Sunday, November 3, 2019

Visitor centre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Visitor centre - Essay Example Considering that the terrain is a pond, the piles are designed such that the loads from the footings are transmitted to the underlying strata with enough bearing capacity to support the load without settlement. Notice that all columns are within the wall perimeter, both internal and exterior walls. Since all exterior walls shall be of glazing, it would be aesthetically appropriate to have the glazing occupy the full width of a span then being split into two with a central column. As mentioned previously, the footings will convey the loads to the piles which in turn are supported by rigid strata. Lateral loads (wind, ground movement) are countered by beams connected to the columns. The only beams inclined from the horizontal are the roof beams which support the grass roof. The structure in this scheme is fairly stable as long as the beams are of the adequate size and the beam-to-column connections are sufficiently anchored to each other. The only issue would be the stability of the foundation, thus a comprehensive geotechnical study has to be done to determine the most suitable type of foundation. Scheme 2 is recommended for the proposed structure. The addition of intermediate beams to support the slab would translate to the reduction in the size of the members. Although more columns can be introduced in the structure, it may not be economical for the reason that more foundation must be made to support it. However, more columns would result in less loads carried by each footing, there is the danger of differential settlement to deal with. Ultimately, an extensive geotechnical study must be conducted to determine the best foundation in this case. When the type of foundation is determined, the structural framing can then be designed to suit the type of foundation whether be it pile or mat foundation which almost is the case for small bearing capacities typical of soft soils. The structure shall have bigger girders (column-to-column) beams and smaller intermediate beams. References: McCarthy D., (2006) Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Basic Geotechnics. Salmon C., Johnson, J., Malhas, F. (2008) Steel Structures: Design and Behavior. USA: Prentice

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Summarize and analyze, from a rhetorical perspective, the documentary Essay

Summarize and analyze, from a rhetorical perspective, the documentary film Parrot Confidential - Essay Example He was able to survive the ordeal thanks to a neighbor who called Animal Control. Lou found a new home in a sanctuary called Foster Parrots. In another scene, Allison highlights the life of another rescue called Fagan. Before his arrival at the Feathered Friends of Michigan sanctuary, Fagan lived in a stressful home. The heightened stress levels led to self-mutilation, which entailed plucking feathers from the chest and infliction of a bad wound on the stomach (Argo, 2013). One scene focuses on Boston residents Liz and Russ Hartman who own a yellow-napped Amazon parrot named Basil. After the return of Russ from a long business trip, the couple noticed Basils strange behavior of plucking feathers from his chest area. The self-mutilation alarmed and devastated them as they tried to understand what would drive Basil to expose himself to pain. In another scene, Jamie McLeod shares a similar outlook as the Hartmans. He views parrot rearing as a lifelong commitment. His extensive knowledge emanates from his experiences as a former breeder and those from his current job at the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary. McLeods friend Lavanya Michel takes advantage of the day-care services offered by the sanctuary. She brings her Molucaan cockatoo named Dolly to the sanctuary when she needs to attend to many errands (Argo, 2013). It is crucial to note that majority of the breeders featured are currently conservationists. For instance, Phoebe and Harry Linden abandoned their parrot-breeding project in order to provide sanctuary to abandoned birds. In another scene, Marc Johnson and his wife Karen transformed an old poultry farm in Hope Valley into a rescue center for abandoned parrots. Foster Parrots Ltd. is now home to over 500 displaced parrots cared for by a small staff and volunteers (Argo, 2013). Aristotle, a prominent ancient philosopher identified ethos, logos and pathos as the key elements of persuasion. Ethos centers on establishing an

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Building Successful Brands Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Building Successful Brands - Essay Example Primarily, the products of a company should not be poor and have great branding since the branding of poor products will realize losses for the company (Schatte, 2009, p.25). However, companies that do the best of branding also face obstacles in the global market. The main challenge is competition from other companies, since every company tries to be the best in the market. This scenario makes companies to be always on the rush to innovate better and greater branding skills to overcome competition from rivals in the market (Okonkwo, 2007, p10). There are always cultures that people associate with relating to global brands. Consumers have a tendency to stick to commodities that have particular qualities and models. There are dimensions that research show, which consumers use in the buying of products from