CLOSE
Authors Posts by Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

1619 POSTS 0 COMMENTS

by -
0 1486
Dr. Sritha Rajupet. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine/Jeanne Neville

By Daniel Dunaief

While many people are fortunate enough to ignore Covid or try to put as much distance between themselves and the life altering pandemic, others, including people throughout Long Island, are battling long Covid symptoms that affect the quality of their lives.

Dr. Sritha Rajupet
 Photo from Stony Brook Medicine/Jeanne Neville

Sritha Rajupet, Director of the Post-Covid clinic at Stony Brook Medicine and Chair of Family, Population & Preventive Medicine, puts her triple-board certified experience to work in her efforts to provide relief and a greater understanding of various levels of symptoms from Covid including pain, brain fog, and discomfort.

Rajupet serves as co-Principal Investigator, along with Dr. Hal Skopicki, chief of cardiology and co-director of the Stony Brook Heart Institute, on a study called Recover-Autonomic.

This research, which uses two different types of repurposed treatments that have already received Food and Drug Administration approval in other contexts, is designed to help people who have an autonomic nervous system disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. People with this syndrome typically have a fast heart rate, dizziness or fatigue when they stand up from sitting down.

Stony Brook is contributing to a clinical trial for two different types of treatments, each of which has a control or placebo group. In one of the trials, patients receive Gamunex-C intravenous immunoglobulin. In the other, patients take Ivabradine by mouth.

Stony Brook has been enrolling patients in this study since the summer. The intravenous study is a nine-month trial.

Some improvements

Dawn Vogt, a 54-year-old Wading River resident, is enrolled in the intravenous trial.

While Vogt, who has been a patient of post Covid clinic since November of 2022, doesn’t know whether she’s getting the placebo or the intravenous treatment, she has been feeling better since entering the study.

Dawn Vogt in 2018.

The owner of a business called Office Solutions of Long Island, Vogt has been struggling for years with body aches, headaches, fever, stomach pain, fatigue and coughing.

“I’m definitely feeling better,” said Vogt, whose Covid fog can become so arduous on any given day that she struggles with her memory and her ability to put words together, as well as to engage in work that required multitasking.

“I’m a big puzzle person,” said Vogt. “[After Covid] I just couldn’t do it. It was and still is like torture.”

Still, Vogt, who was earning her undergraduate degree in women and gender studies at Stony Brook before she left to deal with the ongoing symptoms of Covid, feels as if several parts of her treatment, including the clinical trial, has improved her life.

Since her treatment that started during the summer, she has “definitely seen improvement,” Vogt said.

Dawn Vogt in 2023.

In addition to the clinical trial, Vogt, who had previously run a half marathon, received a pace maker, which also could be improving her health. “I’m starting to have more energy, instead of feeling exhausted all the time,” she said, and has seen a difference in her ability to sleep.

Vogt feels fortunate not only for the medical help she receives from Rajupet and the Stony Brook clinic, but also for the support of her partner Tessa Gibbons, an artist with whom Vogt developed a relationship and created a blended family in the years after Vogt’s husband died in 2018.

“My hope is that I can find a new normal and that I can become functional so that I can get back to doing some of what I love,” she said.

Vogt urges others not to give up. “If your doctors don’t believe you, find one who does,” she said. “My doctors at Stony Brook, including Dr. Rajupet and the whole team, are amazing. They listened, they are compassionate and they don’t ever say, ‘That’s crazy.’”

Indeed, in working with some of the over 1,500 unique patients who have come to Stony Brook Medicine’s post-Covid clinic, Rajupet said she “explores things together.” When her patients learn about something new that they find through their own research, she couples that knowledge with her own findings to develop a treatment plan that she hopes offers some comfort and relief.

Ongoing medical questions

Doctors engaged in the treatment of long Covid are eager to help people whose quality of life can and often is greatly diminished. 

People “haven’t been able to work, haven’t been able to do activities they enjoy whether that’s sports as a result of their fatigue or myalgia [a type of muscle pain]. Concentration may be affected, as people can’t read or perform their work-related activities,” said Rajupet.

At this point, long Covid disproportionately affects women.

During her family medicine residency, Rajupet learned about preventive medicine in public health. She worked with specific populations and completed an interdisciplinary women’s health research fellowship.

Her research background allowed her to couple her primary care experience with her women’s health background with a population approach to care.

The Stony Brook doctor would like to understand how many infections it takes to develop long Covid.

“For some, it’s that one infection, and for others, [long Covid] comes in on the third or fourth” time someone is battling the disease, Rajupet said.

She also hopes to explore the specific strains that might have triggered long Covid, and/ or whether something in a person’s health history affected the course of the disease.

Rajupet recognizes that the need for ongoing solutions and care for people who are managing with challenges that affect their quality of life remains high.

“There are still 17 million people affected by this,” she said. “We have to make sure we can care for them.”

As for Vogt, she is grateful for the support she receives at Stony Brook and for the chance to make improvements in a life she and Gibbons have been building.

Her hope is that “every day, week, month and even hour, I take one more breath towards being able to function as best as possible,” Vogt said. “My goal is to live the best life I can every day.”

by -
0 302
METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

One day decades from now, will the people involved with the Environmental Protection Agency look back at their legacy and feel pride and satisfaction? Sure, reducing waste is a good idea, cutting unnecessary costs is beneficial and effective and removing regulations that might cause inefficiencies without adding much benefit could be helpful.

