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A recent study suggests that drinking diet soda may increase the risk of heart disease. Stock photo
Simple dietary changes can improve outcomes

By David Dunaief, M.D.

Dr. David Dunaief

Cardiovascular disease is anything but boring; what we know about it is constantly evolving. New information comes along all the time, which on the whole is a good thing. Even though cardiovascular disease has been on the decline, it is still the number one killer of Americans, responsible for almost 30 percent of deaths per year (1). However, not all studies nor all analyses on the topic are created equal. Therefore, I thought it apropos to present a quiz on cardiovascular disease myths and truths.

Without further ado, here is a challenge to your cardiovascular disease IQ. The questions below are either true or false. The answers and evidence are provided after.

1) Saturated fat is good for us, but processed foods and trans fats are unhealthy.

2) Fish oil supplements help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.

3) Fiber has significant beneficial effects on heart disease prevention.

4) Unlike sugary sodas and drinks, diet soda is most likely not a contributor to this disease.

5) Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Now that was not so difficult. Or was it? The answers are as follows: 1-F, 2-F, 3-T, 4-F and 5-T. So, how did you do? Regardless of whether you know the answers, the reasons are even more important to know. Let’s look at the evidence.

Saturated fat

Most of the medical community has been under the impression that saturated fat is not good for us. We need to limit the amount we ingest to no more than 10 percent of our diet. But is this true? The results of a published meta-analysis (a group of 72 randomized clinical trials and observational studies) would upend this paradigm (2).

While saturated fat did not decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, it did not significantly increase the risk either. Also, results showed that trans fats increase risk. Of course, trans fats are a processed fat, so this is something that most of us would agree upon. And in the clinical trials portion of the meta-analysis, omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fats did not significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Does this mean that we can go back to eating saturated fats with impunity? Well, there were weaknesses and flaws with this study. The authors only looked at the one dimension of fat. Their comparison was based on the upper-third of intake of one type of fat versus the lower-third of intake of the same type of fat (whether it was saturated fat or a type of unsaturated fat). It did not consider whether saturated fat was substituted with refined grains or unsaturated fatty acids. Also, what was the source of saturated fats, animal or plant, and did these sources also contain unsaturated fats as well, like olive oil or nuts which contain good fats?

Therefore, there are many unanswered questions and potentially several significant flaws with this study.

The meta-analysis also does not differentiate among plant or animal saturated fat sources. But in one that does, the researchers found saturated fats from animal sources increased cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease (3). Also in another study, specifically using unsaturated fats in place of saturated fat reduced the risk of this disease (4, 5).

Fish oil

There is a whole industry built around fish oil and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet the data don’t seem to confirm this theory. In the age-related eye disease study 2 (AREDS2), unfortunately, 1 gram of fish oil (long-chain omega-3 fatty acids) daily did not demonstrate any benefit in the prevention of cardiovascular disease nor its resultant mortality (6). This study was done over a five-year period in the elderly with macular degeneration. The cardiovascular primary end point was a tangential portion of the ophthalmic AREDS2. This does not mean that fish, itself, falls into that same category, but for now there does not seem to be a need to take fish oil supplements for heart disease, except potentially for those with very high triglycerides. Fish oil, at best, is controversial; at worst, it has no benefit with cardiovascular disease.

Fiber

We know that fiber tends to be important for a number of diseases, and cardiovascular disease does not appear to be an exception. In a meta-analysis involving 22 observational studies, the results showed a linear relationship between fiber intake and decreased risk for developing cardiovascular disease (7). In other words, for every 7 grams of fiber consumed, there was a 9 percent reduced risk in developing the disease. It did not matter the source of the fiber from plant foods; vegetables, grains and fruit all decreased the risk of cardiovascular disease. This did not involve supplemental fiber, like that found in Fiber One or Metamucil. To give you an idea about how easy it is to get a significant amount of fiber, one cup of lentils has 15.6 grams of fiber, one cup of raspberries or green peas has almost 9 grams, and one medium-size apple has 4.4 grams. Americans are sorely deficient in fiber (8).

