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Yearly Archives: 2016

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I am you and you are me. We, the people of this country and this planet, share something people hundreds of years before and hundreds of years hence can’t possibly have in common with us: now.

What defines “now”? Labels. We are tremendously caught up in them. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? And then, something happens, something unimaginable in Florida, and it’s clear at least one person directed his hatred toward one particular group.

This was an attack on the gay community. Other labels will undoubtedly stick and motives will undoubtedly be uncovered, but it was an attack on gay America. Sure, it was terrorism, because it was terrible and it was shockingly violent, but it was, first and foremost, an attack on a community.

There’s a moving scene at the end of the Kevin Kline film, “In & Out,” at a high school graduation in which everyone stands up and says they are gay in support of Kline, who is on the verge of losing his job because of his sexual orientation.

As we watched a moving Tony Awards ceremony, I hoped someone would step to the microphone and say, “I’m gay and anyone else who is gay today, please stand with me.” I’m sure the entire audience would have stood up.

For today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, we are all gay. We are all lesbian, bisexuals and transgender. We are like the Danish people who, legend has it, put yellow stars on their clothing to make it impossible to distinguish Jewish Danes from fellow Danes during World War II. There is some debate about whether Christian X, the king of Denmark, put the Jewish star on his clothing. What is clear, however, is that the Danes did what they could in a horrible time to save their citizens from discrimination and death by helping them escape to Sweden.

In the here and now, with so much blood, so many tears and such incomprehensible loss, there is something we can do for our fellow Americans: We can be gay. I’m not suggesting we all need same-sex partners, merely, that the label that seems so toxic to some applies to all of us.

We live with such random acts of terror and violence. Far too often, the president of the United States has become the Mourner in Chief. Maybe, instead, he should be gay, too.

Let’s not wait for a reluctant and divided Congress to act and to take action on guns, or on hate, or on love. Let’s embrace and understand each other.

There will be plenty of people pointing fingers. The FBI was watching this killer through different points in his life. Did they miss anything? I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people who will suggest that if the clubgoers had had guns, this killer wouldn’t have been as effective because someone would have been able to take him out before he did all that damage. Is that really what we want, a bunch of people in a club with guns? Would that really make us safer? It’s a bit like the mutually assured destruction argument during the Cold War. Maybe it was so irrational to consider destroying the world that no one pushed the button, but we still have all those weapons and there is still plenty of hate and fear. We and the former Soviet Union spent billions on weapons when those resources might have cured cancer, improved food crops or developed cheaper, cleaner energy.

So, how do we stop the hate? We stand up, we unite, we share — and we recognize that I am you and you are me.

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Event organizers and participants come together for one big group photo during the event. Soldiers on the Sound has been an annual celebration of thanking American heroes. Photo by Kevin Redding

By Kevin Redding

On Saturday, the St. James community continued to show their appreciation toward active members of the military as the eighth annual Soldiers on the Sound Fluke Fishing Tournament hit the waters of Smithtown Bay.

Since 2009, the tireless efforts of the event’s organizers – all volunteers – make for a day of gratitude for those in uniform, camaraderie and smiles, and, of course, friendly competition out on the fishing boats. With each passing year, the event gets bigger and better, drawing in more boats, contributors and donations, to help give back to those service men and women who sacrifice their lives everyday. This year’s tournament was its biggest yet, drawing 61 boats, all donated and hosted by local captains and mates, and 150 registered soldiers, representing the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and the 106th Rescue Wing of the New York Air National Guard based in Westhampton.

After fishing, all soldiers returned to the Smithtown Bay Yacht Club, where they were treated to a large barbecue, a hot food buffet and a slew of raffle prizes generously paid for by companies and individual donors. The prizes included gift cards, coolers, speakers, 40” flat screen TV’s, Billy Joel tickets and a weekend vacation at the Hawks Cay resort in the Florida Keys, to name a few.

According to the event’s president and founder, Mark Garry, the only thing asked of the soldiers is that they have a good time.

“That’s what it’s all about – everybody hugging and high fiving, and thanking us sincerely,” he said. “They’re gonna go and eat like rockstars. We buy 800 cigars to give them. They have food, sodas, beers. It’s good, it’s very simple and rewarding.”

Photo by Kevin Redding
Photo by Kevin Redding

The conception of the event hit Garry when he was watching war coverage on the yacht club TV and saw soldiers reduced to lying in the sand, resting their heads on their helmets. He immediately went to work, focused on honoring those currently serving our country and giving them something relaxing to come home to. It didn’t take long for he and his “army” of volunteers to get the event underway, calling on everyone from military liaisons to boat captains to fundraisers.

