Search

Protein-based particles are one of the most important research topics in nanomedicine, being used especially as drug delivery systems. From the wide variety of proteins, albumins offer several advantages in biomedical applications due to their special properties. Albumin nanoparticles play an important role as carriers in the drug delivery of chemical and biomolecular drugs, such as anticancer drugs; offer many advantages, such as biocompatibility and biodegradability; and are well-tolerated, without any side effects. In this work, various types of bovine serum albumin nanoparticles (BSA NPs), with or without ascorbic acid or glucose, were prepared via different nanoprecipitation methods. The obtained BSA NPs were characterized by UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. Their size and morphology were studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The stability in time of the developed BSA NPs was spectrally monitored. Three types of bio-entities containing BSA NPs and chlorophyll-labeled artificial cell membranes were “green” developed. The designed biohybrids were characterized by UV–Vis absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopy, and their three-dimensional topography was investigated by AFM. Both the size and shape of the developed bio-entities were monitored through SEM analysis. These results could be exploited in the development of novel drug carrier systems or as bio-coatings to be used in the biomedical field.

This chapter presents the situation regarding religion in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Russia after 1989. In much of the region, religious groups refused to sit back and watch passively as the politicians shaped their countries into Western-style liberal democracies, preferring instead to be actively involved in the process. Thus, religion has become an important actor in societies which otherwise could have secularized relatively fast, following the example of the Western democracies that the former communist countries were trying to emulate. Several issues are examined in order to illustrate how religion evolved after the fall of the Iron Curtain: these include dealing with the past, living with newly acquired religious freedom, nationalism and religion, religion and refugees, religious education in state schools, and sexuality and religion.

The Closed Circle is the second book authored by the distinguished scholar of the Muslim Brotherhood, Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. In his pr...

Since 1991, the Russian Orthodox Church has selectively assessed its Soviet past. Initiatives such as the identification of former secret spies from among church leaders and clergymen, which could portray this majority denomination in a negative light as a collaborator of the repressive communist dictatorship, have been systematically ignored or downplayed in favor of a plethora of canonizations of church members who suffered at the hands of the Soviet authorities. The church has thus whitewashed it communist past and rescued the reputation of many of its top leaders who worked for the Soviet secret political police. And it has done so by taking advantage of the anti-reckoning sentiments shared by the population and the Russian government officials.

Perhaps few other transitional justice methods have elicited so spirited a debate as lustration and vetting, which in the twentieth century evolved as more restrained versions of the purges that historically led to the marginalisation from public life of public servants and political luminaries who remained loyal to the deposed regimes. This chapter provides a brief historical overview of the application of these reckoning practices during the twentieth century, explains why some countries have opted for lustration and vetting while others refrained from adopting these measures, and reviews several major points of contention and controversy based on the experience to date. Lustration and vetting presumably offer a series of benefits that make them appealing to new democracies. Before reviewing the most important such purposes, note the peculiar position of many post-conflict and post-authoritarian countries. Lustration and vetting have generated considerable controversy in almost every country where they have been implemented.

Since 1989, reforms have sought to align the Romanian post-communist intelligence community with its counterparts in established democracies. Enacted reluctantly and belatedly at the pressure of civil society actors eager to curb the mass surveillance of communist times and international partners wishing to rein in Romania’s foreign espionage and cut its ties to intelligence services of non-NATO countries, these reforms have revamped legislation on state security, retrained secret agents, and allowed for participation in NATO operations, but paid less attention to oversight and respect for human rights. Drawing on democratization, transitional justice, and security studies, this article evaluates the capacity of the Romanian post-communist intelligence reforms to break with communist security practices of unchecked surveillance and repression and to adopt democratic values of oversight and respect for human rights. We discuss the presence of communist traits after 1989 (seen as continuity) and their absence (seen as discontinuity) by offering a wealth of examples. The article is the first to evaluate security reforms in post-communist Romania in terms of their capacity to not only overhaul the personnel and operations inherited from the Securitate and strengthen oversight by elected officials, but also make intelligence services respectful of basic human rights.

The growing challenges of populism, inefficiency and lack of representation affecting some Western democracies, together with the non-Westerners’ insistence on integrating local and traditional val...

This chapter considers the topics of nationalism, conservatism, homophobia, and religious intolerance in the Romanian Orthodox Church (RomOC, hereafter) after the collapse of communism in 1989. This analysis begins with a brief historical overview of the Church during the pre-communist and communist periods, and then turns its attention to presenting and assessing the above topics in post-communist times.

Though vilified as instances of “parliamentary putsch,” no-confidence censure motions remain significant constitutional tools through which the opposition can challenge the government in Romania, and publicly underscore its policy ineffectiveness in certain areas of activity. An overview of censure motions debated in the Romanian parliament from 1989 to 2012 reveals that center-left cabinets faced fewer challenges than their centerright counterparts, anti-communist forces were less skilled in articulating criticisms against cabinets, not all adopted motions led to cabinet removal, and motions became increasingly complex over time. Two motions adopted in 2009 and 2012, tabled by the center-left opposition against center-right cabinets, turned these parliamentary tools into powerful censure instruments.

No-confidence motions introduced in the Romanian parliament in 1989–2012 represented important tools of legislative control over the executive. Simple and censure motions employed by the opposition against the government tackled the most important issues affecting the country, the government's perceived failure to enact its programme, and areas considered a priority by the opposition. During the first 23 years of post-communism as many as 140 no-confidence motions were introduced, but only 13 were adopted, of which only two unseated the cabinet. Nevertheless, motions gave the opposition public attention and an occasion to present its point of view.

During the first two decades following the collapse of the communist regime, Romania has reckoned with the human rights infringements perpetrated from 1945 to 1989 with the help of a range of official and unofficial, judiciary and non-judiciary, backward- and forward-looking methods pursued by a variety of state and non-state actors. This article summarises the progress registered to date in court trials, lustration, access to secret files, property restitution, the truth commission, rehabilitation of former political prisoners, compensation to victims and their descendants, the opinion tribunal, forensic investigations, rewriting history books, unofficial truth projects and memorialisation.