African descent populations in the United States are not monolithic: A scoping review of African immigrants' mental health and coping strategies.

OBJECTIVE: African immigrants in the United States have unique experiences and stressors, resulting in diverse outcomes and disparities. As such, examining the effects of cultural stressors (e.g., discrimination, the negative context of reception, bicultural stress) on immigrant populations' mental health can provide a useful framework for explaining and identifying malleable targets to reduce African immigrants' health disparities. This review mapped conceptual and methodological knowledge of cultural stress in African immigrants by applying the cultural stress theoretical framework to reveal (a) what we currently know about the impact of cultural stressors on African immigrants' mental health and (b) coping strategies African immigrants utilize to persist in achieving positive health outcomes. METHOD: Conforming to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Review guidelines, this scoping review spans five interdisciplinary, health-focused databases and includes peer-reviewed articles published in English since 1980. RESULTS: Covidence software was used to screen 2095 articles, review 129 full-text records, and extract data from the 22 studies that met criteria and focused on mental health. Participant and study characteristics (i.e., country of origin, generation, methodology, duration) are highlighted. The impact of discrimination on African immigrants' mental health was the dominant research focus. Congruent with cultural stress theory, negative context, bicultural stress, and immigration-related familial stress also negatively impact their mental health. Nevertheless, African immigrants utilize various coping strategies to achieve positive outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Mapping the existing evidence of immigrant cultural stress and mental health elucidates gaps for research and demonstrates that culturally relevant interventions ought to address immigration-related stressors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Detection of resting-state functional connectivity in the lumbar spinal cord with 3T MRI.

Functional MRI (fMRI) of the spinal cord is an expanding area of research with potential to investigate neuronal activity in the central nervous system. We aimed to characterize the functional connectivity features of the human lumbar spinal cord using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) at 3T, using region-based and data-driven analysis approaches. A 3D multi-shot gradient echo resting-state blood oxygenation level dependent-sensitive rs-fMRI protocol was implemented in 26 healthy participants. Average temporal signal-to-noise ratio in the gray matter was 16.35 ± 4.79 after denoising. Evidence of synchronous signal fluctuations in the ventral and dorsal horns with their contralateral counterparts was observed in representative participants using interactive, exploratory seed-based correlations. Group-wise average in-slice Pearson's correlations were 0.43 ± 0.17 between ventral horns, and 0.48 ± 0.16 between dorsal horns. Group spatial independent component analysis (ICA) was used to identify areas of coherent activity¸ and revealed components within the gray matter corresponding to anatomical regions. Lower-dimensionality ICA revealed bilateral components corresponding to ventral and dorsal networks. Additional separate ICAs were run on two subsets of the participant group, yielding two sets of components that showed visual consistency and moderate spatial overlap. This work shows feasibility of rs-fMRI to probe the functional features and organization of the lumbar spinal cord.

Critical examination of resilience and resistance in African American families: Adaptive capacities to navigate toxic oppressive upstream waters.

African American families navigate not only everyday stressors and adversities but also unique sociocultural stressors (e.g., "toxic upstream waters" like oppression). These adverse conditions are consequences of the historical vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow laws, often manifested as inequities in wealth, housing, wages, employment, access to healthcare, and quality education. Despite these challenges, African American families have developed resilience using strength-based adaptive coping strategies, to some extent, to filter these waters. To advance the field of resilience research, we focused on the following questions: (1) what constitutes positive responses to adversity?; (2) how is resilience defined conceptually and measured operationally?; (3) how has the field of resilience evolved?; (4) who defines what, when, and how responses are manifestations of resilience, instead of, for example, resistance? How can resistance, which at times leads to positive adaptations, be incorporated into the study of resilience?; and (5) are there case examples that demonstrate ways to address structural oppression and the pernicious effects of racism through system-level interventions, thereby changing environmental situations that sustain toxic waters requiring acts of resilience to survive and thrive? We end by exploring how a re-conceptualization of resilience requires a paradigm shift and new methodological approaches to understand ways in which preventive interventions move beyond focusing on families' capacity to navigate oppression and target systems and structures that maintain these toxic waters.

The Utility of the Plastic Surgery Standardized Letter of Recommendation Form in Predicting Residency Match Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Letters of recommendation play an important role in resident selection. While plastic surgery's Standardized Letter of Recommendation (SLOR) form most commonly serves as an adjunct to narrative letters, the SLOR provides objective data in the review process and could eventually replace narrative letters. The utility of the SLOR in predicting Match outcomes has not been studied. METHODS: Applicant data from 225 first-time residency applicants in 2020-21 were collected. Logistic regression modeling was used to predict Match outcomes. This model was validated using 100 randomly selected applicants from 2019-20. RESULTS: Rank placement (SLOR Question 6) was the most important factor when predicting Match outcomes (p<0.0001). All other SLOR questions were not predictive and subject to notable score inflation. No SLOR score differences were noted based on race; female applicants were rated higher in two of ten domains (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: One question on the plastic surgery SLOR was highly predictive of an applicant matching. However, the remaining SLOR questions had little utility and were subject to gross score inflation. Further work should be done to optimize the utility of the SLOR in differentiating applicants. This has important implications in ensuring the selection of professional, competent residents according to the aims of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education.