Diet soda

A presentation at the American College of Cardiology examined the Women’s Health Initiative: The study suggests that diet soda may increase the risk of heart disease (9). In those drinking two or more cans per day, defined as 12 ounces per can, there was a 30 percent increased risk of a cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or heart attack, but an even greater risk of cardiovascular mortality, 50 percent, over 10 years. These results took into account confounding factors like smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. This study involved over 56,000 postmenopausal women for almost a nine-year duration.

Vitamin D

The results of an observational study in the elderly suggest that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with cardiovascular disease risk. The study showed that those whose vitamin D levels were low had increased inflammation, demonstrated by elevated biomarkers including C-reactive protein (CRP) (10). This biomarker is related to inflammation of the heart, though it is not as specific as one would hope.

Beware in regards to saturated fat. If a study looks like an outlier or too good to be true, then probably it is. I would not run out and get a cheeseburger just yet. However, study after study has shown benefit with fiber. So if you want to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, consume as much whole food fiber as possible. Also, since we live in the Northeast, consider taking at least 1000 IUs of vitamin D daily. This is a simple way to help thwart the risk of the number one killer.

References:

(1) hhs.gov. (2) Ann Intern Med. 2014;160(6):398-406. (3) JAMA 1986;256(20):2623. (4) Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;99(5):1425-1432. (5) Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012:5;CD002137. (6) JAMA Intern Med. Online March 17, 2014. (7) BMJ 2013; 347:f6879. (8) Am J Med. 2013 Dec;126(12):1059-67.e1-4. (9) ACC Scientific Sessions 2014; Abstract 917-905. (10) J Clin Endocrinol Metab online February 24, 2014.

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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This northern parula warbler, found at Rockland Hall, was killed when it flew into the window.
Some of the very reflective windows where decals were applied.
This stunned yellow-rumped warbler was one of the lucky ones.
Feather remnants on a window. Not the mirrorlike quality of window.
Affixing window tape, like the ones above, on the outside of your windows can help prevent a bird strike.
Affixing ultraviolet decal stickers, like the ones above, on the outside of your windows can prevent a bird strike.

By Patrice Domeischel

Our local Audubon chapter, Four Harbors Audubon Society, is on a mission — to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, bird mortality at Stony Brook University. We recently learned of a severe window-strike problem at two of its campuses. Of special concern is the South Campus, consisting of a cluster of interconnected buildings, each one-story tall, and covered in mirrored windows.

Window collisions are a prime cause of bird fatalities (second only to falling prey to cats), causing anywhere from 365 to 988 million deaths per year in the United States. Collisions are most apparent to us during migration but occur all year. A 2014 window-strike study published by the American Ornithological Society indicates that the greatest total number of bird collisions in the United States occurs with residential (one to three stories tall) and low-rise (four to 11 stories tall) buildings, not skyscrapers (over 12 stories) as one might expect.

A South Campus walk to determine the severity of the strike problem, conducted by Four Harbors Conservation Chair John Turner, revealed numerous bird mortalities and some stunned birds, including species such as the American redstart, Canada warbler, black-and-white warbler, Swainson’s thrush, common yellowthroat, gray catbird, common grackle, dark-eyed junco and American robin. A total of 20 dead and stunned birds were found during one visit, and more during two subsequent visits. Turner found the mirrored windows to be particularly dangerous for birds as their highly reflective quality appeared to be a continuation of the nearby landscape. Mortality at these buildings far exceeded the national average for buildings of low height.

A proposal to embark on a project to address the problem was brought to the Four Harbors board, voted upon and approved. Research into the most effective and least costly way to address the window strikes at SBU resulted in a plan to affix ultraviolet decals to as many of the South and Main Campus windows as possible, emphasizing the worst strike areas. Our goal is the elimination, or at least a sharp reduction, in the incidence of bird window strikes occurring at the university.

