SBU President Maurie McInnis, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, Graduate Student Organization speaker Helena Van Nieuwenhuizen, Undergraduate Student Government President Manjot Singh, Kevin Law from the Stony Brook Council, and Dean of Students Ric McClendon join SBU mascot Wolfie to cut the ribbon. Photo by Kimberly Brown
Updated. The student union is currently closed due to damage after Hurricane Ida.
Stony Brook University officially opened the newest addition to its campus, the remodeled Stony Brook Union center, Wednesday, Aug. 25. With performances from the Seawolves Marching Band for the ribbon-cutting celebration, as well as free drinks and food, students were eager to explore the 177,000-square-foot building.
“We want students to consider this as a resource, to relax, to study, to learn, to perform, to meet new people and pursue new interests,” said Maurie McInnis, president of SBU. “There is so much to be discovered in this impressive space.”
The renovations for the Stony Brook Union center took three years to complete at $63.4 million. The finished building has three levels that include student services, an IT help desk, comfortable studying sections with couches and powered stations, as well as collaborative spaces.
SBU President Maurie McInnis. Photo by Kimberly Brown
“As we are fully reopening our campuses, we are feeling a renewed energy and optimism from everyone around,” said Jim Malatras, State University of New York chancellor. “Our students deserve this and it matches the outstanding education they receive from this university, one of the best in the world.”
The Stony Brook Union will be a central location for faculty and staff offices that will provide easy access for students to use at their convenience. Some of the new offices include Student Community Development, Student Engagement and Activities, Fraternity and Sorority Life, and Commuter Student Services.
“I’m excited to see the new opening of the student union because I think it’s a great place to go to get some studying in, but also for socializing at club events,” said Jessie Lin, a SBU student.
The lower level of the building includes expanded space for the Stony Brook Food Pantry and resources such as the Interfaith Center, Club Hub, Esports Club and the Science Fiction Forum.
With more than 26,000 students attending the university this year, the Stony Brook Union center will provide a large, welcoming space for undergraduates to enhance their studying practices.
“Seeing the student union being built from my freshman year to now being fully completed as a senior gives me nostalgia,” said Tania Thomas, a SBU student.
PSMA Riverhead Imaging. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Until now, conventional imaging, especially at low PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) levels, has not been able to identify the location and extent of the disease in the majority of cases of men with a suspected cancer recurrence. Now, Stony Brook University Cancer Center, in conjunction with Stony Brook Advanced Imaging, is the first on Long Island to offer men with prostate cancer targeted Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging with PYLARIFY® (piflufolastat F 18) Injection, a Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) imaging agent.
PSMA Riverhead Imaging. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Backed by the experts and state-of-the-art technology at Stony Brook Advanced Imaging Center, this type of imaging enables visualization of lymph nodes, bone and soft tissue metastasis to determine the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer.
Dr. Dinko Franceschi, Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Director of Clinical PET in the Department of Radiology at the Renaissance School of Medicine, states, “For years, there has not been good imaging modalities for prostate cancer – now we have this tool to see exactly where the tumor is in a patient, which will help in determining the best approach going forward.”
Developed by Lantheus, PYLARIFY® was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (May 2021) as the first commercially available PSMA PET imaging agent for prostate cancer. Those with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy or those with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum PSA level are eligible for the scan.
PSMA scans are available at two Stony Brook Medicine imaging centers (Riverhead and Stony Brook) with more locations to follow.
Stony Brook Medicine integrates and elevates all of Stony Brook University’s health-related initiatives: education, research and patient care. It includes five Health Sciences schools — Dental Medicine, Health Technology and Management, Medicine, Nursing and Social Welfare — as well as Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and more than 200 community-based healthcare settings throughout Suffolk County. To learn more, visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu.
