The personal experience of dysmenorrhoea: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

This study explored 6 women’s experiences of primary dysmenorrhoea using semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Rather than focusing on pain, participants broadened the study focus to coping with the menstrual process as a whole. This was seen to be mediated by menstrual taboos and by the theme of ‘order’, arising from a strong feeling of a menstrual timetable and the need for rational explanation. Another theme was pain as a separate entity, which was connected to the theme of order. Placing dysmenorrhoea in its context may be useful for healthcare professionals treating women with the condition

Community structure, abundance, and morphology

. 2000. Community structure, abundance, and morphology. -Oikos 88: 48 -56. The role of interspecific competition in structuring communities has been a highly debated issue for the last two decades. The nonrandom nature of morphological patterns within communities has been at the center of this controversy. Null models addressing community-wide dispersions in morphology have produced equivocal results and may be based on assumptions that are too restrictive (e.g., competitive exclusion or displacement). If morphological distinctiveness allows species to escape competitive pressures and exhibit higher densities, then a positive relationship should exist between morphological dissimilarity and abundance. We develop a suite of models that evaluates patterns in abundance that are associated with the morphological proximity of a species to other competitors. We evaluated the relationship between morphological distance and abundance from a variety of morphological perspectives, from those representing strictly diffuse interactions to those representing only interactions between a species and its nearest neighbor in morphological space. These models were sufficiently powerful to detect positive associations between abundance and morphological differences in a nocturnal desert rodent guild for which the effects of competition on structure are well established. Models such as these may be more useful than traditional models evaluating morphological dispersions for many reasons. They do not require that communities reach equilibrium before competitive interactions give rise to deterministic structure. They do not suffer from limitations of potentially inaccurate faunal pools or from phylogenetic constraints. Lastly, they may be used as a diagnostic tool in comparative studies to determine the degree to which competitive interactions structure communities

The Role of the Gouy Phase in the Coherent Phase Control of the Photoionization and Photodissociation of Vinyl Chloride

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the Gouy phase of a focused laser beam may be used to control the photo-induced reactions of a polyatomic molecule. Quantum mechanical interference between one- and three-photon excitation of vinyl chloride produces a small phase lag between the dissociation and ionization channels on the axis of the molecular beam. Away from the axis, the Gouy phase introduces a much larger phase lag that agrees quantitatively with theory without any adjustable parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Ultrafast heterogeneous electron transfer reactions Comparative theoretical studies on time and frequency domain data

Recent theoretical studies on linear absorption spectra of dye semiconductor systems perylene attached to nanostructured TiO2, L. Wang et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 109, 9589 2005 are extended here in different respects. Since the systems show ultrafast photoinduced heterogeneous electron transfer the time dependent formulation used to compute the absorbance is also applied to calculate the temporal evolution of the sub 100 fs charge injection dynamics after a 10 fs laser pulse excitation. These studies complement our recent absorption spectra fit for two perylene bridge anchor group TiO2 systems. Moreover, the time dependent formulation of the absorbance is confronted with a frequency domain description. The latter underlines the central importance of the self energy caused by the coupling of the dye levels to the semiconductor band continuum. The used model is further applied to study the effect of different parameters such as 1 the dependence on the reorganization energies of the involved intramolecular transitions, 2 the effect of changing the transfer integral which couples the excited dye state with the band continuum, and 3 the effect of the concrete form of the semiconductor band density of states. Emphasis is also put on the case where the charge injection level of the dye is near or somewhat below the band edge. This nicely demonstrates the change from a structureless absorption to a well resolved vibrational progression including characteristic shifts of the absorption lines which are a direct measure for the dye semiconductor couplin

Exploring the psychological rewards of a familiar semirural landscape: connecting to local nature through a mindful approach

This study analyses a 53,000 word diary of a year engaging with nature through over 200 trips to a semi-rural landscape. Thematic analysis revealed two themes; the transition from observer to nature connectedness and the ways in which the natural environment was experienced once a connection was made. These themes are discussed in relation to theories that seek to explain the positive effect of nature and nature connectedness. The findings are important as they suggest that repeated engagement with local semi-rural countryside can lead to a mindful approach and psychological rewards that do not require travel into the wilderness. The work informs further research into outcomes and processes of nature based interventions such as: trip frequency, duration and diary keeping