The excellent initiative of the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association - that school nurses investigate poor toilet facilities - is to be applauded (news November 27).

When a new facility like a grocery store, a school, or a fire station is planned, its location should ideally be determined by the necessities of people who live nearby. Empirically, it has been found that there exists a positive correlation between facility and population densities. In the present work, we investigate the ideal relation between the population and the facility densities within ...

Medical research facilities, indeed all the nation's constructed facilities, must be designed, operated, and maintained in a manner that supports the health, safety, and productivity of the occupants. The National Construction Goals, established by the National Science and Technology Council, envision substantial improvements in occupant health and worker productivity. The existing research and...

Grid-connected battery energy storage systems with fast acting control are a key technology for improving power network stability and increasing the penetration of renewable generation. This paper describes two battery energy storage research facilities connected to the UK electricity grid. Their performance is detailed, along with hardware results, and a number of grid support services are dem...

OBJECTIVE To quantify women's satisfaction with delivery care in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya, and to determine characteristics of women and delivery care associated with satisfaction. DESIGN Household survey data analysis of 1266 women who delivered in health facilities in 2004 or 2005. SETTING Two densely populated informal settlements 7 and 12 km from Nairobi's center, where re...

A two-week mission in March and April of 2011 sent six team members to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). MDRS, a research facility in the high Utah desert, provides an analogue for the harsh and unusual working conditions that will be faced by men and women who one day explore Mars. During the mission a selection of quantitative and qualitative psychological tests were administered to th...