Turning round the telescope. Centre-right parties and immigration and integration policy in Europe

This is an Author's Original Manuscript of 'Turning round the telescope. Centre-right parties and immigration and integration policy in Europe', whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in the Journal of European Public Policy 15(3):315-330, 2008 [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi.org/10.1080/13501760701847341

Kinetic models for estimating occupancy from single-scan PET displacement studies

The traditional design of PET target engagement studies is based on a baseline scan and one or more scans after drug administration. We here evaluate an alternative design in which the drug is administered during an on-going scan (i.e., a displacement study). This approach results both in lower radiation exposure and lower costs. Existing kinetic models assume steady state. This condition is not present during a drug displacement and consequently, our aim here was to develop kinetic models for analysing PET displacement data. We modified existing compartment models to accommodate a time-variant increase in occupancy following the pharmacological in-scan intervention. Since this implies the use of differential equations that cannot be solved analytically, we developed instead one approximate and one numerical solution. Through simulations, we show that if the occupancy is relatively high, it can be estimated without bias and with good accuracy. The models were applied to PET data from six pigs where [11C]UCB-J was displaced by intravenous brivaracetam. The dose-occupancy relationship estimated from these scans showed good agreement with occupancies calculated with Lassen plot applied to baseline-block scans of two pigs. In summary, the proposed models provide a framework to determine target occupancy from a single displacement scan.</p

"The National Front and Agenda Formation in France"

The influence of marginal political parties over agenda formation has generally been understood from the perspective of coalition politics. Thus small parties influence the development of the policy agenda in a cabinet system through their ability to provide a majority of votes to one of two parties with a plurality in parliament in the process of govemment formation. However, little attention has been given to the influence of marginal parties over the political agenda when they are not needed for coalition formation. In the case of the French National Front, the party was represented in the National Assembly for only a brief period of two years (1986-88). Before that and since, although its electoral support has grown, the electoral law has more or less assured that it would have virtually no national representation. This leaves us with two related puzzles. Why then does the party seem to have had considerable influence over the policy agenda, and why have voters continued to support a party that appears to have little hope of actually entering govemment? There is no obvious reason why NF should have significant influence over agenda formation on immigration, since, at least in principle, the major parties reached a general understanding on immigration policy over a decade ago with the passage of the Law of July 17, 1984, which established the equivalent of a French "green card." The paper analyzes the dynamics of party competition and policy formation that have enabled the National Front to succeed in changing the terms of the debate on immigration, in a way that favors its own electoral success