“I’m retired Air Force and I knew the unit out in Westhampton,” said Skip Heine, the only founding member with a military background. “Mark called on me and we invited them the first time and they’ve been involved since. It’s great because back in the Vietnam days, you were not revered at all by the public, so it’s nice to see the people that protect get the recognition.”

Even though he didn’t have the best of luck catching fluke, active Marine Felix Torres was grateful for the event.

“To me personally, I feel like this is a great thing,” he said. “To have whole bunch of soldiers and Marines and Navy guys all go out together and fish, have a good time…it just shows how together we all are.”

The winning fluke of 6.4 pounds was caught by Captain Andy Smith and his boat crew, which included Air Force Mjr. Jesse Fritz and Tech Sgt. Nathan Dean.

“We’re very fortunate to have a community-based program like this,” Fritz said. “Being a military member out here on Long Island, there is not support like this everywhere so it’s amazing to be part of something like this, to be part of the community and see the support. Yes, it’s a fishing tournament and it’s fun but it means so much to see the support and how it all ties into the community. We’re very grateful.”

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The Three Village school district discusses its scientific success. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy

In what has become a tradition, the Three Village Board of Education celebrated the success of its three Science Olympiad teams at the regional, state and national competitions.

While some might point to the junior high and high school teams’ dominance as proof of the district’s commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, a presentation at the board’s recent meeting outlining the district’s inaugural year of the elementary STEM program could seal the deal.

The two junior high schools, P.J. Gelinas and R.C. Murphy, placed first and second, respectively, in the regional Science Olympiad competition. Gelinas went on to become New York State champions and finished 10th at the national competition. Ward Melville finished first in the Eastern Long Island regionals, second in New York State and is ranked 24th in the country. The Ward Melville team also won a first-place medal in Experimental Design and one for fifth place for Write It/Do It.

The recognition served as the ideal introduction to the evening’s report about the new STEM education program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The Three Village school district discusses its scientific success. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy
The Three Village school district discusses its scientific success. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy

STEM at Three Village introduces elementary school children to computer science and gives them the opportunity to apply engineering and design challenges to real-world issues. Colleen Maier, STEM teacher at Nassakeag Elementary School, said that while units of study vary, all grades are exposed to coding through Code.org, a nonprofit organization that offers a free web-based curriculum. 

Gretchen Tranchino, STEM teacher at W.S. Mount, said the first step for all grades is learning about algorithms — a list of steps to complete a task. While older students followed algorithms for making paper airplanes, younger children used them to plant seeds. Eventually, the process of writing algorithms was translated to writing code on computers, she said.   

The focus varies by grade level after the initial introduction to coding, Maier said. For example, students in kindergarten through second grade focus on the “living environment,” learning about vertical growing towers, which don’t need soil and can grow year-round indoors.

While working on the projects, students learn about greenhouses, plant needs and also learn the differences between geoponics — growing plants in soil — and aeroponics — growing plants in the air, said Brianna Rovegno, who teaches STEM at Arrowhead Elementary School.   

Second-graders designed the water sources for their towers and got inspiration from plants and animals, while also considering materials and time constraints, Rovegno said. Some harvests included lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and peppers. 

Rovegno said that in order to reinforce early coding concepts, third- and fourth-grade students transition from writing code on paper to programming small robots, called Ozobots. This helps students develop logical reasoning and teaches them to embrace failure, Rovegno said, adding that writing code, working to debug a program and find errors within the code aid students in becoming more perseverant. 

“They really had to stick with it,” Tranchino said. “We felt that this was a skill that was easily transferrable and really important in their educational journey.”

Though there were a variety of design challenges for fifth- and sixth-graders — they learned about computer-aided design with the application Tinkercad — all of the students had the opportunity to see their designs realized with a 3-D printer. With each lesson, said Sean Dowling, Minnesauke Elementary School’s STEM teacher, teachers presented the children with a real-world application.

Students designing shells for hermit crabs learned about the shortage of hermit crab shells in Bermuda and had to incorporate the measurements of actual hermit crabs in their design. Other students designed rectangular prism sculptures following mathematical guidelines that reinforced math concepts related to the volume of prisms. Meanwhile, another group of students designed organ transport containers that applied their knowledge of the transport of thermal energy in order to preserve ice.

Moving forward, the five STEM teachers who have been working and collaborating with the general education teachers, will continue to develop the curriculum. They will continue to review, revise and enhance the program over the summer.