different transnational companies (Wimmers, 2009, p.45). The first dimension is quality signal, where consumers buy the products of the transnational company that emerges a victor in the competition of branding. The companies that manufacture the best quality of goods and services get the highest number of customers. It implies that the companies that manage to produce commodities of the best quality and have the most captivating branding aspect fetch the largest number of consumers in the global market. ... It means that the products with quality branding have a wider market than the poorly branded products that only sell in the local markets. The second dimension is global myth, where consumers use a particular product to create an image culturally (Mooij, 2010, p.14). The consumers always seek for identity in the society and thus using the product earns them that identity. This is the reason some consumers use products that have a global brand to feel that they belong to the entire of the world. Such goods consist of clothes labels like Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton (Glynn & Woodside, 2009, p.22). The third dimension that people use to buy products with global brand is social responsibility. Consumers believe that products and services can serve to create a morals impression in the society. This makes consumers to buy certain brands of commodities since they believe that the society will realize the benefit that comes with that specific product (Haig, 2011, p.27). In this case, Waitr ose used these dimensions in the improvement of their brand that fetched many consumers in the global market. Since it is also involves an online grocery, it was essential for the company to brand itself well to ensure that it attracts many customers. Waitrose is a market chain of British supermarkets that forms the largest portion of retailers in the country. The company rebranded itself in 2003, which consequently led to increased sales for the company (Hatch & Schultz, 2008, p.32). The website was given a new facelift that give a great view of the supermarket’s structure and proper arrangement of the interior decor. Importantly, the supermarket changed the packaging of the products by wrapping some of the products

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Natural Product and Metabolomics

Natural Product and Metabolomics Mass Spectrometry is often become very useful comes into the final confirmation stage of a chemical structure. This is because by noting the fragmentation pattern and the total molecular mass of compound, researchers will be able to confirm the compound’s chemical formula, followed by confirming the chemical structure proposed based on previous instrumental analyses. Nowadays, Gas Chromatography and Liquid Chromatography are coupled with mass spectrometry in order for researchers to obtain the molecular mass right after the compounds are separated chromatographically. However, GC-MS are more often being used to study natural product compared to LC-MS because LC-MS doesn’t have its database constructed like GC-MS due to the extensive range of secondary metabolites and it is hardly reproducible. (Lee Yoon et al., 2013) Researchers can confirm the compound by matching the molecular mass obtained from GC-MS with the established database, while LC-MS users will have to refe r to the data provided by previous researchers on that particular field of study. There are a lot of journals regarding the studies of primary and secondary metabolites being published and a lot of researches will insert their sample for GC-MS experiment and then compared their compound’s fragmentation pattern and also molecular weight to the National Institute of Standards and Technology libraries, which will tells researchers the structure of their compounds, even if there are no exact matching, researches will at least have a rough idea on their structure. In the early 1990s, Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was introduced to extract compounds from samples without the use of solvent; this method is later applied on samples before undergoing GC-MS process. This technique enables researchers to extract compounds from sample in a much simpler and cheaper way since it doesn’t include the use of solvent. SPME works by adsorbing compounds into its fibre coated absorbing phase from the sample, and then inserted into GC for desorption of compound into it and then separated. (Dagostino Sanz et al., 2014) This technique is so convenient that researchers can even carry it along when going into a jungle to adsorb compounds from plant of interest and bringing it back to the lab to undergo GC-MS experiment, much more convenient than plucking a big bunch of plants sample to the lab for solvent soaking. Samples can be injected into GC-MS through either split of splitless injection; split injection system will direct most of the samples out to the atmosphere and only allow approximately 1% of it to enter the column while splitless injection system allows most of the samples to enter the column. Split/splitless system are designed to give reproducible chromatographic retention times and also to keep the chromatographic requirements of column in place, to use split of splitless, it is depending on the sensitivity required. Though splitless system allows more sample to be injected in however, metabolomics researches are better be carried out with split system because metabolites are present in wide range concentrations and it allows