scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Ghana’s Efforts in the Application of Geospatial Technology in Minimizing the Impact of the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-21
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Yeboah ◽  
Isaac Sarfo ◽  
Clement Kwang ◽  
Michael Batame ◽  
Foster Kofi Addai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Geospatial Technology ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Proactive Approach ◽  
The North ◽  
Case Count ◽  
Smart Mobile ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 has presented unusual challenges for individuals, governments and societies across the globe. Several non-medical and non-pharmaceutical interventions have demonstrated to be critical in addressing the resultant impacts. One notable tool among these interventions is the application of technology in identifying infected persons or individuals coming into contact with those infected. Policy think-tanks have invested in geospatial technology and information systems to help resolve contact tracing inefficiencies to curtail the fast spread of the disease. This study highlights the extent of the application of geospatial technology in COVID-19 contact tracing in Ghana. Here, it was demonstrated that majority of young adults that form the greater part of Ghana’s population have access to digital devices which serve as primary catalysts in facilitating effective and efficient contact tracing. Case count of the pandemic continues to surge sharply from one month to the other since the first recorded case on March 12, 2020. A huge number of cases were recorded in the southern part of the country, as against cases recorded in the north. Mobility patterns depicted the migration of more people from regions with a high number of case count to regions with lower counts. We recommend a holistic and proactive approach to the use of smart mobile devices and applications in enhancing contact tracing. Privacy and data protection laws must be prioritized and supported by effective legislative and policy frameworks that serve as the legal basis for the management of personal information.

scholarly journals Epidemic mitigation by statistical inference from contact tracing data

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (32) ◽  
pp. e2106548118
Author(s):  
Antoine Baker ◽  
Indaco Biazzo ◽  
Alfredo Braunstein ◽  
Giovanni Catania ◽  
Luca Dall’Asta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Applications ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Risk Estimation ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Risk Levels ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Inference Methods ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Probabilistic Risk

Contact tracing is an essential tool to mitigate the impact of a pandemic, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to achieve efficient and scalable contact tracing in real time, digital devices can play an important role. While a lot of attention has been paid to analyzing the privacy and ethical risks of the associated mobile applications, so far much less research has been devoted to optimizing their performance and assessing their impact on the mitigation of the epidemic. We develop Bayesian inference methods to estimate the risk that an individual is infected. This inference is based on the list of his recent contacts and their own risk levels, as well as personal information such as results of tests or presence of syndromes. We propose to use probabilistic risk estimation to optimize testing and quarantining strategies for the control of an epidemic. Our results show that in some range of epidemic spreading (typically when the manual tracing of all contacts of infected people becomes practically impossible but before the fraction of infected people reaches the scale where a lockdown becomes unavoidable), this inference of individuals at risk could be an efficient way to mitigate the epidemic. Our approaches translate into fully distributed algorithms that only require communication between individuals who have recently been in contact. Such communication may be encrypted and anonymized, and thus, it is compatible with privacy-preserving standards. We conclude that probabilistic risk estimation is capable of enhancing the performance of digital contact tracing and should be considered in the mobile applications.

The complication of cyber manhunt: How cyber manhunt further complicated the ethical conflict between breaching the confidentiality and endangering the society in face of the COVID-19 pandemic (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Chang Chen ◽  
Yen-Yuan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Contact Investigation ◽  
The Impact

UNSTRUCTURED While health care and public health workers are working on measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an unprecedentedly large number of people spending much more time indoors, and relying heavily on the Internet as their lifeline. What has been overlooked is the influence of the increasing online activities on public health issues. In this article, we pointed out how a large-scale online activity called cyber manhunt may threaten to offset the efficacy of contact tracing investigation, a public health intervention considered highly effective in limiting further transmission in the early stage of a highly contagious disease outbreak such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first section, we presented a case to show how personal information obtained from contact investigation and disclosed in part on the media provoked a vehement cyber manhunt. We then discussed the possible reasons why netizens collaborate to reveal anonymized personal information about contact investigation, and specify, from the perspective of public health and public health ethics, four problems of cyber manhunt, including the lack of legitimate public health goals, the concerns about privacy breach, the impact of misinformation, and social inequality. Based on our analysis, we concluded that more moral weight may be given to protecting one's confidentiality, especially in an era with the rapid advance of digital and information technologies.

Nachhaltigkeit im Wald – vor und hinter der Welle der Globalisierung | Sustainable Forest Management – In Front and Behind the Wave of Globalization

2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (12) ◽  
pp. 502-507
Author(s):  
Christian Küchli
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Impact

Are there any common patterns in the transition processes from traditional and more or less sustainable forest management to exploitative use, which can regularly be observed both in central Europe and in the countries of the South (e.g. India or Indonesia)? Attempts were made with a time-space-model to typify those force fields, in which traditional sustainable forest management is undermined and is then transformed into a modern type of sustainable forest management. Although it is unlikely that the history of the North will become the future of the South, the glimpse into the northern past offers a useful starting point for the understanding of the current situation in the South, which in turn could stimulate the debate on development. For instance, the patterns which stand behind the conflicts on forest use in the Himalayas are very similar to the conflicts in the Alps. In the same way, the impact of socio-economic changes on the environment – key word ‹globalisation› – is often much the same. To recognize comparable patterns can be very valuable because it can act as a stimulant for the search of political, legal and technical solutions adapted to a specific situation. For the global community the realization of the way political-economic alliances work at the head of the ‹globalisationwave›can only signify to carry on trying to find a common language and understanding at the negotiation tables. On the lee side of the destructive breaker it is necessary to conserve and care for what survived. As it was the case in Switzerland these forest islands could once become the germination points for the genesis of a cultural landscape, where close-to-nature managed forests will constitute an essential element.

