Nigeria: Analysing the Security Challenges of the Goodluck Jonathan Administration

The study is a critical analysis of the security challenges confronting the Goodluck Jonathan Administration in Nigeria. Since 2010, The Nigerian nation has on daily basis experience an upsurge of activities that threatens and endangers its national security. Kidnappings, arms proliferation, armed robberies, drug and human trafficking and violence associated with ethnic, religious and political conflicts are among these threats. Recently however, a new dimension of bomb blasts, occurring on a daily-basis, is a major focus of attention in Nigeria’s security analysis. The Boko-Haram Islamic militant sect (literarily translated as Western education is bad)., has been fingered as the perpetrators of the bomb explosions. In view of this scenario, the study examines the impact of these occurrences on Nigeria’s security as well as, examines the responses of government taking into cognizance the public and media reactions to such actions. Finally, the study posited that the impact of the blasts on the people and the polity are ominous and that, there is a higher degree of fear and insecurity. Based on the palpable tension threatening to shatter the fragile thread that binds the people together, the study further made some recommendations on how peace and stability can endure in the country.Key words: Militant groups; Insecurity; Destruction; Corruption; Instability; Terrorism and ethno-religious crisisRésumé L'étude est une analyse critique de la sécurité défis auxquels l'administration Goodluck Jonathan au Nigeria. Depuis 2010, la Nation Nigériane a quotidiennement l'expérience d'un regain d'activités qui menace et met en danger sa sécurité nationale. Les enlèvements, la prolifération des armes, vols à main armée, de drogue et d'êtres humains et la violence associée aux conflits ethniques, religieuses et politiques sont parmi ces menaces. Récemment, toutefois, une nouvelle dimension d'explosions de bombes, se produisant sur une base quotidienne-, est une préoccupation majeure dans l'analyse de la sécurité du Nigeria. Le Boko Haram secte islamiste (littéralement traduit comme l'éducation occidentale est mauvaise), a été pointé du doigt comme étant les auteurs des attentats à la bombe. Compte tenu de ce scénario, l'étude examine l'impact de ces événements sur la sécurité du Nigeria ainsi que, examine les réponses du gouvernement en prenant en connaître les réactions du public et des médias à de telles actions. Enfin, l'étude postulé que l'impact des explosions sur le peuple et la politique sont inquiétantes et que, il ya un degré élevé de crainte et d'insécurité. Basé sur la tension palpable menaçant de briser le fil fragile qui lie les gens ensemble, l'étude a fait quelques recommandations sur la façon dont la paix et la stabilité peuvent endurer dans le pays. Mots clés: Groupes militants; Insécurité; Destruction; Corruption; Instabilité; Terrorisme et la Crise Ethno-Religieus

From AMIS to UNAMID: The African Union, the United Nations and the challenges of sustainable peace in Darfur, Sudan

Since, 2003 when hostilities broke out in Darfur region of Western Sudan, the African Union has been leading international community efforts at restoring peace to this trouble region. The organization deployed ceasefire monitoring commission, peacekeeping force and under Nigeria leadership broker peace agreement between the warring parties. From all indications the Darfur Peace Accord [DPA], brokered in Abuja, Nigeria has not resulted into the normalization of the security and political situation in Darfur as was envisaged. The apparent lack of robust capacity by the African Union Mission, AMIS to stabilize the security situation in Darfur reinforces the call for the United Nations to intervention. With a robust mandate, secure resource base and better logistic capabilities, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Mission in Darfur, UNAMID has been proactive in enhancing the protection of its personnel, bases and equipments and greater capacity in the provision of security for safe delivery of humanitarian assistance and protection of civilians. Much as the deployment of UNAMID mission has brought semblance of security, there continue to exist challenges that are undermining security and militating against the achievement of durable peace in Darfur this paper argued.Key words: African Union; Conflict; Darfur; Peacekeeping; SecurityRésumé Depuis 2003, lorsque les hostilités ont éclaté dans la région du Darfour au Soudan occidental, l’Union africaine a dirigé les efforts de la communauté internationale à rétablir la paix dans cette région trouble. L’organisation a déployé commission de suivi cessez-le-maintien de la paix la force et sous la direction du Nigeria courtier accord de paix entre la guerre parties. de toutes les indications de l’Accord de paix sur le Darfour [DPA], négocié à Abuja, au Nigeria ne s’est pas traduite dans la normalisation de la situation sécuritaire et politique au Darfour comme cela a été envisagé. le manque apparent de forte capacité par la Mission de l’Union africaine, la MUAS à stabiliser la situation sécuritaire au Darfour renforce l’appel à l’Organisation des Nations Unies à l’intervention. Avec un mandat robuste, base de ressources en sécurité et de meilleures capacités logistiques, l’Union africaine- Nations Unies au Darfour, la MINUAD a été proactif dans le renforcement de la protection de son personnel, des bases et des équipements et une plus grande capacité dans la fourniture de sécurité pour une livraison sûre de l’aide humanitaire et la protection des civils. Tout comme le déploiement de la mission de la MINUAD a apporté un semblant de sécurité, il continuera d’exister défis qui minent la sécurité et milite contre la réalisation d’une paix durable au Darfour a fait valoir ce document.Mots-clés: Union Africaine; les conflits; au Darfour; maintien de la paix; de sécurit

