A caballo regalao no se le mira el colmillo: Colonial mentality and Puerto Rican depression.

Dignifying the colonizer and depreciating the colonized is a reflection of internalized colonial oppression (i.e., colonial mentality). The current study examined the effect of colonial mentality on depression symptoms in a sample of mainland Puerto Ricans (N = 352). A structural equation model was examined, in which colonial mentality was hypothesized to be directly and positively associated with depression symptoms. The proposed model also tested the indirect effect of colonial mentality on depression symptoms via acculturative stress. Results indicated that a full mediation structural equation model (SEM) had a better fit to the data than our hypothesized partial mediation model. Bias-corrected bootstrapping indicated that the effect of colonial mentality on depressive symptoms was mediated by acculturative stress. That is, colonial mentality increased the risk of experiencing depression symptoms in Puerto Ricans when they felt pressured to maintaining a connection with Puerto Rican culture and society and when they experienced rejection by the society they want to emulate (acculturative stress). The current results underscore the need for researchers and clinicians to consider and assess colonial mentality when conceptualizing depression symptoms among mainland Puerto Ricans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Asymmetric syntheses of α-methyl γ-amino acid derivatives.

This project was undertaken to demonstrate the potential of asymmetric hydrogenations mediated by the chiral, carbene-oxazoline analogue of Crabtree's catalyst "cat" in asymmetric hydrogenations of allylic amine derivatives of amino acids. Peripheral features of the substrates (protecting groups, functional groups related by redox processes, and alkene geometries) were varied to optimize the stereochemical vectors exerted by the substrate and align them with the catalyst vector. N-Acetyl-protected, O-TBDPS-protected allylic substrates 9a-e emerged as the best for this reaction; syn-products were formed from the E-alkenes, while the Z-isomers gave anti-target materials, both with high diastereoselectivities. This study featured asymmetric catalysis to elaborate optically active substrates into more stereochemically complex chirons; we suggest that the approach used, optimization of stereocontrol by varying peripheral aspects of the substrate, tends to be easier than de novo catalyst design for each substrate type. In other words, optimization of the substrate vector is likely to be more facile than enhancement of the catalyst vector via ligand modifications.

Universal peptidomimetics.

This paper concerns peptidomimetic scaffolds that can present side chains in conformations resembling those of amino acids in secondary structures without incurring excessive entropic or enthalpic penalties. Compounds of this type are referred to here as minimalist mimics. The core hypothesis of this paper is that small sets of such scaffolds can be designed to analogue local pairs of amino acids (including noncontiguous ones) in any secondary structure; i.e., they are universal peptidomimetics. To illustrate this concept, we designed a set of four peptidomimetic scaffolds. Libraries based on them were made bearing side chains corresponding to many of the protein-derived amino acids. Modeling experiments were performed to give an indication of kinetic and thermodynamic accessibilities of conformations that can mimic secondary structures. Together, peptidomimetics based on these four scaffolds can adopt conformations that resemble almost any combination of local amino acid side chains in any secondary structure. Universal peptidomimetics of this kind are likely to be most useful in the design of libraries for high-throughput screening against diverse targets. Consequently, data arising from submission of these molecules to the NIH Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (MLSMR) are outlined.