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Friday, December 31, 2010

Baltic Cyber Shield 2010

Does all this beer, vodka and nudity really protect us?

DEFCON 18: Live Fire Exercise


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The History of Thorium




The purpose of energy companies is to maximize profits which means providing energy that is as expensive as practical. Environmental and safety consequences do not matter. Consequently, there is no demand for fuel cycles based on on fuels in plentiful supply like thorium which have a fuel cycle that does not leave byproducts that contaminate the planet for tens of thousands of years.

Project (Forschungsstelle D) to make Uranium 233 from Thorium 232 via Proactinum decay






Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Military History

AEG and the project for the Nazi atomic bomb.
Hans Kammler and Walter Gerlach were in charge of the project in Riese.
This video is about a Polish Military Historian being interviewed by UFO conspirators. A couple interesting facts are hidden in all the nonsense. Twenty thousand workers murdered in three days. Nothing about spin charge separation, BECs, phase transitions, just history and wild speculation. Seems like we are still living in the paranoid, murderous world of the 1930's. God help us.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Room Temperature BECs

One would think you should should be able to apply the concept illustrated in this paper to the production of efficient solar cells.

Letter
Nature 468, 545-548 (25 November 2010) | doi:10.1038/nature09567; Received 12 July 2010; Accepted 6 October 2010; Published online 24 November 2010

Bose–Einstein condensation of photons in an optical microcavity
Jan Klaers, Julian Schmitt, Frank Vewinger & Martin Weitz

1.Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany
Correspondence to: Martin Weitz Email: martin.weitz@uni-bonn.de


Abstract: Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC)—the macroscopic ground-state accumulation of particles with integer spin (bosons) at low temperature and high density—has been observed in several physical systems1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, including cold atomic gases and solid-state quasiparticles. However, the most omnipresent Bose gas, blackbody radiation (radiation in thermal equilibrium with the cavity walls) does not show this phase transition. In such systems photons have a vanishing chemical potential, meaning that their number is not conserved when the temperature of the photon gas is varied10; at low temperatures, photons disappear in the cavity walls instead of occupying the cavity ground state. Theoretical works have considered thermalization processes that conserve photon number (a prerequisite for BEC), involving Compton scattering with a gas of thermal electrons11 or photon–photon scattering in a nonlinear resonator configuration12, 13. Number-conserving thermalization was experimentally observed14 for a two-dimensional photon gas in a dye-filled optical microcavity, which acts as a ‘white-wall’ box. Here we report the observation of a Bose–Einstein condensate of photons in this system. The cavity mirrors provide both a confining potential and a non-vanishing effective photon mass, making the system formally equivalent to a two-dimensional gas of trapped, massive bosons. The photons thermalize to the temperature of the dye solution (room temperature) by multiple scattering with the dye molecules. Upon increasing the photon density, we observe the following BEC signatures: the photon energies have a Bose–Einstein distribution with a massively populated ground-state mode on top of a broad thermal wing; the phase transition occurs at the expected photon density and exhibits the predicted dependence on cavity geometry; and the ground-state mode emerges even for a spatially displaced pump spot. The prospects of the observed effects include studies of extremely weakly interacting low-dimensional Bose gases9 and new coherent ultraviolet sources15.

1.Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany
Correspondence to: Martin Weitz Email: martin.weitz@uni-bonn.de

Figures

Jul på Liseberg

L%C3%A5ngv%C3%A4ga%20g%C3%A4ster%20p%C3%A5%20Liseberg

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

PQQ

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), otherwise known as methoxatin, is an essential, water-soluble, redox-cofactor vitamin which ordinarily does not pass the blood-brain barrier. It has to be bound to glycine to penetrate and effect the brain. It has been shown to be essential for normal growth and development. PQQ is mostly contained in common foods; especially, in natto, tea, papayas, and kiwi fruits, in comparatively in large quantities. A dose of 20 mg per day of PQQ has been shown to be beneficial.

Spin, isospin and baryon number

arXiv: physics/0108005v230 Aug 2001 Impulse Gravity Generator Based on Charged Y Ba2Cu3O7−ySuperconductor with Composite Crystal Structure

Friday, November 19, 2010

Faraday rotation in photons passing through graphene

Letter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nature Physics
Published online: 7 November 2010 | doi:10.1038/nphys1816

Giant Faraday rotation in single- and multilayer graphene
Iris Crassee1, Julien Levallois1, Andrew L. Walter2,3, Markus Ostler4, Aaron Bostwick3, Eli Rotenberg3, Thomas Seyller4, Dirk van der Marel1 & Alexey B. Kuzmenko1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract The rotation of the polarization of light after passing a medium in a magnetic field, discovered by Faraday1, is an optical analogue of the Hall effect, which combines sensitivity to the carrier type with access to a broad energy range. Up to now the thinnest structures showing the Faraday rotation were several-nanometre-thick two-dimensional electron gases2. As the rotation angle is proportional to the distance travelled by the light, an intriguing issue is the scale of this effect in two-dimensional atomic crystals or films—the ultimately thin objects in condensed matter physics. Here we demonstrate that a single atomic layer of carbon—graphene—turns the polarization by several degrees in modest magnetic fields. Such a strong rotation is due to the resonances originating from the cyclotron effect in the classical regime and the inter-Landau-level transitions in the quantum regime. Combined with the possibility of ambipolar doping3, this opens pathways to use graphene in fast tunable ultrathin infrared magneto-optical devices.

Supplementary information: The effect of the substrate

Figures and Author information

IOP News Article

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Legacy of Mike Strizki

Overview


The Grand Tour Part 1


The Grand Tour Part 2

German terminology used in English

Bremsstrahlung = synchrotron radiation

Zitterbewegung = fluctuation (at the speed of light) of the position of an electron around the median, with a circular frequency of approximately 1.6 × 1021 Hz.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The experiments demonstrating antigravity that defy replication

I read about purported antigravity effects. The magnitude of magnetic permablilty usually makes gravimagnetic interactions inconsequential except in coherent states. Yet there continue to be reports of experiments which cannot be replicated. You would think someone would just go there and take a look.

One experimental setup is described as a rotated, special size, asymmetrical capacitor, (with one plate superconducting and the other not), pumped with high voltage pulses whose frequency is optimized for the size of the plate to give the largest gravitational pulse. Both plates have the same chemical but different crystalline structure. The magnitude of the EMP theoretically should not depend on the size of the plate, which is actually a disc reinforced with plastic. Protection from the EMP generated is a safety requirement. This all takes place in a vacuum chamber.

Outside the chamber, one “gravity” component reportedly travels at between 63 and 64 times the speed of light and was measured over a length of one kilometer. The force interacts with photons and generates phonons, but does not loose measurable strength. This is the preferred setup because it allows one to vary how the magnetic flux quanta are pinned in the superconductor. The superconductor is of a cupric type that generally displays magnetic anomalies around the oxygen atoms.

Hypothetical application include communication and propulsion devices. The military, of course, thinks of everything as a weapon.