Why window decals?

These small 4-by-4-inch stickers reflect ultraviolet light, invisible to us, but appearing as a bright, glowing area to birds. The decal alerts birds to the presence of an obstacle, causing them to redirect their flight pattern and get out of harm’s way. Four Harbors used Window Alert* decals, but there are many other brands and styles of decal on the market, and additional deterrent choices, such as window tape and netting, to choose from. The most effective solution on already-existing windows, but also most expensive, is to erect netting. Prior to Four Harbors involvement, a concerned individual employed this solution on a particularly lethal wall of windows with 100 percent effectiveness. For our chapter, though, window decals seemed the next best thing.

Getting the job done

In October 2017, after obtaining the necessary permit from the university, Four Harbors board members and volunteers spent two days affixing over 1,200 ultraviolet window decals and dabbing ultraviolet liquid on windows of all 11 buildings comprising the South Campus, including the worst culprit, Rockland Hall, where the highest number of strikes had occurred.

As we applied the stickers, additional birds were discovered, including Philadelphia vireo, Tennessee warbler, northern waterthrush, swamp sparrow, northern parula warbler and Swainson’s thrush, and, to our dismay, two yellow-rumped warblers hit as we were applying the decals. Fortunately, one of these two seemed to sustain no injury and after some rest was soon able to fly off.

I think we all felt a bit exhausted afterward, but elated also, knowing that there had been a positive effort to eliminate window strikes at the university. Next on the Four Harbors agenda are plans to continue with the project at the Main Campus.

Prevention is key

Many of you have wondered what you can do to assist and protect birds in this hazardous world. Each day, birds must contend with numerous obstacles: predation, hazardous weather conditions and hunger and starvation. Window strikes are an additional deadly threat, but one that we can do something about. By employing this simple and easy window-strike solution at your own home, you can do your part to make life for our birds a safer one.

Our thanks to Tom Lanzilotta, SUNY, Stony Brook, for acting as our director; Financial Services for Facilities & Administration, SUNY, Stony Brook, for granting permission for this project; to Carl Safina, for alerting us to the problem; and to the Safina Center and Seatuck Environmental Association for their generous donations to cover the partial cost of the decals.

*Four Harbors Audubon Society does not endorse any brand of window-strike deterrent on the market. See the following websites for additional information on window-strike prevention:

▶https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/learn/top10/ windowstrikes.php

▶https://www.allaboutbirds.org/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/

▶https://www.collidescape.org/

▶https://www.duncraft.com/

All photos by Patrice Domeischel

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By Peggy Olness

In 1968, the citizens of Suffolk County voted to adopt an amendment to the Suffolk County Charter that replaced the Suffolk County board of 10 town supervisors with elected legislators from the 18 legislative districts designated in the amendment. Among the major duties given to the Suffolk County Legislature was the duty of reviewing, amending and approving the annual budgets needed to allow Suffolk County to function.

A budget is a plan that looks at the revenue expected for the fiscal year and the best way to spend to provide the needed services during that fiscal year. The Suffolk County fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of each calendar year. During each year the legislature must review, amend and adopt three budgets to allow the county to function during the next fiscal year. These budgets are:

•The capital budget covers major construction expenditures such as road and bridge repair and construction, most of which extend for periods of more than one year. The capital budget is reviewed during the spring and usually approved by May.

•The operating budget funds the day-to-day operations of the county departments and agencies and is reviewed in the fall and usually approved in November so that spending can begin Jan. 1 of the next fiscal year.

•The community college budget funds the county’s community college system and is reviewed during the summer and usually approved before the start of the community college fall semester. The college budget covers a period coinciding with the school year.

The operating budget generally receives most of the attention because it has the largest impact on our day-to-day lives and the services citizens receive. The operating budget process begins in the spring when the county executive tells the county departments and agencies what he expects the county financial situation will be in the next fiscal year and requests each department/agency head to submit a budget request for the coming fiscal year based on those expectations. 

