Do EAPs work? A complex answer to a simple question.

The main purpose of this paper is to stimulate debate about what effectiveness means in the context of EAPs by challenging some widespread and taken-for-granted assumptions about the benefits of counselling for individual and organizational performance. I also hope to stimulate debate by suggesting some possible costs and benefits of EAPs which it appears have not yet been systematically considered or assessed. I will argue that it is only by looking for more complex answers to the question of whether EAPs work that serious and significant progress can be made in the design and delivery of EAPs. This is not an attempt to argue that counselling does not 'work', but rather an attempt to unpack what 'work' means - particularly in relation to the wider claims of EAPs

The relationship between stress and illness: a historical and theoretical review of some conceptual and methodological problems in research

Research into stress and illness is fraught with methodological and conceptual problems. These problems have slowed progress in research. Life stress variables are still conceptualized at a crude, simplistic and naive level. Research findings in life stress, either in terms of increasing the predictive power of life stress variables, or enhancing our understanding of the stress-disorder relationship, have advanced little in the last ten to twenty years. A possible approach to this problem is adopted in this thesis. By looking at how the ways in which the term stress has been used and developed in different areas of research, the diverse uses of this concept can be distinguished. The background to stress and illness research can now be approached with a clear conception of these different uses. Although there is general evidence for the link between stress and illness, knowledge about the processes and mechanisms involved is sparse. Many of the insights made by early researchers in psychosomatic medicine, that disease causation is mullticausal, appear to have been forgotten by many researchers who use only a few variables in their research designs. The idea of 'mediators' of stress presupposes a certain model of stress, loosely based on a engineering analogy, where stress is pictured as an external force, which the individual will resist, and moderating factors will reduce the impact of the force. This analogy is influential in life stress research, but little evidence exists to suggest it may be correct. Recent moves towards assessing daily stress and coping have been criticised as such variables are contaminated by others. An unresolvable difference exists between those who see stress varibles as objectively measurable, and those who view stress and health as part of a much larger ongoing interaction between the person and their environment, and coping and social support variables as part of a more general effort to adapt

Evaluation of Skewed Simple Span Transversely Post-Tensioned Adjacent Precast Concrete Slab Bridges

Adjacent precast, prestressed concrete multi-beam bridges have recently become more prevalent due to their rapid construction time and cost effectiveness. However, longitudinal cracking primarily caused by insufficient and/or inadequate transverse connection between the beams has been discovered in the concrete overlays of recently built skewed bridges. Maryland State Highway Administration requested a research project be conducted to determine the cause or causes of the reflective cracking and propose revisions to the current state code concerning the number, orientation, and location of the transverse post-tensioning. This thesis contains a description of the behavior of skewed bridges, a survey of other states' practices, a field test conducted on a local bridge that has exhibited longitudinal cracking, the finite element model analyses simulating the field test and their corresponding results, and a parametric study conducted to determine the best practices for transversely post-tensioning this type of bridge in Maryland

Hemisphere differences in idiom comprehension: The influence of ambiguity, transparancy, and familiarity