Let us analyze this. In the insulating plate, Cooper Pairs are pinned and flux quanta are condensed. In the superconducting plate, magnetic flux is pinned and Cooper Pairs are condensed. In one plate, magnetic flux quanta are accelerated. In the other, Cooper Pairs are accelerated adding an additional relativistic influence. It sounds like bremsstrahlung with gravitational components is being generated, but high accelation merely enhances the effect; it is not the cause. Note that the plates are not just asymmetric, they are in opposite phases, superconducting versus nonsuperconducting states. What happen to chiral symmetry here?

In spin charge separation states, a positron consists of a magneton and holon. Likewise, an electron consists of a spinon and chargon. A mass of electrons artificially confined in a small space together will split into spinons and holons due to the intensity of their mutual repulsion. Spinons and magnetons are antiparticles. Chargons and holons are antiparticles. In a Pi Flux Phase condensate like this, a Couper Pair is made up of two holons and two magnetons. Calculations show that the intensity of the pi flux is proportional to the area of the circle of the superconducting plate. Since time-reversal symmetry is preserved, perhaps the charges tunnel to the other plate and the spins tunnel as spin -1 gravitons at a speed slightly less than 64c. That is the best explanation I can think of at the moment based on the usual quantum mechanical concepts.

A second implementation uses special, powerful magnets with the north and south poles in extreme proximity to each other while accelerating with respect to an inertial reference frame. The cost of the magnets used to test this was reportedly $10,000. Perhaps Myth Busters should travel to the leaning tower of Pisa to test this. Nobody else seems interested. Haha.


Reference

The economics of new technologies.

The major stumbling block to using any new technology is the greed of people in power. Every technology is delayed while they search for ways to make sure the profits go to whatever corporations or groups the are beholding to.

nickel borate
The key to cheap efficiet fuel cells.

The following is an MIT speech about the need to find a way to make the large energy companys the beneficiaries of this technology.

MIT TechTV – MITEI Press Briefing - Part 1 - Moniz, Baldo, Nocera

Monday, November 15, 2010

Dr. Martin Tajmar

Unexplained force depends on density of Cooper Pairs


Anomily in Cooper Pair Mass


Antigravité - Émission Xenius Arte 2010

Antigravité - Martin Tajmar
Uploaded by realphil. - Technology reviews and science news videos.

Dr. Martin Tajmar - CasimirSim Software for Nanotech Computer Modeling

Friday, November 12, 2010

What would Ettore say?


Nonlinear, nonlocal, nonHamiltonian interactions due to wave overlapping at short distances are always attractive in singlet couplings and as such, absorb coulomb interactions, resulting only in attractive interactions irrespective of whether the Coulomb contribution is attractive or repulsive.

Photons are doves.

Electrons have spin and valley isospin. They combine with their antiparticles to form particles which are their own antiparticles. This includes neutral pions, Cooper pairs, and positronium. Why can't people get the motorcycle analogy?

Nucleons, etc. are trucks.

My universe is different from the one you think you know

Science 5 November 2010:
Vol. 330. no. 6005, p. 789
DOI: 10.1126/science.1192322
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Brevia
Electron-Like Scattering of Positronium
S. J. Brawley, S. Armitage,* J. Beale, D. E. Leslie, A. I. Williams, G. Laricchia

Positronium (Ps), a hydrogen-like atom composed of an electron and its antimatter partner, the positron, is formed in considerable quantities whenever positrons interact with matter. It has unexpectedly been found to scatter from a wide variety of atoms and molecules in a way very similar to that of a bare electron moving at the same velocity, despite Ps being neutral and twice the mass.

UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
* Present address: Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

Present address: Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston, Reading RG 7 4PR, UK.

Present address: Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK.


To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: g.laricchia@ucl.ac.uk

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wishing we could be more telepathic

BWO-Sunshine In The Rain

Track 16 on The Ultimate Collection

My favorite romantic ballad in English


The problem with CDs is you cannot see the artist performing. So, here is a link to her performance courtesy of Universal Music who disabled embedding.

My favorite romantic ballad in Italian

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Telomerase

Positive mood upregulates Telomerase activity. Stress reduction is good.

Tonya L. Jacobs, Elissa S. Epel, Jue Lin, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Owen M. Wolkowitz, David A. Bridwell, Anthony P. Zanesco, Stephen R. Aichele, Baljinder K. Sahdra, Katherine A. MacLean. Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.09.010

The 2010 Excavation in Egypt

The Egyptian are digging up something. But, there are conflicting traditions as to who actually built it in the first place, much less where the door to labyrinth is. Someone dug the lake, built the labyrinth, pyramid and city. Sad is a planet that looses its history and hides its past.



Manetho Aegyptiaca (2, frag. 34) (3rd century BC):

Short fragment from his list of Egyptian kings


The fourth king in the dynasty from Diospolis, ruled eight years under the name Lamares. He built the Labyrinth in the Arsinoite Nome as a tomb for himself. His descendants,i.e., Ameres, Ammenemes and Scemiophris ruled for 20 years. The complete dynasty lasted 160 years.

N.B., Arsinoite was at that time situated at the border of Lake Moeris. The name "Moeris" is a Greek adaptation of ancient Egyptian Mer-Wer (= "The Great Lake"). Following a different tradition it is reported that king Menas,i.e., protodynastic rulers or maybe Ameres, built a square pyramid and the labyrinth. The chief archaeological reference to Menes is an ivory label from Naqada which shows the royal Horus-name Aha (the pharaoh Hor-Aha, 3100 BC) next to a building, within which is the royal nebty-name mn, generally taken to be Menes.

The labyrinth location is marked with the pyramid currently credited to Amenemhet III. Amenemhet III is a pharaoh of the 12th dynasty, circa 1800 BC, who built a mud brick Pyramid at Dahshur ruined by ground water.

The Labyrinth’s slow destruction is caused by the site crossing a water channel, agricultural irrigation and the disappearance of the annual 9 month dry period since the construction of the Aswan dam making the area salty.

The village Hw.t-wr.t/AuJh`riß (= great temple) is attested 119 times in 62 documents between 292 BC and 141 AD.

The concentration of documents in the 1st century BC is due to the the Hawara undertaker’s archives.

The Egyptian Labyrinth (Labuvrinqoß) appears 18 times in 16 papyri between 258 BC and the reign of Hadrian (117-138 AD).

All texts but one are Ptolemaic.

Though the names Hw.t-wr.t/AuJh`riß and Labuvrinqoß disappear early from our records, archaeological finds show that the site was continuously occupied up to the 7th century AD when Ancient Egypt finally disappeared due to conquest.

The Egyptian name Hw.t-wr.t corresponds to Greek ÔAuh`riß in several bilingual documents, e.g. P.Hawara Lüdd. III (233 BC), P.Ashm. I 14 and 15 (72/71 BC) and P.Ashm. I 16 (69/68 BC).

The aspiration at the beginning of the word shows in the phi in ajf&Mac198; ÔAgouhvrewß th`ß ÔHrakªleivdou merivdoߺ (where ÔAgouh`riß stands for AuJh`riß) in SB XIV 11303. Greek aJ for Egyptian hw.t is found in other toponyms as well (Clarysse-Quaegebeur 1982, p.78).