But at what cost and what is lost along the way?

Take, for example, the New York Times piece earlier this week that suggested that the EPA is exploring the possibility of laying off 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists. The NYT cited Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to describe this proposed plan.

The agency plans to get rid of 75 percent of the people who work in the Office of Research and Development. Does ignoring problems, removing the scientists who study them, and reducing the likelihood of tracking any threats to the environment and to human health make it better?

Lee Zeldin, former Republican congressmen from NY-1 and a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, is heading up the agency.

The proposal, which, fortunately, appears to be just that at this stage, reminds me of the time President Trump suggested that the only reason the United States has more cases of Covid than other nations was because we were testing for it.

So, the solution, implicit in that observation, is that if we don’t test for it, we won’t know how prevalent it is and we will look better compared with other nations.

No, look, I get it. On some level, more rigorous testing means we will find problems that might otherwise not require too much effort to solve. Some people who tested positive for Covid didn’t get that sick and didn’t require medical attention.

Knowing whether people contracted the virus, however, could be useful for everyone. You see, if a certain sub group of the country had the virus but didn’t get all that sick, scientists might be able to compare the blood, the backgrounds, or the pre-existing medical conditions to determine who is most or least at risk from various health threats.

The same holds true for the environment. Data is helpful and can and should help make informed decisions.

We don’t already know everything we need to know. As any scientist will tell you, the results they get can and often are exciting. What inspires them beyond their results is the next set of questions.

The federal government may not want to support every type of research, but dismissing over a thousand scientists can and will lead to the kind of dangerous information gaps that could affect human health and the environment.

Scientists don’t generally live lives of extreme wealth and luxury, unless they invent or patent something that people decide they can’t live without or that becomes a necessity.

I have known scientists for decades. They often work long hours, are dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and to contributing to their fields, and tend to live modest lives.

Back in the day when I covered Wall Street banks, I rubbed elbows with power brokers who thought nothing of spending lavishly on dinners, who sat a few rows from the on-deck circle at Yankee Stadium, and who had cars waiting for them day and night to bring them to and from their luxurious homes.

Scientists and educators, on the whole, don’t have the same professional financial options.

And yet they help advance society, protect us from infections, keep our water and air clean and gather the kind of information we shouldn’t ignore.

Before cutting over a thousand people in a drastic cost cutting initiative, the EPA and Zeldin should study the type of information these researchers produce.

We wouldn’t want to heat our houses by burning down the wood that supports our walls and ceilings. Scientists can help us figure out whether decisions by individuals or companies are doing just that, providing us with temporary warmth at great expense to the homes in which we live.

Information, after all, isn’t owned exclusively by one political party or another, the way a resort might be. As with other layoff decisions by the Trump administration, I hope they reconsider this one. If they do, the older versions of themselves and their grandchildren may one day appreciate it and benefit from the work these scientists do to protect the environment we share.

by -
0 1379
Andrew Singer with students in a newly created makers space in the Engineering Building at SBU. Photo by Debra Scala Giokas/Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Andrew Singer. Photo courtesy of SBU

Andrew Singer, the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at Stony Brook University, has bigger numbers in mind. For starters, he’d like to see CEAS increase in size, from 5,000 total students, including 3,500 undergraduates, to as many as 10,000 students.

“We are small as an institution compared to other institutions of our reputation in research,” said Singer, referring both to the overall population of the university and to the college he leads.

He believes growth at the CEAS could occur because there is “that much demand for a Stony Brook College of Engineering and Applied Sciences education right now.”

Singer, who joined Stony Brook in July of 2023, believes that state schools like Stony Brook provide an education that create life changing opportunities for people and their families. The lack of available housing on campus at this point is a rate limiting step in increasing the number of students who can attend.

Getting the word out

Singer, who came to Stony Brook after 25 years in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Illinois, believes public universities have historically seen themselves as being local and serving the mission of the state, without needing to advertise.

“As public funding diminished, many public institutions realized they needed to tell the world that they were serving this tremendous mission and adding tremendous value to society,” Singer said.

Indeed, the late Chemistry Professor Paul Lauterbur helped invent the MRI machine, which has become such an important diagnostic tool in medicine. Lauterbur, who was a tenured professor at Stony Brook from 1963 to 1985, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with British Physicist Sir Peter Mansfield in 2003.

Singer also wants prospective students to know that John L. Hennessy, the former president of Stanford University and current chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, earned his Master’s and PhD degrees from Stony Brook.

“Telling our story not only can help to bring some of the world’s greatest educators and researchers to campus, but can also ensure that the resources needed to continue to build on our successes are available,” said Singer.

Finding funds

Additionally, the CEAS Dean believes professors in the college can diversify their sources of funding.

“One of the things I noticed at Stony Brook is that most of the research is funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy,” he said. “That concentration of funding makes you vulnerable to changes in the funding cycle.”

Additionally, competition for funding from those agencies is extremely high.  Singer has been urging faculty at CEAS to seek funding from industrial sponsors.

“At the end of the day, what’s important is the scholarship you create,” he said.

Singer appreciates how his colleagues at Stony Brook are pursuing funds for larger interdepartmental funds.