researchers to analyze volatile compounds eluting near the solvent peak. (Cyril Jousse, 2009) Besides plant’s metabolites, GC-MS is also very useful for bio-metabolics, some of the bio-metabolics researches are for example Chrysoula Christou et al. did a research on analysis of organic acids in human urine in clinical settings in order to develop a method for organic acid profiling in human urine, this can be useful to detect metabolics or other health disorders. Their sample was being separated by gas column and undergo quadrupole mass spectrometer in the electron ionization (EI) mode and as a result chromatogram and mass spectra shown 11 organic acids separated and identified by conducting similarity search on NIST library (3). A research was carried out by Ioannis Papoutsis and the team of research. where GC-MS method was used to determine amisulpride in blood. Amisulpride is an antipsychotic drugs which is prescribed to psychiatric patients, overdosing can cause arrhythmia, bradycardia and hypotension. (4) SPME was first used by them to extract compounds from the b lood samples and then separated by using gas chromatography and finally detected by mass spectrometer, results show that GC-MS can be used to monitor amisulpride in the blood and this can be used in pharmacokinetic studies and also forensic investigation. Archeology GC-MS is also used in assisting archaeology studies; it is especially useful when comes to determining the chemical constituents of the sample. In one of the recent archaeology research, M. Mà ©nager, C. Azà ©mard and C. Vieillescazes studied the mummification balms from the mummy skulls with FTIR and GC-MS. Twelve mummified heads were collected, the balms on the heads were extracted with organic solvent and water before introduced to GC-MS. Molecular components were eluted by using helium, and injected with split system. Samples were eluted by using helium as carrier gas with the flow of 1mL.min-1 and oven temperature was set to: 50  °C for 2 min, 50–250  °C at 8  °C ·min−1, 250–350  °C at 3  °C ·min−1, and 350  °C during 20 min. 1 ÃŽ ¼L of each sample was injected with a splitting system and the injection temperature was set at 250  °C. Mass spectra were generated by electron ionization mode with electron ionization energy of 70 eV, an ionization time of 25,000 ÃŽ ¼s and a mass range of 40–650 m/z. (5) As a result, those mummification balms were found to contain mixtures such as oils, fats, beeswax, resins, proteins, polysaccharides and minerals, these compounds are confirmed again by matching mass spectra with NIST library. With the use of only FTIR without confirmation by GC-MS, researchers will only be able to know the functional group in it without confirming the compounds. Cosmetic In cosmetic industries, chemical compounds in every cosmetic must be carefully studied as it’s applied onto human’s skin and body, therefore any mistake made will cause allergy or irritation to end users. Synthetic husk has been widely applied in cosmetic industry due ti its long-lasting odor, however, it was found that two groups of synthetic musk can cause many health disorders. Many countries have also set up regulations on the amount of synthetic musk in order to protect end users, this has become another parameter in quality control of cosmetic products. In Beijing, China, Haifeng Dong and his team of researchers conducted a research on 7 synthetic musk in cream by using SPME and then GC-MS, cream is chosen as it is the most common form of cosmetic product. (6) Cosmetic creams contains moisturizing, nutritional agent and also many lipophilic compounds. Synthethic musks have low polarity and it is also one of lipophilic compounds, which cause synthethic musks can be hardly be separated out from other liphophilic compounds. Cream samples must undergo extra cleanup steps such as by matrix solid phase dispersion method (MSPD) in order minimizes the matrix effect. Since water and isopropanol was used to separate synthetic musks from lipophilic compounds, supported liquid extraction will need to be used in order absorb water and remove interferences to give better purification. Tandem MS was used in this research in order to improve the selectivity and decrease the detection limit. This research which deals with dream shows slightly different in the preparation method compared to other GC-MS research, however, overall concept is still similar.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Michael Jordan: Beyond Personal Glory Essay -- Basketball Players Pape

Michael Jordan: Beyond Personal Glory Michael Jordan is the only athlete to have ever gained the middle name "Air" because of his unbelievable ability to soar through the sky before he smashes the ball through the rim. He has managed to defy all obstacles ever thrown his way within the sport of basketball, earning his reputation as the most competitive and determined player in the NBA. Over the span of Michael Jordan's 18 year long career in the NBA, he has enjoyed world wide attention and recognition as the ambassador of basketball. Jordan has influenced basketball players around the globe and, with his own shoes and clothing brand, along with his artistic way of handling himself on the court, has developed a style of his own within the sport. Michael Jordan can be considered the foremost leader of the enlightenment in the sport of basketball. I myself am the owner of two pairs of Jordan shoes, which I consider to be my favorite shoes, although I certainly realize