Coronary computed tomographic angiography for detection of coronary artery disease in patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

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HIF-1α is over-expressed in leukemic cells from TP53-disrupted patients and is a promising therapeutic target in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) regulates the response of tumor cells to hypoxia and their protective interactions with the leukemic microenvironment. In this study, we demonstrate that CLL cells from TP53-disrupted (TP53dis) patients have constitutively higher expression levels of the α-subunit of HIF-1 (HIF-1α) and increased HIF-1 transcriptional activity compared to the wild-type counterpart. In the TP53dis subset, HIF-1α upregulation is due to reduced expression of the HIF-1α ubiquitin ligase von Hippel-Lindau protein (pVHL). Hypoxia and stromal cells further enhance HIF-1α accumulation, independently of TP53 status. Hypoxia acts through the downmodulation of pVHL and the activation of the PI3K/AKT and RAS/ERK1-2 pathways, whereas stromal cells induce an increased activity of the RAS/ERK1-2, RHOA/RHOA kinase and PI3K/AKT pathways, without affecting pVHL expression. Interestingly, we observed that higher levels of HIF-1A mRNA correlate with a lower susceptibility of leukemic cells to spontaneous apoptosis, and associate with the fludarabine resistance that mainly characterizes TP53dis tumor cells. The HIF-1α inhibitor BAY87-2243 exerts cytotoxic effects toward leukemic cells, regardless of the TP53 status, and has anti-tumor activity in Em-TCL1 mice. BAY87-2243 also overcomes the constitutive fludarabine resistance of TP53dis leukemic cells and elicits a strongly synergistic cytotoxic effect in combination with ibrutinib, thus providing preclinical evidence to stimulate further investigation into use as a potential new drug in CLL

European position paper on the management of patients with patent foramen ovale. General approach and left circulation thromboembolism

The presence of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of medical conditions; however, the subject remains controversial and no official statements have been published. This interdisciplinary paper, prepared with involvement of eight European scientific societies, aims to review the available trial evidence and to define the principles needed to guide decision making in patients with PFO. In order to guarantee a strict process, position statements were developed with the use of a modified grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) methodology. A critical qualitative and quantitative evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was performed, including assessment of the risk/benefit ratio. The level of evidence and the strength of the position statements of particular management options were weighed and graded according to predefined scales. Despite being based often on limited and non-randomised data, while waiting for more conclusive evidence, it was possible to conclude on a number of position statements regarding a rational general approach to PFO management and to specific considerations regarding left circulation thromboembolism. For some therapeutic aspects, it was possible to express stricter position statements based on randomised trials. This position paper provides the first largely shared, interdisciplinary approach for a rational PFO management based on the best available evidence

