Over the Top: Dutch Right-Wing Extremist Parties in the Elections of 1994

In 1994 three elections were held in the Netherlands. For a time it seemed that the right-wing extremist parties were destined to break out of their marginal position. However, after these three elections, in terms of electoral support they ended up where they had started. The variation in electoral support for these parties can only in part be attributed to developments within the parties and the (negative) publicity these developments incited in the media. An alternative explanation based upon protest voting and the theory of first and second-order elections appears more promising.     

Heroin impurity profiling. A harmonization study for retrospective comparisons

Three laboratories present a harmonised system for the retrospective comparison of south west Asian heroin. It consists of an improved gas chromatographic (GC) profiling method and a computerised data retrieval. The investigations of the GC were necessary with a view to improve the reproducibility of the system. The necessity of a strict quality control is emphasized. The peaks of the GC profile were investigated for abundance, intensity, GC behaviour (reproducibility) and correlations; 16 of them were selected for describing the heroin profile in the database. The results from intra-lab profile comparisons are reported. The reproducibility of the analysis was good and the variation between the samples was large, thus, allowing conclusions with a high degree of certainty. The criteria of similarity were defined. The system is successfully running in all three labs.In connection with inter-laboratory comparison, the aspects of method harmonisation and standardisation are discussed. It appeared that the GC method is a very subtile one, urging for a strict standardisation between the three labs. Despite a long cooperation between three well-equipped and experienced labs, a more or less serious loss of reproducibility was noticed in the inter-lab results in comparison with the intra-lab results. The loss could for the greater part be attributed to the (limits of the) GC technique; a number of compounds, necessary for making the discrimination between samples, showed difficult chromatographic behaviour, leading to insufficient inter-lab reproducibility. Using the actual variables, improvements in performance can hardly be expected in the near future. The loss of reproducibilty implies that the number of false positive matches in a database search increases. This may strongly reduce the value of a relatively large, international database. The study shows that so far, the best option for international comparison is the analysis in a central laboratory. The idea of local determination at a large number of national labs and the use of a common database is not a realistic aim for this type of analysis.     

Business 2.0: Kyrgyz middlemen in Guangzhou

ABSTRACT

Among the many ‘businesspeople’ whom the promise of commercial success has drawn to southern China in recent years one can find a small number of Kyrgyz middlemen. Working mostly with Russian-speaking clients, their job is to organize buying trips, coordinate with local manufacturers, translate, and oversee cargo shipments. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since 2013, this article examines in detail the careers, work routines and business model adopted by Kyrgyz middlemen in Guangzhou. I argue that in contrast to the early bazaar or shuttle traders, who have been operating across Eurasia since the 1990s, these Kyrgyz middlemen constitute a next kind of economic actor within more diversified, service-oriented and formalized value chains across post-Socialist Eurasia (referred to here as Business 2.0). One of these middlemen’s most salient contributions is to translate between the informal and formal domains of national economies as well as within cross-border economic transactions.     

26-Locus Y-STR typing in a Bhutanese population sample

26 Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) loci were amplified in a sample of 856 unrelated males from Bhutan, using two multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The first multiplex is the Y-STR 20plex described by Butler et al. [J.M. Butler, R. Schoske, P.M. Vallone, M.C. Kline, A.J. Redd, M.F. Hammer, A novel multiplex for simultaneous amplification of 20 Y chromosome STR markers, Forensic Sci. Int. 129 (2002) 10-24], and the second is a novel (but overlapping) 14plex that targets six additional Y-STRs (DYS425, DYS434, DYS435, DYS436, DYS461, DYS462) and also amplifies the amelogenin locus. The 26-loci give a discriminating power of 0.9957, though even at this resolution one haplotype occurs 24 times. We identify novel alleles at five loci and microvariants at a further three, which were characterised by sequencing. Extended (11-locus) haplotypes for these samples have been submitted to the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD).     

Stress and suicide are we well-equipped to study this issue?

Stress almost always precedes suicidality. Stress also is a harbinger of a variety of psychiatric disorders, most notably depression. Depression is a major precursor of suicidal behavior. Consequently, the question of whether stress is an epiphenomenon or a decisive factor in the causation of suicidality and (certain forms of) mood disorders is crucial. Certainty about this question can only be obtained when it can be demonstrated that stress phenomena may induce changes in brain functioning similar to the ones supposedly associated with suicidality and with (certain forms of) depression. Since the phenomenology of stress syndromes, as well as their emotional intensity, are highly variable, careful definition of the stress syndrome to be studied is a first requirement. In studies into the significance of stress in the occurrence of suicidality and depression, this degree of finesse has not been achieved. The major shortcomings have been discussed. These should be systematically addressed to provide research into the relation between stress and psychopathology with the necessary acuity.