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    1. Other ideas,such as the electric pen, looked promis-ing, at least at first, judging from com-ments in the library press in 1877 and1879. The pen's story proves that inven-tions must not only serve a general need,they must adapt to the specific require-ments of libraries and conform withother existing technologies. Invented byThomas Alva Edison and patented in1876, the electric pen was a writing in-strument that used electromagnets and asmall storage battery. The actual pen,connected by wire to the power source,resembled a sewing needle; it producedsmall punctures in the form of letters andnumbers, and when an inked roller waspassed over the resulting stencil plate,legible copies could be made.
    2. We maychuckle at John Cotton Dana's proposalin 1907 to use vending machines, justcoming into popular use for chewinggum and novelties, to display and circu-late books, but the concept behind themachine-that of the self-service li-brary-was and is a good idea. In hissuggestion that users insert their librarycard (or more precisely an encodedmetal strip "not larger than a Yale key")so borrower data could be recorded, wesee a distinctly modern application oftechnology to solve a library problem.

      I've actually used a library vending machine that had books and DVDs in it in the last 2 years at a local pizza parlor.

    1. Family 1ABCA4c.[1957C>T];[4604dup]M7.06.0PV, PP0.200.15MA, TPOD, ARAMA, TPOD, ARANormalReduced

      Case#: Family 1 proband, male, 6yo at onset, Chinese

      DiseaseAssertion: CORD

      FamilyInfo: heterozygous unaffected parents

      CasePresentingHPOs: HP:0000613, HP:0000505, HP:0007401, HP:0012511, HP:0008043, HP:0000512

      CaseHPOFreeText:  ERG responses from cones reduced, BVA=0.20/0.15

      CaseNotHPOs:

      CaseNotHPOFreeText:

      PreviouslyPublished: n/a

      Variant: c.[1957C>T];[4604dup] phase confirmed

      ClinVar: n/a

      CAID: CA645372205

      SupplementalData:

    1. two siblings were from one consanguineous family (case 1, 11 years and case 2, 9 years)

      Case#: two siblings (female) were from one consanguineous family (case 1, 11 years and case 2, 9 years)

      DiseaseAssertion: Stargardt’s Disease

      FamilyInfo: NR

      ParentalTesting: NR

      CasePresentingHPOs: HP:0030500, HP:0011507

      CasePhenotypeFreeText: LogMAR visual acuity for the right and left eye of cases 1–4 was 0.3 and 0.2, 0.1 and 0.1, 0.5 and 0.4, and 0.3 and 0.4, respectively. Gross disruption of the outer retinal layers at the macula in all cases; in two (cases 2 and 4), the presumed external limiting membrane (ELM) peak was broadened with the inner segment ellipsoid band (ISe) missing. Subtle white-yellowish fine dots at the macula and numerous white-yellowish flecks extending anterior to the arcade are shown in the colour fundus photograph of case 1. Autofluorescence (AF) imaging of case 1 detected well-defined dots with high signal at the central macula surrounded by a ring of increased signal and numerous foci with high or low signal extending to the peripheral retina. Case 2 also had subtle white-yellowish fine dots at the central macula and numerous white-yellowish flecks extending anterior to the arcade, both associated with high signal on AF imaging. In addition, case 3 had white-yellowish fine dots at the macula and numerous white-yellowish flecks extending to the periphery, both of which had high or low signal on AF imaging. Case 4 showed subtle fine macular dots mainly in a para-foveal location, which are well-defined on AF imaging.

      CaseNotHPOs: HP:0007401, HP:0000505

      CaseNotPhenotypeFreeText: Most cases with STGD have central macular atrophy with numerous more peripheral flecks (Michaelides et al. 2003). Given their relatively good visual acuity, it is likely that the central macular dots observed in our cases may be an early sign of macular dysfunction before the development of macular atrophy. Similar fine macular dots or a ‘mottled macula’ have also been reported in other inherited retinal diseases

      CasePreviousTesting: The age of disease onset in cases 1–4, defined as either the age at which visual loss was first noted by the subject or in the asymptomatic subjects when abnormal retinal appearance was first detected, was 5, 7, 8, and 6 years old, respectively.

