Sharing visual secrets in single image random dot stereograms.

Visual cryptography schemes (VCSs) generate random and meaningless shares to share and protect secret images. Conventional VCSs suffer from a transmission risk problem because the noise-like shares will raise the suspicion of attackers and the attackers might intercept the transmission. Previous research has involved in hiding shared content in halftone shares to reduce these risks, but this method exacerbates the pixel expansion problem and visual quality degradation problem for recovered images.

Endothelial cells respond to hyperglycemia by increasing the LPL transporter GPIHBP1.

In diabetes, when glucose uptake and oxidation are impaired, the heart is compelled to use fatty acid (FA) almost exclusively for ATP. The vascular content of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), the rate-limiting enzyme that determines circulating triglyceride clearance, is largely responsible for this FA delivery and increases following diabetes. Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored high-density lipoprotein-binding protein [GPIHBP1; a protein expressed abundantly in the heart in endothelial cells (EC)] collects LPL from the interstitial space and transfers it across ECs onto the luminal binding sites of these cells, where the enzyme is functional.

Image size invariant visual cryptography for general access structures subject to display quality constraints.

Conventional visual cryptography (VC) suffers from a pixel-expansion problem, or an uncontrollable display quality problem for recovered images, and lacks a general approach to construct visual secret sharing schemes for general access structures. We propose a general and systematic approach to address these issues without sophisticated codebook design. This approach can be used for binary secret images in non-computer-aided decryption environments.

Biochemical alteration in cerebrospinal fluid precedes behavioral deficits in Parkinsonian rats induced by 6-hydroxydopamine.

Background: Parkinson's disease, affecting at least 1% of population older than 65 years, is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. Up to now, no evidence has demonstrated that biochemical changes in CSF occur preceding the onset of Parkinson's symptoms. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that biochemical changes in CSF precede behavioral deficits in Parkinsonian animals.

Hyaluronic acid inhibits the glial scar formation after brain damage with tissue loss in rats.

Background: Brain tissue scarring (gliosis) was believed to be the major cause of epileptic focus after brain injury, and prevention of scarring could reduce the incidence of seizure. We tried the HA coating onto the cortical brain defect of Spraque-Dawley rats to reduce the marginal glial scarring.

Methods: A 4 x 2 x 2 mm(3) cortical defect was created in the brain of Spraque-Dawley rats.

Putative alternative trans-splicing of leukocyte adhesion-GPCR pre-mRNAs generates functional chimeric receptors.

The EGF-TM7 receptors, a subfamily of adhesion-GPCRs mostly restricted to leukocytes, are known to express multiple functional protein isoforms through extensive alternative cis-splicing. Here, we demonstrate that EGF-TM7 pre-mRNAs also undergo the rare trans-splicing, leading to the generation of functional chimeric receptors. RT-PCR and in silico analyses of EMR2 transcripts identified unique fragments containing the EGF-like motif 3 of a closely related EGF-TM7 gene, CD97, in addition to the alternative cis-spliced products.

Structural variations in novel silver(I) complexes with bitopic pyrazole/n-heterocyclic carbene ligands.

The synthesis and structural characterization of several new silver complexes of L (L = a bidendate ligand of pyrazole and N-heterocyclic carbene) are described. The result shows that the choice of counterions, N-substitutions of L, and reaction conditions are crucial which lead to a variety of structural motifs, including novel metallomacrocycles [Ag2(mu-L)2]2+ with or without Ag..