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lund, Sverige circa 2025

European Spallation Source located beside the 3 GeV short pulse X-ray synchrotron facility and the Free Electron Laser – MAX IV


Obviously intended for condensed mater research applications.










The City of Ideas


Skåne

Monday, October 25, 2010

Unverified Research

I always liked science fiction. Sometimes you are not sure where science ends and fiction begins. Graphene is much simpler.







A Parable for the 21st Century

Graphene as a Metaphor for God

1930’s Dictum: No large scale order can exist. The only way nature improves things is by survival of the fittest. The world’s greatest mathematicians and scientists, the weak and helpless alike are murdered in concentration camps. People die by the hundreds of millions in war and unspeakable atrocities. The theory was that graphene would collapse into a ball as with theories of the big bang, black holes, Evolution of the Species and other essentially unverifiable things. Chemists forbidden to say graphene can exist in free form. Almost like say being forbidden to say God exits and to deny the really of the observable universe, endorsing murder and all that is evil.

2004: Graphene, the first of similar materials, is found to exist. Now, one can imagine a universe made out of graphene without big bang, etc. with ferromagnetism by bending the graphene; directed gravity by spinning a ferromagnetic disk; BECs with double layer graphene. Transistors made out of graphene can function as frequency multipliers. Spintronics devices are possible. Valleytronics devices are possible. Graphene can be used to clean up oil spills and other pollutants. Supersensitive chemical detectors allow us to avoid hazards or map our genomes or epigenomes. Super strong one atom thick membranes can be used as touch screens or building anything you need. Everything that one needs to make Earth a paradise for all mankind is available by the grace of God.

Friday, October 22, 2010

IEEE Theme Songs

The EE Bunch


Personally, I think Högt Över Havet is the best EE song ever written.

Högt Över Havet

STN Theme Song

Here is my latest idea for a theme song for STN. Change "Blue Hawaii" to "STN" in the Vikingarna song with other appropriate changes.

Till Mitt Eget STN

Nu reser jag till STN land = Now I travel to STN land
till varm och solig strand = a warm and sunny beach.
jag surfar över vågorna = I surf over the waves
som tar mej intill land = that take me in towards land,
där flickorna dom danser = where the girls are dancing
hula hula natten lång = hula hula the whole night long
i takt med vindens melodi = along with the wind's melody
sjunger vi en sång = we all sing along
i vårt eget STN = in our own STN
i vårt eget STN = in our own STN
vi vandrar tätt intill varann = We are walking close to each other
i kvällens solnedgång = in the evening's sunset
och ukulelen spelar upp = and ukulele playing
i vårt eget STN = in our own STN
i vårt eget STN = in our own STN
STN vårt eget STN = STN our own STN
hand i hand på en solig strand = hand in hand on a sunny beach
nu är jag här i STNs land = now I'm here in STN land
i mitt eget STN = in my own STN
Himmels egen sång = Heaven's own song!!!

©2010______________________________________________

Here are videos with the other version:

Till mitt eget blue hawaii



Metal Version



Anachronistic Version (from the late 80th century)


On Swedish Idol with English Subtitles


Line Dance


Cool Version


The German Language Version


Dance Band Version


one last one. There are hundreds more.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Swedish Lession

This post is just exercise to say something in Swedish. Chitchat. Whatever comes to mind. Vardagsmat. Warning: I am just learning Swedish, so it will probably not make much sense.

Tjena! Jag heter Camery, den varmaste namn i den walesiska språket. Jag älskar när Katherine Jenkins, min favorit sångare, säger "Kom igen, Cymraeg!" Att få folk att sjunga om sin kärlek till gamla Cymry. Mitt namn är Kammerer på svenska och tyska. För länge sen, det var Camerer på latin. Dess etymologi är från platsen fortfarande kallas Cambria. Jag talar inte svenska, i alla fall ingen som vill höra min röst. När någon blockerar mig på Facebook, jag vill säga, "Snälla, gå inte förbi!", Men jag vet att de inte förstår svenska. Jag undrar ofta hur man säger det i engelska, mitt modersmål. Jag vet ingen sådan idiomatiskt uttryck på engelska för detta. Ändå vår tystnad säger åt dem att gå och kasta oss ut ur deras hjärtan.

The words must mean something different from what I feel in my soul.
According to Google, it translates into the following nonsense:
Howdy! My name Camery, the hottest name in the Welsh language. I love when Katherine Jenkins, my favorite singers, saying "Come on, Cymraeg!" To get people to sing about his love for old Cymry. My name is Kammerer in Swedish and German. Long ago, it was Camere in Latin. Its etymology is from the site still known as Cambria. I do not speak Swedish, in all cases no one wants to hear my voice. When someone is blocking me on Facebook, I want to say, "Please, Do not bypass," But I know they do not understand Swedish. I often wonder how to say it in English, my native language. I know no such idiom in English for this. Yet our silence tells them to go and throw us out of their hearts.

Du kan inte säga att jag inte prova, men jag får några positiva resultat!

Israeli Television Show

The New Season

Interview


The Theme Song

Another Song


Michael


Don't get sucked in!


On No! The Playlist.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Celebrating Passover

Probably, you didn't quite connect all the Biblical allusions in the whitepaper on Stuxnet or grasp why they are there. Maybe this will help.

The software project used to create the STUXNET was called guava. Guavas are plants in the myrtle (myrtus) family genus. The files it creates are called mrxcls.sys and mrxnet.sys. Myrtle branches were used to celebrate passover. First, we need some history.

Esther was originally named Hadassah. Hadassah means 'myrtle' in Hebrew." Esther learned of a plot to assassinate the king and "told the king of Haman's plan to massacre all Jews in the Persian Empire. Haman who set them up finally suffers for his crime of falsely implicating the jews by dying at the kings hands. The Jews went on to kill only their would-be executioners."

May 9, 1979 is the date the first Jew was executed by the Iranian government. It is also the day a Northwestern University graduate student was injured by a bomb made by the Unabomber. Earth is a dark and bloody planet.

When you type STUX in Hebrew you get דאוס (transcribed as Deus or DeOS). This happens to be the name of an Israeli children’s story playing on TV, where hackers develop a program named Deus which takes over the world.

Thus STUX is an allusion to God and 19790509 is an allusion to blood that you place on your door, i.e., in the registry of your computer, and the sacrifice that is required in order to avoid God’s wrath. Thus, we all must honor and celebrate Passover.

Actually, the current version of Stuxnet will only run on 32 bit versions of the following operating systems:
Win2K•
WinXP•
Windows 2003•
Vista•
Windows Server 2008•
Windows 7•
Windows Server 2008 R2•
If it is not running on one of these operating systems it will exit. So, I do not need to worry yet.


