Vaginismus in the Irish context: a grounded theory study

Vaginismus is a common sexual difficulty that can cause distress for the woman, her partner and their relationship. Despite its universal prevalence, vaginismus remains under-researched. The most recent studies of vaginismus in Ireland were conducted forty years ago and since then there have been no known studies of what it is like to experience vaginismus or to seek help in modern day Ireland. This is the first known study to interview couples together about their experiences of vaginismus and help seeking in Ireland and the first study to incorporate both the perspectives of couples and healthcare professionals. The aim of the study was to build a theoretical model of vaginismus within an Irish context from the perspective of couples and health care providers. This grounded theory study used semi-structured interviews to explore the experience of vaginismus in Ireland. Ten couples who had experience of vaginismus in their relationship and eighteen healthcare professionals who work with women and couples experiencing vaginismus were recruited for the study. Data were analysed through the three coding stages of Straussian Grounded Theory. The results conceptualise the experience of vaginismus and help seeking as a process of disconnection and connection, a psychosomatic defence mechanism within a lifespan developmental model. This defence mechanism is illustrated by iterative phases of protective disconnecting from emotional and sexual feelings within the family of origin, attempts at emotional and sexual connection within the couple relationship and, finally, a healing connection with the emotional and sexual self within the safety of the couple and/or therapeutic relationship. These results provide a conceptual framework that can inform a sensitive and ethical approach when working with women and couples experiencing vaginismus

Teaching Medical Students How to Use Interpreters: A Three Year Experience

Disparities in health exist among ethnic/racial groups, especially among members with limited English proficiency (LEP). The session described in this paper aimed to teach medical students the skills needed to communicate with patients with LEP. Description – We created a required session titled “Cross-Cultural Communication-Using an Interpreter” for third-year medical students with learning objectives and teaching strategies. The session plans evolved over three years. Program Evaluation – Students’ perceived efficacy using retrospective pre/post test analysis (n = 110, 86% response rate) administered 7 weeks post-session revealed that 77.3% of students felt “more prepared to communicate with a patient with LEP”, 77.3% to “give proper instructions to an untrained interpreter” and 76.4% to “access a hospital language line”. Conclusion – Our curricular intervention was effective in increasing students’ perceived efficacy in communicating with a patient with LEP, using untrained interpreters and accessing a hospital language line. Skills practice and discussion of using interpreters should be a part of medical education

Direct Observationof DegenerateTwo-Photon Absorption and Its Saturation in WS2 and MoS2 Monolayer and Few-Layer Films

The optical nonlinearity of WS2, MoS2 monolayer and few-layer films was investigated using the Z-scan technique with femtosecond pulses from the visible to the near infrared. The dependence of nonlinear absorption of the WS2 and MoS2 films on layer number and excitation wavelength was studied systematically. WS2 with 1~3 layers exhibits a giant two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient. Saturation of TPA for WS2 with 1~3 layers and MoS2 with 25~27 layers was observed. The giant nonlinearity of WS2 and MoS2 is attributed to two dimensional confinement, a giant exciton effect and the band edge resonance of TPA

Heterojunction Hybrid Devices from Vapor Phase Grown MoS2_{2}

We investigate a vertically-stacked hybrid photodiode consisting of a thin n-type molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_{2}$) layer transferred onto p-type silicon. The fabrication is scalable as the MoS$_{2}$ is grown by a controlled and tunable vapor phase sulfurization process. The obtained large-scale p-n heterojunction diodes exhibit notable photoconductivity which can be tuned by modifying the thickness of the MoS$_{2}$ layer. The diodes have a broad spectral response due to direct and indirect band transitions of the nanoscale MoS$_{2}$. Further, we observe a blue-shift of the spectral response into the visible range. The results are a significant step towards scalable fabrication of vertical devices from two-dimensional materials and constitute a new paradigm for materials engineering.Comment: 23 pages with 4 figures. This article has been published in Scientific Reports. (26 June 2014, doi:10.1038/srep05458