House value as an indicator of cumulative wealth is strongly related to morbidity and mortality risk in older people: a census-based cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Background: There has been relatively little research into health inequalities in older populations. This may be partly explained by the difficulty in identifying appropriate indicators of socio-economic status for older people. Ideally, indicators of socio-economic status to be used in studies of health inequalities in older populations should incorporate some measure of life-time socio-economic standing, and house value may fill this role. This study examined whether an indicator of accumulated wealth based on a combination of housing tenure and house value was a strong predictor of ill-health in older populations.
Methods: A total of 191 848 people aged =65 years and not living in communal establishments were identified from the 2001 Northern Ireland Census and followed for 5 years. Self-reported health and mortality risk by housing tenure/house value groupings were examined while controlling for a range of other demographic and socio-economic characteristics.
Results: Housing tenure/house value was highly correlated with other indicators of socio-economic status. Public-sector renters had worse self-reported health and higher mortality rates than owner occupiers but significant gradients were also found between those living in the highest-and lowest-valued owner-occupier properties. The relationship between housing tenure and value was unchanged by adjustment for indicators of social support and quality of the physical environment. Adjustment for limiting long-term illness and self-reported health at baseline narrowed but did not eliminate the health gains associated with living in more expensive housing.
Conclusions: House value of residence is an accessible and powerful indicator of accumulated wealth that is highly correlated with current health status and predictive of future mortality risk in older populations.

Thermochemistry of Ionic Liquid-Catalyzed Reactions: Theoretical and Experimental Study of the Beckmann Rearrangement-Kinetic or Thermodynamic Control?

A thermodynamic analysis of the experimental conditions of the Beckmann rearrangement reaction of oximes into amides has been undertaken to examine whether the reaction is under thermodynamic or kinetic control. To answer this question, the thermodynamic properties of the typical Beckmann rearrangement reactions in the ideal gaseous state-cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam and 2-butanone oxime to N-methylpropanarnide-were studied by using the quantum mechanical method. Gibbs energy and equilibrium constants of the Beckmann rearrangement have been assessed in the gaseous and the liquid phases. Results of the thermodynamic analysis have shown that Beckmann rearrange ments are kinetically controlled. Thus, a search for possible active ionic liquid based catalysts for the mild reaction conditions has been performed.

Association and expression study of synapsin III and schizophrenia

The synapsin III gene, SYN3, which belongs to the family of synaptic vesicle-associated proteins, has been implicated in the modulation of neurotransmitter release and in synaptogenesis, suggesting a potential role in several neuropsychiatric diseases. The human SYN3 gene is located on chromosome 22q12-13, a candidate region implicated in previous linkage studies of schizophrenia. However, association studies of SYN3 and schizophrenia have produced inconsistent results. In this Study, four SYN3 SNPs (rs133945 (-631 C>G), rs133946(-196 G>A), rs9862 and rs1056484) were tested in three sets of totally 3759 samples that comprise 655 affected subjects and 626 controls in the Irish Case-Control Study of Schizophrenia (ICCSS). 1350 samples incorporating 273 pedigrees in the Irish Study of High Density Schizophrenia Families (ISHDSF), and 564 unrelated schizophrenia patients and 564 healthy individuals in a Chinese case-control sample. The expression levels of SYN3 in schizophrenic patients and unaffected controls were compared using postmortem brain cDNAs provided by the Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI). There was no significant association in either the Irish or Chinese case-control samples, nor in the combined samples. Consistent with this finding, we did not find any significant difference in allele or haplotype frequencies when we used the pedigree disequilibrium test to analyze the Irish family sample. In the expression Studies, no significant difference (p = 0.507) was observed between patients and controls. Both the association studies and expression studies didn't support a major role for SYN3 in the susceptibility of schizophrenia in Irish and Chinese populations. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd All rights reserved.

A crystallographic and modelling study of a human telomeric RNA (TERRA) quadruplex

DNA telomeric repeats in mammalian cells are transcribed to guanine-rich RNA sequences, which adopt parallel-stranded G-quadruplexes with a propeller-like fold. The successful crystallization and structure analysis of a bimolecular human telomeric RNA G-quadruplex, folded into the same crystalline environment as an equivalent DNA oligonucleotide sequence, is reported here. The structural basis of the increased stability of RNA telomeric quadruplexes over DNA ones and their preference for parallel topologies is described here. Our findings suggest that the 2'-OH hydroxyl groups in the RNA quadruplex play a significant role in redefining hydration structure in the grooves and the hydrogen bonding networks. The preference for specific nucleotides to populate the C3'-endo sugar pucker domain is accommodated by alterations in the phosphate backbone, which leads to greater stability through enhanced hydrogen bonding networks. Molecular dynamics simulations on the DNA and RNA quadruplexes are consistent with these findings. The computations, based on the native crystal structure, provide an explanation for RNA G-quadruplex ligand binding selectivity for a group of naphthalene diimide ligands as compared to the DNA G-quadruplex.