Migrations and development policies in Nigeria.

The authors of this book chapter conclude that increased urbanization in Nigeria is a product of natural growth and migration. Rural-to-rural migration dominated during the colonial period. Independence was marked by rural-urban urban-urban and return migration streams. The authors posit that the problems of inadequate supplies of housing and clean water in urban centers led to overcrowding and the resulting urban social and health hazards. Urban in-migration was the cause of urban growth. The rural population structure was related to the availability of labor and food production. Rural development depended upon the availability of a resourceful willing and capable young population and reduced out-migration. Urban migrants increased the demand for educational services and strained existing resources. Rapid social changes have led to homelessness and changes in marriage and the family. Nigeria has a variety of climates and geography and abundant natural resources including oil. About 50% of the population is comprised of ethnic groups i.e. Hausa in the north Ibo in the southeast and the Yuroba in the west. During colonial periods large scale migration movements were fueled by social conflicts. Colonial practices increased the demand for labor in colonial agriculture and mining industries forced taxation on the adult population and produced a wage earning labor force. Traditional forms of social organization based on kinship and political or tribal rights were substituted with the European mode of social organization. The colonial regime created new urban centers and a population shift to developing areas in the north

Culture Matters in Communicating the Global Response to COVID-19.

Current communication messages in the COVID-19 pandemic tend to focus more on individual risks than community risks resulting from existing inequities. Culture is central to an effective community-engaged public health communication to reduce collective risks. In this commentary, we discuss the importance of culture in unpacking messages that may be the same globally (physical/social distancing) yet different across cultures and communities (individualist versus collectivist). Structural inequity continues to fuel the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black and brown communities nationally and globally. PEN-3 offers a cultural framework for a community-engaged global communication response to COVID-19

E-consultation and the quest for inclusive governance in Nigeria

Inclusive governance through public consultation is fundamental to sustainable development as reiterated in the SDG16. Citizens’ consultation in the policy planning and determination enhances the quality of policy outcomes and help to build public trust in political institutions. Traditional institutions for public consultation are however, often limited thus, policy decisions are in most cases, at variance with public aspirations. The consequence is a growing public cynicism of governmental institutions. To address this democratic decline, governments across the world are now utilizing ICT tools to better consult with citizens in the public policy process. This paper which adopts a mixture of descriptive and analytical research designs engages a systematic literature review for collecting and analysing data. The aim is to investigate the adoption of ICTs as tools for public consultation to enhance inclusive governance in Nigeria. Findings reveal among others that the increase in acceptance and usage of mobile technologies in the face of the challenges of infrastructure, energy instability and low level of ICT literacy among others, provide veritable platform for e-consultation. E-consultation brings to bear the equally important bottom-up approach in policy making by providing additional channel for greater public voice in the policy-making process. E-consultation thus poses to be cardinal to achieving sustainable development goal of just, peaceful and inclusive societies in Nigeria

Life\u27s Simple 7 and Incident Heart Failure: The Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background The American Heart Association introduced the Life\u27s Simple 7 (LS7) metrics to assess and promote cardiovascular health. We sought to examine the association between the LS7 metrics and incident heart failure (HF) in a multiethnic cohort. Methods and Results We analyzed data from 6506 participants of the Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. The LS7 metrics (smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose) were graded on a scale of 0 to 2, with 2 indicating “ideal” status, 1 “intermediate” status, and 0 “poor” status. Points were summed, thus the LS7 score ranged from 0 to 14. Cox proportional hazard ratios and incidence rates of HF per 1000 person‐years were calculated. During a median follow‐up of 12.2 years, 262 (4%) participants developed HF. Incidence of HF decreased as the number of ideal LS7 metrics increased; 5.9 per 1000 person‐years for participants with 0 to 1 ideal metrics and 0.6 per 1000 person‐years for those with 6 to 7 ideal metrics. Compared with inadequate scores (0–8 points), hazard ratios for HF were 0.57 (0.43–0.76) and 0.31 (0.19–0.49) for average (9–10 points) and optimal (11–14 points) scores, respectively. A similar pattern was observed when the results were stratified by 4 racial/ethnic groups: white, Chinese American, black, and Hispanic. Conclusions A lower risk of HF with more favorable LS7 status regardless of race/ethnicity suggests that efforts to achieve ideal cardiovascular health may reduce the burden of HF, a major source of morbidity and mortality

