Search results

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals experience institutionalized prejudice within society and in their working lives. This prejudice increases the stress that these individuals experience within the workplace. Thus, in this chapter, we outline the mechanisms of LGB-workplace stress, detailing the antecedents, outcomes, and strategies to remediate this form of stress. We first outline theoretical conceptualizations of workplace stress before explaining how sexual orientation minorities experience additional workplace stressors due to their specific, stigmatized identities. Then, we explain how the stressors of formal discrimination, interpersonal discrimination, stigma consciousness, internalized heterosexism, concealment, and social isolation each contribute to workplace stress and ultimately health and workplace outcomes. Finally, we discuss several strategies that organizations, stigmatized individuals, and allies can engage in to prevent and cope with each of these LGB-related workplace stressors. In so doing, this chapter encourages researchers and practitioners to continue to develop more comprehensive and effective strategies to combat the negative outcomes experienced by these and all other stigmatized employees, thereby promoting more healthy and inclusive organizations.

The environmental reliability of Series Q, a system of materials designed for advanced ‘HIC’ circuits, has been studied using three different migration‐resistance tests. —LMRT: a test which is used to assess the resistance to electrochemical migration of horizontally adjacent, closely spaced conductor tracks in a high‐temperature, high‐humidity environment with a voltage bias present (60°C, 90%RH, 48 VDC). —HHBT: a test which monitors the ability of a dielectric to resist electrochemical migration when vertically adjacent crossover conductor tracks are oppositely biased (85°C, 85%RH, 5 VDC). —HBT: a test which measures how well a dielectric can sustain its resistance to voltage breakdown over extended periods of time during continuous exposure to conditions of high temperature and voltage (150°C, 200 VDC). The results show that the QSil™ and QPIus™ systems, the two materials systems that comprise Series Q, demonstrate excellent performance in all three areas. Predictions of how well circuits made from these materials will survive in their operating ambient over the long term, e.g., twenty years, have been made.

The “Social Determinants of Health” construct is well-entrenched in the way that both health care providers and researchers think about the effects of social conditions on health. Although there are a number of theories that fall under this rubric for the social production of health and illness, the core of this construct is the idea that social stratification leads to health disparity. In this chapter we show how such a mechanism might work for relating social stratification and job stress.

We used the pooled 2002, 2006, 2010 Quality of Work Life modules of the General Social Survey to test a model of the relationships between gender, age, education, and nativity with “bad jobs” and indicators of health status.

Findings show that social status is positively associated with job quality and with health in turn. Lower social status characteristics are related to bad jobs and poorer health.

Health disparities are thus “explained” by the consequences of social status for occupation and job quality, thereby depicting exactly how health disparities arise in normal social life. The theory and results underscore the importance of explicitly modeling social status factors in explanations of health disparities.

It is common to relate health disparities to social status but it is not common to show the mechanisms whereby social status actually produces health disparities. Addressing health disparities means addressing the consequences of social inequalities for normal activities of social life such as work. Improving job quality would be a health “treatment” that addresses health disparities.

This chapter demonstrates the value of explicitly tracing the consequences of status differences on differences in social context such as work conditions and then health. In the study of health disparities this is not often done. In this chapter we show how social inequality leads to occupational and job quality differences that, in turn, lead to health differences.

Thermal ageing experiments on various thick film resistor systems have shown that resistance change is caused by a number of different mechanisms with different time dependences. Three distinct types of behaviour have been identified: corrosion due to ambient attack; diffusion through resistor interfaces with conductor terminations or through the resistor top surface; and stress relief within the bulk of the resistor. Wherever possible the dominant mechanism has been identified and the activation energy and time dependence of the ageing process have been determined.

Organizational approaches to racial inequality have provided contextual insight into a host of traditional stratification outcomes (e.g., hiring, earnings, authority). This chapter extends the organizational approach by drawing on the health-stress framework to explore how organizational context affects experiential and health-related outcomes – discrimination, social support, and psychological distress. Drawing on a sample of Black workers in the United States, we examine the relationship between workplace racial composition and psychological distress, as well as two potential mediators – racial discrimination and workplace social support. Our findings reveal that psychological distress is similar for Black workers in token (<25% Black coworkers), tilted other race (25–49.99% Black coworkers), and tilted same race (50–74.99% Black coworkers) job contexts. Workers in Black-dominated jobs (>75% Black coworkers), however, experience significantly less psychological distress than other compositional thresholds, net of individual, job, and workplace characteristics. This relationship is not explained by either racial discrimination experiences or supervisor and coworker social support. This finding suggests that researchers need to theorize and examine other protective factors stemming from coworker racial similarity.

