Evolution of an academic-public library partnership.

A partnership to improve access to health information via an urban public library system was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2011. A multiyear project was outlined that included an information needs assessment, a training class for public library staff, information kiosks at library branches for delivering printed consumer health materials, and a series of health-related programming. The partnership evolved to include social service and community organizations to carry out project goals and establish a sustainable program that met the health and wellness interests of the community.

Congenital sensorineural deafness in Australian stumpy-tail cattle dogs is an autosomal recessive trait that maps to CFA10.

BACKGROUND: Congenital sensorineural deafness is an inherited condition found in many dog breeds, including Australian Stumpy-tail Cattle Dogs (ASCD). This deafness is evident in young pups and may affect one ear (unilateral) or both ears (bilateral). The genetic locus/loci involved is unknown for all dog breeds. The aims of this study were to determine incidence, inheritance mechanism, and possible association of congenital sensorineural deafness with coat colour in ASCD and to identify the genetic locus underpinning this disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A total of 315 ASCD were tested for sensorineural deafness using the brain stem auditory evoked response (BAER) test. Disease penetrance was estimated directly, using the ratio of unilaterally to bilaterally deaf dogs, and segregation analysis was performed using Mendel. A complete genome screen was undertaken using 325 microsatellites spread throughout the genome, on a pedigree of 50 BAER tested ASCD in which deafness was segregating. Fifty-six dogs (17.8%) were deaf, with 17 bilaterally and 39 unilaterally deaf. Unilaterally deaf dogs showed no significant left/right bias (p = 0.19) and no significant difference was observed in frequencies between the sexes (p = 0.18). Penetrance of deafness was estimated as 0.72. Testing the association of red/blue coat colour and deafness without accounting for pedigree structure showed that red dogs were 1.8 times more likely to be deaf (p = 0.045). The within family association between red/blue coat colour and deafness was strongly significant (p = 0.00036), with red coat colour segregating more frequently with deafness (COR = 0.48). The relationship between deafness and coat speckling approached significance (p = 0.07), with the lack of statistical significance possibly due to only four families co-segregating for both deafness and speckling. The deafness phenotype was mapped to CFA10 (maximum linkage peak on CFA10 -log10 p-value = 3.64), as was both coat colour and speckling. Fine mapping was then performed on 45 of these 50 dogs and a further 48 dogs (n = 93). Sequencing candidate gene Sox10 in 6 hearing ASCD, 2 unilaterally deaf ASCD and 2 bilaterally deaf ASCD did not reveal any disease-associated mutations. CONCLUSIONS: Deafness in ASCD is an incompletely penetrant autosomal recessive inherited disease that maps to CFA10.

The mitochondrial genome of Acropora tenuis (Cnidaria; Scleractinia) contains a large group I intron and a candidate control region.

The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of the coral Acropora tenuis has been determined. The 18,338 bp A. tenuis mitochondrial genome contains the standard metazoan complement of 13 protein-coding and two rRNA genes, but only the same two tRNA genes (trnM and trnW) as are present in the mtDNA of the sea anemone, Metridium senile. The A. tenuis nad5 gene is interrupted by a large group I intron which contains ten protein-coding genes and rns; M. senile has an intron at the same position but this contains only two protein-coding genes. Despite the large distance (about 11.5 kb) between the 5?-exon and 3?-exon boundaries, the A. tenuis nad5 gene is functional, as we were able to RT-PCR across the predicted intron splice site using total RNA from A. tenuis. As in M. senile, all of the genes in the A. tenuis mt genome have the same orientation, but their organization is completely different in these two zoantharians: The only common gene boundaries are those at each end of the group I intron and between trnM and rnl. Finally, we provide evidence that the rns-cox3 intergenic region in A. tenuis may correspond to the mitochondrial control region of higher animals. This region contains repetitive elements, and has the potential to form secondary structures of the type characteristic of vertebrate D-loops. Comparisons between a wide range of Acropora species showed that a long hairpin predicted in rns-cox3 is phylogenetically conserved, and allowed the tentative identification of conserved sequence blocks.