Resilience of African migrants: An integrative review

African migrant women represent a rapidly growing cohort of new arrivals in many countries. Many of these women demonstrate strength and resilience throughout the stressful migration process. In this integrative review, we explore the literature on African migrants' resilience using an ecological framework. Nine peer-reviewed journal articles and six grey literature documents were reviewed. Key internal and external factors in achieving resilience were identified, discussed, and diagrammatically represented using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Framework under micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-levels. Our findings show that the capacity for resilience demonstrated during migration could have implications for policy and practice.     

Discovery of Novel Small Molecule Mer Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Ectopic Mer expression promotes pro-survival signaling and contributes to leukemogenesis and chemoresistance in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Consequently, Mer kinase inhibitors may promote leukemic cell death and further act as chemosensitizers increasing efficacy and reducing toxicities of current ALL regimens. We have applied a structure-based design approach to discover novel small molecule Mer kinase inhibitors. Several pyrazolopyrimidine derivatives effectively inhibit Mer kinase activity at sub-nanomolar concentrations. Furthermore, the lead compound shows a promising selectivity profile against a panel of 72 kinases and has excellent pharmacokinetic properties. We also describe the crystal structure of the complex between the lead compound and Mer, opening new opportunities for further optimization and new template design.     

About Your Child’s Eating (AYCE) scale psychometrics when applied to children in hospital-based feeding clinics

This study examined the About Your Child’s Eating scale (AYCE) when applied to a sample of children referred to hospital-based feeding clinics. The AYCE measures three dimensions of the family mealtime environment (Child Resistance to Eating, Positive Mealtime Environment, Parent/Caregiver Mealtime Aversion). Confirmatory factor analysis for AYCE subscales revealed close to acceptable goodness-of-fit values, strong internal reliability, and strong test-retest reliability. ANCOVAs examining AYCE subscales and child demographics found caregivers of younger and thinner children reported more Child Resistance to Eating and Caregiver Aversion to Mealtime, with other demographics not statistically significant.