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Consider the existence of six identical trees of the same species across a variety of environments. The first tree is in a wild and isolated landscape. The second is in a wilderness park. The third is in a heavily forested “tree plantation” owned by International Paper. The fourth is in the Ramble in Central Park. The fifth is in a suburban yard. The sixth is inside the six-story atrium of a Manhattan skyscraper. This paper begins with the intuition that the identical trees have different values because they exist in different environments and biological-social contexts. To understand the different evaluations of the trees we must think along a spectrum that incorporates both axiology and ontology. This thought experiment is useful in exploring arguments about both the management and the preservation of the natural world. The conclusion is that we must think along a spectrum of natural being and value to understand the dualism between humanity and nature and thereby avoid the domination of the natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media is a rapidly developing field in architecture and landscape research, which is used to understand public opinions and landscape use. The year 2022 sees the 200th birthday of Olmsted, the founding father of landscape architecture in America. While we commemorate Olmsted's ground-breaking contribution to the landscape architecture discipline, in-depth analyses are always required to examine historic legacies for their current relevancy. Taking his first practical work, New York Central Park, as an example, this paper systematically revisits Olmsted's park design theory and vision, and investigates its post-occupancy conditions from 11,501 posts on TripAdvisor. The results show that the current park use pattern confirms the validity of his scenic image theory. At the same time, his design works have become increasingly popular as public projects to foster social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper addresses issues of race, species, and kind through an incident that took place 25 May 2020, when a birder and a dog owner crossed path in the Ramble of New York's Central Park. The birder, a gay Black man, was searching for scarlet tanagers and other songbirds. The dog owner, a white woman, was walking Henry, her blond cocker. The birder asked the dog owner to leash her spaniel, a bird dog, as required by park rules. The dog owner called 911, reporting that an 'African-American man was putting her in danger'. There is a pre-history to their encounter. Our dubious guide is John James Audubon, whose Ornithological Biography presents haunting scenes of life out of doors, the ramble, or the hunt, and how humans and animals prey upon each other. But the decisive voice is that of Frederic Law Olmsted, who not only designed Central Park (with Calvert Vaux), but also provided the moral and ethical code for its police force. Once it is shown how all the actors (human and animal) and the setting are in fact 'related,' it is the presence of the police in the park that must be explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tracing the controversy-ridden social history of the West Indian Labor Day Carnival in Central Brooklyn, the phrase 'Zoo York' emerged as a powerful descriptor of city life as a staged and enclosed spectacle, an ethos that is enunciated by Carnival. The term 'Zoo York' was coined by the hip-hop generation of the 1970s. Zoo York is said to have been inspired by the physical, literal zoo in Central Park, but might have been influenced by the major construction projects that enclosed the inner city of New York City decades prior. In this analysis, Carnival is shown to be a method and praxis for examining the racial and gender aspects of the city. This method places the West Indian Carnival within a larger narrative of enclosure that has been critical in the policing of Black cultural aesthetics in the United States and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Park is an iconic feature of New York City, which was the first and one of the hardest hit cities in the United States by the Coronavirus. State-level stay-at-home order, raising COVID-19 cases, as well as the public's personal concerns regarding exposure to the virus, led to a significant reduction of Central Park visitation. We utilized extensive cellphone tracking data to conduct one of the pioneering empirical studies assessing the economic impact of COVID-19 on urban parks. We integrated the difference-in-difference (DID) design with the recreation-demand model. The DID design aids in identifying the causal impacts, controlling for unobservable factors that might confound the treatment effects of interest. Concurrently, the recreational demand model examines the driving factors of visitation changes and enables us to estimate the welfare changes experienced by New York City's residents. Our findings shine a light on the substantial, yet often overlooked, welfare loss triggered by the pandemic. The analysis indicates that the pandemic resulted in a 94% reduction in visitation, corresponding to an annual consumer surplus loss of $450 million. We noted a rebound in visitation following the initial outbreak, influenced by shifts in government policy, weather conditions, holiday periods, and personal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess whether hematological and inflammatory parameters can be useful in assessing severity of disease and predict mortality in patients with COVID-19. Study Design: Cross Sectional Comparative Retrospective. Setting: COVID ward and ICU, Central Park Teaching Hospital Lahore. Period: 23rd April 2021 to 23rd June 2021. Material & Methods: The study population was selected by convenient sampling and all patients admitted to the COVID ward and ICU during this time span of two months with positive COVID PCR were included in the study. Results: Among the study population 29(58%) were males while 21(42%) were females with male to female ratio of 1.38:1 and the difference was not found to be statistically significant. The mean age of the