ISIS and Wilayat Sinai: Complex Networks of Insurgency under Authoritarian Rule

This paper aims to explain the complex relationship between ISIS and the armed group Wilayat Sinai (WS), based in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After a short overview of the historical developments in the peninsula that, starting in the early 1980s, led to the gradual escalation of the crisis there, the paper examines the military capacity of WS from 2014 to 2016. It describes the impact of local and regional sociopolitical factors and resources and examines how WS's links with ISIS affect its military capacity. The paper concludes with general observations and policy implications for Europe and Germany in particular

Why Does the “Islamic State” Endure and Expand?

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Istituto Affari Internazionali via the link in this recordThe rise of IS as the most dominant, and resourceful jihadist organisation is puzzling. Militarily, the organisation’s strength and power ratios pale beside its state-foes. This paper seeks to understand the sources of strength of IS and why it has not been defeated so far by much stronger international and regional powers, represented primarily by the US-led coalition and the Russian-Iranian axis supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The paper is divided into five sections. Given the nature of IS, it first reviews some of the comparative literature on why insurgencies win or survive stronger forces. The second and third parts are dedicated to review the strategy(ies) of the campaign against IS, as well as the military capacity of the organisation. The fourth part focuses on the IS current strategy against the West, especially in the aftermath of the Paris attacks. And the final part of the paper outlines concluding observations relevant to long-term counter-strategies against IS and like-minded organisations

Collusion to Crackdown: Islamist-Military Relations in Egypt

ArticleAnalysis paperearly two years after ousting President Muhammad Morsi, Egypt’s military continues to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood. Much like during Egypt’s 1952-54 political transition, the recent interactions between the powerful armed state bureaucracy and the influential religious organization have had a major impact on the country’s political trajectory. In both instances, the military and Muslim Brotherhood initially cooperated before ultimately clashing violently. How has each entity determined what approach to take toward the other? What does a continued imbalance in civil-military relations mean for Egypt’s future

Anatomy of the Akhmediev breather: Cascading instability, first formation time, and Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence

By invoking Bogoliubov's spectrum, we show that for the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, the modulation instability (MI) of its n = 1 Fourier mode on a finite background automatically triggers a further cascading instability, forcing all the higher modes to grow exponentially in locked-step with the n = 1 mode. This fundamental insight, the enslavement of all higher modes to the n = 1 mode, explains the formation of a triangular-shaped spectrum which generates the Akhmediev breather, predicts its formation time analytically from the initial modulation amplitude, and shows that the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence is just a matter of energy conservation with a period twice the breather's formation time. For higher order MI with more than one initial unstable modes, while most evolutions are expected to be chaotic, we show that it is possible to have isolated cases of "super-recurrence", where the FPU period is much longer than that of a single unstable mode.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figure

Femtosecond Laser Induced Structural Dynamics and Melting of Cu (111) Single Crystal. An Ultrafast Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction Study

Femtosecond, 8.04 keV x-ray pulses are used to probe the lattice dynamics of a 150 nm Cu (111) single crystal on a mica substrate irradiated with 400 nm, 100 fs laser pulses. For pump fluences below the damage and melting thresholds, we observed lattice contraction due to the formation of a blast force and coherent acoustic phonons with a period of ∼69 ps. At larger pump fluence, solid to liquid phase transition, annealing, and recrystallization were measured in real time by monitoring the intensity evolution of the probing fs x-ray rocking curves, which agreed well with theoretical simulation results. The experimental data suggest that the melting process is a purely thermal phase transition. This study provides, in real time, an ultrafast time-resolved detailed description of the significant processes that occur as a result of the interaction of a femtosecond light-pulse with the Cu (111) crystal surface. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4975198

Study the effects of radon inhalation on biomechanical properties of blood in rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of inhalation radon gas (Rn) on the biomechanical properties of red blood cell of rats. Methods: 20 young healthy adult male albino rats were divided into equally 4 groups. The first group (0) served as control group, while the other three groups (I, II and III) were exposed to Rn gas inside a chamber for 3, 5 and 7 weeks. The biomechanical properties of red blood cell of rats was performed by determine the rheological properties of blood and the osmotic fragility of red blood cells (RBCs). Results: The Rn doses received by every group of rats were found to 34.84, 58.07 and 81.30 mSv for 3, 5 and 7 weeks respectively (based on 12 exposure hours per week). The obtained results indicate that the viscosity, consistency index, yield stress and aggregation index increase with Rn doses. The osmotic fragility curves of irradiated groups shift toward lower values of NaCl concentration. The dispersion of hemolysis (S) increased, at the same time an average osmotic fragility (H50%) decreased. Conclusion: The results indicates that the exposure to radon alters the mechanical properties of red blood cells membrane (permeability and elasticity) reflecting a change in its physiological properties. This mean that low levels of Rn gas are harmful to biological systems and the degree of damage was dose-dependent

Flexural Behaviour of Geopolymer Concrete T-Beams Reinforced with GFRP Bars

YesThe flexural performance of geopolymer concrete (GPC) T-beams reinforced longitudinally with GFRP bars under a four-point static bending test was investigated. Six full-scale simply supported T-beams were cast and tested; one control specimen was made with ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPCC), while the other five beams were made of geopolymer concrete. The G-GPC2 was designed to attain the same theoretical moment capacity as the G-OPCC6 control beam. The main parameters investigated were the reinforcement ratio of ρ_f/ρ_b= 0.75, 1.05, 1.12, 1.34 and 1.34 for G-GPC1, G-GPC2, G-GPC3, G-GPC4, and G-GPC5, respectively, and compressive strength of geopolymer concrete. Based on the results of the experiments, the ultimate strain of GPC did not show the same behaviour as that of OPCC, which affects the mode of failure. The beam capacity and deflection were, respectively, overestimated and underestimated using the ACI 440 2R-17 predictive equations