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This paper performs a qualitative critical discourse analysis of 52 local news articles from four Florida (United States) newspapers to identify and expand the notion of journalistic boosterism. In the paper, I argue that boosterism—everyday news that promotes mediatized notions of a community's dominant traditions, dominant identities, and potential for future prosperities—functions as a form of social control by performing, as banishment, an act that secludes particular social groups from participating in community spaces, social roles, and storytelling. This paper conceptualizes journalistic boosterism as operating via a duality of community building and social banishment, a practice that continues to spread across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Learning can be difficult for students due to incorrect prior knowledge, or misconceptions, interfering with the acquisition of new knowledge. Conceptual change refers to the process of replacing such misconceptions with new and accurate knowledge. The factors associated with conceptual change are currently under debate. The present study attempts to replicate previous investigations of how text style and epistemic beliefs impact conceptual change, and extends this work by investigating how those factors differentially facilitate conceptual change within participants. 157 college students completed a two-part, within participants study in which they completed pretests, read passages addressing a misconception, completed posttests, and were assessed on their epistemic beliefs. Text style (expository vs. refutation) and two dimensions of epistemic beliefs (texture and variability) did not directly impact pre-to-posttest changes in performance. However, interactions between text type, texture, and variability were related to changes in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While tourist spaces are most traditionally associated with decidedly transitory and commercial enterprises like amusement parks or resort districts, the logic of tourism is permeating into other arenas of socio-spatial design. One of the more intriguing aspects of this trend is evident in the development of themed planned communities. Unlike the theme park where visitors are implicitly asked to ‘exit reality’ to take part in a collective fantasy, the themed planned community is a heterotopia with a much more pronounced ‘permanent’ quality. In a housing market driven by private capital, theming strategies associated with tourism are being increasingly utilized by developers for distinguishing their properties. The paper is grounded by a discussion of a particular themed planned community: The Villages, Florida. The Villages is a ‘mature adult’ community of over 30,000 inhabitants located in Central Florida, USA. Based upon fieldwork in the community, the themed tourist landscape and the tensions inherent in the marketing and construction of a ‘hometown’ ideal within a complex context of regional growth are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York, Los Angeles, and Miami are primate immigrant centers within the U.S. metropolitan system, attracting new immigrant arrivals as well as serving as focal points for internal migrants. Using the segmented assimilation framework as a foundation, this paper emphasizes the role of geography and migration within the assimilation process. Focusing upon selected origin groups, migrant selectivity and the determinants of migration are evaluated and compared, highlighting the differential role of primate centers. While the New York and Miami metropolitan centers clearly dominate Dominican and Cuban migration systems respectively, the role of primate centers is less clear among other national origin groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article turns to Miami, Florida’s (USA) Upper Eastside – an eclectic stretch of about 20 city blocks in one of the nation’s ‘global cities’ – for a critical visual analysis that uses mapping and photography to explore how neoliberalism is communicated. With an approach that considers geography as a visual ‘vernacular landscape’, this research further supports the role of visual communication as a means to reveal deeper meanings of geography, particularly in terms of identifying ideological qualities of the neoliberal project that are often hidden in plain view. The authors’ photographs and maps supply data for this article, which are then read through the process of ‘geosemiotics’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Identifying geographic areas with significantly high risks of stroke is important for informing public health prevention and control efforts. The objective of this study was to investigate geographic and temporal patterns of stroke hospitalization and mortality risks so as to identify areas and seasons with significantly high burden of the disease in Florida. The information obtained will be useful for resource allocation for disease prevention and control. Methods: Stroke hospitalization and mortality data from 1992 to 2012 were obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Age-adjusted stroke hospitalization and mortality risks for time periods 1992–94, 1995–97, 1998–2000, 2001–03, 2004–06, 2007–09 and 2010–12 were computed at the county spatial scale. Global Moran’s I statistics were computed for each of the time periods to test for evidence of global spatial clustering. Local Moran indicators of spatial association (LISA) were also computed to identify local areas with significantly high risks. Results: There were approximately 1.5 million stroke hospitalizations and over 196,000 stroke deaths during the study period. Based on global Moran’s I tests, there was evidence of significant (p<0.05) global spatial clustering of stroke mortality risks but no evidence (p>0.05) of significant global clustering of stroke hospitalization risks. However, LISA showed evidence of local spatial clusters of both hospitalization and mortality risks with significantly high risks being observed in the north while the south had significantly low risks of stroke deaths. There were decreasing temporal trends and seasonal patterns of both hospitalization and