doses have been dispensed and more than
team of researchers at the University of 2,500 naloxone doses have been administered to help
AArizona and partnering universities is reverse opioid overdoses, according to ADHS.
working to develop buildings that will not
collapse under the force of major earthquakes.
The UA team is turning its attention from
vertical to horizontal transfer of forces by
examining a less-explored, but critically
important, piece of the seismic puzzle: steel
collectors. Research into seismic building
safety traditionally has focused on walls and
braces, which form a downward load path to
transfer seismic forces through a building’s
foundation and into the ground. The network
of structural fuses is responsible for vertical
force transfer. But the frames and walls of
a building aren’t the only parts affected by
seismic forces; the floor also is affected. Forces
cannot be transferred vertically from walls and
braces to the earth unless the steel collectors
first transfer those forces horizontally from the
floor to the fuses in the walls and braces.

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