Vice President for Research Kevin Gardner has “strong experience in building these larger portfolios of funding for faculty research,” Singer said. Gardner and Singer talk “often about ways we can continue to develop opportunities for faculty to go after new funding and present ideas to industry.”

Gardner described Singer as a “rock star” who has “great ideas” and is “super brilliant with tons of positive energy. He can move things and already has been moving things in a positive direction for CEAS.” 

Gardner believes engineering could and should be twice the size it is and suggested that Singer is “the guy who will get us there.”

Opportunities for growth

Singer appreciates the depth and breadth of faculty interests at the CEAS. “Our faculty are brilliant researchers, working at the forefront of many areas of importance to society, from information and energy systems, to human health and disease prevention, to clean water and security,” he said.  “With nine departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, it is difficult to find an area of science and engineering where our faculty are not having impact.”

Singer sees opportunities for growth in areas including artificial intelligence.

The university launched the AI Innovation Institute (AI3) in September of last year, which will expand the Institute for AI-driven Discovery and Innovation, which was established in 2018 from a department-level institute within the CEAS to the university-wide AI3, reporting to Provost Carl Lejuez. Steve Skiena, distinguished professor in the department of Computer Science, is serving as the interim director of AI3 while the university has been searching for an inaugural director.

The provost appreciates the efforts Singer has been making on behalf of the CEAS and the university. Singer is “good at thinking about the big things we need to focus on,” Lejuez said in an interview. Singer has “brought a leadership style that is consistent with the culture we’ve been trying to create over the past few years. We are partners with faculty, staff and students. We are including them not just at the end of decisions.”

Singer is also continuing to pursue his own scientific studies. His research interests include signal processing and communication systems. He has worked on underwater acoustics, where he studied underwater communication for the subsea industry. He has also worked in wireless communications for cellular and radio applications and in fiber optic communication systems.

Singer has two graduate students at Stony Brook and several students who are completing their work at Illinois. His students are working in areas related to audio signal processing, such as improving the performance of hearing aids and devices like noise-cancelling headphones, as well as in underwater acoustics.

Singer has had two companies emerge from research in his lab. He would like to continue to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship and help grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Stony Brook.

Quantum work

CEAS has invested in areas related to quantum communication.

In August 2024, Stony Brook was chosen to lead a project in the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory program. Funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Principal Investigator Eden Figueroa, Stony Brook Presidential Innovation Endowed Professor, the team is designing and implementing a 10-node quantum network connecting labs at Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia University and Yale University.

Stony Brook held a workshop on Quantum Information Science and Communication systems in Manhattan that Figueroa led, in which some of the foremost experts in the field presented their work and discussed collaboration opportunities with Stony Brook, Singer explained.

Stony Brook has its “local and global strengths.” Singer wants to focus on building on those areas and to have SBU becoming well known to students and faculty as a destination of choice.

by -
0 862
Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

For many local health care workers, the pandemic transitioned from triggering uneasiness about reports of a respiratory illness coming out of China to a significant threat to area residents.

Dr. Susan Donelan, Photo from Stony Brook Medicine/Jeanne Neville

Health care workers were in an all-out scramble to save lives even as information about the disease, its course and treatment, changed.

Five years after the start of a world-altering pandemic, infectious disease experts and emergency medicine specialists shared a range of thoughts about their initial reactions and concerns about this illness as well as insights about lessons learned and readiness to manage through future significant health threats.

Dr. Susan Donelan, Medical Director of Healthcare Epidemiology at Stony Brook Medicine, remembers raising questions about this virus towards late December of 2019. People urged her to go home and have a nice Christmas.

When Hospital CEO Carol Gomes called her on a Sunday and told Donelan she had an hour to get back to her, she recognized the approaching storm.

“I remember saying, ‘It’s a Sunday and she needs me in an hour,’” Donelan recalled. “We’re in it.”

Indeed, over the following months and, as it turned out, years, doctors dealt with numerous unknowns amid a fluid situation that threatened the population and, in particular those who were immunocompromised, had diabetes or respiratory or cardiac issues.

“People forget how bad things were,” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. “So many people were dying” that hospitals needed to figure out where to put the deceased.

Residents also lined up to get the scarce tests for the presence of the virus and often waited days or longer for a result.

Fluid situation

Health care professionals were reacting to a fluid situation in which best practices in terms of treatment and prevention changed even as the virus was mutating.

“It seems like a blur, going back and thinking about those moments,” said Dr. Jennifer Goebel, emergency room doctor at Huntington Hospital. “It was very surreal, taking care of a disease process you knew nothing about and attempting to be the expert when we were still learning.”

Federal, state and county health officials were unsure of the best guidance for a range of safety measures, including the use of masks.

Additionally, health care experts struggled with the level of contagion based on different environments.

“I don’t think anyone really knew about the continuum that could occur depending on the ambient circumstances,” said Donelan. “I think we probably could have done a better job of letting the public know that our communications would evolve as our knowledge evolved.”

Sharing safety messages

During the worst of the pandemic, health care professionals struggled to share messages that would help people make informed decisions about protecting themselves, their families and their communities.

Dr. Sharon Nachman. Photo frm SBU

“Trust in public health was completely undermined,” said Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital “That hurt all of us.”

Nachman also listened to health care professionals on national TV who were discussing the health crisis. These pundits were sharing information that included far too many inaccessible words and concepts.

