A common genetic variant in the Neurexin family member CNTNAP2 is related to language but not communication skills in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

One of the candidate genes related to language variability in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the contactin-associated protein-like 2 gene (CNTNAP2), a member of the Neurexin family. However, due to the different assessment tools used, it is unknown whether the polymorphisms of the CNTNAP2 gene are linked to structural language skills or more general communication abilities. A total of 302 youth aged 7 to 18 years participated in the present study: 131 verbal youth with ASD (62 female), 130 typically developing (TD) youth (64 female), and 41 unaffected siblings (US) of youth with ASD (25 female).

Effectiveness of Thymol Blue and Phenolphthalein in Sol-Gel Coatings for Sensing and Inhibiting Corrosion on Mild Steel.

Development of smart coatings incorporated with corrosion indicators that can warn of corrosion through signaling the alteration of pH or metal-ion concentration at the corrosion site, and simultaneously mitigate further corrosion, stands out as a highly efficient and economical approach to address corrosion issues. In this context, the present work provides a comprehensive comparison on the effectiveness of thymol blue (TB) and phenolphthalein (PhPh) in both sensing and inhibiting corrosion on mild steel. While most of the works primarily focused on independently investigating the corrosion indication behavior of different active agents, our study intends to offer valuable insights through the comparative analysis of TB and PhPh in making well-informed decisions when selecting the most effective indicator for a given set of application scenarios.

Smartphone-integrated paper-based biosensor for sensitive fluorometric ethanol quantification.

The development of fluorometric paper-based analytical devices (fPADs) integrated with smartphone for fluorometric quantification of ethanol in an instrument-free and portable setup is described. The NAD-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase immobilized within chitosan modified paper substate was utilized as a bio-recognition element and enzymatically generated NADH was used as a fluorescent probe. 3D-printed imaging setup which houses a paper chip holder and UV-light emitting device (LED) was developed for rapid, accurate capture of the fluorescent images.