About PYLARIFY®
PYLARIFY® (piflufolastat F 18) injection s a fluorinated small molecule PSMA-targeted PET imaging agent that enables visualization of lymph nodes, bone and soft tissue metastases to determine the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer. For men with prostate cancer, PYLARIFY PET combines the accuracy of PET imaging, the precision of PSMA targeting and the clarity of an F 18 radioisotope5 for superior diagnostic performance. The recommended PYLARIFY dose is 333 MBq (9 mCi) with an acceptable range of 296 MBq to 370 MBq (8 mCi to 10 mCi), administered as a bolus intravenous injection.
Maurizio Del Poeta in his laboratory at Stony Brook University. Photo by Antonella Rella
By Daniel Dunaief
Researchers at Stony Brook University, the University of Arizona and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina may have found an enzyme that drives the worst COVID-19 symptoms. Secreted phospholipase A2 group IIA, or sPLA2-IIA may lead to severe symptoms and death, making this enzyme a potential therapeutic target.
P116, Maurizio DelPoeta, Microbiology
In an examination of plasma samples from 127 patients hospitalized at Stony Brook University Medical Center between January and July 2020 and a mix of 154 patient samples from Stony Brook and Banner University Medical Center in Tucson between January and November 2020, scientists including Distinguished Professor Maurizio Del Poeta of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University found that 63 percent of people with concentrations of the enzyme that were over 10 nanograms/ milliliter generally died. Most healthy people have circulating levels of the enzyme around 0.5 nanograms/ milliliter.
“It is possible that sPLA2 levels represent a tipping point and when it reaches a certain level, it is a point of no return,” said Del Poeta.
The collaborators involved in the study, which was published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, were encouraged by the finding.
“This is exciting as it is leading to really novel connections for COVID-19,” Yusuf Hannun, Director of the Cancer Center at Stony Brook and a contributor to the research who participated in the discussion and data analysis, explained in an email. “It may lead to both diagnostics (for risk prediction) and therapeutics.”
Looking closely at the levels of sPLA2-IIA together with blood urea nitrogen, or BUN, which is a measure of the performance of the kidney, the researchers in this study found that the combination of the two measures predicted mortality with 78 percent accuracy.
“That is an opportunity to stratify patients to those where an inhibitor” to sPLA2-IIA could help patients, said Floyd Chilton, director of the University of Arizona Precision Nutrition and Wellness Initiative and senior author on the paper, said.
While they found a difference in the amount of the enzyme between healthier and sicker patients, the scientists recognize that this could reflect a correlation rather than a causation. The progression of the disease and the threat to people’s lives may come from other contributing factors that also intensify the severity of the illness.
“These studies do not establish causality at the moment, but the strength of the correlation and the known functions of this enzyme raise the possibility of participating in the pathology of the disease,” Del Poeta explained.
Floyd Chilton. Photo from University of Arizona
Indeed, Chilton has studied sPLA2-IIA for over three decades and has described some patterns in other diseases, including sepsis.
The enzyme performs an important role in fighting off bacterial infection by destroying microbial cell membranes. When the concentration of sPLA2-IIA rises high enough, however, it can threaten the health of the patient, as it can attack and destroy cells in organs including the kidney.
The enzyme “plays a critical role in host defense,” said Chilton. “These same systems can really turn on the host.”
In order to determine a causative link between sPLA2-IIA and the progression of the disease, Chilton, Del Poeta and others will need to increase their sample size.
“We’ve been very fortunate at getting individuals at some of the top global organizations… who have connected me with medical centers” that have a larger patient population, Chilton said. These executives may be able to expedite the process of expanding this study.
In the 1990’s, scientists studied an inhibitor that had the ability to act on the enzyme.
That effort had mixed results in phase 2 clinical trials.
“In 2005, the first phase of the phase 2 clinical trials were highly encouraging,” Chilton said. “It really inhibited mortality at 18 hours” by reducing severe sepsis. The second part of those tests, which used a slightly different protocol, failed.
While he’s not a clinical trials expert, Chilton is hopeful that researchers might find success with this same drug to treat COVID-19.
Only clinical trials would reveal whether inhibitors would work with COVID-19, scientists said.
As with many drugs, inhibitors of sPLA2-IIA have side effects.