STUX is also known as Troj/Stuxnet-A [Sophos], W32/Stuxnet-B [Sophos], W32.Temphid [Symantec], WORM_STUXNET.A [Trend], Win32/Stuxnet.B [Computer Associates], Trojan-Dropper:W32/Stuxnet [F-Secure], Stuxnet [McAfee], W32/Stuxnet.A [Norman]

Decryption of the virus shows the following:

SOFTWARE\SIEMENS\WinCC\Setup
STEP7_Version
SOFTWARE\SIEMENS\STEP7
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MS-DOS Emulation
NTVDM TRACE

The initial loader first checks that the configuration data is valid, after that it checks the value "NTVDM TRACE" in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MS-DOS Emulation

If this value is equal to 19790509 the threat will exit. This is thought to be an infection marker or a "do not infect" marker. If this is set correctly, infection will not occur.

Next, Stuxnet reads a date from the configuration data (offset 0x8c in the configuration data). If the current date is later than the date in the configuration file then infection will also not occur and the threat will exit. The date found in the current configuration file is June 24, 2012.

Alo, the registry is searched for indicators that the following anti-virus programs are installed:

KAV v6 to v9•
McAfee•
Trend PcCillin•

If one of the above security product processes are detected, version information of the main image is extracted. Based on the version number, the target process of injection will be determined or the injection process will fail if the virus considers the security product non-bypassable.

Discovered: July 13, 2010
Updated: September 17, 2010 8:53:13 AM
Also Known As: Troj/Stuxnet-A [Sophos], W32/Stuxnet-B [Sophos], W32.Temphid [Symantec], WORM_STUXNET.A [Trend], Win32/Stuxnet.B [Computer Associates], Trojan-Dropper:W32/Stuxnet [F-Secure], Stuxnet [McAfee], W32/Stuxnet.A [Norman]

Stuxnet was the first worm to exploit the Microsoft Windows Shortcut 'LNK/PIF' Files Automatic File Execution Vulnerability (BID 41732) in order to spread; in fact when Stuxnet was first discovered, this vulnerability was an unknown, or zero-day, vulnerability and it wasn’t until Stuxnet was analyzed that this vulnerability was recognized as such. Normally, when one thinks of a vulnerability in software, one would think of a coding error that an attacker discovers and then exploits. However, while this does indeed fit the definition of a vulnerability, specifically it is a design flaw as Windows is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

The virus copies itself to removable drives as the following files:

%DriveLetter%\~WTR4132.tmp
%DriveLetter%\~WTR4141.tmp

Note: Both file names are hardcoded and they are actually .dll files.

It also copies the following files to the above drives:

%DriveLetter%\Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk

When the drive is accessed by an application that can display icons, such as Windows Explorer, instead of displaying the icon for the .lnk files, it runs code that executes the file %DriveLetter%\~WTR4132.tmp. This file’s main purpose is to execute the other file that is copied to the removable drive, DriveLetter%\~WTR4141.tmp, which is then loaded into memory. Its worth noting that this file has a valid signature issued to and signed by well-known companies in Taiwan.

It also uses a remote procedure call (RPC) exploit to spread. This exploit is only effective against computers that have not applied the patch for the Microsoft Windows Server Service RPC Handling Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (BID 31874).

Furthermore, it exploits the Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (BID 43073) to copy itself from one compromised computer to another. The vulnerability allows for a file to be written to the %System% directory of a vulnerable computer. Stuxnet first uses this vulnerability to plant a copy of itself on a vulnerable machine and later it uses a feature of WBEM to achieve execution of that file on the remote computer.

Stuxnet also attempts to spread via network shares by copying itself to network shares as the following file:
%DriveLetter%\ “DEFRAG[RANDOM NUMBER].tmp

Note: This file is in fact a .dll file.

It then attempts to create a job to run the .dll file.

The following file(s) may be seen on the compromised computer.

%System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys
%System%\drivers\mrxnet.sys
%DriveLetter%\~WTR4132.tmp
%DriveLetter%\~WTR4141.tmp
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%DriveLetter%\Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Shortcut to.lnk
%Windir%\inf\oem6C.PNF
%Windir%\inf\oem7A.PNF
%Windir%\inf\mdmcpq3.PNF
%Windir%\inf\mdmeric3.PNF

The following registry entries are created:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRxCls\"ImagePath" = "%System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRxNet\"ImagePath" = "%System%\drivers\mrxnet.sys"

It uses two processes:

iexplorer.exe (injection)
lsass.exe (injection)

Once an infected removable drive is attached to a clean computer, the virus copies itself to the clean computer as the following files:
%System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys
%System%\drivers\mrxnet.sys

Next, the virus registers the file mrxcls.sys as a service with the following characteristics:
Display Name: MRXCLS
Startup Type: Automatic
Image Path: %System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys

The virus creates the following registry entry for the above service:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRxCls\"ImagePath" = "%System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys"

It also registers the file mrxnet.sys as a service with the following characteristics:
Display Name: MRXNET
Startup Type: Automatic
Image Path: %System%\drivers\mrxnet.sys

The virus creates the following registry entry for the above service:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRxNet\"ImagePath" = "%System%\drivers\mrxnet.sys"

It also creates the following files, which are encrypted copies of the virus:

%Windir%\inf\oem6C.PNF
%Windir%\inf\oem7A.PNF
%Windir%\inf\mdmcpq3.PNF
%Windir%\inf\mdmeric3.PNF

The file %System%\drivers\mrxcls.sys decrypts these files to reinfect the compromised computer if attempts are made to remove the worm.
Downloading
The worm is able to download a payload executable on to the compromised computer from the C&C server and execute it.

The virus sends an HTTP request to the server containing information about the compromised computer. This information is sent by making a request to the following URL:
http://[C&C SERVER ADDRESS]/index.php?data=[DATA]

Note: DATA represents the system information that has been gathered.

The virus contacts the following URLs through port 80, which are the virus's Command and Control servers, to test Internet connectivity:

www.mypremierfutbol.com
www.todaysfutbol.com

The two URLs above were registered in Arizona and previously pointed to servers in Malaysia and Denmark. Names like this are typically American. “We don’t play soccer, we play futbol.” is a 21st century American expression.

The data is not sent in plain text though; instead it is encrypted with XOR using a 31-byte key. The data section also contains several fields describing the data. The response received back from the C&C server is also encrypted using XOR but using a different 31-byte key. Both of these keys are contained in the malicious .dll file on the compromised computer and can be used to decipher network traffic to and from the C&C server.

The data sent from the compromised computer to the C&C server contains the following information:

The Windows version information,
The computer name,
The network group name,
Flag for whether SCADA software was installed or not, and
IP addresses of all network interfaces.

When the C&C receives this information it can reply with 2 types of responses. The first type of response instructs the threat to execute one of the procedures already existing within the threats code. In fact the data from this type of response is forwarded to various RPC routines within the main .dll file. The second type of response delivers an additional .dll file to the client in the response and instructs the client to load that .dll file and call an ordinal one from within the downloaded .dll file.