The county executive’s budget staff reviews the requests and works with the departments/agencies to produce a budget with which the county executive’s office is comfortable. This budget request is then sent to the county legislature. Each legislator receives a copy, and the legislature’s Budget Review Office begins work on the review and evaluation of the facts and figures in the county executive’s budget request so that it can advise the legislators on any concerns or problems that may occur.

Suffolk County relies on sources of revenue to fund the county budget that are problematic. While the federal government and the states can tax incomes, the county is limited to sales taxes, property taxes and various fees such as the motor vehicle surcharge and the tax map certification. Unfortunately, both sales and property taxes are considered “regressive taxes.” When the economy is good, these taxes produce a sufficient amount of revenue. However, when the economy is bad such as during the recent Great Recession, the revenue from these tax sources is reduced and has not covered all the county’s expenses. 

There are limitations on the amount of revenue the county can draw from these sources. New York State caps the property tax increase each year (2 percent at present). To exceed this amount would require a 60 percent vote by the county legislature.

Currently, the sales tax provides about 60 percent of the general fund revenue. As a result of the sluggish economy, the county has been forced to borrow from several sources to balance the budget since 2008. These loans must now be paid back. Moreover, the sales tax revenue has not rebounded sufficiently to cover the budget. An underlying problem with the sales tax is the increase in internet sales at the expense of “brick and mortar” local store sales. These online sales do not return sales tax to Suffolk County.

In future columns, the League of Women Voters will review some of the problems Suffolk County faces in the future as a result of the changes in the local economy.

Peggy Olness is a board member of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org, email [email protected] or call 631-862-6860.

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Begonia

By Kyrnan Harvey

I follow Logee’s Plants on Instagram and the other day photos of some of their old catalogs, a 1962-63, a damp-stained 1988-90 and a 1997, were posted. These latter sure looked familiar, oblong, tall-and-narrow, staple-bound. Logees’s greenhouses have been in existence since 1892, in northeast Connecticut, their first catalog in the 1930’s. They offered scores of different cultivars of geraniums, and of begonias,  and the old catalogs are great reference sources as well as interesting horticultural ephemera.

My mother was — and still is! — an amateur horticulturist. My architect father designed and built a house in the 70’s that was ahead of its time with open floorplan, cathedral ceiling, and a lot of glass. Plants flourished and a heated lean-to greenhouse was almost redundant. Through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s my mother was active in a L.I. chapter of Hobby Greenhouse, as well as in the garden club. She and her friend Annette grew many orchids and begonias.

Above, the dancing bones cactus, aka drunkard’s dream prefers certain locations in the house to thrive. Photo by Kyrnan Harvey

I have my hands full March through November with my horticulture business, so it’s better to not accumulate many potted plants that require watering while summering outdoors. Unfortunatly I don’t heed my own advice. There is a 15-year-old Ficus benjamina ‘Variegata,’ grown as a standard (tree-form, not bushy), hugging a north-facing dining room window. In the kitchen a large drunkard’s dream (Hatiora salicornioides) cascades from open shelving, a poinsettia with white bracts recently purchased at Home Depot nestles against the espresso machine, and a pair of the very diminutive Sansevieria ‘Fernwood,’ spotted at Ikea, are on the sill with a tiny venus-flytrap.

A Stop&Shop Kalanchoe, over-summered a couple years and now large, is in full bloom on a stand in a south-facing living room window. At another drafty, albeit historically correct, window a flowering spike of a Phalaenopsis orchid, as yet unopened, is expanding.

Upstairs are a very old, dwarfed, jade plant, crammed into a square cinnabar-glazed ceramic container; my wife’s Kaffir lime tree, from Logee’s; a wild banana (Strelitzia nicolai) and an Alocasia ‘Polly’ that I bought, also at Ikea, to stage the open house for the sale of our Bushwick condo three years ago; a Sansevieria ‘Bantel’s Sensation,’ with vertically white-variegated leaves sourced at Hick’s a few years ago for a client’s wrought-iron urn; a lovely maidenhair fern (Adiantum raddianum) which is an offspring from mom’s defunct greenhouse; two agaves, one that is the straight-species of the century plant (Agave americana), an offset that Richie at Half Hollow Nursery gave me, and the other is A. americana ‘Mediopicta Alba,’ propagated by the legendary Mattituck plantsmen at Landcraft Environments.

