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Self-rated health (SRH) predicts service use, morbidity, and mortality. Additionally, SRH has been associated with indices of psychological well-being. The main focus of the study was to investigate important differences among the lower spectrum of SRH (ie, fair and poor) on indices of well-being. In-person interviews collected data from 207 (M age = 75.8) older rural adults. Data were used to examine differences between those reporting poor, fair, and good or excellent SRH on measures of demographics, and physical and psychological health. Significant differences emerged between levels of SRH in relation to measures of physical and psychological health. Specifically, individuals with poor SRH were significantly more likely to have (1) illnesses, (2) problems with basic and cognitive tasks of daily living, and (3) depressed affect than individuals reporting good or excellent health. Individuals with poor SRH were significantly more likely to have problems with basic and cognitive tasks of daily living than individuals with fair SRH. No significant differences were found between people reporting fair and good or excellent SRH on illnesses and depressed affect. Results suggest that future research should investigate the expansion of the lower-end of the SRH measure to more accurately assess SRH among vulnerable, rural older adults. Such efforts would better inform health care providers, practitioners, and policy makers in rural areas as to how SRH affects the well-being of vulnerable older adults.

Depicts a useful participatory exercise in teaching Erving Goffman's dramaturgical sociology by drawing upon his essay about embarrassment and social organization. Argues the need to devise new ways to involve students in sociological theorists' insights. (Author/KDR)

Discusses expansion of access to higher education. Reviews contested development and promise of the Weberian theory of educational credentialism. Examines the relationship of educational expansion to economic growth, relative importance of technical skills versus occupational status-group cultures in degrees and recruitment, significance of degree formalization, and dynamics of professional credential markets. (CAJ)

Describes two points of view regarding age-related public programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security): that of devolutionists who would curtail them and safety netters who maintain the government's role is indispensable. Uses Relative Deprivation theory as a framework for teaching public policy about aging. (SK)