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Sample tiles were on display at the Community Art Center on June 4. Photo by Ellen Barcel

By Ellen Barcel

A community art event, Make Your Mark, has come to Gallery North. The gallery invites the community — adults, children, families, both professional artists and even those with no artistic background — to come and paint their own six-inch ceramic tile. The tiles may be taken home or used at the gallery in the planned tile wall of the new Community Art Center.

Ceramic tiles have a long history. Once ceramics are fired, they do not deteriorate like wood or cloth. The result is that the art world has tiles created and fired not only hundreds but thousands of years ago. The decorative tile work on the Dome of the Rock (begun in the seventh century) in Jerusalem dates back to the 16th century while Egyptian tile goes back to 4000 B.C. These examples attest to the beauty and longevity of this art form.

Tiles continued to be important in the art world. The Tile Club consisted of over two dozen American artists in the late 19th century, including Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, Stanford White, John J. Twachtman and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who met periodically to paint ceramic tiles. Even today, decorative ceramic tiles are popular tourist souvenirs.

Judith Levy, executive director of the gallery noted that people shouldn’t be afraid to tackle painting a tile. “I’ve had people say ‘I have an idea, but…’ they aren’t artists. Well, we have helpers, students from the art department at Stony Brook University.” In addition, designs can be traced onto the tiles or stencils can be used. It’s up to the individual.

“We want to create stakeholders in the gallery, new ways of exciting people,” added Levy. Since some of the tiles will be a permanent part of the wall next to the new building, people can come back with their families, year after year to see their tile — basically being a part of the artistic heritage of Gallery North.

On June 4, the first in the series of workshops was held at the gallery. Handmade tile production was demonstrated by sculptor and Long Island artisan Tina Folks. Folks, a ceramic artist for over 25 years, is a graduate of the Parsons School of Design. “I knew my medium would be clay from summer camp,” when she was a child. “I fell in love with the medium.”

Folks showed how a rolled out slab of moist red clay is cut into squares, dried and coated with bisque before its first firing. This preparation, getting them ready for the community artists to paint, will be done by Folks. “I have about 200 tiles now in my studio to decorate,” she noted.

“What I love about this [a community art project] is the collaboration. It takes me out of the solitude of my studio. It’s a nice exchange working with other people. It helps me grow as an artist,” said Folks.

Make Your Mark starts with those attending the workshops drawing their designs on a six-inch square of paper. In the weeks to come, they and others who join them will transfer their designs to the tiles to then be fired a second time by Folks. Future workshop dates include June 18, June 26 and July 7. Times will vary to accommodate painters’ schedules. For example, the July 7 workshop will be held in the evening from 6 to 8 p.m. When all the tiles are completed and fired, those intended for the gallery will be installed in the garden wall.

Levy added that the patio next to the art center will be expanded. There will be seating and plantings. The planned wall, referred to as a knee wall, will be about 2½ to 3 feet tall. The community’s tiles will be affixed to the inside of the wall, where those on the patio, as well as those inside the art center, can enjoy them.

The event is a fundraiser for the gallery, to help develop the gallery’s new ceramics program as well as other arts programs. The cost to decorate a tile and have it fired, to be taken home by the artist is $50. To decorate a tile and contribute it to the gallery’s garden wall is $100. Naturally, people are encouraged to do both. The goal is for 300 to 600 tiles to be completed for the wall.

Another option is to sponsor a local, professional artist who would do four tiles (12-inch square) for the garden wall. The contribution for sponsorship is $750. Sponsorship can be shared by more than one individual.

So, to “make your mark” and work on one or more tiles, contact Gallery North. A nonprofit, the gallery is located at 90 North Country Road in Setauket. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For further information, call 631-751-2676 or go to www.gallerynorth.org.

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The town is taking steps to reduce the amount of nitrogen in its groundwater. File photo

The quality of the water on Long Island is worsening, and the Town of Brookhaven took an important step to reverse that trend.

The town board voted unanimously to approve a local law proposed by Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) that establishes nitrogen protection zones within 500 feet of any body of water on or around Long Island. The zones will prohibit new structures or dwellings being built in that range from installing cesspools or septic systems, effective in January 2017.

“We’ve all watched our waters degrade over the last 50 years,” Romaine said after the vote at a town board meeting held on June 9. “We all know part of the problem is nitrogen.”

Romaine has long been an advocate for improving the island’s water quality on the town and county levels. He addressed the problem at his State of the Town address in March.

“Nitrogen from our sanitary systems, our lawns, our golf courses and our farms is impacting our bays and harbors, our freshwater lakes and streams and our drinking water,” he said. “The solutions to this problem are neither easy nor cheap. But doing nothing is not an option; we must act now. Our future depends on us addressing this problem.”