The first type of response acts as a wrapper for RPCs that will be forwarded to the local machine. The RPC calls implemented on the client side can perform the following actions:

Read a file
Write to a file
Delete a file
Create a process
Inject a .dll into lsass.exe
Load an additional .dll file and executed export 1
Extract resource 210 from the main .dll file (this resource is used to inject into other processes)
Update the configuration data for the threat

The parameters for these RPC calls are passed to the client via response type 1. For example, the .dll file to be injected into lsass.exe is passed to the client from the server inside response type 1.

Stuxnet is specifically targeting systems with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software installed. The threat performs many database queries on the database used by the Siemens Step 7 software and interacts with the .dll files belonging to that product. It tries to extract specific data from the database. For example, it tries to access files with the following characteristics, created by the Step 7 software:

GracS\cc_tag.sav
GracS\cc_alg.sav
GracS\db_log.sav
GracS\cc_tlg7.sav
*.S7P
*.MCP
*.LDF

By accessing these files, Stuxnet steals code and design projects.

Industrial control systems consist of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) that can be programmed from a Windows system. These PLCs contain special code that controls the automation of industrial processes. Programmers use software (e.g., on a Windows PC) to create code and then upload their code to the PLCs.

Stuxnet has the ability to take advantage of the programming software to also upload its own code to the PLC in an industrial control system that is typically monitored by SCADA systems. In addition, Stuxnet then hides these code blocks, so when a programmer using an infected machine tries to view all of the code blocks on a PLC, they will not see the code injected by Stuxnet. Thus, Stuxnet isn’t just a rootkit that hides itself on Windows, but is the first publicly known rootkit that is able to hide injected code located on a PLC.

In particular, Stuxnet hooks the programming software, which means that when someone uses the software to view code blocks on the PLC, the injected blocks are nowhere to be found. This is done by hooking enumeration, read, and write functions so that you can’t accidentally overwrite the hidden blocks as well. Thus Stuxnet introduces the first known rootkit for industrial control systems.

By writing code to the PLC, Stuxnet can potentially control or alter how the system operates. To date, no industrial facility has been knowingly compromised. What any attacker hopes to achieve by compromising an industrial facility is not known, but one thing is for sure: nothing good can come from a facility being compromised.

In an attempt to avoid detection the file %DriveLetter%\~WTR4132.tmp hides threat related files by hooking the following APIs from kernel32.dll and Ntdll.dll:
From Kernel32.dll

FindFirstFileW
FindNextFileW
FindFirstFileExW

From Ntdll.dll

NtQueryDirectoryFile
ZwQueryDirectoryFile

It replaces the original code for these functions with code that checks for files with the following properties:

File names ending with ".lnk"
File names beginning with "~WTR" and ending in ".tmp" (which explains why the file names on the removable drive are hardcoded and cannot change significantly)

If a request is made to list a file with the above properties, the response from these APIs is altered to state that the file does not exist, thereby hiding all files with those properties.

After the kernel32.dll APIs are hooked, the file %DriveLetter%\~WTR4132.tmp loads the other .dll file, %DriveLetter%\~WTR4141.tmp. However, to achieve this Stuxnet uses a different approach from what one would normally expect. Rather than calling the "LoadLibrary" API to load a .dll file into memory, which is what one would normally expect, Stuxnet hooks certain Ntdll.dll functions, then calls the “LoadLibrary” with a specially crafted file name. The file requested to be loaded does not exist on disk, therefore normally LoadLibrary would fail. However, W32.Stuxnet has hooked Ntdll.dll to monitor for requests to load specially crafted file names. If a specially crafted file name is encountered, the hooked ntdll.dll functions know to load a .dll file from another location instead; a location specified by Stuxnet and that location is generally an area in memory where a .dll file has been decrypted and stored by the threat previously.

The functions hooked for this purpose in Ntdll.dll are:

ZwMapViewOfSection
ZwCreateSection
ZwOpenFile
ZwCloseFile
ZwQueryAttributesFile
ZwQuerySection

Once a .dll file has been loaded, GetProcAddress is used to find the address of a specific export from the .dll file and that export is called, handing control to that new .dll file.

Stuxnet lower security settings and can inject its code into iexplorer.exe in order to bypass firewalls.

It also stops the following security-related processes:

vp.exe
Mcshield.exe
avguard.exe
bdagent.exe
UmxCfg.exe
fsdfwd.exe,
rtvscan.exe
ccSvcHst.exe
ekrn.exe
tmpproxy.exe

The vulnerability exploited by Stuxnet to escalate access privileges still exists.

STUXNET U.S.A., Israel, Taiwan, Denmark, Malaysia, Germany, etc.
Put 19790509 in the registry and it will passover you.

Sept 5, 2007 Air Defense in Syria neutralized.

November 20, 2008 Trojan.Zlob variant found to be using the LNK vulnerability only later identified in Stuxnet.

January, 2009 Compile date in virus.

June, 2009 Earliest Stuxnet sample seen.

July 5, 2009 Nuclear accident in Iran's Centrifuges

January 25, 2010 Stuxnet driver signed with a valid certificate belonging to Realtek Semiconductor Corps.

March, 2010 New Version exploits MS10-046, INSAT-4B???

June, 2010 Russian Disclosure

Stuxnet has even attacked Vanderlande's and Siemens' own systems.

September, 2010 "Iran has crossed the critical nuclear threshold taking it nearer to being able to arm ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, weapons inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency reported last week.
October, 2010: The Fifth Fleet doubles combat power in the Persian Gulf. Forces mass near the border to attack Chad. Vengence is mine saith the LORD. Please save us from murdering ourselves.

What do the information assurance people say? They say people in information assurance are only allowed to talk to people in information assurance. They can hardly contain their laughter when someone foolishly tries to communicate with them.

In fact, Earth in the 21st Century is primary made up of cliques of people forbidden to have connections with each other. How odd? Maybe someone should check for aberrant methylation patterns in their cortex, liver and myometrium, if they have one. They do not seem human any more.

Who is there left to talk to? twitter, maybe, God surely.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Since when did Murky Death become Cut-Throat?


Conversation with a Swede:

Swede: I find this hilarious. Because the fact that I’m a Swede, I can make this into a double joke.
"Killing" means, well, killing, in English. But in Swedish "Killar" means tickling. so if you want to say that you are both tickling and killing "me", you can say killing me XD
....
Oh well, its funnier if you’re a Swede.


Non-Swede: Cool...Does Killar mean 'killing' and 'tickling' then?

Swede: noooot really..
Killar = Guys AND tickling


Non-Swede: Oh! I see.


Now look deeper!
Suppose one says:

Hej, stark killar!

This should sound like a complement. If it does not, you are probably suffering from the paranoid influence of Arabic: قاتل (qātel). The English word is murder: From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre "murder", alteration of earlier murthre "murder" (See murther) from Old English morþor "dark death" and Old English myrþra "murder, homicide", Akin to Gothic (maurþr) "murder"and Swedish mördar, Old High German mord "murder", Old Norse morð "murder", Old English myrþrian "to murder".

The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre from Medieval Latin murdrum from Old French murdre from Frankish *murþra "murder", from the same Germanic root, though this may also have wholly been the result of internal development. Personally, I always see the roots as "Murky Death" in all these languages.