Above, a vigorous fibrous begonia. Photo by Kyrnan Harvey

Also upstairs is a variegated myrtle, Myrtus communis ‘Variegata.’ This is the myrtle of ancient Mediterranean lore and has aromatic leaves, but it, like my agaves, gets scale, which I spray with insecticidal soap once or twice a year. There is a bonsai ficus in the north-facing upstairs bathroom window and a rooted cutting of the common heart-leaf Philodendron cordatum, tolerant of low-light, in an antique highball of water in the bathroom below.

Likewise, a neon pothos, with chartreuse leaves, grows downward from a vase I bought on the pottery island (Ko Kret) in the Chao Phrya river in Bangkok. This has grown in just water for about a decade, presumably nourished by the minerals in the clay.

There is a poorly heated wing to our house, a converted porch, in which I stubbornly overwinter a dwarfed lemon verbena, delightfully scented in summer, woody and gnarly at 20 years, and another true myrtle, M. communis ‘Boetica,’ also inherited from mom’s collection. Rounding out the census, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the 20 lantanas potted up from the garden and left dormant in the 50 degree basement.

But I still haven’t mentioned the begonias, the pictures of which in Logee’s old plant lists is what got me started today. Logee’s still mails out catalogs, now 8×10 and full-color glossy, but their website has many more rare, fruiting, and tropical plants listed.

Kyrnan Harvey is a horticulturist and garden designer residing in East Setauket. For more information, visit www.boskygarden.com.

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Maryland aster

By Rita J. Egan

Diane Bouchier hopes to plant the love of botanical art in the hearts of Emma S. Clark Memorial Library patrons. The library, located in Setauket, will host an exhibit of Bouchier’s drawings, Native Plants of Long Island, through the month of February.

Diane Bouchier

The Stony Brook resident said she has been artistic since she was a child, but her career path took a slightly different direction. For nearly 40 years, she was a professor at Stony Brook University where she taught sociology of art. While artistic activities fed into her academic work “in a very positive way,” over time she felt a need to hone her skills. 

“I was always supposed to be artistic as a kid, but then I went into the social sciences,” said Bouchier in a recent interview. “I guess I was a child of the ’60s, and I thought it was important to understand what was going on. I don’t regret that choice, but along the way, in fact, when [my husband and I] moved to our house in Wading River I started a garden, I realized I could not draw the flowers to the level I wanted to draw them. I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute, you’re supposed to be artistic, why isn’t this turning out?’”

Her frustration in drawing flowers inspired Bouchier to take courses at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx where she obtained her certification in its botanical arts and illustration program.

It was during her time studying botanical art that she met one of her mentors, Ann-Marie Evans, a teacher at NYBG. Bouchier said it was Evans who encouraged her to start the American Society of Botanical Artists, an interactive community dedicated to preserving the tradition and encouraging excellence in the contemporary practice of botanical art.

The artist has exhibited extensively, including having her work on view at the 8th International Exhibition of Botanical Art at Carnegie Mellon University’s Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh and the Long Island Museum’s juried exhibition, Animal Kingdom: From Tame to Wild.

Bouchier, who lists 17th-century French artist Nicolas Robert among her favorites, said when she retired two years ago, art became a full-time pursuit. She calls her most recent work her retirement project.

“They say that when you retire you need a project, so I needed something,” the artist said. “So, what do I really care about, and the answer was ecology and art. And what am I trained in? I was trained in botanical and natural history illustration, so I put the two together.”