“Smart professionals were talking” but people weren’t understanding them, she said.

Additionally, the echo chamber of social media distorted messages, often questioning the developing science and best practices, suggesting conspiracy theories as well as treatments that were either unproven or ineffective.

Having local professionals from area hospitals made a difference on Long Island, Nachman said.

Whenever Nachman went to ShopRite, people who knew she was a part of their community saw her and asked questions.

“When it’s someone local from Northwell, Stony Brook, NYU Winthrop or others, [local communication] really works better,” she said.

Goebel added that she continues to share her medical knowledge not only with patients, but also with family members who have come to the hospital to provide support.

Hospitals, for their part, learned their lesson about stocking personal protective equipment.

“People have learned their lessons” at hospitals, said Pigott. “We need a more adequate stock of PPE.”

Health care provider PTSD

During the worst of the pandemic, one in five doctors who responded to an American Medical Association poll in 2022 said it was likely they would leave their practice within two years.

Dr. Jennifer Goebel. File photo from Northwell Health

“It was so staggering to hear some of these numbers,” said Goebel. Doctors go through over a decade of training. Seeing so many people leave was difficult.

Health care workers struggled, and continue to struggle, with memories and experiences in the midst of a crisis that killed millions around the world.

“I remember going to room nine, intubating a patient and being called to bed 12 and intubating another patient, within a matter of minutes,” said Goebel. 

As the director of wellness in the Emergency Medicine Service Line, Goebel has created new initiatives to help reduce burnout and provide support.

She developed a peer to peer pilot program that started in September in which new physicians, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners were matched with a more experienced professional from day one.

The effort is designed to help new staff navigate the health system and address any questions or concerns.

“We’re looking to put these processes in place” throughout Northwell, Goebel said. 

Remote medicine

While remote medical choices, such as telehealth, predated the pandemic, these options have become increasingly common, particularly for residents who might struggle to get to a medical visit.

“Because people were forced to use it, with practice, they got better at it,” said Pigott.

Many organizations invested more in telehealth, which also reduces the burden on Emergency Departments.

Teleheatlh has its “risks and benefits,” said Goebel, as it can keep patients who might be vulnerable out of an environment where they might otherwise be exposed to other pathogens.

Goebel appreciates the importance of a visit with a doctor, who can differentiate between an ear ache and a potential indication of shingles.

Fortunately, for many people, Covid has become a much more manageable infection.

Pigott contracted Covid in September. He took Paxlovid, which helped knock out the symptoms within three days.

Pigott is also grateful for vaccines, which provided a dramatic reduction in mortality during the worst of the pandemic, particularly for people who are over 65.

The vaccine was “saving lives,” said Pigott. “There was real evidence that these are doing their jobs and are working out.”

by -
0 928
Image courtesy of Suffolk County Dept. of Health

By Daniel Dunaief

Suffolk County reported its first case of measles in a child since 2017 this week, as an unvaccinated person under five years old contracted the infectious disease.

Suffolk County health officials are working with the New York State Department of Health and Northwell Health and are taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease.

The case of measles in Suffolk County is the third in the state and comes as Texas has had over 200 confirmed reports of measles since January, with 29 hospitalizations, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“Measles can be very serious,” State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. “It’s much more than just a rash as complications can include pneumonia and inflammation of the brain, and often results in hospitalization.”

Officials indicated that residents could have been exposed to the person with measles at the pediatric emergency department at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens from March 3rd to March 4th.

Patients who visited an inpatient child on the Medicine 3 unit from March 3rd to March 6th also could have had exposure.

The Cohen Children’s Medical Center, which is run by Northwell Health, is reaching out to patients who were at the center during the time of exposure. The Center has also identified patients who are high risk and may require timely treatment.

“As we follow this case and closely monitor potential exposures, we strongly encourage all residents to protect their health and the health of our youngest and most vulnerable residents by ensuring they are on time and up to date their measles vaccines and all recommended and lifesaving immunizations.” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County Commissioner of Health Services, said in a statement.

The incubation period for measles, which is spread by coughing or sneezing into the air, is 21 days, with symptoms that can include high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. The best way to prevent measles, according to health officials, is to get the MMR vaccine. One dose is 93 percent effective at preventing measles, while two doses are about 97 percent effective.

Doctors recommend that residents receive their first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at four to six years of age.

Measles during pregnancy increases the risk of early labor, miscarriage, and low birth weight infants.

Separately, area officials found two dead raccoons tested that positive for rabies in Amityville and North Amityville on March 4th and January 28th, respectively.

These are the first confirmed cases of rabid raccoons in the county since 2009

These animals had no known contact with humans or animals.

“We have over 1.5 million residents [in Suffolk County] and it’s not good to have raccoons running around with rabies,” said Pigott. These animals can get in a fight and can transmit the rabies virus to other animals or to humans.

Left untreated, rabies, which has early symptoms including irritability, headache, fever and itchiness at the site of exposure, can be lethal.

People can contract rabies if they are exposed to saliva or nervous tissue of a rabid animal through a bite.

Pigott urged pet owners to ensure their animals are vaccinated for rabies. He also suggested that people take safety measures when they are out among animals. He asks those living in Huntington, Islip, Smithtown or Babylon to contact the Department of Health Services if they encounter a dead raccoon.

by -
0 341
Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Those of us who don’t have to justify the job we’re doing or get fired are fortunate. We know that and we don’t envy those people who have to make a solid case for keeping a job that may only provide a marginal level of satisfaction.

