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The authors of this paper report on the changing character of household waste, in the Czech Republic between 1999 and 2009 in households differentiated by their heating methods. The data presented are the result of two projects, financed by the Czech Ministry of Environment, which were undertaken during this time period with the aim of focusing on the waste characterisation and complete analysis of the physicochemical properties of the household waste. In the Czech Republic, the composition of household waste varies significantly between different types of households based on the methods of home heating employed. For the purposes of these studies, the types of homes were divided into three categories – urban, mixed and rural. Some of the biggest differences were found in the quantities of certain subsample categories, especially fine residue (matter smaller than 20 mm), between urban households with central heating and rural households that primarily employ solid fuel such coal or wood. The use of these solid fuels increases the fraction of the finer categories because of the higher presence of ash. Heating values of the residual household waste from the three categories varied very significantly, ranging from 6.8 MJ/kg to 14.2 MJ/kg in 1999 and from 6.8 MJ/kg to 10.5 MJ/kg in 2009 depending on the type of household and season. The same factors affect moisture of residual household waste which varied from 23.2% to 33.3%. The chemical parameters also varied significantly, especially in the quantities of Tl, As, Cr, Zn, Fe and Mn, which were higher in rural households. Because knowledge about the properties of household waste, as well as its physicochemical characteristics, is very important not only for future waste management, but also for the prediction of the behaviour and influence of the waste on the environment as the country continues to streamline its legislation to the European Union’s solid waste mandates, the results of these studies were employed by the Czech Ministry of Environment to optimise the national waste management strategy.

BACKGROUND: The Moorehead-Ardelt II (MA-II) questionnaire is the most frequently applied instrument to assess quality of life (QoL) in bariatric surgery patients. Our aim was to validate the Czech, German, Italian, and Spanish version of the MA-II. METHODS: A total of 893 patients were enroled in a prospective cross-sectional European study. Two thirds of the patients (n = 591) were postsurgical cases. In addition to demographic and clinical data, QoL data was collected using the MA-II questionnaire, the EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D),and the Short Form 36 Health Survery (SF-36). Statistical parameters for contingency (Cronbach's alpha),construct and criterion validity (Pearson's r),and responsiveness (standardised effect sizes) were calculated for each language version. RESULTS: In the different languages, Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.817 to 0.885 for the MA-II. These values were higher than those obtained for the SF-36 (0.418–0.607). The MA-II was well correlated to the EQ-5D (r = 0.662) and to 3 of the 8healthdomains of the SF-36 (0.615, 0.548, and 0.569 for physical functioning, physical role, and general health, respectively). As expected, there was a negative correlation between the MA-II and the BMI (r = −0.404 for all patients), but no significant correlation with age was found. When comparing both the heaviest and the lightest third of the patients, mean responsiveness was higher for the MA-II (−1.138) than for the domains of the SF-36 (range −0.111 to −1.070) and the EQ-5D (−0.874). CONCLUSION: The Czech, German, Italian, and Spanish version of the MA-II questionnaire are valid instruments and should be preferred to generic questionnaires as they provide better responsiveness.