By blocking the activity of these enzymes, “we do also decrease the production of arachidonic acid, which is a precursor of prostaglandins,” said Del Poeta. “In condition of hyperinflammation, this is a good thing, but prostaglandins are also important in a variety of cellular functions” including blood clots and starting labor.
Chilton pointed out that sPLA2-IIA is similar to the active enzyme in rattlesnake venom. It can bind to receptors at neuromuscular junctions and disable the function of these muscles, he explained.
In nature, some animals have co-evolved with snakes and are no longer susceptible to these toxins. Researchers don’t yet understand those processes.
While copying such evolutionary solutions is intriguing, Chilton said he and his collaborators are “much more interested in the inhibitors” that were taken through clinical trials in 2005 because that might present a quicker solution.
The research collaboration started with Chilton, who partnered with Arizona Assistant Research Professor Justin Snider. The first author on the paper, Snider earned his PhD at Stony Brook, where he knew Del Poeta well.
Snider “knew what a great researcher [Del Poeta] was. I also knew [Hannun] in a former life. We were both working on similar biochemistry 20 to 25 years ago,” Chilton said.
Chilton called the efforts of his Stony Brook collaborators, including Research Assistant Karen You, Research Associate Professor Chiara Luberto and Associate Professor Richard Kew,“heroic” and explained that he and his colleagues recognize the urgency of this work.
“I’ve been continuously funded by the [National Institute of Health] for 35 years, and I’m very grateful for that,” Chilton said. “There is nothing in my life that has felt this important,” which is why he often works 18 hour days, including on weekends.
After studying the effects of variants on the population, Chilton recognized that building a firewall against COVID-19 through vaccinations may not be enough, especially with the combination of lack of access to the vaccine for some and an unwillingness to take the vaccine from others.
“We may have to go to the other side of the equation,” HE said. “We’ve got to move to specific therapeutics that are agnostic to the variant.”
From left to right: Antonios Gasparis, MD, Lucyna S. Price, MD, Jing Li, MD, David S. Landau, MD, Apostolos K. Tassiopoulos, MD, George J. Koullias, MD, PhD, Angela Kokkosis, MD, Mohsen Bannazadeh, MD, Nicos Labropoulos, PhD. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
The mission of the SVS VQI is to improve patient safety and the quality of vascular care delivery by providing web-based collection, aggregation and analysis of clinical data submitted in registry format for all patients undergoing specific vascular treatments. The SVS VQI operates 14 vascular registries.
Apostolos K. Tassiopoulos, MD, FACS, Chief of the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Division, Interim Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stony Brook University Hospital and Director of the Stony Brook Vascular Center says over the past decade Stony Brook has successfully utilized SVS VQI data to improve patient care in our hospital.
“As the first institution in New York State to participate in the Vascular Quality Initiative, we are proud to achieve three-star level designation for the fifth time since 2015,” says Dr. Tassiopoulos. “This designation is the result of our commitment and dedication to providing the best care for our patients.”
The participation awards program began in 2015 to encourage active participation in the registries program and recognize the importance of that participation.
Participating centers can earn up to three stars based on actions that lead to better patient care, including:
The completeness of long-term, follow-up reporting, based on the percentage of patients for whom they have at least nine months of follow-up data
Physician attendance at semi-annual meetings of a regional quality group
Initiation of quality improvement activities based on SVS VQI data
The number of vascular registries in which the center participates
SVS VQI’s registries contain demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 841,000 vascular procedures performed in over 800 centers in the U.S. and in Canada. Each record includes information from the patient’s initial hospitalization and at one-year follow-up.
The wealth of data allows centers and providers to compare their performance to regional and national benchmarks. All centers and providers receive biannual dashboards and regular performance reports, so they can use their data to support quality improvement initiatives.
Biannual regional meetings allow physicians of different specialties, nurses, data managers, quality officers and others to meet, share information and ideas, and learn from each other in a positive and supportive environment. Members have used SVS VQI data to significantly improve the delivery of vascular care at local, regional, and national levels, reducing complications and expenses.
