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October 27, 2011
From US Census Bureau - Release of 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year Estimates
We are pleased to announce the release of the 2008-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 3-Year Estimates, the most
relied-upon source for up-to-date socioeconomic information every year. The release covers more than 40 topics,
such as educational attainment, income, health insurance coverage, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity,
ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. The estimates are available in detailed tables for the nation, all
50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all
counties and places with populations of 20,000 or more.
Beginning in 2008, the ACS questionnaire included new questions about marital history, disability, health insurance,
and service-connected disability-rating status and ratings for civilian veterans. The 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year Estimates will
be the first 3-year dataset to include this new content. To learn more about these tables, and other data product
changes, please visit our 2010 Data Product Changes page.
To find statistics for your area, visit the Census Bureau's American FactFinder.
To learn more about this release, visit our 2010 Data Release page.
If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.
Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau
Posted by ronbo at 08:29 PM
October 24, 2011
From Revolution Analytics: Webinar Series: Next Up "Scalable Data Analysis in R" Oct 26th, 10-11AM Pacific Time
Revolution Analytics would like to invite you to attend our 2011 Fall Webinar Series. Coming up Wednesday, October 26th is "Scalable Data Analysis is R", presented by Lee Edlefsen, Ph.D., Chief Scientist at Revolution Analytics.
For the past several decades the rising tide of technology -- especially the increasing speed of single processors -- has allowed the same data analysis code to run faster and on bigger data sets. That happy era is ending. The size of data sets is increasing much more rapidly than the speed of single cores, of I/O, and of RAM. To deal with this, we need software that can use multiple cores, multiple hard drives, and multiple computers. That is, we need scalable data analysis software.
R is the ideal platform for scalable data analysis software. It is easy to add new functionality in the R environment, and easy to integrate it into existing functionality. R is also powerful, flexible and forgiving.
In this webinar, Dr. Edlefsen will discuss the approach to scalability Revolution Analytics has taken with its RevoScaleR package. He will discuss this approach from the point of view of:
* Storing data on disk
* Importing data from other sources
* Reading and writing of chunks of data
* Handling data in memory
* Using multiple cores on single computers
* Using multiple computers
* Automatically parallelizing "external memory" algorithms
Posted by ronbo at 06:03 PM
October 20, 2011
From Openspace List: OpenGeoDa 1.0.1 available: scatter plot fix
This is a small update that addresses a visual bug in the 1.0 Scatter Plot.
Windows, Mac and Linux binaries:
http://geodacenter.asu.edu/software/downloads
Source code:
https://code.google.com/p/opengeoda/
Please see the release notes for the complete history of new features and bug fixes:
http://geodacenter.org/downloads/GeoDa/Mac/release-notes.txt
************************
Mark McCann, Ph.D.
Arizona State University
GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation
URL: http://geodacenter.asu.edu
Email: mark.mccann@asu.edu
Posted by ronbo at 07:18 PM
From US Census Bureau - 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year PUMS
We are pleased to announce the release of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Public Use Microdata Sample
(PUMS) files. PUMS files from the ACS show the full range of population and housing unit responses
collected on individual ACS questionnaires. These files enable users to design tabulations that aggregate responses
differently than the published data products.
The PUMS files contain records for a subsample of ACS housing units and group quarters persons. As required by federal law,
the confidentiality of ACS respondents is protected through a variety of steps to disguise or suppress original data while
making sure the results are still useful. In addition to modifying the individual records, respondents' confidentiality is
protected because only large geographic areas are identified in the PUMS. To read more about how the PUMS files are created,
browse code lists, and look-up subjects in the PUMS, please visit the PUMS Documentation Page.
The PUMS data is accessible now via the FTP site. Links can be found on our PUMS Data Page.
On October 27, 2011 the data will also be accessible via American FactFinder.
If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.
Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau
Posted by ronbo at 07:05 PM
From US Census Bureau - Two New American Community Survey Briefs
We are pleased to announce the release of two new briefs in the American Community Survey Briefs series.
These short reports focus on specific topics related to the American Community Survey, supplementing detailed
tables with additional analysis on two key topics.The two new briefs released are described below.
Public Assistance Receipt in the Past 12 Months for Households: 2009 and 2010.
This brief, based on the 2009 and 2010 American Community Survey results, notes geographic differences in the
distribution of public assistance as well as change between 2009 and 2010.
Poverty: 2009 and 2010.
This brief, based on the 2009 and 2010 American Community Survey results, compares poverty rates for the nation,
states, and large metropolitan statistical areas. The report also summarizes the distributions of income-to-poverty
ratios for states and the District of Columbia.
The next release in the series is scheduled for November.
If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.
Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau
Posted by ronbo at 07:01 PM
October 14, 2011
From IASSIST list: The new NHGIS and SABINS
Hello everyone,
I'm pleased to announce the release of the new NHGIS website! Highlights include:
- new front page providing more manuals, FAQs, and project information to users
- new data access system based on filters - allows users to request data for multiple years and geography levels in one extract
- new data - 2010 Redistricting data and associated shapefiles
Throughout the next few months, we will add American Community Survey and 2010 Summary File 1 and 2 data to the site, along with additional historical data.
