ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Although national organizations advocate that health-care providers ask patients about sexual health and sexual and gender minority status-to learn, for example, about side effects of treatment and to understand patients' social support-these conversations often do not occur. This study explored health-care providers' reasons for having/not having these conversations. METHODS: This single-institution study recruited health-care providers from medical oncology, hematology, radiation oncology, and gynecology. Face-to-face interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed qualitatively. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: (1) patient-centric reasons for discussing/not discussing sexual health and sexual and gender minority status ("So I think just the holistic viewpoint is important"); (2) health-care provider-centric reasons for discussing/not discussing these issues ("That's going to take more time to talk about and to deal with " or "I was raised orthodox, so this is not something we talk about "; and (3) reasons that appeared to straddle both of the above themes (eg, acknowledgment of the sometimes taboo nature of these topics). CONCLUSION: Although many health-care providers favor talking with patients with cancer about sexual health and sexual and gender minority status, limited time, personal reluctance, and the taboo nature of these topics appear at times to hamper the initiation of these conversations.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Health Personnel/psychology , Neoplasms/epidemiology , Sexual Health , Sexual and Gender Minorities/psychology , Female , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Male , Neoplasms/psychology , Patient-Centered Care/organization & administration , Professional-Patient Relations , Qualitative Research , Time FactorsABSTRACT
We characterize and compare the reaction of alkanethiol with Ag continuous planar thin films and Ag islands on inert substrates. Ag islands generate a significantly larger (3-fold) amount of alkanethiolate than continuous Ag films at comparable conditions. The reaction with planar Ag thin films produces alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), whereas the reaction with Ag islands yields two dissimilar products depending on the size of the islands. Small Ag islands are more likely to be converted into multilayer silver-alkanethiolate (AgSR) crystals, while larger Ag islands form monolayer-protected clusters (MPCs). The AgSR lamellar crystals are initially small having only a few layers. However, during thermal annealing, ripening occurs that generates large AgSR lamellae having diameters of 1 microm and thickness up to 30 layers. Atomic force microscopy shows the single-layer step-heights of individual crystals which match the layer thickness obtained via X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystals have facets and flat terraces with extended area, and have a strong preferred orientation (010) normal to the substrate surface. The MPCs move laterally upon annealing and reorganize into a single-layer network with their separation distance approximately equal to the length of an extended alkyl chain.
ABSTRACT
The ultrasensitive differential scanning calorimetry is used to observe the glass transition in thin (1-400 nm) spin-cast films of polystyrene, poly (2-vinyl pyridine) and poly (methyl methacrylate) on a platinum surface. A pronounced glass transition is observed even at a thickness as small as 1-3 nm. Using the high heating (20-200 K/ms) and cooling (1-2 K/ms in glass transition region) rates which are typical for this technique, we do not observe appreciable dependence of the glass transition temperature over the thickness range from hundreds of nanometers down to 3 nm thick films. The evolution of calorimetric data with film thickness is discussed in terms of broadening of transition dynamics and loss of transition contrast.
