Palm Beach County Research Articles

Increasing incidence and importance of HIV/AIDS and gonorrhea among men aged >/= 50 years in the US in the era of erectile dysfunction therapy.

With the advent of effective pharmacotherapy for erectile dysfunction, the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is a possible consequence, especially in the older population. We wanted to review the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in the older population in an attempt to correlate this with the advent of these new drugs. Publicly available information on the incidence of HIV, AIDS and gonorrhea was retrieved from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the State of Florida Department of Health, the Senior HIV Intervention Project and the National Association on HIV Over Fifty. National case incidences of HIV and AIDS in men between 1996 and 2000 were examined for trends. National and Florida state trends were compared and, in Florida, Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties in particular were selected because of their traditionally large retiree population. In addition, the national and Florida state incidences of gonorrheal infection were examined for trends. Statistics on national sildenafil (Viagra) prescriptions were obtained via a personal communication with a regional healthcare representative from Pfizer. According to the CDC, at the end of 1998 >10% of new AIDS cases nationally were in individuals aged >50 years. In the late 1990s, new AIDS cases rose faster in middle-aged and older adults than in people aged >40 years. Many of the newly diagnosed cases of AIDS may have contracted HIV before the age of 50 years; however, many individuals are newly becoming infected above the age of 50 years. Of the reported AIDS cases in 1996 in individuals aged >/= 50 years, 48% were aged 50-54 years, 26% were aged 55-59 years, 14% were aged 60-64 years and 12% were aged >/= 65 years; 84% of these cases were male, and blacks accounted for the greatest proportion of cases (43%). In the US, 7.5 million prescriptions for sildenafil were written in 1998, 9.5 million in 1999, 12 million in 2000 and 15.5 million in 2001. The age breakdown for these prescriptions was as follows: 40-49 years, 23%; 50-59 years, 35%; and 60-69 years, 25%. The past decade saw rises in heterosexual transmission of HIV and i.v. drug use, especially in the population aged >50 years. The CDC reports that the incidence of new HIV infection is stabilizing in men aged 30-39 years and even falling in men aged 20-29 years. Gonorrhea is well known to increase infectivity for HIV and other STDs. Although the rates of gonorrhea infection fell throughout the early 1990s, they increased by 9% between 1997 and 1999. The number of sildenafil prescriptions has increased by almost 80% over the last few years. Although there may be multiple contributory factors for these findings, to our knowledge this is the first paper in the urologic literature to examine such trends in the older male population, especially in the light of newly available medications for erectile dysfunction.

First Report of Peronospora farinosa f. sp. spinaciae Race 5 Causing Downy Mildew on Spinach in Florida.

Downy mildew, caused by Peronospora farinosa f. sp. spinaciae, is an economically important disease in most areas where spinach is grown. This disease has become increasingly important in production fields for prepackaged salad mixes where plant densities typically are very high. In Florida, spinach production for these markets has reached approximately 200 ha. Currently, seven physiological races of the downy mildew pathogen have been described (1). Downy mildew was observed in several commercial spinach fields in the Everglades agricultural area of Palm Beach County, Florida in January 2003 on cvs. Unipak 151 and Merlo Nero. Symptoms appeared as chlorotic and necrotic leaf spots. Disease incidence reached approximately 25% in some field locations. Economic losses were significant, since entire plantings in several fields were not harvested as a result of diminished quality. The race of a field isolate recovered from the cv. Unipak 151 was determined following greenhouse inoculation procedures and using differentials outlined by Irish et al (1). Greenhouse inoculation tests were conducted twice. Disease reactions on a U.S. and international set of differentials indicated that the isolate was race 5. To our knowledge, this is the first report of race 5 occurring outside of the California/Arizona spinach production area in the United States. There are commercial spinach lines with resistance to race 5, as well as the other described races (1).