Summary: Molecular dynamics (MD) determines the physical motions of atoms of a biological macromolecule in a cell-like environment and is an important method in structural bioinformatics. Traditionally, measurements such as root mean square deviation, root mean square fluctuation, radius of gyration, and various energy measures have been used to analyze MD simulations. Here, we present MD-TASK, a novel software suite that employs graph theory techniques, perturbation response scanning, and dynamic cross-correlation to provide unique ways for analyzing MD trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate pressurised wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) tests in children with Down syndrome (DS) and in typically developing children (TD) for prediction of conductive hearing loss (CHL) and patency of pressure equalising tubes (PETs).Design: Audiologic diagnosis was determined by audiometry in combination with distortion-product otoacoustic emissions, 0.226 kHz tympanometry and otoscopy. WAI results were compared for ears within diagnostic categories (Normal, CHL and PET) and between groups (TD and DS).Study sample: Children with DS (n = 40; mean age 6.4 years), and TD children (n = 48; mean age 5.1 years) were included.Results: Wideband absorbance was significantly lower at 1–4 kHz in ears with CHL compared to NH for both TD and DS groups. In ears with patent PETs, wideband absorbance and group delay (GD) were larger than in ears without PETs between 0.25 and 1.5 kHz. Wideband absorbance tests were performed similarly for prediction of CHL and patent PETs in TD and DS groups.Conclusions: Wideband absorbance and GD revealed specific patterns in both TD children and those with DS that can assist in detection of the presence of significant CHL, assess the patency of PETs, and provide frequency-specific information in the audiometric range. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the completion of the human genome project at the beginning of the 21st century, the biological sciences entered an unprecedented age of data generation, and made its first steps toward an era of personalized medicine. This abundance of sequence data has led to the proliferation of numerous sequence-based techniques for associating variation with disease, such as genome-wide association studies and candidate gene association studies. However, these statistical methods do not provide an understanding of the functional effects of variation. Structure-based drug discovery and design is increasingly incorporating structural bioinformatics techniques to model and analyze protein targets, perform large scale virtual screening to identify hit to lead compounds, and simulate molecular interactions. These techniques are fast, cost-effective, and complement existing experimental techniques such as high throughput sequencing. In this paper, we discuss the contributions of structural bioinformatics to drug discovery, focusing particularly on the analysis of nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms. We conclude by suggesting a protocol for future analyses of the structural effects of nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms on proteins and protein complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an important role in regulating blood pressure and controlling sodium levels in the blood. Hyperactivity of this system has been linked to numerous conditions including hypertension, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure. Three classes of drugs have been developed to inhibit RAS. In this study, we provide a structure-based analysis of the effect of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on the interaction between renin and angiotensinogen with the aim of revealing important residues and potentially damaging variants for further inhibitor design purposes. Objectives To identify SNVs that have functional and potentially damaging effects on the renin-angiotensinogen complex and to use computational approaches to investigate how SNVs might have damaging effects. Methods A comprehensive set of all known SNVs in the renin and angiotensinogen proteins was extracted from the HUMA database. This dataset was filtered by removing synonymous and missense variants and using the VAPOR pipeline to predict which variants were likely to be deleterious. Variants in the filtered dataset were modeled into the renin-angiotensinogen complex using MODELLER and subjected to molecular dynamics simulations using GROMACS. The residue interaction networks of the resultant trajectories were analyzed using graph theory. Conclusions This research identified important SNVs in the interface of RAS and showed how they might affect the function of the proteins. For instance, the mutant complex containing the variant P40L in angiotensinogen caused instability in the complex, indicating that this mutation plays an important role in disrupting the interaction between renin and angiotensinogen. The mutant complex containing the SNV A188V in renin was shown to have significantly increased fluctuation in the residue interaction networks. D104N in renin, associated with renal tubular dysgenesis, caused increased rigidity in the protein complex comparison to the wild type, which probably in turn negatively affects the function of RAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Although pockets of bioinformatics excellence have developed in Africa, generally, large-scale genomic data analysis has been limited by the availability of expertise and infrastructure. H3ABioNet, a pan-African bioinformatics network, was established to build capacity specifically to enable H3Africa (Human Heredity and Health in Africa) researchers to analyze their data in Africa. Since the inception of the H3Africa initiative, H3ABioNet's role has evolved in response to changing needs from the consortium and the African bioinformatics community. Objectives H3ABioNet set out to develop core bioinformatics infrastructure and capacity for genomics research in various aspects of data collection, transfer, storage, and analysis. Methods and Results Various resources have been developed to address genomic data management and analysis needs of H3Africa researchers and other scientific communities on the continent. NetMap was developed and used to build an accurate picture of network performance within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world, and Globus Online has been rolled out to facilitate data transfer. A participant recruitment database was developed to monitor participant enrollment, and data is being harmonized through the use of ontologies and controlled vocabularies. The standardized metadata will be integrated to provide a search facility for H3Africa data and biospecimens. Because H3Africa projects are generating large-scale genomic data, facilities for analysis and interpretation are critical. H3ABioNet is implementing several data analysis platforms that provide a large range of bioinformatics tools or workflows, such as Galaxy, the Job Management System, and eBiokits. A set of reproducible, portable, and cloud-scalable pipelines to support the multiple H3Africa data types are also being developed and dockerized to enable execution on multiple computing infrastructures. In addition, new tools have been developed for analysis of the uniquely divergent African data and for downstream interpretation of prioritized variants. To provide support for these and other bioinformatics queries, an online bioinformatics helpdesk backed by broad consortium expertise has been established. Further support is provided by means of various modes of bioinformatics training. Conclusions For the past 4 years, the development of infrastructure support and human capacity through H3ABioNet, have significantly contributed to the establishment of African scientific networks, data analysis facilities, and training programs. Here, we describe the infrastructure and how it has affected genomics and bioinformatics research in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of automated servers to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins has seen much progress over the years. These servers make calculations simpler, but largely exclude users from the process. In this study, we present the PRotein Interactive MOdeling (PRIMO) pipeline for homology modeling of protein monomers. The pipeline eases the multi-step modeling process, and reduces the workload required by the user, while still allowing engagement from the user during every step. Default parameters are given for each step, which can either be modified or supplemented with additional external input. PRIMO has been designed for users of varying levels of experience with homology modeling. The pipeline incorporates a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to alter parameters used during modeling. During each stage of the modeling process, the site provides suggestions for novice users to improve the quality of their models. PRIMO provides functionality that allows users to also model ligands and ions in complex with their protein targets. Herein, we assess the accuracy of the fully automated capabilities of the server, including a comparative analysis of the available alignment programs, as well as of the refinement levels used during modeling. The tests presented here demonstrate the reliability of the PRIMO server when producing a large number of protein models. While PRIMO does focus on user involvement in the homology modeling process, the results indicate that in the presence of suitable templates, good quality models can be produced even without user intervention. This gives an idea of the base level accuracy of PRIMO, which users can improve upon by adjusting parameters in their modeling runs. The accuracy of PRIMO’s automated scripts is being continuously evaluated by the CAMEO (Continuous Automated Model EvaluatiOn) project. The PRIMO site is free for non-commercial use and can be accessed at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex computational pipelines are becoming a staple of modern scientific research. Often these pipelines are resource intensive and require days of computing time. In such cases, it makes sense to run them over high performance computing (HPC) clusters where they can take advantage of the aggregated resources of many powerful computers. In addition to this, researchers often want to integrate their workflows into their own web servers. In these cases, software is needed to manage the submission of jobs from the web interface to the cluster and then return the results once the job has finished executing. We have developed the Job Management System (JMS), a workflow management system and web interface for high performance computing (HPC). JMS provides users with a user-friendly web interface for creating complex workflows with multiple stages. It integrates this workflow functionality with the resource manager, a tool that is used to control and manage batch jobs on HPC clusters. As such, JMS combines workflow management functionality with cluster administration functionality. In addition, JMS provides developer tools including a code editor and the ability to version tools and scripts. JMS can be used by researchers from any field to build and run complex computational pipelines and provides functionality to include these pipelines in external interfaces. JMS is currently being used to house a number of bioinformatics pipelines at the Research Unit in Bioinformatics (RUBi) at Rhodes University. JMS is an open-source project and is freely available at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on cases decided by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit under the U.S Securities Act of 1933 and U.S Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during 2012-2013. Court cases discussed include Miyahira v. Vitacost.com, Inc. that involved material misstatements along with an initial public offering, a case addressing the loss causation element of a fraud claim under U.S securities law such as the U.S Exchange Act and SEC v. Goble that addressed the issue of materiality.

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