For the last few months Bouchier’s drawings were in a traveling exhibit displayed at various locations in Suffolk County including the Smithtown Library, North Shore Public Library and Sweetbriar Nature Center. While those exhibits included 20 of her 16- by 20-inch pieces, the Emma Clark Library exhibit, which is the last stop in the tour, will consist of only 10 drawings.

Bouchier said she decided to select those that pointed toward warmer weather for the Setauket location since she feels that come February many are tired of the winter.

New England aster

The artist said many of her drawings depict specimens she obtained from the Long Island Native Plant Initiative, an organization that encourages people to plant native plants that support birds, bees and butterflies, while her garden inspired her for others.

“In the course of drawing the plants and learning about them, I started planting them in my garden,” she said. “It’s a small garden but I’m very pleased that some of the drawings exhibited are from plants from my own garden, and that’s a special pleasure.”

Bouchier said for most of her artwork she prefers using colored pencils on Stonehenge paper, which she said is soft and smooth. She also works in pastels and egg tempera, a medium that has egg yolks in the paint that leaves a brilliant surface.

The artist said it can take a week to 10 days to complete a drawing when she uses colored pencils. She said one morning she’ll do the basic drawing and then another day the undercoat. “It’s very calming,” she said. “If you want to de-stress you should do this.”

Bouchier encourages people of all ages to learn how to draw, and she shares her knowledge by teaching classes at Gallery North in Setauket. In April she will head up a course on the fundamentals of botanical art techniques on Sundays, April 8, 15, 22 and 29. Call 631-751-2676 for times and cost.

“There are very few self-taught artists in the field because whether you’re drawing animals or plants, it’s important that it be accurate at a certain level,” Bouchier said. “You can still be expressive — these things are not opposites — but you don’t want to get the basic structure of the plant or animal wrong.”

When it comes to the artist’s classes, Judith Levy, director of Gallery North, said Bouchier’s classes are informative and relaxing and students leave feeling successful when the workshops are over.

“She’s very focused, she’s very organized, and she gives them a process of how to look at things or how to do a particular technique or use whatever the material is,” said Levy in a recent phone interview. “Sometimes it’s pencils; sometimes it’s colored pencils, it depends on what medium. She is very, very good, and her classes are popular.”

Bouchier also shares her love of creativity with her husband, WSHU radio personality and essayist David Bouchier. The artist said her husband asks her for feedback when it comes to his radio scripts, and she also reads and edits his book manuscripts. In turn, she tests out her ideas for drawings and paintings on him. In 2002, her husband released “The Cats and the Water Bottles,” a book of his essays of life in France, which includes line drawings by his wife.

The artist, who lists her drawing “American Holly and Winterberry” among her favorites, said she hopes the exhibit will inspire library patrons.

“It’s to encourage people to recognize the subtle beauty of our native plants and to perhaps consider planting them in their own gardens,” she said.

Emma S. Clark Memorial Library, 120 Main St., Setauket will present Native Plants of Long Island by Diane Bouchier through Feb. 28. For more information, call 631-941-4080 or visit www.emmaclark.org.

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A serenade by the Harmonic Tides Quartet will make your Valentine’s Day special. Photo by Chris Beattie

On Feb. 13 and 14 the Harbormen Chorus Quartets are again singing their way into the hearts of many an oftentimes surprised Valentine recipient.

Four elegantly dressed gentlemen travel to homes, offices, schools, restaurants, hospitals, nursing facilities and other locations in Suffolk County to serenade that special someone with love songs. Along with the professional performance, the singing Valentines will deliver a box of chocolates, decorative rose and personalized card. Call 631-644-0129 for more information.

The Harbormen Chorus sings four-part, a cappella harmony at many venues, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and donates a portion of the proceeds to Good Shepherd Hospice.

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From left, Deyu Lu (sitting), Anatoly Frenkel (standing), Yuwei Lin and Janis Timoshenko. Photo from BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

What changes and how it changes from moment to moment can be the focus of curiosity — or survival. A zebra in Africa needs to detect subtle shifts in the environment, forcing it to focus on the possibility of a nearby predator like a lion.

