Liberty Versus Security Under Illiberal Constitutionalism: The Legality of Criminalising Humanitarian Assistance in Hungary and Greece

With the end of the Cold War and the apparent triumph of the liberal democratic order, the “end of history” had been famously proclaimed. Notwithstanding this definitive prognosis, the past fifteen years have shown a marked regression in the quality of democracy, specifically its feature of liberal constitutionalism and associated checks and balances on executive power. This trend is especially worrying, given its occurrence within the normative context of the European Union (EU), which has built its brand on an adherence to liberal democracy and the respect for human rights. Accordingly, substantive liberal democratic features have been diluted to a significant extent under the guise of constitutional form – a phenomenon dubbed illiberal constitutionalism – while the EU has not been able to enforce norm compliance. In this context, constitutional guarantees to safeguard civil society’s operational space have been commonly infringed upon, resulting in the increased interference of the state by means of imposing administrative difficulties, limiting access to resources, and, in a most recent trend, criminalising certain civil society activities. The criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, which is one of the gravest restrictions of civic space by means of the criminal law, has notably occurred in the context of the securitisation of immigration acting as a response to the 2015 migration crisis. As a result, the balance between security and liberty has been markedly skewed in favour of the former. As previous studies of illiberal constitutionalism have pointed out the tools used by illiberal governments to restrict liberal guarantees of fundamental rights, the present dissertation aims to add to this field by assessing the legal limits of this phenomenon. Through the lens of Human Rights Law as a measure of permissible practices, the following dissertation thus aims to investigate to what extent does the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance legally restrict constitutional guarantees of fundamental rights

Hemocompatibility of Silicon-Based Substrates for Biomedical Implant Applications

Silicon membranes with highly uniform nanopore sizes fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology allow for the development of miniaturized implants such as those needed for renal replacement therapies. However, the blood compatibility of silicon has thus far been an unresolved issue in the use of these substrates in implantable biomedical devices. We report the results of hemocompatibility studies using bare silicon, polysilicon, and modified silicon substrates. The surface modifications tested have been shown to reduce protein and/or platelet adhesion, thus potentially improving biocompatibility of silicon. Hemocompatibility was evaluated under four categories—coagulation (thrombin–antithrombin complex, TAT generation), complement activation (complement protein, C3a production), platelet activation (P-selectin, CD62P expression), and platelet adhesion. Our tests revealed that all silicon substrates display low coagulation and complement activation, comparable to that of Teflon and stainless steel, two materials commonly used in medical implants, and significantly lower than that of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) cellulose, a polymer used in dialysis membranes. Unmodified silicon and polysilicon showed significant platelet attachment; however, the surface modifications on silicon reduced platelet adhesion and activation to levels comparable to that on Teflon. These results suggest that surface-modified silicon substrates are viable for the development of miniaturized renal replacement systems

Selective Binding, Self-Assembly and Nanopatterning of the Creutz-Taube Ion on Surfaces

The surface attachment properties of the Creutz-Taube ion, i.e., [(NH3)5Ru(pyrazine)Ru(NH3)5]5+, on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic types of surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the Creutz-Taube ions only bound to hydrophilic surfaces, such as SiO2 and –OH terminated organic SAMs on gold substrates. No attachment of the ions on hydrophobic surfaces such as –CH3 terminated organic SAMs and poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) thin films covered gold or SiO2 substrates was observed. Further ellipsometric, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and time-dependent XPS studies suggested that the attached cations could form an inorganic analog of the self-assembled monolayer on SiO2 substrate with a “lying-down” orientation. The strong electrostatic interaction between the highly charged cations and the anionic SiO2 surface was believed to account for these observations. Based on its selective binding property, patterning of wide (∼200 nm) and narrow (∼35 nm) lines of the Creutz-Taube ions on SiO2 surface were demonstrated through PMMA electron resist masks written by electron beam lithography (EBL)

Functionalized ensembles of nanoelectrodes as affinity biosensors for DNA hybridization detection

A novel electrochemical biosensor for DNA hybridization detection based on nanoelectrode ensembles (NEEs) is presented. NEEs are prepared by electroless deposition of gold into the pores of a templating track-etched polycarbonate (PC) membrane. The wide surface of the templating membrane surrounding the nanoelectrodes is exploited to bind the capture DNA probes via amide coupling with the carboxylic groups present on the PC surface. The probes are then hybridized with the complementary target labelled with glucose oxidase (GO). The occurrence of the hybridization event is detected by adding, to the supporting electrolyte, excess glucose as the substrate and the (ferrocenylmethyl) trimethylammonium cation (FA) as suitable redox mediator. In the case of positive hybridization, an electrocatalytic current is detected. In the proposed sensor, the biorecognition event and signal transduction occur in different but neighbouring sites, i.e., the PC surface and the nanoelectrodes, respectively; these sites are separated albeit in close proximity on a nanometer scale. Finally, the possibility to activate the PC surface by treatment with permanganate is demonstrated and the analytical performances of biosensors prepared with KMnO4-treated NEEs and native NEEs are compared and critically evaluated. The proposed biosensor displays high selectivity and sensitivity, with the capability to detect few picomoles of target DNA