The potential of domiciliary care service in the Czech Republic to promote ageing in place

Due to population ageing, the need for long-term care is increasing. In many European countries, there is now a firm policy preference for care in the home as opposed to institutional care and policies at the local level support this preference. The purpose of this study is to report on the position of domiciliary care service within the Czech social services for the elderly and to explore its potential to promote ‘ageing in place’. The aim of the research was to perceive this issue from the viewpoint of the different parties: service users, service workers, service managers as well as policy-makers. Therefore, the qualitative methodology (case study method) was used. The results revealed that users considered domiciliary care as the only service in the Czech Republic that allowed them to remain at home despite their worsening capacity to manage the activities of daily living. On the part of the domiciliary care service, however, we found that this was strong in the provision of practical help, as well as assistance with users' self-maintenance, whereas their supervision and care management were not explicitly included either in the concept or the practice of this type of service.     

US Neoconservative Support and Policy Activism for Bosnia, 1992–1995: Correcting the Record

Abstract

The aim of this article is to trace neoconservative thought in the US and policy activism on the role of the US in Bosnia during the 1992–1995 genocide. This paper argues that, on the issue of intervention in Bosnia, neoconservatives in the US comprised two camps. Neoconservative former government officials were early and consistent advocates of an assertive US intervention in Bosnia. However, the neoconservative academics were a heterogeneous group divided over the question of US intervention. Yet, both the former government officials and several academics came together in supporting President Bill Clinton's decision to deploy US troops to enforce the Dayton Peace Accords. While sharply criticized in the Muslim world for their Middle East policies, neoconservative advocacy for Bosnia and Bosnian Muslims during 1992–1995 has been largely overlooked. Analysing neoconservatives’ activism on Bosnia provides for a more nuanced understanding of the US neoconservative foreign policy legacy.     

Commemorating Srebrenica: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

The aim of this Special Issue is to commemorate the genocide victims in Bosnia on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the capture of UN safe area of Srebrenica in July 1995. Recognized as the worst atrocity in Europe since 1945, the horrors of Srebrenica reverberate far beyond Bosnia with commemorations held across the globe from Canada to Australia. While there has been a growing literature on this subject over the last two decades, this Special Issue seeks to make a scholarly contribution to the study of genocide by bringing together works on understudied aspects of this period in Bosnian and European history.     

Sleep and napping in young shiftworkers: A 5-year follow-up

Abstract

The present study examined sleep characteristics in young workers who entered rapidly rotating shiftwork for the first time and stayed on shifts for 5 years. Data were collected when the subjects had shiftwork experience of approximately 1.5, 3.5 and 5.5 years and a mean age of 22, 24 and 26 years. Data are presented showing significant differences in the main sleep durations between situations within the shift cycle and a small reduction in overall sleep over the observed period, primarily due to a sleep reduction on afternoon shift days. Data on sleep quality did not show any change over this early period of shiftwork exposure. In addition, napping strategies did not change, with the exception of a small increase in those taking naps on night-shift days between 1.5 years and 3.5 years of shiftwork exposure. At all the observed phases there were more young shiftworkers taking a nap on the morning shift days than on the night-shift days. The data suggested that reduced sleeps on morning and night-shift days were not compensated by taking a nap, but rather with an increase in main sleep duration on afternoon shift days and days off. A weak tendency for individuals to be relatively long or short sleepers irrespective of sleep conditions could be seen.     

Food Self-Provisioning in Czechia: Beyond Coping Strategy of the Poor: A Response to Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008)

Food systems are of increasing interest in both research and policy communities. Surveys of post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) show high rates of food self-provisioning. These practices have been explained in terms of being ‘coping strategies of the poor’. Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008) offers a prominent account of this argument, supported by quantitative data. However, evidence from our case study of food self-provisioning in one CEE state–Czechia–contradicts their findings. Newly commissioned survey data, as well as a fresh look at the data they were working from, demonstrate that rather than being motivated by poverty, these widespread practices serve as a hobby and as a way of accessing ‘healthy food’. With food self-provisioning becoming an increasingly prominent subject in advanced industrial countries, in terms of both health and environmental policy, we propose that much greater care is taken in researching and interpreting the reasons for differences in food systems. Our findings are that environmentally sustainable and healthy self-provisioning in Czechia is motivated by a range of reasons, and practised by a significant proportion of the population across all social groups. This conclusion questions linear narratives of progress that figure ‘western’ practices as advanced or complete or automatically desirable, and contributes in a modest way to a decentring of narratives of progress.     

Chi-Squared Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Parametric Accelerated Failure Time Models

We give chi-squared goodness-of fit tests for parametric regression models such as accelerated failure time, proportional hazards, generalized proportional hazards, frailty models, transformation models, and models with cross-effects of survival functions. Random right censored data are used. Choice of random grouping intervals as data functions is considered.