We researched the COVID-19 pandemic as a give-some social dilemma. The success of solving the dilemma depends on an adequate proportion of cooperative actors. We were interested in the difference ...between how religious and non-religious Slovenian citizens reported their level of cooperation with government measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus during the pandemic. Our research shows that during the first wave of the epidemic in Slovenia, religious citizens were slightly more cooperative than non-religious citizens. However, this statistically significant difference was not the consequence of religiosity per se. Regression analysis suggests that the observable difference was due to factors such as age, gender, concern about health, and trust in the ruling government. We explain the effect of these factors in light of the existing corpus of knowledge about social dilemmas.
The article presents the circumstances of the fieldwork phase of the European Social Survey (ESS) round 10 in Slovenia, which took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. It is an ...exceptional situation, making it very difficult to conduct a survey based on a personal interviewing approach, especially when any other solution was not viable. The national team was faced with several additional tasks related to carrying out fieldwork activities in exceptional circumstances. The article presents the dynamics of the epidemic in Slovenia and the necessary measures to conduct the survey. Two primary objectives were pursued: data quality assurance despite the aggravated circumstances, and ensuring the safety of respondents and interviewers from possible risk of contact. The first was ensured by using all available tools and approaches as under normal pre-pandemic circumstances; while for the second we introduced a series of measures that went beyond the national safety measures (which were in many ways similar to those in most European countries). The ensuring of risk-free contact and additional motivational training among interviewers, also played an influence on the first objective (the quality of the data); namely, no significant hesitation or fear of possible infection was perceived among the respondents during the fieldwork. One of the critical points that prevailed in the decision to start the fieldwork in early autumn 2020, was having at least two months of pleasant weather conditions, which allows a significant part of interviews to be conducted outdoor, which would significantly reduce the possibility of risky contacts between the interviewer and the respondent. The sharp deterioration of events with the outbreak of the second wave dictated that the survey had to be conducted in two batches. This posed some new implementation requirements for researchers. The results of the sample realisation of two fieldwork intervals and the outcome of the ESS in Slovenia – the first among ESS countries that successfully completed the fieldwork round 10 (ESS 2020) – are also presented.
The paper outlines fieldwork monitoring techniques that have been used in the fieldwork phase of the European Social Survey (ESS) in Slovenia in round 9 (2018), previous rounds and other national ...surveys in Slovenia. The transition to computer-assisted personal interviewing which we adopted a decade ago at the Public Opinion and Mass Communication Research Centre (POMCRC), University of Ljubljana, has been consistently used throughout the national research program. The ESS was one of the first surveys through which we established higher standards by using digitized survey tools. Over the years, these tools have been continuously developed and digitalization of contact data has been introduced, which has opened up additional possibilities for monitoring and maintaining survey data quality. Because of our awareness of unwanted interviewer behaviour and the human factor in recording people’s opinion, we anticipate various anomalies that might occur and could be observed and dealt with during the fieldwork and later on, such as: response rate, interviewers' week-by-week work dynamics, the result of the last visit, logical and consistency checking, duration of an interview and other factors. In the report we would like to show some of these indicators in a comparative context.
Many risks are associated with the Covid-19 crisis and related lockdown measures in the areas of employment, the economy, and everyday life. Working parents have faced the challenge of combining ...their work and family obligations following the closure of schools and kindergartens. A considerable number have encountered a bigger risk of unemployment and the linked financial instability. The extensive literature analysing changes during Covid-19 suggests that women have tended to suffer more, been faced with both less stability since their employment statuses appear to be more precarious, and been disproportionally affected by the heavier burden of balancing family care and work obligations. Our own analysis of the most reliable survey data available shows corresponding changes in Slovenia, confirming that the crisis reveals certain less visible, already existing inequalities along with particular new gender inequalities, and in this respect also presents specific research design conditions for assessing otherwise hidden disparities. The results indicate the consequences for the subjective well-being of women compared to men of the more precarious employment and the stronger demand for family care. Keywords: Covid-19, gender inequalities, employment flexibility, work from home, family care, life satisfaction
RELIGIOUS PLURALISATION IN SLOVENIA Crnic, Ales; Komel, Mirt; Smrke, Marjan ...
Teorija in praksa,
01/2013, Letnik:
50, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The article analyses the dynamics of religious pluralisation in Slovenia. Historical developments in various states have kept Slovenians almost exclusively within the Roman-Catholic Church, except ...for a short Reformation period. The socialist after-war secularisation of society has in many respects undermined the Catholic monopoly but it failed to create an open religious market. In the transitional period the statistics of Catholics continued to drop, and at the same time ever more new religious movements emerged. These are mostly very small and at the time being do not show the potential for substantial growth. The article analyses in detail religious pluralisation in the regions of Ljubljana and Nova Gorica. Adapted from the source document.
Synthetic scaffolds that permit spatial and temporal organization of enzymes in living cells are a promising post-translational strategy for controlling the flow of information in both metabolic and ...signaling pathways. Here, we describe the use of plasmid DNA as a stable, robust and configurable scaffold for arranging biosynthetic enzymes in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli. This involved conversion of individual enzymes into custom DNA-binding proteins by genetic fusion to zinc-finger domains that specifically bind unique DNA sequences. When expressed in cells that carried a rationally designed DNA scaffold comprising corresponding zinc finger binding sites, the titers of diverse metabolic products, including resveratrol, 1,2-propanediol and mevalonate were increased as a function of the scaffold architecture. These results highlight the utility of DNA scaffolds for assembling biosynthetic enzymes into functional metabolic structures. Beyond metabolism, we anticipate that DNA scaffolds may be useful in sequestering different types of enzymes for specifying the output of biological signaling pathways or for coordinating other assembly-line processes such as protein folding, degradation and post-translational modifications.
Ustekinumab is a monoclonal antibody used in Crohn’s disease (CD). Dose optimization in case of non-response and the role of pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) monitoring remain unresolved ...dilemmas in clinical practice. We aimed to develop a population PK-PD model for ustekinumab in CD and simulate efficacy of alternative dosing regimens. We included 57 patients and recorded their characteristics during 32 weeks after starting with ustekinumab therapy. Serum ustekinumab concentration was prospectively measured and fecal calprotectin (FC) concentration was used to monitor the disease activity. Ustekinumab PK-PD was described by a two-compartment target-mediated drug disposition model linked to an indirect response model. Lower fat-free mass, higher serum albumin, previous non-exposure to biologics, FCGR3A-158 V/V variant and lower C-reactive protein were associated with higher ustekinumab exposure. Model-based simulation suggested that 41.9% of patients receiving standard dosing achieve biochemical remission at week 32. In patients not achieving remission with standard dosing at week 16, transition to 4-weekly subcutaneous maintenance dosing with or without intravenous reinduction resulted in comparably higher remission rates at week 32 (51.1% vs. 49.2%, respectively). Our findings could be used to guide stratified ustekinumab treatment in CD, particularly in patients with unfavorable characteristics, who might benefit from early transition to 4-weekly maintenance dosing.
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