that Jordan's merchandise is way too expensive and I along with the rest of the basketball fanatics am being suckered in to paying large sums of money for an image. Ever since I started my journey as a basketball player, Michael Jordan has been an idol and a role model for me to follow in my quest to reach my own goals as an athlete. I have devoured all the information about this man I could possibly attain and have been inspired by his life as a basketball player as well as a role model off the court. Many people characterize Michael Jordan as a typical athlete, who was successful within his sport, but because of his personal flaws and his self-destructive competitiveness never managed to exceed the level of other very competent and well known athle... ...el, Michael Jordan is a brand name." Nieman Reports, Vol. 53 Issue3, p41. Grimm, Mathiew. "Over Jordan." Brandweek, Vol. 40 Issue 6, p. 24. Hirsch, Phil. "Should his Airness be a Cultural Icon?" http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/Field/1307/newspaper.html. Lipsyte, Robert. Michael Jordan: A Life above the rim. New York, NY: Harper Collins,c1994. "Michael Jordan." American Decades CD-ROM. Gale Research, 1998. "Michael Jordan." Contemporary Black Biography, New York: Gale Group 1999. "Michael Jordan." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. New York: Gale Research,1998. "Jordan's Wife Juanita Files for Divorce." http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/0107/1307442.html. "Michael Jordan Foundation." http://www.delorisjordan.com/page/MJpage.html.Dec.1. "Michael Jordan." Notable Black American Men. New York: Gale Research, 1998.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Observing a Preschool Classroom Bicultural

July 1, 2012 M L HD 351/551 Assignment#5 Book reflection: â€Å"Resolving conflicts at work† Reading some of â€Å"The ten strategies for everyone on the job†, one that I found very important was, â€Å"Why people engage in difficult behavior†, is because, sometimes we judge people by their difficult behavior, and we do not take the time to ask â€Å"Why† they behave that way. For us could seems (senseless) or irrational to us, we ought to find out why they behave that way.Every time we ask an honest, emphatic question â€Å"Why†, we ask may lead to a more accurate description of the reasons they chose to engage in difficult behaviors. Every accurate description of those behaviors can help us to develop a strategy for stopping or discouraging them. One story in the reading is about a group of employees learned this lesson when they asked the question â€Å"Why† one person refused to go along with the consensus and adamantly refuse to accept t he design favored by the rest of the group.Her† difficult behavior† created considerable conflict and criticism, but she held firm, seeming to enjoy the conflict and smiling as she stood her ground. By asking â€Å"Why† and other open-ended questions, they discovered that her real issue had nothing to do with her design of the coordinating committee, but concerned her work team where she had been unsuccessful in raising or solving the problem. Another important point that I read was, that sometimes family or co-workers engage in difficult behavior because they have family problems at home.One example, I recall when I was supervising this person with a difficult behavior, I found out she was having personal problems, I never asked the question â€Å"why†. Perhaps if I would have the knowledge of this book â€Å"Resolving conflicts at work†, it could be easier for me to work with this person. What the author want us to believe is to understand better, why people behave that way, never to blame them for their difficult personally. Moreover, not regarding their negative behavior, but honestly calling attention to the difficulties it creates for us.One of the patterns I have discovered in the reading was that we would find people with this kind of difficult behavior in our job, co-workers and our own families; I read that difficult behaviors start in the family. Some of these difficult behaviors probably began long before we entered in their lives. Another important point in â€Å" The ten strategies† talks about some difficult behaviors people have since childhood, they follow a pattern because no one resolved their conflicts before. Resolving conflicts at work† strategy 7 we also learned how to understand people with difficult behaviors, bust also talks about methods for changing difficult behaviors. By focusing on the behaviors of the others, offering empathetic feedback, ceasing to reward their behaviors, and search ing for collaborative solutions, it is possible for us to shift from feeling hopeless in our conflicts to being strategic about them. The follow methods can help us to become more strategic in our response to difficult behaviors.They developed these methods to support the staff of a large U. S. government agency in changing their focus defining their problems as difficult people and personalities to identifying the chronic behavioral problems within the organization and developing the skills, they needed to address them. These are only a few of the methods. * Surfacing the conflict: They began by interviewing the staff about their experiences with conflicts in the work place.Summarized the main issues and distributed their comments to everyone without censoring or watering them down. They make a list of all the problems that needed to be solved and placed them on the table for