Similarly, scientists are eager to understand, on an incredibly small scale, the way important participants in chemical processes change as they create products, remove pollutants from the air or engines or participate in reactions that make electronic equipment better or more efficient.

Throughout a process, a catalyst can alter its shape, sometimes leading to a desired product and other times resulting in an unwanted dead end. Understanding the structural forks in the road during these interactions can enable researchers to create conditions that favor specific structural configurations that facilitate particular products.

First, however, scientists need to see how catalysts involved in these reactions change.

That’s where Anatoly Frenkel, a professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering with a joint appointment in Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division, and Janis Timosheko, a postdoctoral researcher in Frenkel’s lab, come in.

Working with Deyu Lu at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and Yuwei Lin and Shinjae Yoo, both from BNL”s Computational Science Initiative, Timoshenko leads a novel effort to use machine learning to observe subtle structural clues about catalysts.

“It will be possible in the future to monitor in real time the evolution of the catalyst in reaction conditions,” Frenkel said. “We hope to implement this concept of reaction on demand.”

According to Frenkel, beamline scientist Klaus Attenkofer at BNL and Lu are planning a project to monitor the evolution of catalysts in reaction conditions using this method.

By recognizing the specific structural changes that favor desirable reactions, Frenkel said researchers could direct the evolution of a process on demand.

“I am particularly intrigued by a new opportunity to control the selectivity (or stability) of the existing catalyst by tuning its structure or shape up to enhance formation of a desired product,” he explained in an email.

The neural network the team has created links the structure and the spectrum that characterizes the structure. On their own, researchers couldn’t find a structure through the spectrum without the help of highly trained computers.

Through machine learning, X-rays with relatively lower energies can provide information about the structure of nanoparticles under greater heat and pressure, which would typically cause distortions for X-rays that use higher energy, Timoshenko said.

The contribution and experience of Lin, Yoo and Lu was “crucial” for the development of the overall idea of the method and fine tuning its details, Timoshenko said. The teaching part was a collective effort that involved Timoshenko and Frenkel.

Frenkel credits Timoshenko for uniting the diverse fields of machine learning and nanomaterials science to make this tool a reality. For several months, when the groups got together for bi-weekly meetings, they “couldn’t find common ground.” At some point, however, Frenkel said Timoshenko “got it, implemented it and it worked.”

The scientists used hundreds of structure models. For these, they calculated hundreds of thousands of X-ray absorption spectra, as each atom had its own spectrum, which could combine in different ways, Timoshenko suggested.

They back-checked this approach by testing nanoparticles where the structure was already known through conventional analysis of X-ray absorption spectra and from electron microscopy studies, Timoshenko said.

The ultimate goal, he said, is to understand the relationship between the structure of a material and its useful properties. The new method, combined with other approaches, can provide an understanding of the structure.

Timoshenko said additional data, including information about the catalytic activity of particles with different structures and the results of theoretical modeling of chemical processes, would be necessary to take the next steps. “It is quite possible that some other machine learning methods can help us to make sense of these new pieces of information as well,” he said.

According to Frenkel, Timoshenko, who transferred from Yeshiva University to Stony Brook University in 2016 with Frenkel, has had a remarkably productive three years as a postdoctoral researcher. His time at SBU will end by the summer, when he seeks another position.

A native of Latvia, Timoshenko is married to Edite Paule, who works in a child care center. The scientist is exploring various options after his time at Stony Brook concludes, which could include a move to Europe.

A resident of Rocky Point during his postdoctoral research, Timoshenko described Long Island as “extremely beautiful” with a green landscape and the nearby ocean. He also appreciated the opportunity to travel to New York City to see Broadway shows. His favorite, which he saw last year, is “Miss Saigon.”

Timoshenko has dedicated his career to using data analysis approaches to understanding real life problems. Machine learning is “yet another approach” and he would like to see if this work “will be useful” for someone conducting additional experiments, he said.