Apart from whatever I print on a weekly basis, it occurred to me to list some of the intangibles of various levels of my job and, perhaps, my life, recognizing that whatever I write is on the lighter side compared to the serious business of asking strangers to put them in the “okay to stay” pile.

Chit-chatting. Many of my conversations are one sided. I ask questions and then, based on the answer, continue to ask more questions. People generally like to talk about themselves, which makes the process enjoyable for both of us. I’m looking for information and they’re sharing it. More than that, though, I’m keeping the relationship open. No, I’m not in relationships with all these people, but I am helping them feel connected and, in turn, am feeling connected to them.

Gathering back stories. Everything I learn doesn’t go in the paper. That, however, doesn’t mean it’s useless. I might find out a tidbit that grows into something bigger, like a few flakes of snow that stick together. Over time, those flakes may take shape and become, say, a snowball, a snow angel, or a snow globe.

Helping people feel important. Just by reaching out to people to ask their opinions and listening to the answers, I may be giving people the peace of mind that someone is listening closely, or, in some cases, at all, to them. And, for those people who feel disenfranchised, I could also provide them with the opportunity to say, “no, go away, I don’t want to talk with you.” That, in and of itself, is empowering for them, even if it’s not exactly improving my chances of doing my job better.

Supporting all kinds of companies. I talk on the phone, I text, and I send emails. Sometimes, I even try telepathy, although that doesn’t work through a conglomerate or a telecommunications system. All these efforts are propping up the economy, making shareholders wealthier and helping sustain jobs. Oh, and I also shop at the supermarket regularly, where I talk with people who can sometimes tell me to go away, which makes them feel better, and I gather the kinds of pieces of information that might lead to a story.

You see where I’m going with this, right? I’m helping the economy, gathering information for future stories, improving the overall mental health of my community while picking up dog food, vegetables and chicken for dinner, all at the same time. How many jugglers could do all those things at once?

I’m reading other stories. Journalism, as they’ve been saying since I entered the field decades ago, is a difficult and challenging business. By reading the material that other people write, supporting some of my fellow journalists through online subscriptions or, in a few rare cases, hard copies of papers and magazines, I’m supporting an industry that includes me. You see? And, I’m staying in touch with parts of the world, our culture and the infosphere that extends outside my small circle of knowledge.

I’m pursuing my passions. No, wait, hear me out here. You see, by following the latest developments with, say, the Yankees, I’m able to talk with other people about hobbies and then I mix in that information to keep people on the phone and gather more information. It might not seem like it’s critical to know about the injured list for the Yankees, but it’s important to many fans and it helps form the bridge that leads to chit chat, information and, eventually stories.

Not just a journalist. When it comes to writing about anything, say, medicine, the environment, living my values, sharing knowledge and information, it’s helpful to be a consumer, a thinker and a reporter all at once. I write about medicine and I go to doctors regularly, I write about science and I observe squirrels in my backyard, and I write about parenting and I deal with the challenges and accomplishments of my children, sometimes within minutes of each other.

Like baseball players who alter the outcome of a game with one swing, I sometimes also strike out along the way, which makes it possible for me to search for that perfect pitch. No, I’m not perfect and not everything I do provides a linear progression from effort to accomplishment, but much of it, even actions that appear disconnected, provide value. You just have to look hard enough and be ready to understand and believe it.

by -
0 1118
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine with Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina. Photo courtesy of Suffolk County Executive Romaine's office

By Daniel Dunaief

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina. Photo courtesy the Suffolk County Police Department

 

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina is constantly looking for ways to ensure the safety of residents and improve upon a force he believes is the best in the nation.

After a recent visit to an intelligence center in Nassau County that tracks potential school threats, Catalina created a similar threat matrix in Suffolk.

Earlier this week, he described an incident at Brentwood High School Ross Center in which officials found bullets.

During an active investigation, the SCPD plans to determine who brought those bullets to school. Once they do, they will follow up with an ongoing assessment of the risk anyone might pose to students.

“Based on that matrix, we determine how often we’re going to visit that individual to determine whether that threat level has changed,” Catalina said. “If somebody was willing to bring bullets” to school, that person is “probably somebody that’s going to be high on the threat matrix,” said Catalina. 

As he continues in a role he took last month and that he has described as his “dream job,” Catalina plans to take several measures to improve the safety of county residents.

In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview, Catalina shared his thoughts on reducing traffic accidents and injuries, enhancing school safety, recruiting officers from a range of communities and developing and promoting his senior staff.

‘Too many’ car accidents

“Road safety is first and foremost,” said Catalina. “There are way too many accidents with injuries and fatalities on our roadways.”

Catalina, who is a native of Sayville and has 33 years of experience in various New York police forces, plans to bolster the highway enforcement division.

In addition to building on a street takeover task force, he’s starting a program where he’s bringing in precinct commanders on a biweekly basis to discuss accidents and accidents with injuries.

He’s looking for ways to improve on the deployment of personnel to use enforcements actions that make the roadways safer.

The Suffolk County Police Department is partnering with Sheriff Errol Toulon, Jr. and with the state police in this effort.

The department is also looking at changes in Driving While Intoxicated numbers over time.

“We’d always like to see improvement,” Catalina said.

