The ‘quiet hunt’: the significance of mushroom foraging among Russian-speaking immigrants in New York City

Urban foraging provides city dwellers with numerous ecosystem services, but this human- nature interaction is largely missing from the urban ecosystem services scholarship. This exploratory study aims to address this gap in the literature and examines the benefits and values associated with foraging in New York City, United States. We focus on Russian- speaking mushroom foragers, a previously unstudied community. Data from 10 interviews reveals that for some groups, foraging is primarily about cultural ecosystem services, with a provisioning attribute. Foraging supports multiple benefits, most notably contributions to social relations, cultural heritage, and recreational experiences; these nonmaterial contribu-tions often intertwine with material benefits. Our findings further demonstrate the mutual exchange of benefits between humans and nature, including services to ecosystems and species. Participants reported engagement in multiple stewardship practices and actively maintained and enhanced ecosystem services. We encourage future ecosystem services assessments to recognize foraging as an urban activity and consider the bi-directional exchange of benefits between humans and ecosystems. To some participants, foraging was an integral part of their relationship with the natural world, intertwined with relational values of connection to nature, kinship, love, and care. Our results suggest that relational values can be central for understanding the value of ecosystem services. Our study further illustrates that some ecosystem services may be associated with practices, rather than places, and future work should examine these links in more detail. Environmental stewardship; human-nature connectedness; relational values; urban greenspaces; well-beingpublishedVersio

The Academic Effects of Chronic Exposure to Neighborhood Violence

We estimate the causal effect of repeated exposure to violent crime on test scores in New York City. We use two distinct empirical strategies; value-added models linking student performance on standardized exams to violent crimes on a student’s residential block, and a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the acute effect of an additional crime exposure within a one-week window. Exposure to violent crime reduces academic performance. Value added models suggest the average effect is very small; approximately -0.01 standard deviations in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics. RD models suggest a larger effect, particularly among children previously exposed. The marginal acute effect is as large as -0.04 standard deviations for students with two or more prior exposures. Among these, it is even larger for black students, almost a 10th of a standard deviation. We provide credible causal evidence that repeated exposure to neighborhood violence harms test scores, and this negative effect increases with exposure

Treatment Intensification in Patients With Kawasaki Disease and Coronary Aneurysm at Diagnosis.

BackgroundCoronary artery aneurysms (CAA) are a serious complication of Kawasaki disease. Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) within 10 days of fever onset reduces the risk of CAA from 25% to <5%. Corticosteroids and infliximab are often used in high-risk patients or those with CAA at diagnosis, but there are no data on their longer-term impact on CAA.MethodsRetrospective multicenter study including children who had CAA with a z score ≥2.5 and <10 at time of diagnosis and who received primary therapy with IVIg alone or in combination with either corticosteroids or infliximab within 10 days of onset of fever.ResultsOf 121 children, with a median age of 2.8 (range 0.1-15.5) years, 30 (25%) received primary therapy with corticosteroids and IVIg, 58 (48%) received primary therapy with infliximab and IVIg, and 33 (27%) received primary therapy with IVIg only. Median coronary z scores at the time of diagnosis did not differ among treatment groups (P = .39). Primary treatment intensification with either corticosteroids or infliximab were independent protective factors against progression of coronary size on follow-up (coefficient: -1.31 [95% confidence interval: -2.33 to -0.29]; coefficient: -1.07 [95% confidence interval: -1.95 to -0.19], respectively).ConclusionsAmong a high-risk group of patients with Kawasaki disease with CAA on baseline echocardiography, those treated with corticosteroids or infliximab in addition to IVIg had less progression in CAA size compared with those treated with IVIg alone. Prospective randomized trials are needed to determine the best adjunctive treatment of patients who present with CAA

The Value of the Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) in Evaluating Adolescent Patients with Concussions

OBJECTIVE To determine the VOMS can differentiate between typical and protracted recoveries in adolescent patients

Comparative evaluation of the hygienic efficacy of an ultra-rapid hand dryer vs conventional warm air hand dryers

AIMS: To compare an ultra-rapid hand dryer against warm air dryers, with regard to: (A) bacterial transfer after drying and (B) the impact on bacterial numbers of rubbing hands during dryer use. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Airblade™ dryer (Dyson Ltd) uses two air 'knives' to strip water from still hands, whereas conventional dryers use warm air to evaporate moisture whilst hands are rubbed together. These approaches were compared using 14 volunteers; the Airblade™ and two types of warm air dryer. In study (A), hands were contaminated by handling meat and then washed in a standardized manner. After dryer use, fingers were pressed onto foil and transfer of residual bacteria enumerated. Transfers of 0-10(7) CFU per five fingers were observed. For a drying time of 10 s, the Airblade™ led to significantly less bacterial transfer than the other dryers (P 0·05, range 0·1317-0·4099). In study (B), drying was performed ± hand rubbing. Contact plates enumerated bacteria transferred from palms, fingers and fingertips before and after drying. When keeping hands still, there was no statistical difference between dryers, and reduction in the numbers released was almost as high as with paper towels. Rubbing when using the warm air dryers inhibited an overall reduction in bacterial numbers on the skin (P < 0·05). CONCLUSIONS: Effective hand drying is important for reducing transfer of commensals or remaining contaminants to surfaces. Rubbing hands during warm air drying can counteract the reduction in bacterial numbers accrued during handwashing. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The Airblade™ was superior to the warm air dryers for reducing bacterial transfer. Its short, 10 s drying time should encourage greater compliance with hand drying and thus help reduce the spread of infectious agents via hands