Opacity factor (OF) is an enzyme, elaborated by certain serotypes of group A streptococci, which produces opalescence in mammalian sera. OF has been designated a lipoproteinase. Lipoproteins are complex structures and many enzymes are involved in their catalysis. We therefore set out to establish which of the many enzymes OF could be. Results showed that OF rendered high density lipoprotein (HD...

The serum opacity factor (SOF) of Streptococcus pyogenes is a serotyping tool and pathogenesis factor. Using SOF-coated latex beads in cell adherence assays and antiserum directed against SOF in S. pyogenes-HEp-2 cell adherence inhibition experiments, we demonstrate SOF involvement in the fibronectin-mediated adherence of S. pyogenes to epithelial cells. SOF exclusively targets the 30-kDa N-ter...

results the electrophysiology laboratory staff received higher doses of ionizing radiation (17.2 ± 11.9 msv; p < 0.001). there was a significant positive correlation between the years of working experience and effective dose in the lens (p < 0.001). in general, our findings showed that the incidence of lens opacity was 79% (95% ci, 69.9-88.1) in participants with exposure (the case group) and o...

Information opacity leads to information asymmetry. In this situation, in providing their own financial needs, firms face limitations and inevitably provide their financial needs from the debt market by signalling private information to it. In addition, information opacity affects the leverage adjustment speed. This research investigates the effect of information opacity on deviation from targe...

In this paper, we propose several opacity-preserving (bi)simulation relations for general nondeterministic transition systems (NTS) in terms of initial-state opacity, current-state opacity, K-step opacity, and infinite-step opacity. We also show how one can leverage quotient construction to compute such relations. In addition, we use a two-way observer method to verify opacity of nondeterminist...

United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) set opacity standards for visual emissions from industrial sources to protect ambient air quality. USEPA developed Method 9, which is a reference method to describe how plume opacity can be quantified by human observers during daytime conditions. However, it would be beneficial to determine plume opacity with digital still cameras (DSCs) to ...

Opacity is a confidentiality property that captures whether an intruder can infer a “secret” of a system based on its observation of the system behavior and its knowledge of the system’s structure. In this paper, we study four notions of opacity: language-based opacity, initial-state opacity, current-state opacity, and initial-and-final-state opacity. Initial-and-final-state opacity is a new op...