discussion, negotiation, and problem solving. * Conflict coaching: It talks about coaching the leadership t eam in the organization on how best to respond to conflicts and the difficult behaviors that created them, how to model openness to criticism, how to be strategic by not rewarding them, and how to reward honest, empathetic communications instead. Teamwork: By having a group conflict resolution session, they assigned everyone to random teams and asked them to read the comments from the interviews. I believed in today’s competitive workplace, your ability to communicate is the most important business skill. After reading this book, â€Å"Resolving conflicts at work†, I am planning to use these strategies when I need to resolve a conflict at work. One of my questions is â€Å"How can we resolve our conflicts with our own brothers and sisters†.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Research and critical reflection †Money doesn’t buy you happiness. Essay

Money doesn’t buy you happiness. Everyone has heard the statement before and most studies of happiness and well-being generally agree on it. However, even though money does not buy you happiness it is largely agreed that money can be a means to an end. Hence, money cannot buy you happiness, but it can provide you with financial security and well-being. If you asked a poor person if they were happy most will tell you they are not due to living in poor conditions and having poor health. Their need for safety and security outweighs their need for nice things and possessions. So if money does not buy you happiness what does buy you happiness? What are the factors in life that make you happy? One way to address this question could be looking at ones well-being. As such a deeper interpretation of well-being is necessary. When considering the concept of well-being, there are two major approaches, objective well-being, and subjective well-being. Objective well-being looks at how healt hy a person is and the access he has to resources. Subjective well-being on the other hand looks at the overall happiness of a person. In the same breath it is also argued that material well-being, that is the things we buy and want, does not lead to our overall happiness. Hence, money doesn’t buy you happiness. (Williams, 2014). Considering this notion that money does not buy you happiness (Myers & Diener, 1995), Kawachi and Kennedy (2002, p.30 -31) sought out to summarise the main ingredients to happiness in one’s life. They noted sex, ethnicity and age scarcely make you happy. Rather it is the relationships and community you have around you that generates levels of happiness. Furthermore, enjoying one’s work and leisure is highly correlated with happiness. On the other hand, one’s wealth and income does not have a straight correlation with happiness. Some poor people are happy, some rich people are unhappy and vice versa. Nonetheless, millions of people across the globe spend large amount of money consuming things they do not need. I myself fall victim to marketing ploys and consume materialistic things that I do not always need, but want because I believe it will make me fit in more in my community, or make me happier. People follow fashionable trends and want all the new toys that come out thinking it will make them happy. This need of people to have nice fancy things has previously been coined the â€Å"new consumerism†. Back in the day, it meant keeping up with others in your community, if your neighbour got a new flash car, you had to go get one. However, with the popularisation of television,  and later on the rise of mass media, â€Å"new consumerism† meant people were now competing all over the globe. Furthermore, as we live in a world of inequality in terms of income and wealth, the gap between what we want and what we have largely depends on our income. Schor (1998), referred to this as â€Å"the aspirational gap†. If one cannot afford something, he can either be â€Å"unhappy† dealing with not having that product/want, or he chooses to take on debt in order to afford it and have it then and there; thus having to work more to cover the debt and the cycle conti nues. So if we look at happiness as the â€Å"difference between what we have and what we want we suddenly become unhappy† (Williams, 2014, p.5). Largely, I agree with the statement the money does not buy you happiness. By society’s standards I am definitely not a rich man but I consider myself to live a moderately happy life; largely due to the fact that I am healthy, I have good friends and a loving family. According to several scholars (Benin & Nierstedt, 1985, Inglehart, 1990, Myers, 2000) it is indeed our social relationships that generate the highest levels of happiness. With that said, I still consume certain things, materialistic things, and go to certain places in order to construct my social identity. I want things in order to fit in or get praise from my peers. According to many scholars however this does not lead to my well-being but rather to unhappiness. This draws back to the â€Å"aspirational gap†, if I cannot afford to look a certain way or buy certain things and keep up with the times do I ultimately become unhappy? Personally I would like to say it does not apply to me, but reflecting back to Schor’s (1998) study, it appears to point in that direction. As such, I do agree with the concept more so as a lot of people around me become unhappy when they cannot afford something they want. Or become unhappy because they got themselves into