BACKGROUND Bangladesh is committed to the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG-5) target of reducing its maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015. Since the early 1990s, Bangladesh has followed a strategy of improving access to facilities equipped and staffed to provide emergency obstetric care (EmOC). METHODS We used data from four Demographic and Health Surveys con...

Live imaging of above ground meristems can lead to new insights in plant development not possible from static imaging of fixed tissue. The use of an upright confocal microscope offers several technical and biological advantages for live imaging floral or shoot meristems. However, many departments and core facilities possess only inverted confocal microscopes and lack the funding for an addition...

In war-torn Afghanistan, rates of maternal mortality (460 per 100,000 live births) and neonatal mortality (25 per 1,000 live births) are among the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organization and to Demographic and Health Surveys. Women have limited access to maternal and newborn care services, linked to geographic barriers, security problems, and cultural concerns about wom...

Objective To determine if improved geographical accessibility led to increased uptake of maternity care in the south of the United Republic of Tanzania. Methods In a household census in 2007 and another large household survey in 2013, we investigated 22 243 and 13 820 women who had had a recent live birth, respectively. The proportions calculated from the 2013 data were weighted to account fo...

BACKGROUND There is limited evidence of the linkage between contraceptive use, the range of methods available and level of contraceptive stocks at health facilities and distance to facility in developing countries. The present analysis aims at examining the influence of contraceptive method availability and distance to the nearby facilities on modern contraceptive utilization among married wome...

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 ...

BACKGROUND The number of sports facilities, sports clubs, or city parks in a residential neighbourhood may affect the likelihood that people participate in sports and their preferences for a certain sports location. This study aimed to assess whether objective physical and socio-spatial neighbourhood characteristics relate to sports participation and preferences for sports locations. METHODS ...

BACKGROUND Assisted living facilities (ALFs) provide housing and care to persons unable to live independently, and who often have increasing medical needs. Disease outbreaks illustrate challenges of maintaining adequate resident protections in these facilities. OBJECTIVES Describe current state laws on assisted living admissions criteria, medical oversight, medication administration, vaccinat...

BACKGROUND Appropriate facility-based care at birth is a key determinant of safe motherhood but geographical access remains poor in many high burden regions. Despite its importance, geographical access is rarely audited systematically, preventing integration in national-level maternal health system assessment and planning. In this study, we develop a uniquely detailed set of spatially-linked da...