143 research outputs found
A Peer-Led Evidence-Based Contraceptive Counseling Initiative
The experience of sexual health and wellness varies for newly independent college freshman. For reproductive-age women, gaps in knowledge and self-efficacy overlap with barriers accessing contraception and reproductive health care contributing to high-risk behavior and poor sexual health outcomes. Community-based participatory research was used to develop and implement a peer-education program targeting sorority women on a college campus in the Southeastern United States in the fall semester of 2021. Two senior nursing majors completed continuing education to be empowered as peer-educators using The University of California San Francisco Beyond the Pill framework. They engaged directly with nursing faculty stakeholders and the research team to facilitate group contraceptive counseling sessions for sixty-two of their peers, through the shared social network of their sorority. Two contraceptive counseling sessions were piloted during the 2 month intervention period. The majority of respondents answered “yes” to previously having a class that included content on sexual health and/or reproduction, although key findings highlighted a gap between knowledge and self-efficacy within this population. Sexual health content and information related to values, practical skills and communication, including negotiating safe sex and condom use, were requested by respondents. While 70% of the respondents received a prescription or method of birth control within the last year, none of the respondents were accessing their contraceptive care through university health service services. Of the 18 session participants, 10 indicated they were “extremely or somewhat likely” to make changes to their current contraceptive plan after the session content. Results identify the underutilization of student health for well-woman exams, STI screenings, and prescriptions or methods of birth control. A tremendous opportunity awaits student health services to provide evidence-based contraceptive care to a currently vulnerable and underserved population of young women
Evidence of Critical Balance in Kinetic Alfven Wave Turbulence Simulations
A numerical simulation of kinetic plasma turbulence is performed to assess
the applicability of critical balance to kinetic, dissipation scale turbulence.
The analysis is performed in the frequency domain to obviate complications
inherent in performing a local analysis of turbulence. A theoretical model of
dissipation scale critical balance is constructed and compared to simulation
results, and excellent agreement is found. This result constitutes the first
evidence of critical balance in a kinetic turbulence simulation and provides
evidence of an anisotropic turbulence cascade extending into the dissipation
range. We also perform an Eulerian frequency analysis of the simulation data
and compare it to the results of a previous study of magnetohydrodynamic
turbulence simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasma
Validity of the Taylor Hypothesis for Linear Kinetic Waves in the Weakly Collisional Solar Wind
The interpretation of single-point spacecraft measurements of solar wind
turbulence is complicated by the fact that the measurements are made in a frame
of reference in relative motion with respect to the turbulent plasma. The
Taylor hypothesis---that temporal fluctuations measured by a stationary probe
in a rapidly flowing fluid are dominated by the advection of spatial structures
in the fluid rest frame---is often assumed to simplify the analysis. But
measurements of turbulence in upcoming missions, such as Solar Probe Plus,
threaten to violate the Taylor hypothesis, either due to slow flow of the
plasma with respect to the spacecraft or to the dispersive nature of the plasma
fluctuations at small scales. Assuming that the frequency of the turbulent
fluctuations is characterized by the frequency of the linear waves supported by
the plasma, we evaluate the validity of the Taylor hypothesis for the linear
kinetic wave modes in the weakly collisional solar wind. The analysis predicts
that a dissipation range of solar wind turbulence supported by whistler waves
is likely to violate the Taylor hypothesis, while one supported by kinetic
Alfven waves is not.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Effect of a weak ion collisionality on the dynamics of kinetic electrostatic shocks
In strictly collisionless electrostatic shocks, the ion distribution function
can develop discontinuities along phase-space separatrices, due to partial
reflection of the ion population. In this paper, we depart from the strictly
collisionless regime and present a semi-analytical model for weakly collisional
kinetic shocks. The model is used to study the effect of small but finite
collisionalities on electrostatic shocks, and they are found to smooth out
these discontinuities into growing boundary layers. More importantly, ions
diffuse into and accumulate in the previously empty regions of phase space,
and, by upsetting the charge balance, lead to growing downstream oscillations
of the electrostatic potential. We find that the collisional age of the shock
is the more relevant measure of the collisional effects than the
collisionality, where the former can become significant during the lifetime of
the shock, even for weak collisionalities.Comment: Published in J. Plasma Phy
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