Representatives from three nonprofit organizations focusing on water quality spoke in support of the law last Thursday.

“I’d like to congratulate you guys and commend you again on your environmental leadership,” George Hoffman of the Setauket Harbor Task Force said. “It’s timely. It’s needed and I’m glad that you’re moving forward with it because there just seems to be a lot of stuff going on with harbors and waters and nitrogen but nothing seems to be getting done. So this is a good thing to see that you’re actually seeing it through and that there will be an ordinance here that will start to change what’s going on in our waters.”

Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O and Doug Swesty of the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition also spoke in strong support of the law.

“It’s critical that you do this because of the glaciated terrain in which we live on here in Long Island, that 500 feet represents approximately two years of travel time from the time something enters a cesspool or septic tank within a 500-foot radius until it reaches the water body,” Swesty said. “Groundwater travel times here are about two to three feet a day. So it’s critical that we implement something to protect our waterways from discharges that are put into the groundwater.”

According to the town’s website, there has been a 93 percent decline in Great South Bay clam harvests as a result of brown tides, which are brought about by nitrogen seepage. The island’s bay scallop industry has collapsed almost entirely due to nitrogen-caused algal blooms. These issues are in addition to the overall decreasing quality of Long Island’s water.

The law will have an added provision protecting homeowners who incur damage thanks to a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, allowing them other options should requiring the purchase of a new system be a source of financial hardship.

Third District Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden), who is in favor of that protection, supports the law as a whole.

“I think it’s a great goal we’ve set for the town and for other towns as well,” he said.

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By Elof Axel Carlson

Most scientists consider themselves reductionists. The term suggests that complex things can be analyzed to simpler components. A molecule of water can be “reduced” to two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Sunlight, when using a prism, can be reduced to a spectrum of rainbow colors. Our body can be reduced to organs, tissues and organelles. A star is a ball of mostly hydrogen atoms whose mass generates such heat and pressure that some of its innermost atoms are fused, producing immense heat, ultraviolet radiation, gamma radiation, light and the formation of new elements. A galaxy is a rotating pinwheel of billions of stars.

At the same time, many scientists recognize that there are ever-changing systems. We think of ourselves changing from a fertilized egg, a ball of cells leaving the oviduct and entering the uterus, a differentiating implanted embryo forming tissues and organs, a fetus making its presence known by its movements in an amniotic sac, a newborn baby, a dependent infant, a toddler, a child actively learning, an adolescent in high school or college, a young adult, a middle-aged adult, an old person and eventually a corpse to be buried or cremated.

Along with a changing physical state in our life cycle, we are aware of how our personalities changed (or stayed constant) and the hundreds of influences from our parents, siblings, neighbors, schoolmates, teachers and hosts of encounters from whom we meet, what we read and what we observe. We recognize ourselves as being rational, emotional, spiritual, idealistic, competent, insecure, inspired, depressed, self-serving, altruistic, generous, greedy and a variety of other (often contradictory) ways. Analyzing who we are, as functioning persons or societies, is harder than identifying our physical components. That is also true for ecosystems or the associations that participate in a community whether it is a forest, grassland, tide-pool, lake or river.

Analyzing who we are, as functioning persons or societies, is harder than identifying our physical components.

Alexander Humboldt was the first to see the universe (he called it the cosmos) as a connected system. Everything is connected to everything and it constantly changes. Philosophers call this outlook “holism.”

Humboldt’s holism was systematic, and as he climbed up mountains he took notes on the plants and animals (preserving samples for later study) and chipped off minerals as he noted the changing rock formations during his ascent. He noted how temperature dropped as he climbed upward. He used instruments to measure the air pressure. The field he founded was ecology, although it would be more than 50 years later that it got its name.

In contrast to Humboldt, other scientists saw holism as a way to merge science and religion. Thus Goethe saw a spirituality in the study of the cosmos, and German scientists embraced his “nature philosophy” approach. In the United States Emerson extended holism to the universe, which he described as an “oversoul.” It launched his Transcendental movement. Still others invoked “vital spirits” or a life force that animated all living things and that disappeared when they died.

I much prefer Humboldt’s approach to those holists who invoke a supernatural aspect to complexity. If processes and things are claimed to be beyond the reach of science, then our understanding of complex things is limited. At the same time, it is naive to claim that everything is possible, such as perpetual motion, living forever, or willing oneself (unassisted) to run as fast as the speed of sound. Scientist cannot ignore the complexity of the things they study but neither should they be paralyzed into inaction because of it. Humboldt’s approach is both reductionist and holistic, and it served him and society well by enriching our understanding of how the universe works.

Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.

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Lifestyle changes may act like combination punches

Muhammad Ali was larger than life until the boxing ring, the stage where he had the loudest megaphone, took its toll.

It is not often that we come across a man who symbolizes so many different facets of life. Muhammad Ali was a fighter, in the literal sense, and his opponents faced an ominous, yet poetic, adversary in the boxing ring. He was also a fighter for racial equality. Ali was larger than life until the boxing ring, the stage where he had the loudest megaphone, took its toll.

Repeated blows to his head, especially to the back of his head, the cerebellar region of the brain responsible for balance and coordination, may have been at least partly responsible for prompting a disease that stole this boxer’s physical prowess and trapped a powerful force in a withering body, leaving him expressionless.

This disease is, of course, Parkinson’s disease. Though it became more and more difficult to move, he remained a fighter in the figurative sense, not allowing a disease to diminish his spirit and bringing hope to others. One of the most moving memories I have of Muhammad Ali is of him lighting the torch to commence the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, inspiring other athletes.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative (the breakdown of brain neurons) disease with the resultant effect of a movement disorder. Most notably, patients with the disease suffer from a collection of symptoms known by the mnemonic TRAP: tremors while resting, rigidity, akinesia/bradykinesia (inability/difficulty to move or slow movements) and postural instability or balance issues. It can also result in a masked face, one that has become expressionless and potentially dementia, depending on the subtype. There are several different subtypes; the diffuse/malignant phenotype has the highest propensity toward cognitive decline (1).

The part of the brain most affected is the basal ganglia, and the prime culprit is dopamine deficiency that occurs in this brain region (2). Why not add back dopamine? Actually, this is the mainstay of medical treatment, but eventually the neurons themselves break down, and the medication becomes less effective.

What are some of the risk factors? These may include head trauma, reduced vitamin D, milk intake, well water, being overweight, high levels of dietary iron and migraine with aura in middle age.

Is there hope? Yes, in the form of medications and deep brain stimulatory surgery, but also with lifestyle modifications. Lifestyle factors include iron, vitamin D, CoQ10 and coffee and teas. The research, unfortunately, is not conclusive, though it is intriguing.

Let’s look at the research.

The role of iron

This heavy metal is potentially harmful for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis and, yes, Parkinson’s disease. The problem is that this heavy metal can cause oxidative damage.

In a small, yet well-designed, randomized controlled trial (RCT), the gold standard of studies, researchers used a chelator to remove iron from the substantia nigra, a specific part of the brain where iron breakdown may be dysfunctional. An iron chelator is a drug that removes the iron. Here, deferiprone (DFP) was used at a modest dose of 30 mg/kg/d (3). This drug was mostly well-tolerated.

The chelator reduced the risk of disease progression significantly on the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Participants who were treated sooner had lower levels of iron compared to a group that used the chelator six months later. A specialized MRI was used to measure levels of iron in the brain. This trial was 12 months in duration.

The iron chelator does not affect, nor should it affect, systemic levels of iron, only those in the brain specifically focused on the substantia nigra region. The chelator may work by preventing degradation of the dopamine-containing neurons. It also may be recommended to consume foods that contain less iron.

CoQ10

When we typically think of using CoQ10, a coenzyme found in over-the-counter supplements, it is to compensate for depletion from statin drugs or due to heart failure. Doses range from 100 to 300 mg. However, there is evidence that CoQ10 may be beneficial in Parkinson’s at much higher doses. In an RCT, results showed that those given 1,200 mg of CoQ10 daily reduced the progression of the disease significantly based on UPDRS changes, compared to the placebo group (4). Other doses of 300 and 600 mg showed trends toward benefit but were not significant. This was a 16-month trial in a small population of 80 patients. Though the results for other CoQ10 studies have been mixed, these results are encouraging. Plus, CoQ10 was well-tolerated at even the highest dose. Thus, there may be no downside to trying CoQ10 in those with Parkinson’s disease.

Vitamin D: Good or bad?

In a prospective (forward-looking) study, results show that vitamin D levels measured in the highest quartile reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 65 percent, compared to the lowest quartile (5). This is quite impressive, especially since the highest quartile patients had vitamin D levels that were what we would qualify as insufficient, with blood levels of 20 ng/ml, while those in the lowest quartile had deficient blood levels of 10 ng/ml or less. There were over 3,000 patients involved in this study with an age range of 50 to 79.