Permeability and porosity images based on NMR, sonic, and seismic reflectivity: Application to a carbonate aquifer

Carbonate formations generally have a large distribution of pore sizes, ranging from microcrystalline to large vugs. Knowledge of these pore spaces and their connectivity is crucial to hydrocarbon reservoir characterization and to hydrogeological and near surface environmental applications. In this paper, we present permeability and porosity images based on crosswell seismic measurements integrated with well logs and petrography from a carbonate aquifer underlying Palm Beach County, Florida, U.S. Petrography and core analyses reveal relationships between the rock physical properties that control the compressional- and shear-wave velocities of the formation. In addition, core data and petrography characterized the matrix permeability and pore spaces as well as the lithology. The lithology integrated with well logs determined the hydraulic and rock properties of a 500-ft zone intercepted by a borehole. We delineated vuggy and permeable/impermeable zones at the borehole and interwell scales in the upper Floridan aquifer in south Florida by inverting reflection seismic data for impedance which, when correlated with borehole permeability and porosity logs, led to empirical relationships that are used to transform impedance images to permeability and porosity images. The images showed continuity between the major geologic units and lateral changes in the porosity image. The high-resolution reflections observed at the field scale in the carbonate formation are associated with changes in porosity due to the presence of vugs. This was corroborated with P-wave and borehole data, which showed that, as P-wave velocity decreases, porosity increases. The images show that porous zones in the carbonate aquifer are laterally continuous up to 200 ft from the well and then become relatively discontinuous, and that these porous and permeable flow units are characterized by interconnected vugs. To analyze the pore structure of the carbonate rocks of the upper Floridan aquifer in South Florida, we processed x-ray CT and optical microscopic (OM) thin …

In brief

Argus Solutions Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation’s Department of Homeland Security International Biometric Group Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Motorola Vocent Solutions BIO-key International DICUT

Using Law Against Itself: Bush v. Gore Applied in the Courts

The decisions in Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Bd. (Bush I) and Bush v. Gore, (Bush II) evidence the extent to which it now appears unremarkable for courts to play a role in even the most basic of political issues. While the doctrinal value of the Bush decisions is certainly important, the Bush decisions are far more valuable for their endorsement of methodologies available to anyone seeking political advantage under the cover of judicial legitimacy. This article explores those principles, practices and procedures. I start with an appropriate theoretical context. For that purpose I look to LatCrit theory rather than more ideologically traditional or doctrinal theory. Ironically, this expression of critical theory, grounded in progressive political programs, provides the best conceptual basis for interpreting the ostensibly traditionalist Bush cases. I use this theoretical context to identify eight core methodological lessons of the Bush cases: (1) Be Consciously Political; (2) Be Literal; (3) Attack Precedent; (4) Create Contradiction; (5) Appropriate; (6) Exploit Uncertainty and Sentimentality; (7) Recruit Legitimacy; and (8) If All Else Fails, Overwhelm Law Through its Own Devices. I then explore the way these lessons have been internalized by the courts and applied in nearly one hundred published and unpublished judicial opinions issued since the publication of the Bush cases. Those opinions are windows through which one can see the ways in which litigants have attempted to extract meaning from the Bush decisions far beyond their officially sanctioned reading, and the ways in which judges have attempted to situate the Bush decisions within the body of American case law. In their least dangerous sense, the lessons, as applied, suggest the ways in which the juridification of politics has become institutionalized in federal and state courts. The courts now rival the legislature as the venue par excellence for the resolution of political issues of every description. But the lessons also suggest the naturalization, within an ostensibly conservative political jurisprudence, of methodologies of legal perversion, of the use of law against itself. Having made a vocation of criticizing the political left for the nihilistic evils of critical and other progressive approaches to law, a so-called conservative court has gone a long way to implement a jurispruence of ultimate relativism and indeterminacy. Now that is irony!

Interview with Phil Robinson, FACHE, CEO, JFK Medical Center, Palm Beach County, Florida

Interview with Phil Robinson, FACHE, CEO, JFK Medical Center, Palm Beach County, Florida

Recounts From Undervotes

The vote recount in the 2000 Presidential election (Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, Florida) is examined for evidence of bias. A precinct-level dataset is constructed, incorporating the machine-vote tally, the recount vote tally, voter registration demographics, and the ballot review by media sources. A new multivariate beta-logit model is introduced that allows joint modeling of multivariate unobserved latent probabilities. A simple two-step estimator is proposed that approximates the joint maximum likelihood estimator. The estimates are consistent with a strong hypothesis: that the recount vote tally was unbiased. Specifically, it is found that the precinct-level machine-vote probability for a candidate is an unbiased predictor for the hand-recount undervote probability. There is no evidence of bias in the recount.

