Digital Resilience Tactics of Syrian Refugees in the Netherlands: Social Media for Social Support, Health, and Identity

The process of adjusting to a new country may carry important stressors for refugees. In the light of neoliberal policies, refugees are expected to become resilient in a local arrival infrastructure and perform a specific subjectivity based on gratefulness, adaptability, and digital sensitivity to successfully integrate. Drawing on a qualitative, in-depth case study with Syrians living in the Netherlands, this article explores the impact of the retreat of the welfare state and unfolding digital transitions on resilience tactics of marginalized people like refugees. While recognizing the systemic violence and historic trauma many refugees have experienced, we focus on how refugees are expected to and develop ways to become resilient. Three digital resilience tactics are discussed: digital social support, digital health, and digital identities. Social support was mainly sought from family, friends, organizations, and social media platforms, whereas refugees’ engagement in meaningful digital practices aimed at fostering health promotion and identity management. Our fieldwork resurfaces paradoxes of digital resilience as described by careful emotional digital labor refugees engage in when communicating with families, the role of socio-cultural factors in shaping refugees’ ICT (information and communication technology) adoption and use for health support, and negotiation of different and conflicting identity axes online. Finally, our study provides some insights into the implementation of more effective online and offline practices in the context of social and health support by host countries

Lead Optimization of Phthalazinone Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors as Novel Antitrypanosomal Compounds

Human African trypanosomiasis is causing thousands of deaths every year in the rural areas of Africa. In this manuscript we describe the optimization of a family of phtalazinone derivatives. Phosphodiesterases have emerged as attractive molecular targets for a novel treatment for a variety of neglected parasitic diseases. Compound 1 resulted in being a potent TbrPDEB1 inhibitor with interesting activity against T. brucei in a phenotypic screen. Derivative 1 was studied in an acute in vivo mouse disease model but unfortunately showed no efficacy due to low metabolic stability. We report structural modifications to achieve compounds with an improved metabolic stability while maintaining high potency against TbrPDEB1 and T. brucei. Compound 14 presented a good microsomal stability in mouse and human microsomes and provides a good starting point for future efforts

Qualitative Migration Research: Viable Goals, Open-Ended Questions, and Multidimensional Answers

Following a brief review of the epistemological premises informing qualitative methodologies, I identify the key features of qualitative research undertaken in the verstehende or interpretative social-science tradition, which render it particularly well suited to capturing the inherent dynamics of the lived experience of human beings in general and, in our case, of immigrants: its multi-dimensionality; its ability to accommodate ambiguity and outright contradictions; its emphasis on the temporality and fluidity of social phenomena; and its insistence on the contextual and situational nature of human perceptions and agency. Next, I argue that the research goals appropriate for qualitative investigations as proposed by Charles Ragin (Constructing social research. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, 1994) – exploring diversity, giving voice, testing/refining theories or guiding concepts, and generating new research questions – can be realized by asking questions and gathering answers related to these issues in the context of (im)migrants’ experience. These claims are illustrated with questions asked and answers obtained through three standard methods of qualitative research: interviewing, observation, and document analysis. The examples draw from the current and emerging problem agendas in migration studies. I also discuss the strengths and limitations of research questions probing the complexity and un(der)determinacy of (im)migrants’ lives and the answers they generate

Doing Digital Migration Studies : Methodological Considerations for an Emerging Research Focus

This chapter offers reflection on doing digital migration studies. Digital migration studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field focussed on studying migration in, through and by means of the internet. As the so-called European refugee crisis demonstrates, the scale, intensities and types of transnational migration and digital networking have drastically changed in recent years. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have fundamentally transformed migration processes and vice versa. Top-down management of migration flows and border control is increasingly dependent on digital technologies and datafication, while from the bottom-up migrants use smart phones and apps to access information, maintain transnational relations, establish local connections and send remittances. In the first half of the chapter, drawing on (Candidatu et al., 2018) we distinguish between three paradigms of digital migration studies: (1) migrants in cyberspace; (2) everyday digital migrant life; (3) migrants as data. In the second half of the chapter, we offer the methodological research principles of relationality, adaptability and ethics-of-care to operationalize digital migration studies with a commitment to social justice. Challenging unjust power relations is important both when studying vulnerable groups as well as studying elites. The many experiences, obstacles and opportunities we found in the literature reveal that the future of digital migration studies lies at the intersection of big and small data, there is great urgency in triangulating quantified patterns with in-depth narrative accounts and situated experiences

To Target or Not to Target <i>Schistosoma mansoni</i> Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase 4A?

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease with high morbidity. Recently, the Schistosoma mansoni phosphodiesterase SmPDE4A was suggested as a putative new drug target. To support SmPDE4A targeted drug discovery, we cloned, isolated, and biochemically characterized the full-length and catalytic domains of SmPDE4A. The enzymatically active catalytic domain was crystallized in the apo-form (PDB code: 6FG5) and in the cAMP- and AMP-bound states (PDB code: 6EZU). The SmPDE4A catalytic domain resembles human PDE4 more than parasite PDEs because it lacks the parasite PDE-specific P-pocket. Purified SmPDE4A proteins (full-length and catalytic domain) were used to profile an in-house library of PDE inhibitors (PDE4NPD toolbox). This screening identified tetrahydrophthalazinones and benzamides as potential hits. The PDE inhibitor NPD-0001 was the most active tetrahydrophthalazinone, whereas the approved human PDE4 inhibitors roflumilast and piclamilast were the most potent benzamides. As a follow-up, 83 benzamide analogs were prepared, but the inhibitory potency of the initial hits was not improved. Finally, NPD-0001 and roflumilast were evaluated in an in vitro anti-S. mansoni assay. Unfortunately, both SmPDE4A inhibitors were not effective in worm killing and only weakly affected the egg-laying at high micromolar concentrations. Consequently, the results with these SmPDE4A inhibitors strongly suggest that SmPDE4A is not a suitable target for anti-schistosomiasis therapy