When we think of vitamin D, we wonder whether it is the chicken or the egg. Let me explain. Many times we are deficient in vitamin D and have a disease, but replacing the vitamin does nothing to help the disease. Well, in this case it does. It turns out that vitamin D may play dual roles of both reducing the risk of Parkinson’s disease and slowing its progression.

In an RCT, results showed that 1,200 IU of vitamin D taken daily, may have reduced the progression of Parkinson’s disease significantly on the UPDRS compared to a placebo over a 12-month duration (6). Also, this amount of vitamin D increased the blood levels by two times from 22.5 to 41.7 ng/ml. There were 121 patients involved in this study with a mean age of 72.

Caffeine, anyone?

What role does caffeine play in Parkinson’s? Potentially a beneficial one. In a prospective observational Finnish study involving almost 30,000 participants over 12 years, results showed that one cup of coffee per day reduced the risk of Parkinson’s disease by 60 percent compared to those who consumed none (7). Three cups of caffeinated tea per day also reduced the risk of Parkinson’s by 59 percent. Caffeine may not be right for everyone; however, in this case, it may be beneficial. Though I would not recommend starting to drink caffeine, I would certainly not dissuade patients from drinking it to help prevent Parkinson’s.

So, what have we learned? Though medication with dopamine agonists is the gold standard for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, lifestyle modifications can have a significant impact on both prevention and treatment of this disease. Similar to combination punches from a great boxer like Muhammad Ali, each lifestyle change in isolation may have modest effects, but cumulatively they might pack quite a wallop. The most exciting part is that lifestyle modifications have the potential to slow the progression the disease and thus have a protective effect. Iron chelators specific to the brain may also be very important in disease modification. This also brings vitamin D back into the fold as a potential disease modifier.

References:

(1) JAMA Neurol. 2015;72:863-873. (2) uptodate.com. (3) Antioxid Redox Signal. 2014;10;21(2):195-210. (4) Arch Neurol. 2002;59(10):1541-1550. (5) Arch Neurol. 2010;67(7):808-811. (6) Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;97(5):1004-1013. (7) Mov Disord. 2007;22(15):2242-2248.

Dr. Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com or consult your personal physician.

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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone pitches the proposal. Photo from Steve Bellone

Suffolk County is delaying a bold proposal that would have charged residents a minimal fee to enhance water quality protection efforts.

In April, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) staged a press conference in the company of environmentalists and lawmakers to announce his plan to address nitrogen pollution in drinking and surface water across the region by charging an additional $1 per 1,000 gallons of water. It needed the state legislature’s blessing in order to go before Suffolk County residents in a referendum vote in November, and this month, Deputy County Executive Jon Schneider said in reports that the county would be holding off on the plan to allow more time before putting it on the ballot.

The proposal would have kicked in in 2018 and established what Bellone called a “water quality protection fee,” which would fund the conversion of homes from outdated septic systems to active treatment systems, the county executive said. He estimated the $1 surcharge would have generated roughly $75 million in revenue each year to be solely dedicated to reducing nitrogen pollution — and still keep Suffolk County’s water rates nearly 40 percent lower than the national average.

Peter Scully, deputy county executive and head of the water quality initiative, said in an interview that some state lawmakers showed no interest in advancing the proposal, forcing the county’s hand before putting it to a referendum.

He said that Bellone preferred this kind of surcharge be decided by residents via referendum.

“We received kind of a sobering indication from the state Senate that there was not enough support for the proposal to let the people of Suffolk County vote,” he said. “We decided that this appears to be more of a timing issue.”

Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, endorsed the initial county proposal but said he was “mad as hell” over the decision to halt the plan for another year. In an interview with TBR News Media, Amper said the administration was handcuffed by state lawmakers who did not want to see Bellone’s plan come to fruition.

“If I had children, and they pulled something like this, I’d send them to their room,” Amper said. “The Bellone administration felt the Senate had made this decision for them. It was killed — not withdrawn.”

Amper said state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) expressed little interest in allowing Bellone’s proposal to come to a vote this November and accused him of playing political games with the environment.

“This is something they can’t not do something about,” Amper said. “It’s the biggest environmental and economic crisis this island ever faced.”

A spokesman for Flanagan issued the following statement: “Our office has always considered the merits of any legislative proposal advanced by Suffolk County’s elected officials, and we will continue to do so in the future.”

State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) — a known environmental activist — said the measure would have done wonders for the state’s water supply.

