Progressiveness and the New Right: The Electoral Relevance of Culturally Progressive Values in the Netherlands

Whereas electoral support for new-rightist parties is often understood as driven by ethnocentric anti-immigrant sentiments, scholars have noted that new-rightist politicians have, surprisingly, stressed culturally progressive arguments in the last decade. Using recent Dutch survey data (N = 1,302) especially collected for this purpose, the article analyses the electoral relevance of three types of cultural progressiveness for voting for the new right and their relation to the well-documented anti-immigrant agenda. The analysis shows that neither moral progressiveness nor aversion to public interference of religious orthodoxy underlies the new-rightist vote. Support for freedom of speech proves relevant, but, in accordance with literature on the new right’s electoral strategy and with theorising on framing, this only leads towards the new right among those who are ethnocentric. These findings are discussed in the light of electoral competition, and questions for further research are formulated.     

Can ethyl glucuronide in hair be determined only in 3 cm hair strands?

This paper addresses the suitability of ethyl glucuronide in hair (EtGH) strands other than 3cm for alcohol consumption. This issue will be addressed (a) by statistically comparing the distribution of EtGH results for 3cm hair strands to other hair strands analysed from 4126 cases and (b) by examining the stability of EtGH in an 8cm hair strand and two 12cm hair samples of two volunteers and a post-mortem case using 1cm segmental analysis. For 3464 driving license re-granting Medical and Psychological Assessment (MPA) cases, the detection of alcohol consumption using hair lengths longer than 3cm was never significantly less than for 3cm hair lengths, even up to 12cm hair lengths analysed non-segmented. For 662 non-MPA cases, where, in contrast to MPA cases, generally no abstinence was required, an increase in the EtGH positivity rate was observed with increasing hair length analysed up to 9cm, indicating that EtG-washout effects seem to play a minor role if any. For both MPA and non-MPA hair samples less than 3cm, a drastic, significant increase in the number of positive EtGH samples were observed, compared to 3cm hair lengths, strongly supportive of EtGH incorporation from sweat after a recent alcohol consumption. Segmental studies indicated that EtG is stable in the hair matrix up to 12cm long, hence supporting the above results. Even though both the statistical and the stability studies are preliminary results which need to be confirmed by other studies, they both provide evidence for the determination of alcohol consumption using EtGH in hair lengths longer than 3cm. Amendments to the Consensus of the Society of Hair Testing, the German driving license re-granting guidelines and EWDTS hair guidelines with respect to testing for abstinence and/or alcoholism are proposed for the benefit of the donors.     

The influence of ethanol containing cosmetics on ethyl glucuronide concentration in hair

Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), non-volatile, direct metabolites of ethanol have been shown to be suitable markers for the evaluation of social and chronic excessive alcohol consumption. Previous investigations have shown that the regular use of hair-care products with high alcohol content lead to an increase of FAEE concentration and consequently gave false-positive results for the determination of FAEE in hair. In this study we investigated the influence of a long-term hair treatment with EtOH containing lotion, on the EtG concentrations in hair. In this study 7 volunteer subjects (classified as either rare, social or heavy drinkers) treated the right side of their scalp every day during a one or two month period with a commercial hair tonic (Seborin), which contains 44.0% ethanol (vol%). Collection of hair specimens from both sides of the scalp was done one day before hair treatment, one week and one month after treatment (for 5 subjects also after two months of treatment). A hair segment of 3 centimeters (cm) was cut and then washed with water and acetone, and then pulverized. EtG was quantified by GC/MS after pulverization and 2h of ultrasonication in water, extraction by solid phase extraction using Oasis MAX columns and derivatization with HFBA. Measurements were done in negative chemical ionization mode using EtG-D5 as internal standard. Comparison of EtG concentration in the treated and in the non-treated hair specimens did not show any increase at the different dates of collection for the 7 subjects. In conclusion, these results show that there is no indication for an increase of EtG after use of ethanol containing hair cosmetics.     

Redistributing the energy tax burden in the Philippines

This paper uses an aggregate modelling approach to assess the impacts of a redistribution of the taxes and duties that currently exist on crude oil and refined petroleum products on the Philippine economy. The approach used in the analysis consists of a general equilibrium model composed of fourteen producing sectors, fifteen consuming sectors, three household categories classified by income and a government. The effects of replacing the taxes and duties on crude oil and refined petroleum products with a more broad based tax on manufacturing and service sectors output on prices and quantities are examined. The results are revealing. For example, the consequences of redistributing the tax burden away from petroleum products to the manufacturing and service sectors of the Philippine economy will be an increase in output by all producing sectors of about 3.5 percent or about 2.4 hundred billion Philippine pesos, a rise in the consumption of goods and services by about 6.1 percent or 1.6 hundred billion Philippine pesos, a rise in total utility by 6.9 or 1.9 hundred billion Philippine pesos, and virtually no change in tax revenue for the government. When subjected to a sensitivity analysis, the results are reasonably robust with regard to the assumption of the values of the substitution elasticities. That is, while the model's equilibrium values do vary in response to different assumptions of the values of these elasticities, the fluctuations are not so enormous to suggest that the model is unrealistically sensitive to these parameters.     

Haptoglobin phenotyping from older bloodstains by enzyme immunoassay and haptoglobin phenotypes within a Nebraska Caucasian population

Enzyme immunoassay and Western blotting (electrophoretic) techniques were used to determine haptoglobin (HP) phenotypes from older bloodstains. Serum was collected from liquid blood and the HP phenotypes were determined. Bloodstains were prepared from these specimens and stored at various temperatures for several months. The stains were extracted and applied to gradient polyacrylamide gels. The Western blotting technique was used to achieve the transfer of HP bands from the gels to the nitrocellulose membranes. Enzyme immunoassay with goat anti-HP antiserum and rabbit anti-goat immunoglobulin peroxidase were used to identify the HP bands from the extracted samples. Enzyme immunoassay was found to be clearly more sensitive than o-dianisidine or o-tolidine in detecting HP bands from diluted serum samples. The haptoglobin frequency in a Caucasian population in Nebraska was calculated. The frequencies of Phenotypes 1, 2-1, and 2 were found to be 15.8, 48.4, and 35.8%, respectively.     

Fetal death due to nonlethal maternal carbon monoxide poisoning

Fetal death due to acute carbon monoxide poisoning is rarely reported in the medical literature. Of the eight cases found in literature review, only one documented the fetal carboxyhemoglobin concentration. This paper reports a fetal death due to accidental nonlethal maternal carbon monoxide intoxication in which both maternal and fetal carboxyhemoglobin concentrations were obtained. The corrected carboxyhemoglobin concentration was 61% at the time of death in utero, while the maternal carboxyhemoglobin was measured at 7% after one hour of supplemental oxygen. The authors review the mechanisms of fetal death and emphasize the different carbon monoxide kinetics in the fetal circulation.