The county has experienced an increase in drivers who are impaired from marijuana.

Detecting drivers affected by pot is challenging, Catalina said.

Under Catalina’s leadership, the department is planning to increase training that would help officers recognize the effects of people who are high while they are driving.

Current recruits will spend an additional few days in the police academy to “give them a base level training in that kind of skill,” Catalina added.

Cell phones have also become a hazard. Catalina would like to see increased enforcement of laws that prevent driving while texting.

Cars are swerving around the road as drivers stare at their phones while sending a message to someone else, who also might be driving.

The SCPD is also training officers on the use of body worn cameras, making sure the footage they collect is usable and available for prosecutions.

Chief of Detectives William Doherty. Photo from Suffolk County Police Department

Catalina is confident the academy prepares recruits for their work. He sees opportunities, however, to enhance field training.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, was a field training officer.

“I know we don’t have any Derek Chauvins in the Suffolk County Police Department,” said Catalina. “The lesson for everyone in law enforcement is that those training officers are incredibly impactful.”

He wants to ensure that the “right people are delivering the right messages,” he said.

Opioids

Even though the numbers are down, Catalina believes the county has “way too many opioids deaths. One is too many.”

He is working closely with District Attorney Ray Tierney and is in regular contact with him, which can include several phone calls each day.

“Not only are we going to target the horrible people that sell that poison and prosecute them in connection with the DA’s office,” but the department will also work with service providers to help people in need affected by addiction, Catalina said.

School safety

The SCPD offers a service to all the schools to provide active shooter training.

The officers explain what to do, what not to do, and how to harden infrastructure to prevent the kinds of tragedies that have devastated communities around the country from happening in the county.

He recognizes the need to be judicious about deploying additional school resource officers, as the department needs to be careful about taking resources away from other programs.

Catalina provides information to schools about safety, leaving it up to each district to create their own plans.

Police recruitment

Chief of Operations Milagros Soto. Photo courtesy the Suffolk County Police Department

Catalina emphasized the importance of having police officers who can relate to people who live in the communities they serve.

“When somebody calls the police, it puts them at ease to see people that look like them or people that can speak their language,” said Catalina. “It’s also a tremendous recruitment tool for people to see people who look like them.”

The SCPD doesn’t want to compromise when it comes to the quality of the officers.

“We feel we can still get quality officers and do a better job of recruiting people who will come from the communities in Suffolk County that are underserved and underrepresented,” Catalina added.

Catalina believes the department has made progress with Latino, Asian and female officers, but feels the SCPD is “still struggling with recruitment of African Americans.

Catalina has been working with the Guardians Association, an organization comprised primarily of black law enforcement professionals. He also visited El Salvador with Sheriff Toulon, where he got some “good ideas on recruitment” that he hopes to institute next time around.

Staff promotions

Apryl Hargrove, commanding officer of the hate crimes unit. Photo courtesy the Suffolk County Police Department

Catalina has been reorganizing his executive staff, which he believes will enhance the department

The elevation in rank for these staff is merit based, driven by aptitude and performance.

Milagros “Millie” Soto has become Chief of Operations, a three star designation, and is the first woman in the department to hold that rank.

A 37-year veteran of the department, Soto has held a variety of roles.

“I’m thrilled” with this promotion, Catalina said.

Catalina also promoted William Doherty as Chief of Detectives.

Doherty “brings a tremendous amount of experience” and has run “quite a few places in the police department.”

Among other promotions, Apryl Hargrove has become the commanding officer of the hate crimes unit.

“Any time there’s a hate crime, it can devastate a community,” said Catalina. Hargrove is “an incredible person” who recently retired from the Army.

Hargrove, who is now a detective sergeant and is the highest ranking female African American officer in the department, is “going to do a phenomenal job,” Catalina said.

While Catalina is encouraged with the department, he believes these promotions help “build a really strong team.”

by -
0 1032
Research associate Dr. Ejiro Umaka is pictured with BNL’s sPHENIX detectorEjiro Umaka at the sPHENIX. Photo by Kevin Coughlin/BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Despite their importance in making a turkey sandwich, a clarinet, and an adorable puppy wagging its tail possible, quarks and gluons don’t figure into the realm of subjects discussed at water coolers, which, incidentally, also depend on the interaction between these subatomic particles.

Ejiro Umaka has the opportunity to change that, at least for a general audience including national legislators, in under three minutes while using only one slide.

A Research Associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Umaka won $2,000 at BNL’s second SLAM competition, in which she and nine other junior scientists presented their research in front of a live audience. Umaka planned to present her work this past Wednesday, March 5th to an audience of politicians, judges and people generally interested in science.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY1) attended the previous event and extended his congratulations to Umaka.

“Dr. Umaka’s unwavering commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and her exceptional curiosity exemplify the pioneering spirit that positions Long Island at the forefront of research and technological development,” LaLota wrote in an email. “I am confident that [she] will represent Suffolk Count with distinction, and I eagerly anticipate her continued achievements.”

While the winner of the national competition will receive $4,000, the opportunity to compete and to describe her work for a general audience has already provided important experience for Umaka.

“I am honored to represent BNL,” Umaka explained in an email. “I am thrilled to discuss my work to a large audience without the usual scientific jargon, which has led to a deeper understanding of my work.”