“We’re really looking at an opportunity to correct some deficiencies that could, if left uncorrected, unhinge our economy, which is based upon people bathing and recreating in our coastal waters, fishing and otherwise enjoying our waters,” he said when it was announced. “For the first time, we are pulling a program together that integrates both our fresh water and saltwater in one protection initiative, and that is very significant.”

Some lawmakers, including county legislators Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) and Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) staged a press conference following Bellone’s proposal to express opposition, calling it unwelcomed taxation.

George Hoffman, of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, also stood behind Bellone’s proposal when it was announced and said it would benefit Suffolk County for decades to come. He said it was “one of the most far-reaching and important public policy issues in decades,” and said it was important to proceed slowly and “get it right” moving forward.

“I worked with the supervisor of Brookhaven in 2003 when the town put forward a $100 million dollar open space fund referendum that received over 70 percent voter approval — but we spent many months going out to the various communities and explaining why it was needed,” he said. “You can’t cut corners on big policy issues and when you need the voters to approve new funding sources like the proposed water surcharge.”

Roughly 90 percent of the population in Nassau County operates under an active wastewater treatment system through connections to sewage plants. But in Suffolk County, there are more than 360,000 individual cesspools and septic systems — representing more unsewered homes than in the entire state of New Jersey — that are more likely to release nitrogen into the ground and surface water.

Scully said the county would be workshopping the proposal with civics and business and other stakeholders across Suffolk in order to perfect the proposition before putting it to a vote.

“If there are folks who are opposed to our proposal and don’t have one of their own, that means they’re not concerned about solving the problem,” he said. “We’re hoping we can get productive discussions.”

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TRITEC officials and Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant shovel some dirt at the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz

A new apartment complex is setting sail for downtown Port Jefferson.

Developers and Port Jefferson leaders gathered at the old Heritage Inn motel site on Tuesday to break ground on The Shipyard luxury apartments, a 112-unit building going up on West Broadway near the Barnum Avenue intersection.

The groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments in Port Jefferson is held on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz
The groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments in Port Jefferson is held on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz
TRITEC's Bob Coughlan talks about the development's impact on Port Jefferson Village at the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz
TRITEC’s Bob Coughlan talks about the development’s impact on Port Jefferson Village at the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz

They had started taking down the decrepit motel in mid-May, with Mayor Margot Garant getting into an excavator and smashing down the machine’s arm onto the roof of one structure at the site, a task she referred to afterward as “cathartic.” She and TRITEC Real Estate Company Principal Bob Coughlan had also used sledgehammers to smash some windows.

Previously called the Residences at Port Jefferson, the project calls for a three-story apartment building comprised of 42 one-bedroom apartments and 70 two-bedroom units, with resident parking underneath the structure. The building will take up less than half of the 3.74-acre property, which borders Old Mill Creek, to leave room for landscaping and buffers.

During the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, Coughlan, who lives in Port Jefferson near the site, said the apartments will “clean up a blighted property” and help keep young people living and working on Long Island.

“There is a desperate need for housing of this type, particularly in walkable communities,” he said. “We are thrilled to be part of this.”

Heavy equipment is on display during the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments in Port Jefferson on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Heavy equipment is on display during the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments in Port Jefferson on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz

Garant also spoke at the ceremony, saying that having people living on the west end of the village year-round will support the businesses on that side of town, because they will eat in local restaurants and shop in local boutiques.

“This project is going to become a huge economic engine for us year-round,” the mayor said, adding that it could become home to both young professionals from Stony Brook University and elderly Port Jefferson residents who want to downsize without leaving the area.

Coughlan estimated The Shipyard would be finished in 18 months.

Port Jefferson officials shovel some dirt at the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz
Port Jefferson officials shovel some dirt at the groundbreaking for the Shipyard apartments on June 14. Photo by Elana Glowatz

 

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Maurizio Del Poeta in his laboratory at Stony Brook University. Photo by Antonella Rella

Like the fictional Steve Austin, Stony Brook University’s Maurizio Del Poeta has become the ““Six Million Dollar Man.”

No, Del Poeta didn’t crash in an experimental spacecraft; and no, he doesn’t have bionic limbs. Instead, work with a potentially deadly fungus in his laboratory helped Del Poeta, a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at Stony Brook University, earn two, multiyear $3 million grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Del Poeta is attacking a fungus that can be deadly, particularly for people with weakened immune systems. Recently, his approach yielded an unexpected result that may lead to a vaccine. “We were looking for a gene that would metabolize a fungal sphingolipid on the surface of the fungus,” he said.

The gene he mutated caused a different function than expected, leading mice with exposure to this strain to become resistant to fungal infection, Del Poeta said.