Prediction of All-Cause Mortality Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Bifurcation Lesions Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Stratifying prognosis following coronary bifurcation percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an unmet clinical need that may be fulfilled through the adoption of machine learning (ML) algorithms to refine outcome predictions. We sought to develop an ML-based risk stratification model built on clinical, anatomical, and procedural features to predict all-cause mortality following contemporary bifurcation PCI. Multiple ML models to predict all-cause mortality were tested on a cohort of 2393 patients (training, n = 1795; internal validation, n = 598) undergoing bifurcation PCI with contemporary stents from the real-world RAIN registry. Twenty-five commonly available patient-/lesion-related features were selected to train ML models. The best model was validated in an external cohort of 1701 patients undergoing bifurcation PCI from the DUTCH PEERS and BIO-RESORT trial cohorts. At ROC curves, the AUC for the prediction of 2-year mortality was 0.79 (0.74–0.83) in the overall population, 0.74 (0.62–0.85) at internal validation and 0.71 (0.62–0.79) at external validation. Performance at risk ranking analysis, k-center cross-validation, and continual learning confirmed the generalizability of the models, also available as an online interface. The RAIN-ML prediction model represents the first tool combining clinical, anatomical, and procedural features to predict all-cause mortality among patients undergoing contemporary bifurcation PCI with reliable performance

A Tale of Two Markets: How Lower-end Borrowers Are Punished for Bank Regulatory Failures in Nigeria

In 2009, the Nigerian banking system witnessed a financial crisis caused by elite borrowers in the financial market. Regulatory response to the Nigerian crisis closely mirrored the international response with increased capital and liquidity thresholds for commercial banks. While the rise of consumer protection on the agenda of prudential supervisors internationally was logical in that consumer debt was the main cause of the global recession, the Nigerian banking reforms of 2009 disproportionately affected access by poorer consumers, who ironically had little to do with the underlying causes of the crisis. As lending criteria become more stringent, poorer consumers of credit products are pushed into informal markets because of liquidity-induced credit rationing. Overall, consumer protection is compromised because stronger consumer protection rules for the formal sector benefits borrowers from formal institutions who constitute the minority of borrowers in all markets. While the passage of regulation establishing credit bureaux and the National Collateral Registry will, in theory, ease access to credit especially by lower-end borrowers, the vast size of the informal market continues to compound the information asymmetry problem, fiscal policies to tackle structural economic issues such as unemployment and illiteracy remain to be initiated, and bank regulators continue to pander to elite customers with policy responses that endorse too big to fail but deems lower-end consumers too irrelevant to save. The essay concluded that addressing the wide disparity in access to credit between the rich and poor through property rights reforms to capture the capital of the informal class, promoting regulation to check loan concentration, and stimulating competition by allowing Telecommunication Companies (TELCOs) and fintech companies to carry on lending activities because of their superior knowledge of lower-end markets will facilitate greater access. The risk of systemic failure deriving from consumer credit in Nigeria is insignificant compared to the consumer vulnerabilities resulting from the exposure of consumers to unregulated products in the informal market

Comparison of bioresorbable vs durable polymer drug-eluting stents in unprotected left main (from the RAIN-CARDIOGROUP VII Study)

International audienceAbstract Background There are limited data regarding the impact of bioresorbable polymer drug eluting stent (BP-DES) compared to durable polymer drug eluting stent (DP-DES) in patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention using ultrathin stents in left main or bifurcations. Methods In the RAIN registry (ClinicalTrials NCT03544294, june 2018 retrospectively registered) patients with a ULM or bifurcation stenosis treated with PCI using ultrathin stents (struts thinner than 81 μm) were enrolled. The primary endpoint was the rate of target lesion revascularization (TLR); major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, TLR and stent thrombosis) and its components, along with target vessel revascularization (TVR) were the secondary ones. A propensity score with matching analysis to compare patients treated with BP-DES versus DP-DES was also assessed. Results From 3001 enrolled patients, after propensity score analysis 1400 patients (700 for each group) were selected. Among them, 352 had ULM disease and 1048 had non-LM bifurcations. At 16 months (12–22), rates of TLR (3.7% vs 2.9%, p = 0.22) and MACE were similar (12.3% vs. 11.6%, p = 0.74) as well as for the other endpoints. Sensitivity analysis of outcomes after a two-stents strategy, showed better outcome in term of MACE (20.4% vs 10%, p = 0.03) and TVR (12% vs 4.6%, p = 0.05) and a trend towards lower TLR in patients treated with BP-DES. Conclusion In patients with bifurcations or ULM treated with ultrathin stents BP-DES seems to perform similarly to DP-DES: the trends toward improved clinical outcomes in patients treated with the BP-DES might potentially be of value for speculating the stent choice in selected high-risk subgroups of patients at increased risk of ischemic events. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03544294 . Retrospectively registered June 1, 2018