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Family relationships can serve as an important source of support during the acculturation process; yet, how the stress related to acculturation, or acculturative stress, may impact family functioning across time is not clear. Participants (N = 479) between the ages of 18 and 34 were recruited using respondent-driven sampling methodology. Findings suggest family cohesion decreased over time; however, it decreased less for those reporting more acculturative stress. The implication is that for those Latino immigrants who struggle to adapt to their new host culture, family remains a source of support more so than for those who do not struggle as much. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using ethnographic data, I focus on how people living with HIV/AIDS in Miami, Florida come to know and govern themselves through quantification and categories of risk, race, and ethnicity. I explore the various levels of surveillance that structure HIV/AIDS prevention programs and highlight how “numerical subjectivities” circulate, how identity and subjectivity become entangled in numerical considerations, and how particular groups of people come to be identified with certain diseases such as HIV/AIDS. By examining the deployment and interpretation of AIDS statistical data among Haitians in Miami, I illustrate how identities, through categories such as “heterosexual” and “high risk groups,” circulate, gain traction, and become meaningful for public health institutions and the people they seek to manage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making defensible risk-based decisions is a complex process that incorporates risk assessment into a risk management framework. Many site investigations require additional study, negotiations and/or actions for arsenic detected in soil samples, in many cases where no process related sources are identified and no other chemicals of concern are identified. Regulatory agencies develop guidance to standardize approaches to risk-based site investigations that focus on achieving "safe" concentrations. For arsenic, the action level is frequently in the "gray region", a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) term associated with a region of high uncertainty for risk management decisions in the "decision performance curve" associated with the data quality objective (DQO) process. Recognizing the conservative nature of the risk-based screening value for arsenic, approaches to enforce this level (or proof of comparability to natural background) may have numerous consequences including ineffective use of resources, stigmas on properties or actions at industrial or hazardous sites that are inconsistent with their regional setting. Florida has developed regulations and guidance on investigation of brownfield sites and has supported a study by the University of Florida (UF) to evaluate natural background concentrations in Florida soils. This paper discusses the sources of uncertainty near the soil cleanup target levels (SCTLs) in the Florida decision-making framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing unit (HU) method is often characterized as inferior to other methods for estimating the population of states and local areas. We believe this characterization must be challenged. In this article we evaluate population estimates produced by the housing unit method and by three other commonly used methods: component II, ratio correlation, and administrative records. Basing our analysis on 1980 census data from 67 counties in Florida and testing for precision, bias, and the distribution of errors, we find our application of the HU method performs at least as well as the more highly acclaimed methods of local population estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the challenges in teaching short statistics courses by the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida from 1991 to 1994. Reduced state funding for education; Necessity of coming up with external sources of funding; Development of a program called `Week of Short Courses' which was used to generate additional revenue.

Presents statistics on environmental protection in the United States as of October 2001. Increase in the number of people who think environmental issues are the most important problem the nation faces; Increase in wind power; Decrease in the weight of a mid-sized car; Approximate number of manatees in Florida.