patients was 65.2±08 years. The complete blood parameterswhite blood count, absolute neutrophil count, lymphocyte count and neutrophil lymphocyte ratio were compared between groups and it was found that white blood count, absolute neutrophil count and neutrophil lymphocyte ratio was significantly different between different groups. Inflammatory markers like IL-6, ferritin, C-reative protein and d-dimers were also assessed in different severity groups and all were found to be significantly high in severe/critical group. Conclusion: It is concluded that simple inexpensive parameters like white blood count, neutrophil lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil count can be used to evaluate the severity of disease and to predict those patients who are at increased risk of mortality. In the similar way inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, D-dimers, IL-6 and ferritin can be used to group the disease severity and also to monitor the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity is a worldwide medical menace with a huge health-economic burden. Glucose metabolism can be regulated by cellular magnesium in many ways; by mediating secretions of insulin and enabling receptor interaction of insulin. The objective of this study was to determine correlation between serum magnesium levels and insulin resistance in obese male subjects and compares with non-obese male. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at Central Park Medical College from December 2021 to May 2022 on 40 obese and 40 non-obese males. Homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index was used for determining insulin resistance and magnesium levels were assessed by using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Results: A significantly low serum magnesium level was found in obese subjects as compared to controls (mean ±SD 1.356 ±0.215 vs. 1.79 ±0.267 mg/dl, p<0.0001). A significantly high HOMA-IR index was found in obese group than non-obese group (median (IQR); 3.12(2.65-3.46) vs. 1.61(1.46-1.83; p<0.0001). Conclusion: The study showed significantly lower serum magnesium level and higher insulin resistance in obese men as compared to non-obese. The study has also shown that serum magnesium is negatively correlated with IR. Lower serum magnesium levels and HOMA-IR indices were observed in obese group as compared to nonobese group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe wind with high altitudes may threaten the safety of the metropolitan city. This study investigates the relationship between the variation of vertical wind speeds (including 10 min average wind speed (avg‐wind) and 3 s average wind speed (gust wind)) and the height changes in Shenzhen, based on the hourly wind speeds observed on the Shenzhen Meteorological Gradient Tower, Ping An Building, and in the Central Park. The samples are grouped according to the wind speeds. The power law and least square fitting methods are used to obtain the Hellman coefficient value for each group. We find that the fitted Hellman coefficients for both gust wind and avg‐wind are subject to the exponential decay function. When the winds reach their corresponding high percentile level, that is, around 80% of the wind record, the Hellman coefficients almost keep constant. The Hellman coefficient is generally higher over the urban area than that over the rural area. Over the urban area, the Hellman coefficient is with the range of 0.49 ∼ 0.169 for gust wind and 0.64 ∼ 0.327 for the avg‐wind; while over the rural area, the Hellman coefficient is with the range of 0.33 ∼ 0.077 for gust wind and 0.49 ∼ 0.153 for the avg‐wind. There is an apparent diurnal variation of the Hellman coefficient, which is lower during the daytime and higher during nighttime. The monthly variation of the Hellman coefficient over the urban area is not evident, mainly due to the city's climate condition and urban heat island. Plain Language Summary: The value of the Hellman coefficient usually decreases with the increase of the wind speed. The fitted Hellman coefficients for both gust wind and avg‐wind are subject to the exponential decay function. When the winds reach their corresponding high percentile level, that is, around 80% of the wind record, the Hellman coefficients almost keep constant. Key Points: The Hellman coefficient decreases with increased wind speed for a certain topography area, subject to the exponential decay functionWhen the wind reaches its high percentile level for a certain topography area, the Hellman coefficients almost keep constantThe monthly variation of the Hellman coefficient is not apparent over the urban area in Shenzhen due to the urban heat island and its climate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article mainly discusses the evaluation and optimization of the green space utilization value of comprehensive parks used by people in dense urban areas based on the desire for green and healthy living in the postepidemic era. As a qualitative study of urban parks, this study builds an evaluation system based on the American landscape performance series and combines it with comprehensive indicators of China's urban parks, including environmental performance (such as park planning, infrastructure, trails, and vegetation), health performance (such as cultural education, park activities, and transportation accessibility) economic performance (such as tourist consumption and stimulating the development of surrounding construction) and three other aspects: conducting a site evaluation; evaluating observed behavior, interviews and questionnaires; and performing the analytic hierarchy process–coefficient of variation weight comprehensive evaluation analysis. Additionally, the park comprehensive index, land use index, traffic convenience, park vitality index and other dynamic changes are analyzed over time. The purpose is to explore the foundation of urban parks after the epidemic. The role of the urban park environment in sustainable ecological development is verified, and appropriate optimization and improvement actions are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]