Fluorine in groundwater and surface water in the Skawina region near Kraków

The paper presents the examination of fluorine concentration in groundwater and surface water in the Skawina region, including the determination of the influence of a former aluminum smelter plant on the concentration. Although the Skawina aluminum smelter emitted the largest amounts of fluorine-containing dust and gases in 1954–1981, the persistent low concentration of fluorine in groundwater was found during the present examinations. The results from 2011 are similar to those conducted in the 1970s and 1980s. In a water reservoir located below the closed landfill, high fluorine concentrations were recorded (103.69 mg dm3), which means that fluorine has been eluted out of the landfill

Materialism and Well‑Being Revisited: The Impact of Personality

Although the negative link between materialism and well-being has been confirmed by results from many empirical studies, mechanisms underlying this association still remain partially unexplained. The issue is addressed in this article in two ways. Firstly, the nature of the components of materialism is examined, and secondly—the article demonstrates that personality (particularly neuroticism and narcissism) is one of the important factors linking materialism and well-being. The article presents the results of three empirical studies, in which three main assumptions were verified—that the components of materialism, i.e. acquisition centrality, acquisition as a pursuit of happiness and possession-defined success, have dissimilar impacts on well-being, that materialists with high and low levels of neuroticism and narcissism differ with regard to well-being, and that neuroticism and narcissism mediate the relationship between materialism and well-being. The studies were based on self-reports and utilized well-known, established questionnaire measures of materialism, personality and well-being. The results showed that each component of materialism was associated with well-being in a slightly different way. Of the three possession-defined happiness was the strongest predictor of all aspects of well-being examined and the centrality component was not associated with any of them. Materialists with a high level of neuroticism and low level of grandiose narcissism experienced diminished well-being in comparison to materialism with a low level of neuroticism and high level of grandiose narcissism. Neuroticism and grandiose narcissism were both significant mediators, acting contrary to each other—neuroticism lowered well-being, whereas grandiose narcissism elevated it

Deconstructing materialism – towards a better understanding of its connections with well-being

According to the most popular conceptualization of materialism by Richins and Dawson it consists of three components: acquisition centrality, acquisition as the pursuit of happiness and possession -defined success. They are usually combined and an overall indicator of materialism is used commonly in various studies. In the article the three components are examined separately. Differences in their nature are revealed in a theoretical analysis, whereas in two empirical studies the ways they connect with well -being are presented. The results show that the overall materialism explains much less variance of well -being than the three components taken separately. Of the three the possession- -defined happiness is the most detrimental to all aspects of well -being. The possession -defined success does not connect with well -being at all. Finally, acquisition centrality elevates hedonic and psychological well -being. The conclusion is that the modest effect of materialism on well -being, usually identified in various studies, is probably at least partly due to conflicting forces existing within the construct

The structure of goal contents revisited : a verification of the model in polish samples

The article presents an attempt to confirm the circumplex structure of goal contents, identified in 15 cultures around the world (Grouzet et al., 2005), in nine Polish samples. The procedure followed steps from the original study and included testing the assumed 11-factor goal structure and the two-dimensional circular organization of the goal contents. None of the analyses showed outcomes that would explicitly confirm the results attained in the original study. The CFA showed rather poor fits. Results of the MDS generally supported the assumption about the two-dimensional goal contents structure, however ipsative distance analysis reproduced only one of the two assumed dimensions. Finally, although the CIRCUM analysis showed in principle that in the Polish sample the organization of goal contents on the circumference was quite similar to original, the RMSEA indicated poor fit. Methodological and conceptual reasons for the replication failure are analyzed and discussed

Histological studies of selected organs of mice experimentally infected with Acanthamoeba spp.

Histological studies of the brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and the spleen were carried out in mice previously infected with 6 pathogenic strains of free-living amoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba. The potential virulence of the strains studied was determined on the basis of re-isolation of the amoebae from the organs of the inoculated animals and by the extent of the histopathological changes inflicted. The most virulent was strain AD16, affecting all organs of the inoculated mice, while the least virulent was strain AD148 re-isolated from the brain of a single mouse. The extent of the changes in the brain depended upon the amoebae strain, while in the remaining organs it also depended upon the duration of the infection

Intrinsic - Extrinsic - Transcendent. A triarchic model of goal contents: introduction and validation