The IceCube Realtime Alert System

Following the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in 2013, their origin is still unknown. Aiming for the identification of an electromagnetic counterpart of a rapidly fading source, we have implemented a realtime analysis framework for the IceCube neutrino observatory. Several analyses selecting neutrinos of astrophysical origin are now operating in realtime at the detector site in Antarctica and are producing alerts to the community to enable rapid follow-up observations. The goal of these observations is to locate the astrophysical objects responsible for these neutrino signals. This paper highlights the infrastructure in place both at the South Pole detector site and at IceCube facilities in the north that have enabled this fast follow-up program to be developed. Additionally, this paper presents the first realtime analyses to be activated within this framework, highlights their sensitivities to astrophysical neutrinos and background event rates, and presents an outlook for future discoveries.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, Published in Astroparticle Physic

Defining remission in childhood-onset lupus:PReS-endorsed consensus definitions by an international task force

Objective: To derive childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) specific remission definitions for future treat-to-target (T2T) trials, observational studies, and clinical practice. Methods: The cSLE International T2T Task Force conducted Delphi surveys exploring paediatric perspectives on adult-onset SLE remission targets. A modified nominal group technique was used to discuss, refine, and agree on the cSLE remission target criteria.Results: The Task Force proposed two definitions of remission: ‘cSLE clinical remission on steroids (cCR)’ and ‘cSLE clinical remission off steroids (cCR-0)’. The common criteria are: (1) Clinical-SLEDAI-2 K = 0; (2) PGA score &lt; 0.5 (0–3 scale); (4) stable antimalarials, immunosuppressive, and biologic therapy (changes due to side-effects, adherence, weight, or when building up to target dose allowed). Criterion (3) in cCR is the prednisolone dose ≤0.1 mg/kg/day (maximum 5 mg/day), whereas in cCR-0 it is zero. Conclusions: cSLE definitions of remission have been proposed, maintaining sufficient alignment with the adult-SLE definition to facilitate life-course research.</p

Adolescent health in rural Ghana: A cross-sectional study on the co-occurrence of infectious diseases, malnutrition and cardio-metabolic risk factors.

In sub-Saharan Africa, infectious diseases and malnutrition constitute the main health problems in children, while adolescents and adults are increasingly facing cardio-metabolic conditions. Among adolescents as the largest population group in this region, we investigated the co-occurrence of infectious diseases, malnutrition and cardio-metabolic risk factors (CRFs), and evaluated demographic, socio-economic and medical risk factors for these entities. In a cross-sectional study among 188 adolescents in rural Ghana, malarial infection, common infectious diseases and Body Mass Index were assessed. We measured ferritin, C-reactive protein, retinol, fasting glucose and blood pressure. Socio-demographic data were documented. We analyzed the proportions (95% confidence interval, CI) and the co-occurrence of infectious diseases (malaria, other common diseases), malnutrition (underweight, stunting, iron deficiency, vitamin A deficiency [VAD]), and CRFs (overweight, obesity, impaired fasting glucose, hypertension). In logistic regression, odds ratios (OR) and 95% CIs were calculated for the associations with socio-demographic factors. In this Ghanaian population (age range, 14.4-15.5 years; males, 50%), the proportions were for infectious diseases 45% (95% CI: 38-52%), for malnutrition 50% (43-57%) and for CRFs 16% (11-21%). Infectious diseases and malnutrition frequently co-existed (28%; 21-34%). Specifically, VAD increased the odds of non-malarial infectious diseases 3-fold (95% CI: 1.03, 10.19). Overlap of CRFs with infectious diseases (6%; 2-9%) or with malnutrition (7%; 3-11%) was also present. Male gender and low socio-economic status increased the odds of infectious diseases and malnutrition, respectively. Malarial infection, chronic malnutrition and VAD remain the predominant health problems among these Ghanaian adolescents. Investigating the relationships with evolving CRFs is warranted