Turkey-Kurdish Regional Government Relations After the U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq: Putting the Kurds on the Map?

View the Executive SummaryThe withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq at the end of 2011 left behind a set of unresolved problems in the relationship between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the Federal Government in Baghdad—notably relating to the disputed boundaries of the KRG, and the extent of its autonomy. Tensions have since been compounded by the discovery of significant quantities of oil and gas in the KRG area, and Erbil’s pursuit of an energy policy independent of and in opposition to Baghdad. Turkey, uneasy with the increasingly sectarian and authoritarian flavor of the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad, has since moved closer to the KRG, not least with respect to energy issues, deepening Turkish-Iraqi tensions still further. Added to the mix is the increasingly sectarian standoff in the region as a whole, in large measure as a consequence of Syrian developments, which has further pitted Ankara against Baghdad and its ally Iran; and the emergence of a bid for autonomy by Syria’s Kurds, which has complicated the stance of both Ankara and Erbil toward Syria and towards each other. Washington is in danger of being left behind by the fast-paced events in the region, while the ethnic Kurds of the region may be approaching a decisive moment in their long struggle for self-determination.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1504/thumbnail.jp

ISSN exercise & sport nutrition review: research & recommendations

Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. For this reason, keeping up to date with the literature is often difficult. This paper is a five year update of the sports nutrition review article published as the lead paper to launch the JISSN in 2004 and presents a well-referenced overview of the current state of the science related to how to optimize training and athletic performance through nutrition. More specifically, this paper provides an overview of: 1.) The definitional category of ergogenic aids and dietary supplements; 2.) How dietary supplements are legally regulated; 3.) How to evaluate the scientific merit of nutritional supplements; 4.) General nutritional strategies to optimize performance and enhance recovery; and, 5.) An overview of our current understanding of the ergogenic value of nutrition and dietary supplementation in regards to weight gain, weight loss, and performance enhancement. Our hope is that ISSN members and individuals interested in sports nutrition find this review useful in their daily practice and consultation with their clients

25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016

Abstracts of the 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016 Seogwipo City, Jeju-do, South Korea. 2–7 July 201

New amphiphiles to handle membrane proteins: "ménage à trois" between chemistry, physical chemistry and biochemistry.

International audienceTo perform biochemical and structural studies of membrane proteins (MPs), amphiphilic molecules that mimic the hydrophobic environment of lipids are required. Over the past decades, detergents, a particular class of amphiphiles, have been the most widely used for MP study. However, detergents tend to be inactivating for MPs, which has prompted the recent design of alternative strategies. The present review focuses on fluorinated amphiphiles, also called fluorinated surfactants, whose hydrophobic tail is partially fluorinated. Fluorinated chains are lipophobic, bulkier, and more rigid than the hydrogenated ones. In consequence, fluorinated surfactants (F-surfactants) would poorly interfere with protein–protein, protein–lipid, and protein–cofactor interactions, thus contributing to the stability of solubilized MPs. Here, we first introduce the concepts motivating the exploration of different F-surfactant families. We then focus on the design and the surface and self-aggregation properties of two recent series—including some original compounds—of F-surfactants bearing branched polar heads. The promising biochemical applications of F-surfactants, from the literature from 2010, are reviewed. Finally, we provide an overview of other recently developed nonconventional amphiphiles with sugar-based head groups