This change may be the key to providing a vaccination against Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus present in numerous places, including in bird droppings.

Postdoctoroal student Antonella Rella who is working on an antiviral vaccine in Del Poeta’s laboratory at SBU. Photo by Maurizio Del Poeta
Postdoctoroal student Antonella Rella who is working on an antiviral vaccine in Del Poeta’s laboratory at SBU. Photo by Maurizio Del Poeta

“We think that this discovery will open the road to a new vaccination strategy against fungi” including candidiasis caused by Candida albicans or aspergillosis, caused by Aspergillus funigatus, Del Poeta said.

The same gene for sterol glucosidase that Del Poeta and the researchers in his lab mutated is also found in the genome of these other fungal species. “One could potentially make a vaccine containing the three fungal mutants combined and inject them together to protect simultaneously” against all three species, he said. These three infections account for over 1.3 million deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This vaccine could prove effective for immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals. A potential vaccine is particularly important for the latter group.

Del Poeta and his colleagues injected the mutated version of the fungus into an animal model that mirrored the conditions of a patient with the human immunodeficiency virus. The vaccine “protected 100 percent” against an infection, Del Poeta said. “Whatever this mutant is doing, the protection is not determined by the presence of CD4 cells.”

CD4 cells are a type of white blood cell that fights infection. They are at the center of vaccines that train the immune system to recognize and destroy live versions of infections. Without those cells, vaccination becomes more difficult, but, clearly, not impossible.

His results earned him a 1 score, the top mark from reviewers, from the National Institutes of Health, which recently awarded him a $3 million grant to study this mutated fungus. The grant should become active on July 1.

John Perfect, the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and chief of the Division of Infections Disease at Duke University, brought Del Poeta into his laboratory from Italy. He is proud of his protege, describing Del Poeta in an email as a “major investigator in fungal pathogenesis.”

An important question Del Poeta can’t answer is how this attenuated strain conveys resistance.

Before this promising early work can become a part of preventive treatment, Del Poeta said he and his team will look for a different formulation of this potential vaccine.

“It will be difficult to convince the FDA to administer a live fungus to an immunocompromised patient, even if the fungus will be attenuated,” he explained. “So, we need to make a better vaccine.”

His postdoctoral researcher, Antonella Rella, who is the first author on a paper published in Frontiers in Microbiology describing their results, is making and testing new formulations. She has already found promising results using only certain portions of the cell, Del Poeta said.

Maurizio Del Poeta in front of the brick oven he built in the backyard of his Mount Sinai home. Photo by Chiara Luberto
Maurizio Del Poeta in front of the brick oven he built in the backyard of his Mount Sinai home. Photo by Chiara Luberto

Del Poeta is also working in drug development. He received a $3 million grant this past December from the NIH for his continued work on drugs to treat fungal infections.

Last June, Del Poeta published a study in mBio, the online journal of the American Society for Microbiology, in which he found two compounds, BHBM and its derivative DO, that decreased the level of a lipid fungal cells need to reproduce.

Since then, he has found that some derivatives are more potent and less toxic.

He has teamed up with Iwao Ojima, the director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at Stony Brook University, and John Mallamo, who was a director in drug discovery at Cephalon. The scientific team is working with Brian McCarthy, an entrepreneur-in-residence, as a part of a new company called MicroRid Technologies.

The first milestone in the next three to four years is to raise additional funds for FDA filing and to perform a Phase 1 clinical trial some time between 2018 and 2020.

Del Poeta “exudes optimism” and his “scientific rigor and thoughts are simply first rate,” said Perfect.

When he’s not working to stop potentially deadly fungal infections, Del Poeta lives in Mount Sinai with his wife Chiara Luberto, who is studying leukemia at the Cancer Center at Stony Brook, and his sons Matteo, who is 9, and Francesco, who is 6.

Originally from Treia, Italy, which is near Florence on the Adriatic coast, Del Poeta worked in a pizzeria when he was younger. He built a brick oven in his backyard, where he hosts neighbors and the families of his sons’ classmates. His favorite pizza, called Amir Pizza after a former talented postdoctoral student in his lab, is a white pizza with extra-thin-sliced white onions, one thin-sliced hard avocado, a generous portion of pistachios and mozzarella.

While the work Del Poeta does has clinical implications, he has no expectations to move to a biotechnology company. “I love what I do,” he said. “If I can make the life of a patient a little better, if I can bring a new drug to the clinic or even contribute a little bit to improve the survival of a patient, I would be so grateful.”

Readers who would like to know more about the battle against fungal infections can gather information at the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections web site, www.gaffi.org.

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