The idea that there should be a word, such as, killer, cut-throat, etc. in civilized language would be repugnant to the sensibilities of our ancestors. What have we come to?

Only Arabs, etc. should talk of killing. It is their word. We are not paranoid.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Religious Psychology

Do you perceive God as an eternal repetitive force throughout time or a real living force existing at a place and time?

Do you see life as a struggle against the devil or a love affair with God?

Do you hate your enemies or love them?

Do you hate the weak and defenseless or do you want to help them?

Do you belong to a superstitious cult bent on imposing it’s rituals on others or do you serve God?

Do you believe in predestination or do you believe that your choices can make the world a better place?

Excitrons in Graphene exhibit time reversal symmetry allowing one to calculate the percentage of photons they absorb. Does this make Graphene transparent or visible?

In other words, are you a paranoid schizophrenic who wants to kill me or a happy normal person?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Words used to denote God.

 is a phonetic sign denoting the syllable "an". Note that it is a cross making it easy to remember what it stands for. It also stands for three logograms: the word ilum which means "god" (but transliterated as DINGIR, the Sumerian word for "god"), the god of heaven Anum, and then by extension the word šamû which means "heaven". And on top of all this, it can also function as a determinative for names of deities. The following example illustrates this polyvalency:


I remember the Sumerian word by thinking of the Egyptian hieroglyph, representing the d sound which is pictured as a hand which reminds me of fingers which is about as close as you can get to DINGIR in English and as a bonus it reminds me of the phonetic sound “an” and the determinative, D. I cheat and use Egyptian as mnemonic aids instead of Latin grammar like you are supposed to when learning, Gothic, Swedish, etc.
It seems to me that most all of the words for God derive from Sumerian / Akkadian where the determinative for deity name is "D". In recent times, certain pronunciations have come to represent the imperative of agape while others convey the opposite, viz. jihad.
 
The term in English is God, in Swedish: Gud, in French: Dieu, in Italian: Dio, in German: Gott, in Yiddish: Got, in Spanish: Dios, in Portuguese: Deus, in Greek: Theos, in Gothic: Guþ, in Arabic: al-dhat and الله‎, in Hebrew: El, in Aramaic: El, etc.


Quick note on the traditional transliteration of Akkadian signs: Phonograms are written in italic. Logograms are written in capitals, often transcribing Sumerian words, but also sometimes Akkadian if the logogram has more meanings in Akkadian than in Sumerian. The superscripts are determinatives, and they tend to use the same convention as logograms (capital letters transcribing Sumerian words). The only exception is the determinative for deity names, which is shortened to D instead of DINGIR.

Going back to the example, you have most likely noticed that the same sign can represent different words. This polyvalency originated in Sumerian when the same logogram was used to write related words that had vastly different pronunciations. To distinguish between different readings, contextual information is extremely important. One kind of hint to indicate which word the logogram refers is the phonetic complement. It is a phonogram that spells out part of the word that the logogram represents, and so allow the reader to identify the word. In the example, the sign sequence AN-ú identifies the word šamû, not the deity Anum. Another form of hint is the determinative. The sequence KÁ-DINGIR-RA is followed by the determinative KI, meaning that is must be the name of a city. Only one city is written as KÁ-DINGIR-RA, and that would be Babylon. In fact, the logogram KÁ represents the word babu ("gate"), DINGIR resolves to ilum ("god"), and RA is the genitive case in Sumerian for dingir. Together the sequence gives Babilum, or "Gate of the God", where the god in question would be Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.

See how simple the language of these Earthings is!!!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Vision av en ny fysik

Jag ser mig omkring och allt jag ser är kvanta med diskreta energinivåer i en rumtid omvandla deras spinn, dalar, laddning, rörelsemängd när jag ser. Inte en enda kvark. Ingen tid, bara rumtiden. Ingen massa bortsett från kvantiserad energi i rumtiden. Nej magnetism, bara elektrosvag kraft i rumtiden. Nej Fermioner, bara ett slags utanförskap princip långt ifrån grundläggande. Kvarkar, tid, magnetism ... är alla illusioner. De är bara oskiljaktiga delar av en större helhet. Inte konstigt att jag älskar BEC!


The above is just my practise for today writing in Swedish. Below is a wordlist I found.

Här följer en ordlista som förhoppningsvis förtydligar vissa abstrakta och krångliga begrepp:

Egentid: Är den tid som varje observatör upplever. Denna betecknas och är fundamental vid räknandet med 4-vektorer för partikeln eftersom endast dess egen tid är referensramoberoende.
Eter: Medium som behövs för att mekaniska signaler skall kunna fortplantas.
Gammafaktorn: Olinjär funktion som ger hur mycket ett observerat objekt förändras med begreppen längd, massa och tid vid den relativa hastigheten v. Funktionen för gammafaktorn har en lodrät asymptot vid hastigheten c - ljushastigheten - och är nedåt begränsad till ett.
Inertialram: Kallas det koordinatsystem som befinner sig i vila relativt en viss observatör. För samtliga inertialramar gäller att fysikens lagar är identiska för alla objekt som befinner sig i vila relativt dem.
Invariant: Avståndet mellan två händelser i rumtiden är oberoende av valet av koordinatsystem.
Isotrop: Betyder att någonting är likadant i alla riktningar.
Koherent: Betyder att någonting är i fas. Gäller det ljusvågor så innebär detta att de förstärker varandra.
Kontravarians: Bevaras ej vid en transformation(?). 1-former är kontravarianta inom teorin för differentialformer. Har indexet upphöjt.
Kovarians: Bevaras vid en transformation(?). Vektorer är kovarianta inom teorin för differentialformer. Har indexet nedsänkt.
Kovariant derivata: En generalisering av begreppet partiell derivata som kompenserar för rummets krökning.
Lorentzram: Annat ord för inertialram.
Machs princip: En kropp i ett universum utan andra massor har ingen rörelsemängd.
Observatör: Fiktivt objekt som befinner sig i en lokal inertialram och som kan studera omgivningen utan att påverka den genom att ha väldigt liten massa.
Olinjär: Innebär att något inte är linjärt, d v s kan inte beskrivas överallt med raka linjer mer än ungefärligt i enstaka punkter.
Perihelium: Den punkt i en himlakropps elliptiska bana runt stjärnan där himlakroppen är som närmast stjärnan.
Postulat: Grundläggande konstateranden som kan sägas motsvaras av axiom inom matematiken.
Pseudoparadox: Fenomen som verkar vara en paradox men som vid en grundlig undersökning i själva verket inte är det.
Rumtid: Abstraherande av tiden till en fjärde dimension. Därefter räknar man som om rummet består av fyra dimensioner och får därmed möjligheten att bestämma händelser i rumtiden unikt.
Tankeexperiment: Fiktivt experiment, förknippat med Albert Einstein, som oftast är så extremt att det är omöjligt att genomföra i verkligheten men som hjälper till att komma vidare med utvecklandet och förståelsen av en teori.
Transformation: Matematisk operation som genom en funktion överför en uppsättning tillstånd till en annan uppsättning tillstånd.

abba 10th Anniversary







Thursday, September 9, 2010

Organic Photocells

I found this paper in Nature.

