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This article examines the cross-sectional association between spatial and structural assimilation among Latino adults in Harris County, Texas, USA. Prior studies have produced little evidence of any significant association between the racial/ethnic composition of Latinos' neighbourhoods and their social networks, particularly net of controls for socio-economic status (SES). But prior studies have failed to distinguish social ties that are either weak or exceptional from strong, systematic ties that may be more indicative of social integration, ignored the racial/ethnic diversity in Latinos' neighbourhoods and networks, or both. Negative binomial and multinomial logit analyses predicting close intergroup friendships among Latinos were conducted using data from the 2006 Houston Area Survey. Net of acculturation and SES, Latinos who lived in neighbourhoods that provided greater exposure to non-Hispanic whites were more likely to have non-Hispanic whites among their three closest friends than those who lived in Latino enclaves. Neighbourhood diversity, particularly among non-white residents, was also associated with diverse friendship networks among Latinos. Implications for the relationship between Latino spatial and structural assimilation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why-and under what conditions-is residential integration positively associated with interethnic friendships between adults in large, diverse metropolitan areas? Both macrostructural and contact theories predict such an association. Yet integrated neighborhoods sometimes resemble 'worlds of strangers' (), in which much interaction involves fleeting contacts that may increase the salience of stereotypes. Some prior research suggests that a positive association between integration and interethnic friendship may obtain even under such less than ideal circumstances. By analyzing how the association between integration and friendship varies among Anglos, Blacks, and Latinos, this article offers a more nuanced perspective informed by group position theory. Net of selection bias and more intensive forms of intergroup contact, living in an integrated area is only positively associated with having interethnic friendships when integration provides exposure to groups that occupy privileged positions in the larger society's racial-ethnic hierarchy relative to a resident's own group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zoonotic disease anthrax is endemic to most continents. It is a disease of herbivores that incidentally infects humans through contact with animals that are ill or have died from anthrax or through contact with Bacillus anthracis-contaminated byproducts. In the United States, human risk is primarily associated with handling carcasses of hoofstock that have died of anthrax; the primary risk for herbivores is ingestion of B. anthracis spores, which can persist in suitable alkaline soils in a corridor from Texas through Montana. The last known naturally occurring human case of cutaneous anthrax associated with livestock exposure in the United States was reported from South Dakota in 2002. Texas experienced an increase of animal cases in 2019 and consequently higher than usual human risk. We describe the animal outbreak that occurred in southwest Texas beginning in June 2019 and an associated human case. Primary prevention in humans is achieved through control of animal anthrax.