For nearly fifteen hundred years, the Hagia Sophia has been a constant figure in Istanbul, Turkey. The building has been the symbol of Christianity for the Byzantine Empire, Islam for the Ottoman Empire and Secularism for Republic of Turkey. It is rare that one building has had the ability to symbolize both religion and politics in the manner in which the Hagia Sophia has. One of the goals of this research is to examine the historical circumstances that have allowed this symbolism to occur. The other goal of this research is to examine the current voice that wishes to return the Hagia Sophia back to a place of worship. To properly understand this voice, it will require scrutinizing the obstacles necessary for religious groups to overcome to achieve this, as well as determining if this is even a viable option.
Defence date: 09 February 2018 ; Examining Board: Professor Deirdre Curtin, European University Institute; Professor Emeritus Marise Cremona, European University Institute; Professor Julia Hörnle, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Claudia Diaz, KU Leuven ; With citizens' movements mediated by many technologies that aid our navigation the potential for omnipresent surveillance may potentially institute fundamental changes to the human condition. Locational privacy is pivotal in developing inter-personal associations and relational ties with others and its function is therefore complex, rather than solely affording a degree of independence from the observations made by others. In this respect, a more nuanced understanding of the utility of location data is required; the current hierarchy that delineates personal data from special categories of personal data does not adequately appreciate the capacity for location data to act as a proxy for other sensitive personal data. Furthermore, the binary distinction that reflects the conceptualisation of the right to privacy as a negative right, with related concepts such as identity and personality formation viewed as positive constructs, is increasingly difficult a notion to preserve. The classification and terminology of technologies can illustrate how terms and legal metaphors are developed and applied so as to bridge gaps in applying existing context and precedent. Though the designation 'location data' once constituted a reasonable accommodation in nomenclature as an intelligible and easily comprehensible term, even while constituting a significant oversimplification of the data it represented, technological advances have rendered the term increasingly problematic. This study asks whether the existing legal framework at the regional level in Europe is apt to provide sufficiently cogent and coherent regulation given recent developments in technologies. The review analyses the risks associated with this predilection in data processing activities that allows for the identification of ever more intimate and nuanced details of a citizen's life, behaviours and convictions through the analysis of their location data; in turn, it shall discern the necessity of considering the resulting impacts on citizens' fundamental rights to privacy and personal data protection. ; Research conducted within the scope of this doctoral thesis was completed in the SURVEILLE project, a project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme. This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 284725.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting from forceful impacts on the torso and head has been of major interest because of the prevalence of such injuries in military personnel, contact sports and the elderly. Cognitive and behavioral changes associated with TBI are also seen following whole brain radiation treatment for cancer and chemotherapy for disseminated tumors. The biological mechanisms involved in the initiation of TBI from impact, radiation, and chemotherapy to loss of cognitive function have several shared characteristics including increases in blood brain barrier permeability, blood vessel density, increases in inflammatory and autoimmune responses, alterations in NMDA and glutamate receptor levels and release of proteins normally sequestered in the brain into the blood and spinal fluid. The development of therapeutic agents that mitigate the loss of cognition and development of behavioral disorders in patients experiencing radiation-induced injury may provide benefit to those with TBI when similar processes are involved on a cellular or molecular level. Increased collaborative efforts between the radiation oncology and the neurology and psychiatry communities may be of major benefit for the management of brain injury from varied environmental insults.
Cybersecurity and human rights : understanding the connection / Vivek Krishnamurthy, Devony Schmidt, and Amy Lehr -- Perils of data-intensive systems in the Philippines and Asia / Jamael Jacob -- Freedom of peaceful assembly and association in an age of online networks and mobile sensing / Jonathan Andrew -- Algorithms of occupation : use of artificial intelligence in Israel and Palestine / Marwa Fatafta -- The facebook oversight board and the UN guiding principles on business and human rights : a missed opportunity for alignment? / Stefania di Stefano -- Privacy in the workplace : a human rights due diligence approach / Isabel Ebert and Isabelle Wildhaber -- Freedom to think and to hold a political opinion : digital threats to political participation in liberal democracies / Jérôme Duberry -- Is there a human rights obligation to protect democratic discourse in cyberspace? / Nula Frei -- The European approach to governing harmful speech online / Frédéric Bernard and Viera Pejchal -- Hate speech and journalism : challenges and strategies / Guido Keel -- Digital technologies for sustainable development / Claudia Abreu-Lopes and Marcus Erridge -- Digital technologies and the rights of children in Europe / Rezvan Kaseb and Elizabeth Milovidov.