Photoelectrochemical complexes for solar energy conversion that chemically and autonomously regenerate

Moon-Ho Ham1,6, Jong Hyun Choi2,6, Ardemis A. Boghossian1,6, Esther S. Jeng1,6, Rachel A. Graff1, Daniel A. Heller1, Alice C. Chang1, Aidas Mattis3, Timothy H. Bayburt3, Yelena V. Grinkova3, Adam S. Zeiger4, Krystyn J. Van Vliet4, Erik K. Hobbie5, Stephen G. Sligar3, Colin A. Wraight3 & Michael S. Strano1


Abstract Naturally occurring photosynthetic systems use elaborate pathways of self-repair to limit the impact of photo-damage. Here, we demonstrate a complex consisting of two recombinant proteins, phospholipids and a carbon nanotube that mimics this process. The components self-assemble into a configuration in which an array of lipid bilayers aggregate on the surface of the carbon nanotube, creating a platform for the attachment of light-converting proteins. The system can disassemble upon the addition of a surfactant and reassemble upon its removal over an indefinite number of cycles. The assembly is thermodynamically metastable and can only transition reversibly if the rate of surfactant removal exceeds a threshold value. Only in the assembled state do the complexes exhibit photoelectrochemical activity. We demonstrate a regeneration cycle that uses surfactant to switch between assembled and disassembled states, resulting in an increased photoconversion efficiency of more than 300% over 168 hours and an indefinite extension of the system lifetime.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Erik Erikson's Epigenetic Principle

This series of videos is part of an on-line course: Theories of Personality. Erikson's theory and the Social Cognitivists' theories are presented.

Ever wonder what is was like before people shared their lives in their blogs and social networks liked LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. They must have experienced an inconceivable loneliness, isolation and paranoia.


For Life



Affective Responses

Current Topics in Genome Analysis 2010

This lecture series consists of ten 90 min. lectures.

Sweden in second spot

U.S. slips in WEF's competitiveness rankings

Published September 08, 2010
| Reuters
BEIJING, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Switzerland remains the world's most competitive economy, while the United States has fallen from second to fourth, according to the World Economic Forum.

The United States was overtaken in the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2010/2011 by Sweden in second spot and Singapore in third.

Last year the Asian city state ranked third and Sweden fourth.

The WEF attributed America's slipping competitiveness to a build-up in U.S. macroeconomic imbalances, a weakening of the country's public and private institutions and concerns about the state of its financial markets.

China moved up two places in the rankings to 27th.

The Geneva-based group released the report ahead of a meeting next week in the port city of Tianjin near Beijing. (Reporting by Aileen Wang and Alan Wheatley; Editing by KenWills)

Politics Conducted through Death Threats

One and one half million oppose becoming a part of the muslim homeland.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Astragaloside IV

There are a couple thousand papers on Astragaloside IV out there, but these are the ones that seemed interesting to me.

Inhibitory effects of astragaloside IV on ovalbumin-induced chronic experimental asthma

Authors: Chen, Zhen; Zhou, Lin-fu; Du, Qiang; Zhang, Qian; Huang, Mao; Yin, Kai-sheng

Source: Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, Volume 86, Number 7, 1 July 2008 , pp. 449-457(9)

Publisher: NRC Research Press


Abstract:

Astragaloside IV, a new cycloartane-type triterpene glycoside extract of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge, has been identified for its potent immunoregulatory, antiinflammatory, and antifibrotic actions. Here we investigated whether astragaloside IV could suppress the progression of airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness, and airway remodeling in a murine model of chronic asthma. BALB/c mice sensitized to ovalbumin (OVA) were chronically challenged with aerosolized OVA for 8 weeks. Astragaloside IV was orally administered at a dose of 50 mg·kg-1·day-1 during each OVA challenge. Astragaloside IV treatment resulted in significant reduction of eosinophilic airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and total immunoglobulin E levels in serum. Furthermore, astragaloside IV treatment markedly inhibited airway remodeling, including subepithelial fibrosis, smooth muscle hypertrophy, and goblet cell hyperplasia. In addition, the expression of transforming growth factor-β1 in the lung was also reduced by astragaloside IV. These data indicate that astragaloside IV may mitigate the development of characteristic features in chronic experimental asthma.



Original Paper
Pharmacology Planta Med 2006; 72(1): 4-8
DOI: 10.1055/s-2005-873126

© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York



Astragaloside IV from Astragalus membranaceus Shows Cardioprotection during Myocardial Ischemia in vivo and in vitro

Wei-Dong Zhang1, 3[*], Hong Chen2[*], Chuan Zhang1, Run-Hui Liu1, Hui-Liang Li1, Hong-Zhuan Chen2
1 Department of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, P. R. China
2 Department of Pharmacology, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai, P. R. China
3 School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, P. R. China

Abstract
Astragaloside IV is the major active constituent of Astragalus membranaceus, which has been widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in China. However, the effects of astragaloside IV on myocardial ischemia and its mechanisms of action remain largely unknown. In this study, we have examined the effects of astragaloside IV on myocardial infarction and coronary flow in vivo and in vitro. The possible roles of its antioxidative and nitric oxide-inducing properties were also explored. Astragaloside IV significantly reduced infarct size in dogs subjected to coronary ligation in vivo. Astragaloside IV also improved post-ischemic heart function and ameliorated reperfusion arrhythmias in rat hearts in vitro. The cardioprotection of astragaloside IV was accompanied by a significant increase in coronary flow both in vivo and in vitro. The nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester partially abrogated astragaloside IV's protective effect on heart function. Myocardial antioxidative enzyme superoxide dismutase activity increased with astragaloside IV administration. These data suggest the potential roles of antioxidative and nitric oxide-inducing properties of astragaloside IV in its protection from myocardial ischemia.

Key words
Astragaloside IV - ischemia - cardioprotection - nitric oxide - superoxide dismutase


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《Chinese Journal of Pathophysiology》 2008-01

Association of attenuating left ventricular remodeling in murine dilated cardiomyopathy with phosphorylation of p38MAPK after interference by astragaloside
SHEN E,CHEN Rui-zhen,YANG Ying-zhen,GUO Qi,YU Yong,ZOU Yun-zeng,CHEN Hao-zhu(Key Laboratory of Viral Heart Diseases,Ministry of Public Health,Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases,Zhongshan Hospital,Fudan University,Shanghai 200032,China.)
AIM:To investigate the effects and mechanism of astragaloside(Astr)on ventricular remodeling in CVB3-induced murine dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM).METHODS:BALB/c mice were inoculated ip repeatedly with CVB3 by increment to establish animal model of DCM(n=30).Other mice infected with CVB3 were fed with Astra(0.6 mg·kg-1·d-1)as DCM+Astr(n=20).Control mice(n=10)were treated with same volume of EMEM without CVB3.The diameter of LV and cardiac function were measured by high frequency echocardiography.Serum concentrations of PINP,PICP and PIIINP were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).The collagen in myocardium was stained with Sirius red.collagen volume fraction(CVF)and collagen I were calculated by image analysis software.Expressions of collagen type I and III were confirmed by reversed transcriptional polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).The action of phosphorylation of p38MAPK was determined by Western blotting.RESULTS:Astragaloside raised the survival rates of mice with DCM,decreased LV dilation and dysfunction.Compared with controls,the exceptional deposition of collagens in DCM was suppressed by Astr.High expression of p38MAPK phosphorylation in DCM mice was decreased by Astr.CONCLUSION:Astr attenuating ventricular remodeling may be associated with the decreased action of phosphorylation of p38MAPK in CVB3-induced murine DCM.