“Hard-working, dedicated organizations such as Stony Brook University Hospital are key to the success of the vascular registries,” said SVS VQI Medical Director Dr. Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen. “The work we do to build and maintain the registries for researcher use is crucial to health and outcomes for vascular patients. Like the old saying says, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’”
About Stony Brook University Hospital:
Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) is Long Island’s premier academic medical center. With 624 beds, SBUH serves as the region’s only tertiary care center and Regional Trauma Center, and is home to the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, Stony Brook University Cancer Center, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and Stony Brook University Neurosciences Institute. SBUH also encompasses Suffolk County’s only Level 4 Regional Perinatal Center, state-designated AIDS Center, state-designated Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, state-designated Burn Center, the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence, and Kidney Transplant Center. It is home of the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. To learn more, visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sbuh.
About The Society for Vascular Surgery and the Vascular Quality Initiative:
Operating under the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Vascular Quality Initiative is composed of 14 registries containing demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 841,000 vascular procedures performed nationwide and in Canada. The mission of SVS VQI is to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness and cost of vascular healthcare.
Starting Thursday, Aug. 19, Stony Brook University students can come Down Port to shop, eat and enjoy what the village has to offer.
Created in 2019 as a partnership between the Port Jefferson Parking and Mobility Department, the university’s office of Community Relations and the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District, the program had to stop in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kevin Wood, the village’s parking and mobility administrator.
Now, nearly a year and a half later, students can take advantage of it again.
“When Stony Brook came back from remote learning, it signaled to me that we should bring the bus back,” Wood said. “The university is looking at Port Jefferson as its downtown, so the bus makes it a direct link there now.”
Photo from Kevin Wood
The shuttle is free to students and runs four days a week — Thursdays through Sundays. It starts at the university’s SAC circle and then moves to the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, SBU’s Chapin Apartments, Stop and Shop East Setauket, Arden Place in the village and ends at the LIRR before heading back to the campus.
“Stony Brook University is proud to partner with Port Jefferson and the Business Improvement District to provide the student shuttle service for shopping, dining and entertainment in the village,” said SBU Community Relations Director Joan Dickinson.
Wood added that the shuttle is a 19-passenger vehicle and is ADA compliant.
“Anytime we can bring visitors who spend money to the village without having to park is a win,” he said.
Mayor Margot Garant said the village welcomes all SBU students, staff and residents.
“The shuttle is important to connect the Brook to Port Jeff Village, and to ensure the student body are welcome and have safe, easy access to our shops and restaurants,” she said. “We encourage them to sit back and enjoy the ride!”
136 incoming students to the Renaissance School of Medicine took their Hippocratic Oath for the first time. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
The Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University welcomed its incoming 2021 class at the annual White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 15. A total of 136 students for the first time donned their white coats and took the Hippocratic Oath at a ceremony in the Staller Center. They begin their medical training during a year that marks the 50th anniversary of the school.
First-year student Jessica Kwong. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Dr. William Wertheim, interim dean, cited the students as a unique and talented incoming class entering medicine at a challenging and changing time in the profession. He emphasized professionalism and compassion for patients as two of the leading areas they will need to develop and build on in their medical school training years.
A large portion of the class hails from New York State (69%), yet many students are from all over including 13 other U.S. states and five countries. They are among a select group, as the school received more than 5,800 applications for a position in the class.
“I feel like entering the medical field during these pandemic times will give my class a humbler perspective on medicine,” said student Jessica Kwong, who had majored in Psychology and Linguistics at Emory University. “I have no idea what I want to specialize in, but during the pandemic I worked with the elderly populations and organized a tele-volunteer initiative. I do plan on working with underserved populations, which is why I minored in Spanish so I can use it in my practice as a future physician.”
“This pandemic has shown me just how critical physicians are, and I am excited to see how myself and classmates can help in the Covid-19 crisis,” said Michelle Carfagno, who started to become very interested in medicine at age 12 when she had a knee injury. A Cornell University graduate who majored in Biological Sciences, Carfagno is very interested in the relationship between nutrition and disease and is considering a path in primary care or perhaps specializing in GI diseases at some point.