Hookworms of feral cats in Florida

Thirty feral cats ( Felis catus) from Alachua county (northern Florida) and 30 from Palm Beach county (southern Florida) were examined for hookworms. Two species, Ancylostoma tubaeforme and Ancylostoma braziliense, were identified. Forty-five cats (75%) were infected with A. tubaeforme, with a mean intensity of 48 hookworms per cat. Twenty cats (33%) were infected with A. braziliense, with a mean intensity of 28 worms per cat. The prevalence of A. tubaeforme was greater than that of A. braziliense in Alachua ( P=0.002) and Palm Beach ( P=0.004) counties. The intensity of A. tubaeforme infections was higher in Palm Beach county than Alachua county ( P=0.013). The intensities of A. tubaeforme and A. braziliense were positively correlated (increased together) in Palm Beach county ( P=0.011). These hookworms have also been identified in bobcats ( Felis rufus), gray foxes ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes) in Florida. The prevalence of A. tubaeforme was significantly greater in feral cats than those reported in bobcats ( P<0.001). The prevalence of A. braziliense was significantly greater in feral cats than in those reported in gray foxes ( P=0.008). The hookworm that infects Florida panthers and bobcats, A. pluridentatum, was not found.

Parent Attitudes and Support of School-Based Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education Programs in a Local School District

ABSTRACT Local school districts often have a need to assess parent support and attitudes about school-based sexuality and HIV/AIDS education when developing curriculum, especially given that such education can be controversial at the local level. This study, conducted in Palm Beach County Schools, Florida, employed a sample (n = 457) of longest-residing English-, Spanish-, and Creole-speaking parents of middle school students. A telephone survey, extensively pilot tested, and conducted in the primary language of the parent, found substantial concern among parents regarding the current or future sexual activity of their child; a high level of support for inclusion of specific sexuality and HIV/AIDS topics in school programs; strong beliefs in the importance of providing skill instruction to avoid pregnancy, HIV and other STDs; but ambivalence about the consequences of school-based sexuality education on the sexual activity of students. English-speaking parents were, in general, more supportive than Spanish...

Voting From the Bench

This work generally describes media coverage of postelection litigation in Florida following the 2000 presidential election. Examining some of the ways the broadcast media covered certain legal issues arising from the litigation, the research concentrates on legal issues surrounding the infamous Palm Beach County “butterfly ballot” and equal protection litigation in the federal courts. The data are drawn from content analysis of evening news broadcast of the three major television networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC, from November 7 to December 13, 2000, the day following the final decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The research concludes that the broadcast media substantially overlooked the equal protection issue until the very end of the postelection campaign and thus failed to educate the public on what turned out to be the most decisive and important issue in the Supreme Court’s decision to halt the manual recounts in Florida.

A statistical assessment of Buchanan's vote in Palm Beach County

This article presents a statistical analysis of the results of the 2000 U.S. presidential election in the 67 counties of Florida, with particular attention to the result in Palm Beach county, where the Reform party candidate Pat Buchanan recorded an unexpectedly large 3,407 votes. It was alleged that the butterfly ballot'' had misled many voters into voting for Buchanan when they in fact intended to vote for Al Gore. We use multiple regression techniques, using votes for the other candidates and demographic variables as covariates, to obtain point and interval predictions for Buchanan's vote in Palm Beach based on the data in the other 66 counties of Florida. A typical result shows a point prediction of 371 and a 95% prediction interval of 219--534. Much of the discussion is concerned with technical aspects of applying multiple regression to this kind of data set, focussing on issues such as heteroskedasticity, overdispersion, data transformations and diagnostics. All the analyses point to Buchanan's actual vote as a clear and massive outlier.

Misvotes, undervotes and overvotes: The 2000 presidential election in Florida

The 2000 presidential election was the most controversial U.S. election in recent history, mainly due to the disputed outcome of the election in Florida. Elsewhere in this issue, Richard Smith analyzes the high vote for Pat Buchanan in Palm Beach county. As background for his article, we summarize this and other voting-related issues that may have affected the outcome of the election in Florida, such as the undervote in counties that used a punch-card ballot and the overvote in counties that used multicolumn and multipage ballots.