mortality risks with peaks in the winter. Conclusions: Although stroke hospitalization and mortality risks have declined in the past two decades, disparities continue to exist across Florida and it is evident from the results of this study that north Florida may, in fact, be part of the stroke belt despite not being in any of the traditional stroke belt states. These findings are useful for guiding public health efforts to reduce/eliminate inequities in stroke outcomes and inform policy decisions. There is need to continually identify populations with significantly high risks of stroke to better guide the targeting of limited resources to the highest risk populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding mechanisms fostering coexistence between invasive and resident species is important in predicting ecological, economic, or health impacts of invasive species. The non-native mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus have been resident in the southeastern United States for over a century. They coexist at some urban sites with the more recent invasive Aedes albopictus, which is usually superior in interspecific competition. We tested predictions of temporal and spatial habitat segregation that foster coexistence of these resident species with the superior invasive competitor. We measured spatial and temporal patterns of site occupancy and abundance for all three species among standard oviposition traps in metropolitan Tampa, Florida. Consistent with the condition-specific competition hypothesis, A. albopictus and A. aegypti abundances were greater and C. quinquefasciatus abundance was lower late (September) versus early (June) in the rainy season, and the proportional increase of A. albopictus abundance was greater than that of A. aegypti. These results are postulated to result from greater dry-season egg mortality and associated greater rainy-season competitive superiority of larvae of A. albopictus, followed by A. aegypti, and C. quinquefasciatus. Spatial partitioning among landscape variables was also evident among species, with A. albopictus more likely to oviposit across a range of open grass landscapes whereas A. aegypti were mostly restricted to cemeteries. Culex quinquefasciatus showed a shift in abundance from cemeteries early in the rainy season to developed areas characterized by built environments with large proportions of impervious surfaces late in the rainy season, where A. albopictus was not in its highest abundance. These results suggest that both temporal and spatial variation, and their interaction, may contribute to local coexistence between Aedes and Culex mosquito species in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the general cultural configuration of a cultural area in Southeast Georgia and North Central Florida. Cracker culture is a sub-type within the larger regional culture which is distinguished by the geographic features, the logic of its social order and the sacred logic that supports the culture. Geographical isolation produced an extended consanguine group in which the importance of family sentiments cannot be overestimated. Religious beliefs are centered in a fundamental protestantism based on sacred writings. There is also a marked sexual division of labor supported by religious sanctions.

Geographers have long debated the superiority of regional versus thematic approaches to geographical analysis and geographic education. While most acknowledge that these two approaches are complementary, the task of implementing both approaches in a single introductory course remains challenging. “Global Change, Local Places,” an Internet–based course offered at Florida State University, attempts to fuse thematic and regional approaches using methodological and pedagogical techniques that emphasize student–centered learning and Internet technologies. Results of a student survey and analysis of student assignments suggest that this format was successful. Students expressed a high level of satisfaction with course content, and, although attainment of skills and knowledge was particularly hard to measure given the structure and goals of the course, students appear to have gained country–specific knowledge as well as skills in critical analysis using thematic concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lone star (Amblyomma americanum), black-legged (Ixodes scapularis) and American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) are species of great public health importance as they are competent vectors of several notable pathogens. While the regional distributions of these species are well characterized, more localized distribution estimates are sparse. We used records of field collected ticks and an ensemble modeling approach to predict habitat suitability for each of these species in Florida. Environmental variables capturing climatic extremes were common contributors to habitat suitability. Most frequently, annual precipitation (Bio12), mean temperature of the driest quarter (Bio9), minimum temperature of the coldest month (Bio6), and mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were included in the final models for each species. Agreement between the modeling algorithms used in this study was high and indicated the distribution of suitable habitat for all three species was reduced at lower latitudes. These findings are important for raising awareness of the potential for tick-borne pathogens in Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the accuracy of a previous study on environmental problems associated with large recreational subdivisions regarding Florida and coastal environments. Settlement and development on environmentally sensitive lands; Criteria for large scale developments; Implications on geography.

The article reports on the Geospatial Information & Technology Association's Annual Conference 29 held April 23 to 29, 2006 in Tampa, Florida. CH2M Hill demonstrated several solutions that combine tracking technologies with Google Earth. LizardTech announced its Spatial Express application. FCSI unveiled a plug-in for Safe Software's Feature Manipulation Engine that translates GIS data from more than 100 formats into high-resolution three-dimensional visualizations.