Neuroprotective effects of Astragaloside IV in 6-hydroxydopamine-treated primary nigral cell culture

Wing-Sai Chana, b, 1, Siva Sundara Kumar Durairajana, 1, Jia-Hong Lua, Yan Wanga, Li-Xia Xiea, Wan-Fung Kuma, Irene Kooa, Ken Kin Lam Yungb and Min Lia, ,

aSchool of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

bDepartment of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Received 27 November 2008; revised 16 April 2009; accepted 21 April 2009. Available online 4 May 2009.

Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) is caused by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Oxidative stress and neural degeneration are suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In the present study, Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) extracted from the dried root of Astragalus membranaceus, a well-known Chinese medicine used for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, was investigated for its capacity to protect dopaminergic neurons in experimental Parkinson's disease. By examining the effect of AS-IV on 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons in primary nigral culture, we found that AS-IV pretreatment significantly and dose-dependently attenuated 6-OHDA-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons. Neuronal fiber length studies showed that massive neuronal cell death with degenerated neurons was observed in those cultures incubated with 6-OHDA, whereas in AS-IV co-treatments most dopaminergic neurons were seen to be intact and sprouting. In flow cytometric analysis, AS-IV resulted in a marked and dose-dependent rescue in tyrosine hydrolase (TH)-immunopositive cells from 6-OHDA-induced degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Double immunofluorescence revealed that AS-IV treatment alone at concentrations of 100 and 200 μM increased the level of TH and NOS (nitrite oxide synthase) immunoreactivities; however, the protective effect of AS-IV on TH and NOS immunopositive cells in 6-OHDA treated nigral cell cultures was only seen at a concentration of 100 μM. These findings show that AS-IV can protect dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA-induced degeneration. Besides the neuroprotective effect, AS-IV alone promoted neurite outgrowth and increased TH and NOS immunoreactive of dopaminergic neurons. The neuroprotective and neurosprouting effects of AS-IV are specific for dopaminergic neurons and it has therapeutic potential in the treatment of PD.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; Tyrosine hydroxylase; Nitric oxide synthase; Nigral primary cell cultures; 6-Hydroxydopamine; Astragaloside IV




Neuroscience Letters
Volume 363, Issue 3, 17 June 2004, Pages 218-223
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2004.03.036 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Cited By in Scopus (43)
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Astragaloside IV protects against ischemic brain injury in a murine model of transient focal ischemia

Yumin Luo, , a, Zhen Qina, Zhen Honga, Xinmin Zhangb, Ding Dinga, Jian-Hui Fua, Wei-Dong Zhangc and Jun Chend

a Institute of Neurology, Fudan University Huashan Hospital, Shanghai 200040, PR China

b Institute of Integrated Traditional Chinese (TC) and Western Medicine, Fudan University Huashan Hospital, Shanghai 200040, PR China

c College of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, PR China

d State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, PR China

Received 29 December 2003; Revised 23 February 2004; accepted 15 March 2004. Available online 2 June 2004.

Abstract
Astragalus membranaceus is a herbal medicine that has been used clinically in stroke patients in China for decades, but its potential neuroprotective effect against ischemic brain injury has not been experimentally tested. In this study, we investigated the effect of Astragaloside IV, a purified extract from Astragalus membranaceus, in a murine model of focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion produced by transient (1.5 h) middle cerebral artery occlusion. As determined at 72 h after ischemia, post-ischemic treatment of Astragaloside IV (20 or 40 mg/kg) markedly and significantly (P<0.03 vs. vehicle-treated animals) reduced infarct volume. Astragaloside IV treatment also decreased the levels of malondialdehyde, an indicator of lipid peroxidation, and increased the levels of the antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase in ischemic tissues. The results presented here provide the first evidence of a neuroprotective effect of Astragaloside IV in the model of ischemic brain injury. We suggest that the anti-infarction effect by Astragaloside IV may be derived at least in part from its antioxidant properties.

Author Keywords: Cerebral ischemia; Antioxidant; Astragaloside IV; Superoxide dismutase; Malondialdehyde; Glutathione peroxidase



Radix Astragalis effects on the proliferative activities of epidermal stem cells derived from human skin

Hu, X. | Zou, P. | Liu, L.-L. | Liu, D.-W.
Journal of Clinical Rehabilitative Tissue Engineering Research. Vol. 13, no. 19, pp. 3689-3692. 7 May 2009

BACKGROUND: Repairing wound by using stem cells technology is an important strategy in the wound healing treatment of current medical field. Radix Astragalis, which strengthening body resistance, benefiting vital energy, promoting blood flow and anti-aging, has been widely applied in the treatment of many clinical diseases and syndromes. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the regulatory effect of Radix Astragalis on the proliferation of human epidermal stem cells derived from human skin. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: The cell, molecular biology experiment was performed at the First Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University from September 2005 to June 2008. MATERIALS: Remaining free skin graft of burn and plastic patients was obtained from Burn Center, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University. Radix Astragalis injection solution was purchased from Zhengda Qingchunbao, China (lot number 0207114), astragaloside .1.0mg per milliliter, equal to 2 g crude drug. METHODS: Epidermis was dissociated by Trypsin-ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). The type IV collagen was used to isolate and purify the human epidermal stem cells. The cultured cells in experimental group were treated with keratinocyte serum-free medium (KSFM) supplemented with Radix Astragalis and epidermal growth factor in vitro. The procedures were identical in control group, but no Radix Astragalis were added. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The colony forming efficiency was calculated. The cell cycle was determined by the flow cytometer. The expression of the telomerase reverse transcriptase in epidermal stem cells was detected by the immunocytochemistry staining and the image quantitative analysis. RESULTS: Epidermal stem cells presented adhered to the wall, and large cell clone formed at 10 days. The colony forming efficiency of the epidermal stem cells in experimental group and the proportion of the epidermal stem cell in G(0)/G(1) period were significantly higher than in control group (t=3.17, P < 0.01; t =2.83, P < 0.05). The telomerase reverse transcriptase had positive expression in the epidermal stem cells of both groups. The average value of absorbance and positive area in experimental group was much higher than in control group (t=2.25, P < 0.05; t =4.12, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Radix Astragalis can effectively increase the cellular expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase and the proliferative activities of human epidermal stem cells derived from human skin in vitro.

Descriptors: Stem cells | Human | Telomerase | Burns | In vitro testing | Images | Hospitals | Forming