Public health in the time of bioterrorism.

On Thursday, October 4, 2001, just 24 days after the tragic events of September 11, the Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of inhalational anthrax in the United States in more than 25 years. Recognition of this unexpected case is attributed to the alertness of local infectious disease physician Larry Bush, who promptly notified Jean Malecki, director, Palm Beach County Health Department (1,2). By Saturday, October 6, a team of federal, state, and local public health and local law enforcement investigators identified intentional Bacillus anthracis spore contamination at the patient’s workplace. These events marked the beginning of the first U.S. outbreak of bioterrorism-related anthrax and (for many of us in clinical medicine, public health, and law enforcement) ushered in the transition from tabletop bioterrorism exercises to real-world investigation and response.

THE EFFECTS OF PREY AVAILABILITY ON THE NUMERICAL RESPONSE OF WADING BIRDS

Reduced prey availability has emerged as a primary hypothesis to explain population constraints on wading birds in numerous wetlands around the world. However, there is almost no understanding of which component of prey availability (i.e., prey density or vulnerability of prey to capture) is affecting populations and whether the relative effects of each component differ among species. In this study, I manipulated prey density and water depth (i.e., prey availability) in 12 0.2-ha ponds to determine their relative effects on the numeric response of eight species of free-ranging wading birds (White Ibis, Eudocimus albus; Wood Stork, Mycteria americana; Snowy Egret, Egretta thula; Glossy Ibis, Plegadis falcinellus; Great Egret, Ardea alba; Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor; Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias; and Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea). The experiment was conducted in a constructed wetland adjacent to, and west of, the northern tip of the remnant Everglades, in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. Each pond was set to a water depth of 10 cm, 19 cm, or 28 cm, and was stocked with golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) at a density of either 3 fish/m2 or 10 fish/m2. Total bird use (all treatments pooled) increased from day 1 (day after stocking) to day 6, stabilized for several days at ∼280 birds, and then decreased until day 16, when bird use nearly ceased. Fish were depleted most rapidly in the shallow treatment and least rapidly in the deep treatment. The giving-up-density (GUD) of prey increased with increasing water depth. There was no significant difference among species in the slope of that relationship; however, a visual inspection of the data showed that differences in GUDs were becoming more apparent in the deepest treatment. At that depth, the White Ibis, Wood Stork, and Snowy Egret had higher GUDs than did the Glossy Ibis, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, Great Blue Heron, and Little Blue Heron. Also, the first three species were affected significantly by both prey density and water depth, whereas the latter five species showed a decidedly weaker response to one or the other component of prey availability. The first three species were more abundant in the shallow treatments and the high prey density treatments, and they abandoned the study site before other species reached their maximum density. The feeding strategy of the first group appeared to be one of searching for new high-quality food patches rather than staying and exploiting food patches that were declining in quality. Species that employed a searching strategy also have shown the most severe population declines, suggesting that factors affecting bird density at feeding sites may also have affected population size.

Spermatogenic Cycle of the Florida Softshell Turtle, Apalone ferox

Spermatogenesis in Apalone ferox from Palm Beach County, Florida, is found to follow a postnuptial or dissociated pattern. Reduction of epididymis mass and clearing of sperm from the epididymides suggest spring mating. Histology of the testes, somatic index, and tubule diameter all suggest fall spermatogenesis. Males as small as 15.2 cm PL were found to be mature, and all males were reproductive in a given year. The distribution of postnuptial spermatogenesis is mapped on a phylogeny of turtles and suggests that this pattern has evolved at least six times among living turtles.