First-year student Michelle Carfagno. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Career-changer Carlos Ortiz worked in the area of supply chain management but was also a volunteer EMT. He found EMT work fulfilling. That service along with his interest in maintaining physical health and supporting others to do the same inspired him to pursue medicine. Ortiz also found himself on the front lines during the pandemic, which he says further helped prep him for medical school.
As the need for more physicians continues in the U.S. and worldwide due to aging populations, increased medical interventions, and a new lens on public health due to the pandemic, it’s fitting that the 2021 incoming class is one of the RSOM’s largest to date. Four members of the school’s first entering class of 1971 attended the ceremony to celebrate with the new students. That class included only 24 individuals, 16 men and eight women.
As we continue to battle against the coronavirus and approach flu season, it’s imperative that we know the facts about the vax. This Tuesday, August 17, join experts from Stony Brook Medicine as they discuss the importance of and science behind vaccines during a LIVE virtual event. Our experts will dispel misconceptions and address concerns surrounding key vaccinations, including those for COVID-19, the flu, and human papillomavirus (HPV).
The ongoing pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for healthcare providers and patients. A recent study showed a 71% drop in healthcare visits for 7 to 17-year-olds, when critical vaccines like Tdap, HPV, and meningitis are given. The HPV vaccine is recommended for boys and girls at age 11 or 12 because it works best when given before exposure to HPV. It can be given as early as age nine, and through age 26 for both men and women, if they did not get vaccinated when they were younger. The vaccine is safe with more than 270 million doses having been given worldwide since 2006. Even though the HPV vaccine can prevent many cancers caused by HPV infection, nearly half of adolescents in New York State are not getting the vaccine as recommended.
Every year in New York, nearly 2,600 people are diagnosed with cancer caused by HPV. To help educate those across Long Island about the importance of HPV vaccination for cancer prevention in adolescents, the Stony Brook University Cancer Center received a grant funded by the New York State Department of Health and Health Research Inc. This allows Stony Brook, the first and only institution on Long Island to be part of the Cancer Prevention in Action (CPIA) program, an opportunity to further promote the importance of the HPV vaccine as cancer prevention.
Sharon Nachman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University & Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital
PANELISTS:
Jill Cioffi, MD, FAAP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University and Medical Director of Ambulatory Primary Care Pediatrics, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital
Lauren Ng, DO, FAAP, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University and Primary Care Pediatrics, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital
This program is supported with funding from the State of New York. The views expressed in this educational event and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the State.
A Commencement, double White Coat Ceremony and extended orientation to start the school year on the right foot
The COVID-19 Pandemic has taken many recognitions and rights of passage away from those who have worked hard to reach their goals. Case in point: Commencement for an entire graduating class was celebrated virtually, if at all. An entire class of first-year students were unable to begin their college experience on campus. And, other professional students were unable to mark their hard-earned accomplishments with the proper pomp and circumstance.
Stony Brook University is now ensuring that all of these students will be able to finally have the opportunity to throw their caps, get to know their campus and ceremoniously put on their white coats, marking a return to some normalcy on campus.
Photo from Stony Brook University
On August 15, The Renaissance School of Medicine At Stony Brook University will host two white coat ceremonies. One of these is for the students in the Class of 2021, who will start their medical school journey this fall. The other is for the students who make up the incoming Class of 2020, who were unable to experience this milestone occasion because of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Now these students can proudly participate in this right of passage by donning their white coats in front of friends, family, colleagues, faculty and staff. These ceremonies will take place in the Staller Center.
Stony Brook University will also be celebrating the graduating class of 2020, with an in-person Commencement ceremony. Taking place on Friday, September 10 at 4 p.m., this special commencement event will allow those students who were part of the 2020 graduating class a chance to create special memories with friends and family. Invitations were sent to more than 7,500 graduates and to date, more than 900 have indicated they will attend. More information will continue to be posted here.
