Abstract: Premorbid adjustment patterns and personality traits characterizing assumed vulnerability to stressful events have been shown, in a retrospective study, to provide valuable prognostic profiles which are highly correlated with the laryngectomees' mastery of the operation. Patients with assumed low vulnerability and/or who previously had proven or given indication of being well adjusted, mastered the laryngectomy significantly better than patients with other characteristics. Personality traits and premorbid adjustment patterns predict present mastery abilities better than any of the situational and social factors analyzed. This type of diagnostic exploration may be of great help in planning the rehabilitation program needed by the individual patient.

Abstract: A personality inventory of 40 self-descriptive items that had previously discriminated between remitted, formerly depressed women and women with no psychiatric history was administered to 32 male a...

Abstract: This review provides information on psychosocial and biomedical phenomena associated with increased vulnerability to physical and mental dysfunctions. Health care personnel need to be aware of this...

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine the contribution of strategic management to organisations in the hospitality industry. Rapid changes, vulnerability to recession, and other environmental threats call for an ongoing future-result-oriented process of managing organisations and their environment through utilisation of knowledge and experience derived from various disciplines, all aimed at survival, growth and profitability. The article examines various concepts and models applicable to various organisations. It emphasises the importance of planning and implementation as well as the appropriate allocation of resources.

Abstract: A brief factual account of the events associated with bushfires in Australia on 16 February 1983 is provided. General information on the setting for the fires and their immediate impacts on South Australia and Victoria is followed by brief accounts of the major fire areas in South Australia. Finally some questions are raised on the vulnerability of the Australian community to bushfire disasters.

Abstract: This paper uses six policy problems in public health to illustrate the complexity of value considerations in decision-making, and derives an ethic for health protection policies based on the primacy of non-harming. In the first part, health policy is shown to require value considerations beyond simple utilitarianism. In the second, the author posits that much of health impairment can be traced to erosions of health outside the immediate control and consent of the individual. Accordingly, he argues that health impairing actions on the part of others warrant strict regulations in spite of the paternalistic nature of such interventions. The priority for these interventions should be set along a gradient of vulnerability and autonomy, with the greatest hazards to non-consent giving persons warranting the greatest controls. Special attention to fetuses and developing infants is thereby justified, and actions which prevent harms are shown to have priority over those which mitigate harms, ameliorate their effects or promote good.

Abstract: Computers support nearly every functional area of a modern society Consequently, when malfunctions or software errors occur, or when computing support is not available for other reasons, disruptions may result In networked systems, disruptions may spread and seriously impair an entire functional area of the country Has computerization produced a new vulnerability for society? Or is society intrinsically resilient and able to absorb large disruptions without grave and lasting societal consequences? This paper analyzes these and related questions The conclusion is that modern societies (at least the United States) still appear to be resilient Suggestions for maintaining resiliency are made

Abstract: Recently, a great deal of attention has been focused upon the human and ecological hazards posed by the manufacture, storage, transportation, and disposal of dangerous chemicals. Mass media reports concerning chemical spills and environmental contamination can be observed on a daily basis in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Although such incidents may be less salient politically than the cataclysmic threats of nuclear reactor accidents, their cumulative effects, at least, are probably far more damaging.

Abstract: This presentation describes studies on animal models which may contribute to the elucidation of the problem of early detection of individuals at risk for psychosomatic or behavioral disorders, with particular reference to the cardiovascular system.

Abstract: The foreign policy of the F i f t h Republic has been inextricably intertwined over the past quarter of a century with the process of regime consolidation and development in France, a country which a f t e r the Second World War experienced rapid onv version to an advanced industrial society. were dominated by the right-wing coali t ion which controlled the s t a t e until May 1981. However, that s ty le and substance, concerned as i t was w i t h French independence from superpower hegemony and the Cold War bloc system, appealed broadly to a cross-class all iance within French public opinion. This included even the Communist l e f t , and helped to lay the foundation for pol i t ical legitimacy as the s t a t e was s tabi l ised and the economy modernised (a process i t s e l f stimulated and shaped by s t a t e dirigisme). Furthermore, t h a t very legitimacy was closely bound u p with a presidential authority a t the centre o f the governmental apparatus, that invested the President of the Republic w i t h a special and sa l ien t charge to represent and pursue the 'national i n t e re s t ' . Thus when Francois Mitterrand was elected President on 10 May 1981, followed by the victory of his Social is t Party in parliamentary elections a month l a t e r , he had t o integrate and balance the foreign policy aims of the l e f t w i t h a strong, consensual legacy underpinning his own power both a t home and abroad a l l i n a context of economic recession and confl ic ts of in te res t greater t h a n those facing his predecessors. In this context, foreign policy s tyle and substance

Abstract: : The objective of the study is to estimate the cost in survivors of short warning leading to attack during full nationwide crises relocation. A simulation model of traffic flow over the national interstate road network was developed to predict population vulnerability during a crisis relocation. The model predicts large initial rates of reduction in nationwide vulnerability (half the at-risk population is evacuated in 21 hours) due to the large number of risk areas, reception areas, and over the road network to achieve the traffic plan assumptions of the model are discussed. No unreasonable problems are uncovered in achieving the major production of the model.

Abstract: Preface.- Introduction: Setting the Scene.- Social Work and Disability: Old and New Directions.- Impairment, Disability and Research.- Relationships and Families.- Independent Living and Personal Assistance.- Independent Living: The Wider Social Policy and Legal Context.- Independent Living: Vulnerability and Safeguarding.- Conclusion - Future Directions.

Abstract: Individuals who have not been victimized by negative life events, such as serious illness, accidents, or crime, tend to perceive themselves as “uniquely invulnerable,” as less vulnerable to victimization than others The actual experience of victimization, however, appears to shatter this illusion of invulnerability, creating in victims a new and unfamiliar sense of vulnerability often accompanied by psychological distress This article reviews literature documenting nonvictims' perceptions of unique invulnerability and victims' heightened perceptions of vulnerability, and addresses the potentially adaptive versus maladaptive consequences of these perceptions It is argued that victims who have the most difficulty coping with their misfortune may be precisely those individuals who initially felt least vulnerable prior to being victimized Therefore, how victims cope may depend in part on their prior beliefs about risk In addition, a distinction is made between victims who feel “uniquely vulnerable” (more vulnerable than others) and those who feel “universally vulnerable” (equally vulnerable as others) to future misfortune It is proposed that perceptions of universal vulnerability may be a more adaptive reaction to victimization than are perceptions of unique vulnerability