The Effects of Prey Availability on the Numerical Response of Wading Birds

Reduced prey availability has emerged as a primary hypothesis to explain population constraints on wading birds in numerous wetlands around the world. However, there is almost no understanding of which component of prey availability (i.e., prey density or vulnerability of prey to capture) is affecting populations and whether the relative effects of each component differ among species. In this study, I manipulated prey density and water depth (i.e., prey availability) in 12 0.2-ha ponds to determine their relative effects on the numeric response of eight species of free-ranging wading birds (White Ibis, Eudocimus albus; Wood Stork, Mycteria americana; Snowy Egret, Egretta thula; Glossy Ibis, Plegadis falcinellus; Great Egret, Ardea alba; Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor; Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias; and Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea). The experiment was conducted in a constructed wetland adjacent to, and west of, the northern tip of the remnant Everglades, in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. Each pond was set to a water depth of 10 cm, 19 cm, or 28 cm, and was stocked with golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) at a density of either 3 fish/m2 or 10 fish/m2. Total bird use (all treatments pooled) increased from day 1 (day after stocking) to day 6, stabilized for several days at ∼280 birds, and then decreased until day 16, when bird use nearly ceased. Fish were depleted most rapidly in the shallow treatment and least rapidly in the deep treatment. The giving-up-density (GUD) of prey increased with increasing water depth. There was no significant difference among species in the slope of that relationship; however, a visual inspection of the data showed that differences in GUDs were becoming more apparent in the deepest treatment. At that depth, the White Ibis, Wood Stork, and Snowy Egret had higher GUDs than did the Glossy Ibis, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, Great Blue Heron, and Little Blue Heron. Also, the first three species were affected significantly by both prey density and water depth, whereas the latter five species showed a decidedly weaker response to one or the other component of prey availability. The first three species were more abundant in the shallow treatments and the high prey density treatments, and they abandoned the study site before other species reached their maximum density. The feeding strategy of the first group appeared to be one of searching for new high-quality food patches rather than staying and exploiting food patches that were declining in quality. Species that employed a searching strategy also have shown the most severe population declines, suggesting that factors affecting bird density at feeding sites may also have affected population size.

Interdependence and Ethics in Election Systems: The Case of the Butterfly Ballot

Crises often produce scapegoating, the assignment of blame for a complex problem to a single individual or group, as illustrated by the case of the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida, during the 2000 presidential election. Such behavior is unethical and unproductive because the conditions of certainty and control assumed in simple models of individual accountability do not exist in the U.S. electoral system. Instead, Cooper’s (1998) admonition for sustained reflection and dialogue is an appropriate prescription here. It requires a continuing assessment of the interactive roles and responsibilities for all participants, including legislators, voters, and the press. Several features of elections administration make such an assessment, and the role of elections administrators in it, more problematic than in many policy arenas. Yet the recognition of shared responsibility is the first step in reform.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A CASE STUDY OF FARM WORKERS IN SOUTH FLORIDA

ABSTRACT One purpose of this study is to examine the complex government infrastructure that implements and enforces laws that were created to protect farm workers from environmental hazards. The second purpose is to present a case study on farm workers in South Florida to determine whether the federal and state laws are protecting this occupational group from environmental hazards related to pesticide exposure. A survey based on questions that pertain to various laws was used to gather data on farm workers in two South Florida counties. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with farm workers at several migrant farm worker day care centers in Palm Beach and Indian River County, Florida. The findings of the study reveal that federal and state laws which are currently in place to protect the workers from pesticide exposure do not adequately protect the workers from exposure to harmful pesticides and farm workers are uninformed of the laws which exist to protect them from possible pesticide exposure. The study concludes with policy recommendations that will improve the implementation and enforcement of the current laws designed to protect farm workers from pesticide exposure.

About the Artist

Anthony Reeves is a 12-year-old student at Egret Lake Elementary School in Palm Beach County, Florida. Anthony receives services through exceptional student education in the area of language impaired and specific learning disabilities. When not working on academic skills, Anthony enjoys participating in arts and crafts activities, sports, and helping younger children. He aspires one day to be either an artist or a gymnast. The following pictures are just a small sample of some of the fantastic artwork Anthony has created this year.

2000년 미국대선 플로리다주의 투표결과 분석

We searched out in the votes data of the State of Florida at presidential election 2000. We used a multivariate regression analysis. We got there were several outliers including Palm Beach County. It means that we should analyze the number of disqualified ballots which were double-punched as well as the votes, to insist the " Butterfly Ballot" made Palm Beach outlier.