Healthcare System in the Arctic Zone of Russia. Known and Emerging Issues and Solutions to Them

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
V.N. Leksin
Keyword(s):  
Metallurgical Industry ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Russian Arctic ◽  
Arctic Zone ◽  
Shift Workers ◽  
The North ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
The Impact

The impact on healthcare organization on the territory of Russian Arctic of unique natural and climatic, demographic, ethnic, settlement and professional factors of influencing the health of population, constantly or temporarily living on this territory is studied. The necessity is substantiated of various forms and resource provision with healthcare services such real and potential patients of Arctic medical institutions, as representatives of indigenous small peoples of the North, workers of mining and metallurgical industry, military personnel, sailors and shift workers. In this connection a correction of a number of All-Russian normative acts is proposed.

A general practice provider federation in a mixed health economy in England: a case study investigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. bjgp18X696929
Author(s):  
Jill Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
General Practice ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Health Economy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The North ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
Common Purpose ◽  
Collaborative Working ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThere is an emerging debate that general practice in its current format is out-dated and there is a requirement to move to a federated model of provision where groups of Practices come together. The emergence of federations has developed over the past 5 years but the factors that influence how federations develop and the impact of this new model is an under researched area.AimThe study explored the rationale around why a group of independent GP practices opted to pursue an alternative business venture and the benefits that this strategy offered.MethodA single organisational case study of a federation in the North of England was conducted between 2011–2016. Mixed methods data collection included individual and group semi-structured interviews and quantitative surveys.ResultsFederations promote collaborative working, relying on strategic coherence of multiple individual GP practices through a shared vision and common purpose. Findings revealed many complexities in implementing a common strategy across multiple independent businesses. The ability of the federation to gain legitimacy was two dimensional – externally and internally. The venture had mixed successes, but their approach to quality improvement proved innovative and demonstrated outcomes on a population basis. The study identified significant pressures that practices were experiencing and the need to seek alternative ways of working but there was no shared vision or inclination to relinquish individual practice autonomy.ConclusionOrganisational development support is critical to reform General Practice. Whether central funding through the GP Five Year Forward View will achieve the scale of change required is yet to be evidenced.

The Impact of Sanctions on North Korea’s Foreign Trade from the Perspective of the Comparative Advantage Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
I. A. Korgun ◽  
G. D. Toloraya
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
National Economy ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact

The presented study analyzes the opportunities for North Korea to capitalize on its competitive advantages in foreign trade in the context of sanctions.Aim. The study aims to identify mechanisms that allow North Korea to engage in foreign trade in circumvention of UN sanctions and to analyze their impact on the national economy.Tasks. The authors analyze the structure of North Korea’s national economy, its initial competitive advantage, identify the specific features of North Korea’s foreign trade in the context of sanctions, and determine the consequences of illicit trade in circumvention of sanctions for the national economy.Methods. This study uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines the classical theory of competitive advantage with the concept of rent seeking, with the concept of rent seeking and analysis of trade flows.Results. The study shows that, despite the restrictions imposed by sanctions, North Korea strives to make the most of its advantages, such as resource availability and cheap labor, in global trade. The country builds its own export-import chains in circumvention of sanctions. These chains are rather mobile, flexible, and controlled by the elite. As a result, benefits from trade that could be evenly distributed among the population are concentrated in the hands of a narrow segment of society. ‘Rent seeking’ makes it possible to formulate the negative consequences of these processes for the North Korean economy and the international community.Conclusions. Solving the North Korean issue requires an economic transformation in the country through the replacement of restrictive sanctions with more constructive ones. The exclusion of North Korea from open global trade leads to the country’s marginalization and impairs the transparency of international commodity flows.

Environmental impact of nutrients from nordic fish farming

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Enell
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
Fish Farming ◽  
Fish Farms ◽  
Feed Composition ◽  
The North ◽  
Comprehensive Development ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Inland Water Bodies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Feed Coefficient

During the last 20 years there has been an interesting development of the Nordic fish farming, with regard to the feeding and farming technology and to the increase in production quantities. During the period 1974-1994 the production increased from 15,800 to about 250,000 tonnes/year. In 1974 the major part of the production was in Denmark, and in 1994 the major part was in Norway. The nutrient impact of fish farming on surrounding sea areas is mainly a function of the feed coefficient, the feed composition and metabolic processes in the fish. The comprehensive development of the feed composition and the feeding technology has resulted in reduced load of unmetabolized nutrients from fish farms, calculated per tonne fish produced. In 1974 the mean Nordic feed coefficient was 2.08 and in 1994 the coefficient was 1.25. Feed coefficients of 1.0-1.1 are now reported for Danish and Norwegian freshwater and marine fish farms. The nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content of the feed has decreased, in addition the quality of the nutrient substances in the feed has changed, especially for N. The N content has decreased from 7.8 to 6.8% during the period 1974-1994 and the content of P has decreased from 1.7 to 0.7% during the same period. This development of the feed coefficient and the feed composition has resulted in a present load from a typical Nordic fish farm of 55 kg N and 4.8 kg P/t fish produced. The figures for 1974 were 132 kg N and 31 kg P/t fish produced. The Nordic fish farming production in 1994 resulted in a load of about 13,750 t N and about 1,200 t P on the actual recipients. The load from the Swedish, Finnish and Danish fish farming operations, with the Baltic Sea and the Skagerrak as the recipients, is negligible in comparison with other pollution sources. The quantities of N and P from the fish farming are equal to 0.5% of the atmospheric deposition on the sea surface and 3% of the atmospheric P load. Norwegian, Icelandic and the Faroe Islands fish farming operations are using the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea as the recipients. However, the nutrient load from single fish farms in certain coastal and inland water bodies can be significant and must be considered in the impact assessment together with other sources.

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