During the SLAM competition, these scientists, whose competition will be live-streamed, use three minutes to inspire, captivate, and enlighten audiences whose decisions could affect future support and funding for important research projects.

In 2023, when Daniel Marx, Deputy Group Leader of the EIC Accelerator Design Group at BNL, traveled to Washington to represent BNL, he met several politicians from around the country, including Reps LaLota and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY2).

The politicians, many of whose districts, like LaLota’s included a national lab, were “certainly interested,” said Marx. He recalls speaking with Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN3), who served as Chairman of Energy and Water Appropriations.

Fleischmann, whose committee sets the budget for the Department of Energy and the national labs, was “very interested in having a conversation with us about the interplay between science and politics and how we can work together on that.”

Marx also enjoyed meeting with Bill Foster (D-IL14), who has a PhD in physics and has signs like “I love physics” in his office. “He has a really good grasp of what’s going on,” Marx recalled.

Foster asked penetrating and important questions about Marx’s work on developing the Electron Ion Collider.

Quarks, gluons and slowing down

Umaka is looking forward to representing BNL at the national competition and to sharing the science she does with a national audience.

Umaka works at the sPHENIX experiment, which is a radical makeover of the original PHENIX experiment. The experiment collects data at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC.

The size of a two-story house with a weight of about 1,000 tons (or about five adult blue whales), the sPHENIX detector will capture snapshots of 15,000 particle collisions per second.

After the superconducting magnet at the core of the sPHENIX traveled across the country from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California to Brookhaven, it was installed in 2021. Umaka arrived at the lab before the sPHENIX was assembled.

“It’s not every time as a physicist or junior researcher that you start off with an experiment that is new,” said Umaka. 

The sPHENIX had to work out some early challenges. Initially, the experiment planned to use a mixture of gases in the time projection chamber that included neon. The war in Ukraine, however, created a shortage of neon, so the lab switched to a different gas and added isobutane. The group celebrated with an isobutane cake. Fortunately, the supermarket hadn’t run out of them.

Umaka explained in her winning talk that her experiments allow the team to explore the universe as it was millionths of a second after the Big Bang, when the primordial soup that contained quarks and gluons came together to create the world we know.

She compares the process at sPHENIX to having chicken soup in the form of the quark gluon plasma. The researchers then shoot small objects within a jet that are similar in scale to the other ingredients in the soup so they scatter off each other. From there, they can deduce the microscopic nature or point like structure of the plasma.

The role of sPHENIX is to record jets that come from the collision of nuclei that release quarks. 

“The jet shoots through the soup, and this is why we can use jets as a probe,” Umaka explained.

In the experiments, the soup exhibits collective behavior, which is similar to the response of a school of fish that turn in unison when disturbed. When the researchers look at the soup on the level of individual quarks and gluons, the particles should behave like molecules in a gas. 

By recording lots of collisions, sPHENIX increases the likelihood of finding and recording desirable jets useful for probing the soup at the level of individual quarks and gluons.

“We want to discover how the fluid-like (collective) nature of the soup emerges from fundamental interactions of quarks and gluons,” Umaka explained. 

Nigerian roots

Born in Nigeria, Umaka moved to Houston in her teens when her parents transferred to the United States. When she was younger, she wasn’t confident in her science aptitude. She took difficult courses in which the social structure worked against her advancement as a woman.

In Houston, she took a particle physics course. The professor suggested she’d do well in his group and that she’d get to go to Geneva to do research.

“Sign me up,” she recalled saying, and she did.

A resident of Brookhaven, Umaka enjoys visiting the mall, reading books, attending yoga classes, listening to music and talking with family.

As for the SLAM event, Umaka appreciates the way the competition has increased her visibility.

“If people like the talk, they will invite you to do other stuff, which is great,” she said.

——————————————

To watch Ejiro Ukama give her presentation at the National SLAM competition, click here and go to 1:48.

 

by -
0 760
1 of 5
A collection of yellow snapper. Photo by Daniel Dunaief
Several needle fish. Photo by Daniel Dunaief
A stingray. Photo by Daniel Dunaief
A trumpet fish. Photo by Daniel Dunaief
A sand diver. Photo by Daniel Dunaief

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Nature rocks!

I know that’s not such a startling revelation, particularly to those people who go hiking, snorkeling or scuba diving.

It’s just that the world around us, and perhaps a flight away, puts the one we’ve created in perspective.

My wife and I recently took a vacation without the kids gasp!— for the first time in over two decades. We didn’t leave them home with a babysitter. They’re both grown up and out of the house, so we left our empty-ish nest, which still had two cats a dog and a vibrant and active bird feeder, to travel to a Caribbean island.

Yes, I know. These vacations can make just about anyone feel rhapsodic. You step off the plane onto a tarmac that’s invitingly warm and bright, you hear Bob Marley music, you feel the refreshing wind on your face, and you tilt your head back, feeling the tension ease out of your muscles more rapidly than if you were on a massage table.

While all of that is amazing, the time we spent communing with, appreciating, observing and feeling genuine awe towards nature were among the most remarkable and enjoyable moments of our travel.

Nature is the currency of communication in our household. Years ago, we were on long drives with children who wanted to know how much longer until we got wherever we were going and we’d see a fox scurrying across the road. We’d pull over and watch for a while, forgetting, for the moment, that we hadn’t arrived and feeling as if we were exactly where we should be.