Please visit http://www.nhgis.org to see the changes we've made! The previous NHGIS site is still available at http://legacy.nhgis.org
I'm also pleased to announce the release of the new School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS) website! Highlights include:
grade-specific school attendance areas for thousands of school districts in the United States
2010 Redistricting data for the school attendance areas
crosswalks linking the school attendance areas to the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data
Throughout the next few months, we will add American Community Survey interpolated estimates and 2010 Summary File 1 and 2 data.
Please visit http://www.sabinsdata.org!
I want to thank many people for their hard work on these projects:
Jacob Barney
Jason Borah
Pete Clark
Colin Davis
Elizabeth Fairley
Cathy Fitch
Stephanie Foo
Jason Goray
Monty Hindman
Kevin Horne
Jeff Kerzner
Charlot Meyer
Petra Noble
Noel Peterson
Steve Ruggles
Jonathan Schroeder
Julia Shumway
Wade Stebbings
Wendy Thomas
Rob Warren
along with a number of research assistants throughout the years. I also want to thank our colleagues at the College of William and Mary for their work on SABINS.
Please let me know if you have questions or comments about our new websites.
Sincerely,
Dave Van Riper
----------------------------------------------------
David Van Riper, GISP
Acting Director, Spatial Analysis Core
Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota
Posted by ronbo at 05:01 PM
SSDS WS on R Intro - link to R script
Here's the link to Solomon's R script that he used in his workshop presentation on Friday, October 14, 2011:
http://www.stanford.edu/~messing/RIntro.R
Also, take a look at some of SSDS's other help documentation on using R or other software applications:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/ssds/cgi-bin/drupal/content/software-services-getting-started-guides-documents
Thanks for attending!
Posted by ronbo at 01:22 PM
October 13, 2011
From MAPSS list - Looking for Research Participants? Apply to Winter 11 REP!
The Research Experience Program (REP) is a resource for Stanford social science faculty and graduate students to recruit additional experimental subjects.
REP is accepting Winter 2011 applications. Applications are due Friday, October 21 at 5 pm.
The REP is a program worked in joint with local community colleges to help Stanford faculty and students perform social science research more easily and effectively by providing them access to a larger participant pool. The REP helps provide access to human participants at local community colleges. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences. We accept both laboratory and online studies.
The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rep-application
For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep/applicants
If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu
Posted by ronbo at 12:03 PM
October 11, 2011
From IES Newsflash: NCES Report Analyzes Use of Private Loans in Postsecondary Education
A new report on postsecondary private loan borrows found that the percentage of undergraduates who took out private loans rose from 5 percent to 14 percent from 2003–04 to 2007–08.
The Expansion of Private Loans in Postsecondary Education, a Statistics in Brief, examines trends in borrowing from commercial lenders for postsecondary education, the characteristics of undergraduate and graduate private loan borrowers, and combining private and federal loans. Results are based on nationally representative data collected through the 2003–04 and 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS:04 and NPSAS:08).
Other findings include:
• Among full-time dependent undergraduates, higher percentages of students from lower middle-income (21 percent) and upper middle-income (20 percent) families than students from low-income (15 percent) or high-income (16 percent) families borrowed private loans in 2007–08.
• The largest proportion of borrowers who took out private loans either exclusively or in combination with public loans (42 percent) was found among those enrolled at for-profit institutions in 2007–08.
• Among dependent private loan borrowers, 53 percent had also borrowed the maximum federal Stafford loan amount.
This Statistics in Brief is a product of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.
To view the full report please visit
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012184
Posted by ronbo at 06:25 PM
From IASSIST list: Announcing a new release for the Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) at the MPC
The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the October 11, 2011 update of the popular IHIS.
The Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) at www.ihis.us now includes 12,000 integrated health-related variables for 1963-2010. The lastest IHIS data release has added data from 2010 and includes material from the historical public use files from 1963 to 1968. IHIS is a consistently-coded version of nationally-representative data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey and is available for free over the Internet. Along with socioeconomic and demographic variables, IHIS includes data on a wide range of physical and mental health conditions, health behaviors (including alcohol and tobacco use), health care use and access, and activity limitations for the non-insitutionalized U.S. population (children and adults). Researchers can analyze these data using an online tabulator or can make a customized data extract with just years and variables needed for their research project and analyze the data using a statistical package.
--
Wendy L. Thomas
Data Access Core Director
Minnesota Population Center
Posted by ronbo at 06:02 PM
October 10, 2011
From Openspace List: OpenGeoDa 1.0 and source code released!
Today we are pleased to announce the availability of OpenGeoDa version 1.0 along with the source code (released under GPLv3)
Windows, Mac and Linux binaries:
http://geodacenter.asu.edu/software/downloads
Source code:
https://code.google.com/p/opengeoda/
There is only one significant bug fix in this version since the last beta release. Please see the release notes for the complete history of new features and bug fixes:
http://geodacenter.org/downloads/GeoDa/Mac/release-notes.txt
************************
Mark McCann, Ph.D.
Arizona State University
GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation
URL: http://geodacenter.asu.edu
Email: mark.mccann@asu.edu
Posted by ronbo at 01:59 PM