Thermal conductivity of filled RTV compounds

Sealant materials with high thermal conductivity, and electrically nonconductive were studied for applications. Alumina and other thermally conductive fillers were examined for room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) use. The guarded hot plate apparatus, and its operation are described, and results of the thermal conductivity tests are discussed. It was found that magnesium oxide is significantly better than aluminum oxide as a filler enhancing the thermal conductivity of RTV. Recommendations for future studies are included

Rebuilding Trust in Broken Systems? Populist Party Success and Citizens’ Trust in Democratic Institutions

What effect does the recent rise of populist parties harnessing an anti-system rhetoric have on political trust? Will citizens become disenchanted with and lose trust in the political system, or could populist party success even stimulate a growth of political trust? Arguing that populist parties may well be conceived as a corrective force giving voice to and addressing citizen concerns about the established political system, this contribution hypothesizes that populist party success will increase political trust among the general public, especially in countries lacking democratic quality, with weak corruption control, and meagre government performance. Empirically, it combines ParlGov data with survey data from the European Social Survey (2002–2016) as well as aggregate data from the Varieties-of-Democracy project and the World Development Indicators to investigate how political trust has changed in relation to the growing success of populist parties and how democratic quality, corruption control, and government performance have moderated this relationship in 23 European democracies. Its main findings indicate that, at least in the short run, political trust increases rather than decreases following populist party success and that this increase in trust is most pronounced in political systems that lack democratic quality, struggle with corruption, and deliver only meager government performance

Disentangling an Elusive Relationship: How Democratic Value Orientations Affect Political Trust in Different Regimes

The question whether democratic values are on the rise or in decline has received much attention in political-culture research. Yet, few scholars have studied the consequences either of these trends has for political trust. Although political trust has long been attributed a central role for the functioning and stability of any political system, we still know little about the relationship between citizens' value orientations and political trust. Recent advances have furthered the discussion by conceptualizing this relationship to be conditional on the respective country's level of democracy; yet this literature does not take into account findings that demonstrate citizens rarely have an accurate grasp of their country’s democratic quality. Integrating the two strands of literature, this contribution suggests a relationship between democratic value orientations and political trust that is universally contingent on citizens' perceptions of democratic quality. Testing this proposition for over one hundred democracies and autocracies, it finds that democratic value orientations decrease political trust whenever citizens perceive their regime's democratic quality as lacking and increase political trust whenever citizens perceive their political regime as being of high democratic quality. In contrast, the actual level of democracy plays no role for the effect of democratic value orientations on political trust

Childbirth in Incarceration and Nursing Interventions

Introduction and Background The number of incarcerated pregnant women is increasing every day. At the same time, their quality of care is decreasing. From being treated like animals by jail staff to having unqualified staff members instructing them during labor, this has to change. Not only is the safety of the woman at risk, but most importantly her unborn baby. Purpose Statement Incarcerated pregnant women deserve the same healthcare as anyone else. The PICO question addressed in this paper is the following. In incarcerated pregnant women, how does ineffective health maintenance compared with effective health maintenance affect poor outcomes after childbirth? Literature Review CINAHL was used to locate five sources that were published within the last five years. The source had to include the words “childbirth,” “jail,” “prison,” “incarceration,” and “nurse.” If the article did not meet these guidelines they were excluded. One exception to these criteria was one source from 2013. The source was slightly outdated but had valuable data to be explored, so it was included. Findings Incarcerated pregnant women are de-humanized and maltreated every day and nothing is changing. Standards of care have been set in place for organizations, but they are not followed. Evaluation of these organizations and their healthcare is crucial to move forward and better health care for people in incarceration. Conclusions Insufficient research has caused a gap in literature. Limited resources are available to examine an incarcerated pregnant woman’s life and healthcare. Future research is essential to provided adequate care to these women

Quality of Democracy Makes a Difference, but Not for Everyone: How Political Interest, Education, and Conceptions of Democracy Condition the Relationship Between Democratic Quality and Political Trust

In light of recent crises, not least the COVID-19 pandemic, citizen trust in the political system has been highlighted as one of the central features ensuring citizen compliance and the functioning of democracy. Given its many desirable consequences, one of the key questions is how to increase political trust among ordinary citizens. This paper investigates the role of democratic quality in determining citizens' trust in the political system. While we know that citizens’ evaluations of democratic performance are a strong predictor of political trust, previous research has shown that trust is not always higher in political systems with higher democratic quality, indicating that democratic performance evaluations do not always correspond to actual democratic quality. Several moderating factors may account for this disconnect between democratic quality and citizens' evaluations of democratic performance and, ultimately, political trust. For one, citizens may receive different information about the political system; second, they may process this information in different ways; and third, they may have different standards of what democratic quality ought to be. Using survey data from three rounds of the World Values Survey (2005-2020) and aggregate data on democratic quality and other macro determinants of political trust from the V-Dem project and World Development Indicators for 50 democracies around the world, this contribution empirically investigates the complex relationship between democratic quality, democratic performance evaluations, and political trust in multi-level moderated mediation models. Its findings demonstrate that democratic quality affects political trust indirectly through citizens' democratic performance evaluations and that this indirect effect is stronger for citizens with higher political interest, higher education, and especially those with more liberal conceptions of democracy