Idioms are verb phrases that must be interpreted figuratively, such as to bury the hatchet (Gibbs, 1999). Recent finding suggest that the right hemisphere may have an advantage when readers comprehend language that must be understood figuratively (McDonald, 200). However, it is currently unclear how idioms are processed in the right and left hemispheres. It is possible that not all idioms are processed similarly in the hemispheres, and that several factors between idioms may affect hemispheriC processing. First, the plausibility of an idiom\u27s literal interpretation (i.e., ambiguity) may influence processing in the hemispheres. for example, some idioms have plausible literal interpretations (such as to break the ice and are classified as high ambiguity idioms, whereas other idioms do not have literal interpretations (such as to feel under the weather _and are classified as low ambiguity idioms (Titone &Connine) 1999) Second, the extent to which an idiom\u27s literal meaning contributes to its figurative meaning (i.e., transparency) may influence hemispheric processing during idiom comprehension. For example, to blaze a trail is high in transparency, because trail relates to blaze a trail\u27s figurative meaning ( to lead the way ). However, to kick the bucket is low in transparency, because no word in to kick the bucket relates to the figurative meaning ( to die )(Titone & Connine, 1999). Third, of the level of familiarity of an idiom may influence the hemispheric processing of idioms. For example, some idioms are encountered more frequently and are more easily recognizable than other idioms (Titone&Connine, 1999). Thus, the current set of experiments investigated how idioms that differ in the level of ambiguity, transparency, or familiarity are processed in the left and right cerebral hemispheres during text comprehension. To investigate how idioms are processed in the cerebral hemispheres, the current study used a divided visual field paradigm to investigate how participants respond to idiom-related targets works presented to either visual field-hemisphere. In Experiment 1, participants read texts containing high ambiguity idioms, low ambiguity idioms, or texts with no idioms. Next participants made lexical decision to related target words presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere or the right visual field-left hemisphere. In Experiment 2, participants read texts containing high transparency idioms, low transparency idioms, or texts with no idioms. In Experiment 3, participants read texts containing familiar idioms, less familiar idioms, or texts with no idioms. Findings from the current study showed evidence that the right and left hemispheres process idioms that differ in their levels of ambiguity or transparency differently, but no hemispheric differences were found between familiar and less familiar idioms. Greater facilitation was found for low ambiguity idioms in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere, but greater facilitation was found for high ambiguity idioms in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. Facilitation was greater for high transparency idioms in the left hemisphere than the right hemisphere, but no hemispheric differences were evident for low transparency idioms. Finally, greater facilitation was evident in the left hemisphere for both familiar and less familiar idioms compared to the right hemisphere. These finding suggest that the left hemisphere may be dominant when readers process high ambiguity idioms. Specifically, the figurative meaning of high transparency idioms and low ambiguity idioms seems to be easily accessible and highly related to the idiom\u27s figurative meaning, because the left hemisphere has an advantage for accessible, highly related meanings, because the left hemisphere has an advantage for accessible, highly related meanings (Beeman et al., 1994). In contrast, the figurative meaning of high ambiguity idioms may be less accessible than the figurative meaning of low ambiguity idioms, because the right hemisphere has an advantage when readers need to select one of several potential meanings (Giora, 2003;Tompkins, 2001)

Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982

O N AUGUST 20, 1982, President Reagan signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA), the fourth piece of major tax legislation in less than seven years. Though TEFRA has been said to provide the single largest tax increase in American history, President Reagan lobbied for it not as a tax bill, but as a revenue measure which, to his mind, in no way represented a backing-off from his vaunted supply side-trickle down economic program. This article will discuss the implications of TERFA on both the individual taxpayer and businesses

Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981

In essence this Act and the results it either produces or fails to produce will be a test of our free enterprise system. The Act, coupled with the administration\u27s policy of deregulation and relaxing government controls of business, provides the opportunity business leaders have been looking for. A key to future economic health is the reduction of federal expenditures. If these cannot be curtailed, the combined effect of expenditures and reduced tax revenues on inflation will be disastrous. If expenditures cannot be controlled, then taxes will have to be increased substantially in the not too distant future

Federal Income Tax Developments: 1982

This article discusses federal income tax developments in 1982, including relevant Supreme Court cases, oil and gas, tax shelters, deductions, corporations and interest free loans. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TERFA) is discussed in a separate section

Farm tenure, inheritance, and leases in Tennessee

Farm tenure in Tennessee is discussed from the standpoint of distribution and trend, by color and tenure of farm operators. The effect of inheritance of farm wealth on operators\u27 tenure is associated with age, color, net worth of operator, and with time in relation to the business cycle. A method for determining the equitability of a farm lease, with examples of three general types of leases, is accompanied by a brief study of the provisions for farm improvements on tenant farms. The study of distribution and trends of tenancy is based upon United States Census reports, while the data on inheritance and leases were secured from a random sample of farms in selected counties. Inheritance of wealth increases farm ownership even though the amount of inheritance be small. The equitability of farm leases is less a problem than is the size and profitableness of the tenant\u27s business