      GenotypingMethod: After informed consent was obtained, blood samples were taken from probands of 2/3 families for ABCA4 screening. A full medical history was obtained, and a full ophthalmologic examination was performed in all cases. Mutation screening of ABCA4 was performed in two probands of the three families, and two likely disease-causing variants were identified in each case; c.768G > T, p.V256V (a previously reported splicing-altering synonymous variant) and c.4363T > C, p.C1455R (a missense variant) in case 1, and c.1906C > T, p.Q636* (a non-sense variant) and c.5461-10 T > C (a disease-associated intronic variant with uncertain effect) in case 3. A blood sample was not available in one proband (case 4).

      Variant: NM_000350.3(ABCA4):c.768G>T (p.Val256=) and NM_000350.3(ABCA4):c.4363T>C (p.Cys1455Arg)

      LegacyVariant: c.768G>T (p.Val256=) and c.4363T>C (p.Cys1455Arg)

      ClinVar: 99505 and 377404

      CAID: CA227458 and CA957621

      gnomeAD: 1:94564350 C / A and 1:94495177 A / G

      MultipleGeneVariants:No

      PreviouslyPublished: No

      AdditionalInfo: Some symptoms/diagnoses are consistent with Stargardt’s Disease 3, however the probands in the study were younger in age, so many of the symptoms hadn’t progressed much. Also, all of the cases had decent visual acuity, which contradicts a symptom of Stargardt’s Disease 3.

    1. both the P and PV ABCA4 variants exhibited a dramatically reduced basal ATPase activity (∼30% of WT ABCA4), which did not increase upon the addition of all-trans-retinal. Thus, ABCA4 variants carrying the P mutation were functionally impaired.

      ATPase activity in HEK293 cells showed severely reduced basal ATPase activity, ∼30% of WT ABCA4, indicating that this variant impacts protein function (PS3_Supporting; PMIDs).

    1. 024 m Caucasian STGD ABCA4 NM_000350.2 c.[6601_6602delAG];[=], c.[4253+43G>A];[=] p.Arg2201fs* p.Ile1377Hisfs*3 Not found 0.004694 AR Pathogenic Pathogenic 2 [36] [19]

      Case#: Patient 24, male, Caucasian, onset at 50yo, Germany

      DiseaseAssertion: STGD

      FamilyInfo: co-segregation of variant in 2 family members (siblings) but they do not appear to be affected based on pedigree

      CasePresentingHPOs: HP:0030528, HP:0000505, HP:0012508, HP:0001105, HP:0025148

      CaseHPOFreeText: progressive paracentral scotoma OU, progressive visual impairment OU (blurry vision). BCVA: OD-0.1, OS-0.22. Tension: 13mmHg/14mmHg. FAF: bilateral hyperautofluorescent macular and peripapillary spots, few spots of paracentral retinal atrophy (foveal sparing). Autofluorescence and deposits (severity): deposits medium, atrophy low. OCT: hyperreflective spots, partially invading into the outer retina, partly confluent lesions of cRORA, foveal sparing, degenerative intraretinal fluid. Central macular thickness: 328µm/322µm. Macular volume: 9.31mm³/9.00mm³. mfERG: bilateral amplitudes in normal range, slight relative reduction in the paracentral areas. Fluorescein angiography: bilateral dark choroid, mild paracentral dye pooling in the late phase. Color vision: Inconspicuous. Clinical examination: pattern-like distribution of the lesions.

      CaseNotHPOs: n/a

      CaseNotHPOFreeText: n/a

      GenotypingMethod: WES, in-house RD-associated gene panel including 619 candidates and disease-associated genes

      PreviouslyPublished: n/a

      Variant: ABCA4 NM_000350.2 c.[6601_6602delAG] (p.Arg2201fs);[=], c.[4253+43G>A] p.Ile1377Hisfs3;[=]

      CAID: CA227421; CA227172

      SupplementalData: phenotype and segregation info in supplemental data (table s1, figure s1)