debt due to their unnecessary consumptions. Maslow (1943) devised a theory of motivation which attempted to explain the hierarchical nature of people’s well-being. Firstly it is our basic psychological needs like hunger and thirst that we have to satisfy. Next, it is our needs for security and protection, followed by our need for social bonds and love. The last two steps are ones self-esteem and self-actualisation. This is a very hierarchical view which means once a certain level has been satisfied one seeks to satisfy the next until you reach to the top – self actualisation. This will explain why people become unhappy when they cannot afford  something – reach self-actualisation. Moreover, identities are fluid. I constantly consume new trends, go to new places, and change my habits to fit society’s norms. Social psychology attributes this to people’s nature to conform. One study by Asch (1952, ci ted in Bond & Smith, 1996) shows the tendency of people to conform to the majority even when the outcome is clearly wrong. I agree with this as I buy certain clothes and go to certain places because I want to fit in with my surroundings. Zaichkowsky (1994) claims that peoples involvement with a product depends on a person apparent relevance of a product based on his inherent needs and values. Hence my values stem from my surroundings and my need for a product comes from my need to fit in to my surroundings. A lot of the above-mentioned concepts discussed were first investigated after WWII and throughout the 20th century. However, as the world is constantly evolving and changing do these outlooks on happiness and well-being still apply today? Have they gotten any better or worse? Early studies showed an increase in mental disorders and divorces throughout the late 20th century, as well as the increase need of people for bigger and better things. A study by Helliwell, Layard, and Sachs (2012) found that on average rich people are happier than poor people. However, they found that a country’s economic growth does not indicate an increase in the overall happiness of its people. This is simply due to the fact that once people reach a comfortable/secure level of income; further increase of it does not generate higher levels of happiness. Moreover, they found unemployment is highly correlated with low levels of well-being, whilst being employed – and satisfied with your job – was correlated with higher levels of well-being. Finally, they noted in Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, love and belonging come just after basic physiological and safety needs. Clearly, the sources of individual happiness include the set of social interactions through which individuals are interconnected.† (p.70). The aforementioned trends discussed appear to be in line with the current state of New Zealand. Helliwell et. al. (2012) found New Zealand ranked as the 13th happiest country in the world. This was attributed due to a low unemployment rate (6.2%), divorce number down (stats.govt.nz), and ranking high on education as well as freedom. (Helman, 2013). However, when looking at the top 50 richest countries in the world (aneki.com) New Zealand does not even make an appearance. However, it is safe to assume that new  consumerism and the â€Å"aspirational gap† still apply to New Zealand as the countries spending ($2,578 million) is higher than its GDP ($211,678 million). (stats.govt.nz). It certainly appears that money does not buy you happiness. Rather being poor is correlated with low levels of well-being. Money in itself can provide a person with security, but increased income does not appear to have an effect on overall happiness. Looking at Maslow’s theory, a person could have all the money in the world but if they are alone and do not have a loving community of friends and family to share it with they are almost always going to be unhappy. Rather, happiness is determined by a large number of factors with an emphasis on basic needs such as food and water, as well as friendships and belonging to a loving community. Consumption of materialistic objects and the aspiration for more money negatively affects our well-being. References Benin, M.H. and B.C. Nierstedt: 1985, ‘Happiness in single- and dual- earner families: The effects of marital happiness’, job satisfaction and life cycle, Journal of Marriage and the Family 47, pp. 975–984. Bond, R. & Smith, P. B. (1996). Culture and conformity: a meta-analysis of studies using asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 111–137. Maslow, Abraham H. 1943 â€Å"A theory of human motivation.† Psychological Review, 50: 370-396. Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2012). World Happiness Report. Centre for Economic Performance. The Earth Institute Columbia University. Helman, C. (2013). The world’s happiest (And Saddest) countries. – http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/ Inglehart, R.: 1990, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ). Myers, D.G.: 2000, ‘The funds, frie nds and faith of happy people’, American Psychologist 55(1), pp. 56–67. Myers, D. G. & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10–19. Offer, A. (2006). The challenge of affluence: self-control and well-being in the United States. Williams, J. (2014) Consumption and Well-being. Chapter 12. P. 104 – 127. Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1994). The personal involvement inventory: reduction, revision, and application to advertising. Journal of Advertising, 23(4), 59–69.