Ghana has declared support for the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number seven which most importantly target ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. This target presents a formidable challenge to Ghana because the country still relies mainly on traditional biomass as its primary source of energy coupled with a chronically fragile hydropower sector. In this study, we assess Ghana’s potential in achieving sustainable goal number seven. Specifically, we comprehensively review the breakthroughs and impediments Ghana has experienced in its efforts towards improving its renewable energy potential. We note that while Ghana has made significant stride toward attaining energy efficiency, its effort at large-scale biofuel development hit a snag due to issues of “land grabbing” emanating both from local and foreign entities. In another breadth, several pilot studies and research initiatives have demonstrated the possibility of diversifying the energy sector with other renewable energy options including solar, wind, and small hydro. In spite of challenges encountered with the development of biofuels, our review concludes that Ghana retains vast reserves of renewable energy potential, which can be harnessed with the constantly improving technological advancements as it pursues SDG number seven.

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Diseases carried by mosquitoes and other arthropods endanger human health globally. Though costly, surveillance efforts are vital for disease control and prevention This paper describes an approach for strategically configuring targeted disease surveillance sites across a study area. The methodology combines risk index mapping and spatial optimization modelling. The risk index is used to identify demand for surveillance, and the maximum covering location problem is used to select a specified number of candidate surveillance sites that covers the maximum amount of risk. The approach is demonstrated using a case study where optimal locations for sentinel surveillance sites are selected for the purposes of detecting eastern equine encephalitis virus in a county in the state of Florida. Optimal sentinel sites were selected under a number of scenarios that modelled different target populations (horses or humans), coverage distances (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 km), and numbers of sites to select (1-12). Sentinel site selections for the horse and human models displayed different spatial patterns, with horse sites located largely in the west-central region and human ones in the north-central. Minor amounts of spatial overlap between the horse and human sites were observed, especially as coverage distances and numbers of sites were increased. Additionally, a near linear increase in risk coverage was observed as sites were incrementally added to the scenarios. This finding suggests that the number of sentinel sites within the ranges explored should be based on the maximum that can be funded, since they provide similar levels of benefit.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (EEEV) is the most pathogenic arbovirus endemic to the United States. EEEV primarily infects birds but can be fatal to humans, horses, and some other mammals. Although EEEV transmission occurs in the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Midwestern United States, the largest number of horse and human cases have been reported in Florida, the only state where transmission occurs year round. Currently, a GIS-based risk index (RI) model is used to map EEE transmission risk to horses in Florida. This study validates that RI model using a 5-yr dataset of horse cases in Florida. RI values were similar between summer (N = 152, x¯ = 0.59) and winter (N = 25, x¯ = 0.66) cases, suggesting the model is effective for mapping risk during both transmission seasons. These risk values were larger and remained similar when a 100-m buffer was applied to the case locations to account for modest spatial errors in case reporting (summer x¯ = 0.73, winter x¯ = 0.77). In both comparisons, RI values for summer and winter cases were higher than expected at random in the Panhandle, North, and Central regions of the state, although the analysis was inconclusive in the South, where only two cases were observed. This suggests the RI map could be used to target EEEV surveillance, prevention, and control efforts in both transmission seasons in Florida.

In September 2000 The Millennium Summit adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty with a deadline of 2015. Eight Millennium Development Goals were formulated of which the eradication of poverty given top priority. However, Malaysia's participation with the UN in dealing with poverty, precede this when it committed itself with the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) programme, which was then reinforced when the Millennium Declaration was made in 2000. Nationally, poverty eradication as well as bridging the inequality gap among the major ethnic groups and states has been the main development goal in Malaysia's development agenda since independence. In this regards, the principle of “growth with equity has been the central theme in all Malaysia's development policies and efforts since independence. Although Malaysia has made significant achievements in reducing the incidence of aggregate poverty across the country from 8.9% in 1995 down to 1.7% in 2012, there still exist pockets of poverty in the rural areas, in certain states/regions and among ethnic groups, as well as in some urban areas. This shows that formulating planning and policy implementation to eradicate poverty now needs to be more spatially focused for the implementation to be more effective. Recognising the incidence of poverty through standard statistical data tables alone is no longer adequate in formulating planning and policy implementation. Through spatial autocorrelation analysis the pattern of distribution of poverty in space over a period of time can easily be visualised and hotspots of incidence of poverty identified. This paper attempts to show how this analysis can assist in focusing efforts to eradicate poverty in Malaysia.