Platinum gold conductors, used as solderable terminations, contain a glass frit which reacts with the minority constituents in debased alumina substrates forming an adhesive bond. Some conductor inks also contain copper and cadmium, in addition to the glass frit, which react directly with the alumina to form a chemical bond. Dielectric inks contain a crystalline filler, such as alumina or zirconia, in a glass matrix. The effect on the physical and electrical properties of platinum golds on various dielectrics was examined in comparison with the behaviour on alumina. Composition and surface structure of the dielectric affects the adhesion strength, solderability and solder leach resistance of the conductor inks. Interaction between the glasses in the dielectrics and conductors was determined by analysis in the SEM. Interdiffusion between the conductor and solder metals occurs and brittle intermetallic compounds are formed. The effects of the intermetallic formation on the adhesion strength and modes of failure, especially after thermal ageing at 150°C, have been examined. Thick film resistors printed and fired onto dielectrics rather than onto alumina substrates generally have different electrical properties. Chosen resistor systems, terminated with a gold conductor, were evaluated on different dielectrics. The values of electrical parameters such as resistance, TCR and noise index were compared with those on alumina. Interactions between the glasses in the resistors and dielectrics were examined as for the conductors. Thermal ageing on various resistor/dielectric combinations was carried out in order to determine the long‐term stability. The activation energies and time dependences of the ageing mechanisms for each combination were found. Corresponding ageing equations were calculated in order to predict the likely behaviour during life.

This report discusses the physical, electrical, mechanical and thermal characteristics of polyimide conductive, resistive, and dielectric thick film compositions made for high‐temperature curing and coating on non‐flexible substrates (alumina). The effects of curing times and print direction on sheet resistivity are presented for conductive patterns. The rates of silver migration of silver loaded resins are examined under 100% relative humidity at 25°C and various gap distances. The effect of current limiting resistors on silver migration is also examined. The electrical characteristics of polyimide thick film (PTF) resistors such as temperature coefficient of resistance and drifts are examined. The relationship of aspect ratio versus mean resistance and sheet resistance, as well as distribution diagrams are presented. The printability and definition of conductor patterns relative to their thickness, separation and the direction of the prints are examined, while the electrical characteristics of crossovers such as voltage breakdown are also investigated.

On 20 April ISHM‐Benelux held its 1988 Spring meeting at the Grand Hotel Heerlen. This meeting was totally devoted to implantable devices, in particular to the technologies used for these high reliability, extremely demanding devices. For this meeting ISHM‐Benelux was the guest of the Kerkrade facility of Medtronic. Medtronic (headquartered in Minneapolis, USA) is the world's leading manufacturer of implantable electronic devices. Apart from the assembly of pacemakers and heart‐wires, the Kerkrade facility acts as a manufacturing technology centre for Medtronic's European facilities.

The increasing complexity of hybrid circuits has led to a need for a reliable multilayer system. As well as reliability, the manufacturer will, of course, also attach considerable importance to material and production costs. Until now, thick film multilayer applications have been limited by the inability of existing technology to reduce their susceptibility to galvanic effects occurring between individual conductive layers during fabrication. Now, however, this company has developed a multilayer dielectric which prevents metal migration. The system is supported by conductor and resistor systems.

Complex mixed metallurgy multilayers require a very robust dielectric to withstand shorting or blistering effects, together with high density for long‐term reliability in humid environments. The development and performance of a new multilayer dielectric which meets these needs is presented here. A dielectric frit chemistry has been developed with a view to eliminating short circuits and blistering induced by the proximity of dissimilar metallurgies on multiple refiring. Appropriate filler technology has also been developed to optimise dielectric density, toughness and laser‐trim properties. High density has yielded excellent HBT (High Bias Temperature) and HHBT (High Humidity Bias Test) performance. Data on multilayer circuit bowing are presented which take account of the interaction of conductor frit and the dielectric on firing. Silver conductor is employed in inner layers to optimise conductivity and cost. A new 1:3 PdAg conductor for termination of components and resistors also permits heavy Al wire bonding with good aged performance. 25 µm Au and 37 µm Al wire bonding is facilitated by gold conductor on dielectric. The laser trim characteristics of a new resistor series on dielectric are described. The materials system has been tested in a complex multilayer structure which, with the use of a new silver via fill conductor, resulted in defect‐free circuits with zero yield loss.