The article refers to an 11-factor circumplex model of goal contents introduced by Grouzet et al., which suggested a consistent structure of goals allocated within two dimensions: extrinsic–intrinsic and self-transcendent–physical. A previous study showed a rather poor fit of this model in a Polish context. Therefore using data from the aforementioned replication project in Study I we re-examined the structure and found a triarchic configuration more adequately fitting existing data. This new model was further tested in Study II. To find an adequate factor structure of life goals measured by the Polish version of the Aspiration Index in Study I we ran exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in three groups of 1,762 people in total. To check psychometric characteristics of the developed AI-23 questionnaire we conducted Study II on a group of 319 students. The analyses revealed a new structure of the Aspiration Index consisting of scales related to seven life goals connected with three general groups of goals: intrinsic, extrinsic and transcendent. Results of confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and divergent validation, internal consistency and test–retest reliability allowed AI-23 to be treated as an effective tool to measure life goals. The results suggest a triarchic organization of goal contents, with self-transcendent goals supplementing well-established theoretical categories of intrinsic and extrinsic goals

Polska adaptacja skali wartości materialnych (MVS) - właściwości psychometryczne wersji pełnej i wersji skróconych

The Material Values Scale (MVS) developed by Richins and Dawson (1992) is the most frequently used worldwide measurement of materialism. Although it has also been used in Polish research for almost a quarter of a century, the measurement properties of its Polish adaptations have not been systematically examined thus far. This article fills the gap. It contains an analysis of the measurement properties of the Polish adaptation (MVS_PL), which was based on three raw data sets. The author examined the basic 15-item MVS and three short versions consisting respectively of nine, six, and three items. The results show that all versions of MVS_PL have at least acceptable psychometric properties, but the scales with nine and six items best fit the Polish data. The analysis confirms that MVS_PL is a good, reliable, and accurate tool that could be recommended to measure materialistic orientation in the Polish environment

Konteksty i pogranicza - inspiracje dla psychologii zdrowia

The article presents the psychology of health as a component of a multidimensional system of the knowledge about a human being. Multidimensionality of the very system suggests contact and permeation of different theoretical and practical contexts constituting an important contribution to understanding health and behaviours connected with health. The very contexts derive from perspectives and theoretical paradigms from not only psychology, but also “borderline” disciplines. Important contexts result from observations of demographic and civilizational processes, related to changes of a technological and cultural nature in the contemporary world, also from transformations happening in man’s natural environment, e.g. evoked by climate changes. The article outlines both theoretical and practical contexts of empirical analyses in the psychology of health. The author specifically concentrates on the analysis of the role of a biopsychosocial model as a meta‑perspective for the analyses under investigation. The practical context constitutes the issue of a widelyunderstood quality of life. In reference to borderline areas of the psychology of health, next to traditional points with such sciences as medicine, sociology and pedagogy, the article points to the need of paying attention to formal‑ organizational and economic contexts of health behaviours and medical care and, thus, relations of the psychology of health with the issue of public health on the one hand, and, the psychology of organization and management, as well as economic psychology on the other. What was considered to be particularly important in the latter case was paying attention to consumer behaviours having clear healthy references because of a progressive commercialization of not only medical services, but also health as such, as well as blur the border between the role of health and beauty standards, and social effectiveness

A review of current knowledge regarding insulin resistance among the pediatric population

One of the key roles in maintaining the body's homeostasis is played by insulin. The presence of insulin receptors in almost all cells of the body reflects the importance of this hormone. Insulin resistance is a state of impaired glucose homeostasis resulting from a decreased sensitivity of peripheral tissues to insulin, despite normal or elevated serum levels. The purpose of this paper is to present the current state of knowledge on the pathogenesis, risk factors, and diagnosis of insulin resistance at developmental age

Education in Possession - how to Achieve Happiness in the Materialistically Oriented World

In the article reasons for “education in possession” are introduced. The author defi nes the concept of “education in possession” in terms of educational objectives and means of their realization which are to help people in conscious and responsible choices related to fulfi lling their vital needs using eff ectively available material resources. In the approach applied instead of looking at the problem from the point of view of idealistically set goals and directions of education, a question has been asked if acquiring and possessing material goods can provide clear advantages for individuals in relation to the quality of their lives. Such advantages are considered to serve as standards for the appropriateness of people’s choices and at the same time as benchmarks for educational objectives. The author, drawing conclusions from the results of numerous studies on the relationship between psychological well-being and material wealth, shows that wealth fulfi ls its function in relation to the fulfi llment of human needs in the area of necessary comfort and in relation to the eff ectiveness of individuals’ everyday activities. Beyond that material strivings seem to be psychologically disadvantageous and lose their importance. Aft er reaching a certain level being wealthier does not mean being happier, because the obtained surplus of possessions, being unnecessary, requires dealing with additional costs of the psychological nature. Th ese psychological costs of material wealth have their roots in external and internal factors. The former are connected with objective discrepancies in wealth within societies and cultural rules and values, the latter with a type of motivation for acquiring material possession, nature of material goals, an individual level of materialism, a confl ict between values, and a way of managing material resources. Th e avoidance of the costs described is treated in the article as a major educational objective in the fi eld of “education in possession”