Motivational Dynamics of Disadvantaged Women

Two hundred and five disadvantaged women completed standardized psychometric inventories (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Motivation Analysis Test, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, Internal-External Control Scale, Work Attitude Scale) and a structured interview (attitude-value, activity, life concerns items). Factor analysis was used to organize these data; correlational analyses indicated that the inventory and interview dimensions tapped essentially independent aspects within the total motivation domain. Compared with inventory norms, these women exhibited torpidity and submissiveness, depressed motivation, poor selfesteem, but positive work attitudes. Differences between dichotomous subgroups defined by six major demographic variables were consistent with previous literature; the most salient pattern of subgroup differences showed that black, less intelligent, and less educated women were less positive toward work and more externally oriented. In sum, these women appeared resigned and lethargic; no causal inference was drawn, but it was cautioned that choice of counseling procedures should be based on a differentiation of diminished from initial lack of motivation.     

Preventing Suicide at Suicide Hotspots: A Case Study from Australia

The Gap Park Self‐Harm Minimisation Masterplan project is a collaborative attempt to address jumping suicides at Sydney's Gap Park through means restriction, encouraging help‐seeking, and increasing the likelihood of third‐party intervention. We used various data sources to describe the Masterplan project's processes, impacts, and outcomes. There have been reductions in reported jumps and confirmed suicides, although the trends are not statistically significant. There has been a significant increase in police call‐outs to intervene with suicidal people who have not yet reached the cliff's edge. The collaborative nature of the Masterplan project and its multifaceted approach appear to be reaping benefits.     

Suicide Risk Among Wounded U.S. Service Members

The association between suicide and combat injuries sustained during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was examined. A retrospective population‐based cohort design was conducted using official military records to identify combat injuries (October 7, 2001, to December 31, 2007). Those who were injured during combat had higher crude suicide rates than those who deployed and were not injured (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.50; confidence interval [CI] = 1.06, 2.12), or never deployed (IRR = 1.46; CI = 1.04, 2.06). After adjusting for demographics, these findings were no longer statistically significant. Although our data did not support an elevated suicide risk among wounded service members, additional research is needed to examine the impact of injury severity.     

The brain and sodium homeostasis

Sodium homeostasis continues to be one of the principal areas of intense investigation in humoral physiology. This is not only because of its central role in major medical problems such as hypertension and edema. It also follows from the many intriguing problems of adaptations involving sodium control by animal species in the course of phylogenetic emergence from the oceans and irradiation into diverse ecological niches of terrestrial existence. Many of the central problems of this wide field of inquiry remain unsolved.