So, yes, all four of us delight in the opportunity to observe, interact with, or appreciate nature, whether we’re far away or taking a walk through the neighborhood. On my morning walks with our dog, I often take pictures of the hawks that land nearby and the worms that wriggle on the sidewalk after a rainstorm and send them to my wife and children.

Anyway, my wife and I rocked back and forth on a boat that was taking us out to a coral reef, reveling in the pristine air and marveling at the pelicans that glided inches above the water, following their beaks to the next fish meal.

Even before we arrived, we saw turtles swimming near the boat, sticking their colorful heads out of the water so they could take a long gulp of air.

As we prepared to exit the boat, I was delighted to put on my prescription dive mask. Typically, I use a regular mask and try to connect the vague shapes I see at the bottom of the reef with the clearer images we have on our dive card.

This time, as soon as I looked down, I could see the white sand eight feet down and the contours and colors of the fish and the technicolor reef below.

As we made our way along the reef, we searched for the usual striped sergeant majors, green and blue parrotfish, multicolored tilefish, red squirrelfish and orange and white tobacco fish. Each of these residents of the reef contributes to a vibrant scene.

For a while, we tracked a stingray my wife spotted. We also spied the magnificent and svelte barracudas, with their conspicuous underbite and their shimmery silver sides.

Even though we went snorkeling at the same site several times, we witnessed something new with each visit. We watched a sand diver as it stopped on the bottom and perched on a rock, the way a movie studio might envision a mermaid preening on a rock near shore.

The snorkeling instructors required us to wear yellow flotation belts to keep us at the top of the water. That made diving to the bottom challenging, as these belts counteracted my efforts to kick myself closer to the reef. I secretly took mine off, handed it to my wife, and got a close up of the sand diver, which looks like a cross between a lizard and a fish.

On one of our days away, we took an excursion to a nearby island, where we watched an improbably large hermit crab slowly make its way across the sand, dragging its enormous shell. Nearby, lizards of different sizes chased each other as they searched for food or perhaps a preferable place in the sand.

While stepping away from work, concrete sidewalks, cooler air, and various responsibilities in and of itself was refreshing, immersing ourselves in nature offered transcendent peace.

by -
0 496
METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

I went to the bank to deposit a check recently. My daughter, of course, doesn’t do any such foolish activities. She knows how to deposit her checks without leaving her apartment.

Yes, technology is wonderful, but I still like to go to the bank and get a receipt that I promptly add to the pile of random papers that is almost as tall as I am.

Several hours before the bank closed on a Friday, the stories and queries about weekend plans were all the rage.

“What are you doing this weekend?” one teller asked excitedly. She smiled so broadly that she could easily be in the finals for a game show hosting competition or, at the very least, win extra points for customer friendliness.

“I’m having such a great day,” the teller offered before I could muster a noncommittal reply.

“Why?” I asked, as I glared at the machine that seemed to be refusing to take my check. A hint here: machines don’t care if you glare.

“Well, my manager made nachos today and she brought in home baked cookies,” she said. “They were amazing. I was planning to get a salad but this is so much better.”

“Sounds great,” I said, as I willed the machine to take the check. “I’m not sure how many of those I could eat in a day and get away with it.”

She looked me up and down and laughed.

“Yeah, well, I’m young and I still can’t get away with it,” she suggested.

Yup, I’m older. What gave it away? My gray hair? The fact that I’m depositing a check at the counter? The wrinkles? The indulgent impatience blended with a need to check off the next errand box?

“My daughter is having a sleepover,” one man sighed. “I’m going to grill for them. My wife is going to handle the rest, but…”

Yes, but you might need to take on some responsibility. And who knows how late they’ll stay up. And, of course, who knows if they’ll break any of the rules they promised to uphold before your and your wife agreed to allow this party.

Like my parents, I was never a huge fan of sleepovers. The sleep part often didn’t materialize, making the kids grumpy and surly the next day, sabotaging any quality, hah!, family time or even household peace.

Another person at the bank planned to travel with her daughter for a cheer competition.

“If I knew then what I knew now, I’m not sure I would have encouraged that,” she grinned.

I couldn’t help smiling at that.

“You know,” I said looking away from the machine that still refused to take my check the way a young child refuses to open his mouth when you’re giving him medicine, “It kind of doesn’t matter what activities your children choose. Once they’re in, you’re along for the ride.”

I ticked off all the sports our children did. 

“So, which was your favorite?” she asked.

“Volleyball and soccer,” I said, picking one from each child.

“Why?” she grinned. The machine had started to make some promising coming-to-life noises that were the electronic equivalent of the groans my dog makes when I get him up too early.

“Volleyball is amazing because a player can mishit the ball twice in a rally and the team can still win the point. It’s a forgiving sport, unlike baseball or softball where one ball might come to a player per hour.”

“And soccer?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s easy,” I shrugged. “I knew nothing about the sport, so I wasn’t tempted to be an annoying judgmental over the top father who needs my children to be the absolute best player on the field. Not that he wasn’t, of course, but I could honestly offer him encouragement without being even mildly tempted to provide advice.”

At that moment, the check finally went through. 

With that, the cookie-making banker handed me my receipt, I waved to everyone and wished them well with their weekends.

Some Mondays can’t come soon enough.

Prev123...162Next Page 2 of 162
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©