At some point, Timoshenko would also like to delve into developing novel materials that might have an application in industry. The paper he published with Frenkel and others focused only on the studies of relatively simple monometallic particles. He is working on the development of that method to analyze more complex systems.

This work, he suggested, is one of the first applications of machine learning methods for the interpretation of experimental data, not just in the field of X-ray absorption spectroscopy. “Machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence are very hot and rapidly developing fields, whose potential in experimental research we have just started to explore.”

 

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Giada. Photo courtesy of Kent Animal Shelter

MEET GIADA!

Just look at those cute ears! Sweet little Giada came to Kent all the way from the Bahamas where these dogs, known as potcakes, don’t have it so great. This mixed-breed sweetie is only 7 months old and can’t wait to grow up with a loving family of her own. She is keeping her paws crossed that you will come see her right away! Giada comes spayed, microchipped and up to date on all her vaccines. Kent Animal Shelter is located at 2259 River Road in Calverton. For more information on Giada and other adoptable pets at Kent, visit www.kentanimalshelter.com or call 631-727-5731.

Update: Giada has been adopted!

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0 2018
Caviar Dip

By Barbara Beltrami

Lots of crunchy chips accompanied by bowls of chunky or velvety dips are as necessary for the big game this coming Sunday as the buffalo wings, the salsa and guacamole and maybe even the football itself.

Who can sit there with an adrenaline rush watching the big game without one hand wrapped around a beer and the other hand in perpetual motion between those chips and dips? And the good news is that whipping up a bunch of those dips is only marginally more difficult than opening that bag of chips and emptying it into a bowl (actually probably easier given how hard it is to pry those bags open).

With basic ingredients like sour cream, mayonnaise and cream cheese, the addition of savory and intense seasonings and ingredients is limited only by your imagination and what you have on hand. If you want to take the edible dippers beyond chips, try crackers, veggie crudités, toast strips, fried calamari, fried chicken nuggets or clams, cooked crabmeat or shrimp or chucks of interesting bread such as pumpernickel, rye or multigrain.

Just to jump start you, here are a few usual and unusual dips that will have the resident referees tooting their whistles and the resident cheerleaders shaking their pom-poms.

Veggie-Herb Dip

Veggie-Herb Dip

YIELD: Makes approximately 3 to 3½ cups

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups sour cream

¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley

¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives

½ cup finely chopped radishes

1⁄3 cup finely chopped peeled and seeded cucumber

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients. With a rubber spatula, scrape the contents into an appropriate serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with chips, broccoli and cauliflower florets, baby carrots or chicken nuggets, fried calamari or cooked shrimp.

Caviar Dip

Caviar Dip

YIELD: Makes approximately 1½ cups

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup freshly whipped heavy cream

3 to 4 tablespoons caviar

3 tablespoons minced red onion

1 to 2 hard-cooked eggs, finely chopped

Freshly ground white pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. If mixture is too salty, add more whipped cream. With a clean paper towel wipe upper part of inside of bowl and rim. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with cucumber, toasted pita bread, cooked shrimp or crabmeat or water crackers.

Asian Dip

Asian Dip

YIELD: Makes approximately 1½ cups

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup sour cream

½ cup finely chopped scallions

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons finely chopped canned water chestnuts

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl combine all the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with fresh mushrooms, fresh broccoli, rice crackers, cooked crabmeat, lobster or shrimp.

Retro Clam Dip

Retro Clam Dip

YIELD: Makes approximately 3½ cups.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups shucked and cooked fresh clams, finely chopped

6 ounces soft cream cheese

½ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1⁄₈ teaspoon mustard

1½ tablespoons minced onions

½ cup traditional cocktail sauce (made with ketchup, horseradish and lemon juice)

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients except cocktail sauce. With rubber spatula turn mixture into appropriate serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Before serving cover top of dip with cocktail sauce. Serve with crackers.

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