As the Fall 2021 class of first-year students makes its way to campus, so will the 2020 class who did not have the opportunity to start their college experience off the way so many have done before them. To ensure everyone feels welcome and gets acclimated to the college campus, Stony Brook is kicking off New Seawolf Welcome Week. The week will kick off with move-in day on Monday, August 16 and the multi-day experience will be filled with workshops, meet-and-greets and more.
Top from left, Kent Marks, Stony Brook Film Festival co-programmer; Trey Nelson, The 5th Man; Paul and Jade Schuyler, Red River Road; Scott Monahan, Meredith Treinen, Erin Naifeh, Dakota Loesch, Anchorage; and Alan Inkles, Director of the Stony Brook Film Festival
Paul and Jade Schuyler, Red River Road
Paul and Jade Schuyler, Red River Road
Crew from 'Noisy'
Cedric Hill, Director of 'Noisy'
From left, Meredith Treinen, Associate Director, Anchorage
Scott Monahan, Director, Actor, Anchorage
Erin Naifeh, Cinematograher, Anchorage
Dakota Loesch, Writer, Actor, Anchorage
Jade Schuyler, Actor, Red River Road
Paul Schuyler, Writer, Director, Actor, Red River Road
Trey Nelson, Director, The 5th Man
Scott Monahan and Meredith Treinen of Anchorage
Mark Belger with Paul Limmer
Cast and crew of 'The 5th Man'
From left, Trey Nelson, Steven Braff, Christine Curtin, and Mark Belger, The Fifth Man.
The 26th annual Stony Brook Film Festival, presented by Island Federal Credit Union, wrapped up with a Closing Night Awards Reception on July 31. The evening recognized the outstanding new independent films screened at the festival, which was held at Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University from July 22 to 31.
Making its world premiere at the festival, Anchorage won the Grand Prize this year. Director Scott Monahan and screenwriter Dakota Loesch star as two brothers who attempt to drive a trunk full of opioids from Florida to Alaska to cash in big in the Land of Gold. But their plan gets challenged by their surroundings, their shortcomings, and their tendency to dip into their own supply. This one-of-a-kind film explores the national crises of opioid addiction.
Special Achievement in Directing was awarded toTrey Nelson for his directorial debut in The 5th Man, a documentary that tells the extraordinary story of Paul Limmer, a world class track coach at Mepham High School in North Bellmore, whose dedication impacted so many lives. This film is also the first documentary to ever open the Stony Brook Film Festival.
The Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award, given to a filmmaker whose work exemplifies the spirit and breadth of filmmaking where the focus is on the art and most often produced with an extremely limited budget, was awarded to Red River Road. Written and directed by Paul Schuyler, the film was shot entirely under COVID-19 lockdown by one family and their dog that served as the entire cast and crew.
Written and directed by Lina Luzyte, The Castle captured the Audience Award for Best Feature. The film features Monika, a thirteen-year-old Lithuanian girl living in Dublin with her mother, a pianist who works at a local fish factory, and her grandmother, who has dementia and requires constant supervision. After singing with her mother at a small locale, they are approached with an invitation to play in ‘The Castle’ which they are told is one of the best music venues in Ireland.
Willow received the Jury Award for Best Feature. Written and directed by Milcho Manchevski, the film tells of a young peasant woman who seeks the help of an aged sorceress in the attempt to get pregnant. Centuries later, two contemporary women find themselves struggling with their own beliefs, modern science, and societal mores, in their own struggles to navigate motherhood. With its amazing images and unconventional narrative, this is a film whose story and characters exhibit that rare authenticity that makes you forget you’re watching a movie.
Noisy received the Audience Award for Best Short. A film by Cedric Hill, it features two strangers on a noisy subway who discover they have way more in common than where they’re heading.
Rounding out the awards, The Saverini Widow captured theJury Award for Best Short. A French film by Loïc Gaillard, it details how a widow’s life falls to pieces when her son is killed in a clash. Left with only her dog, she plots a desperate scheme. With stunning visuals and no dialogue, this film keeps you riveted to the end.
Of the winning films, filmmakers and cast and crew from Anchorage, Red River Road, and The 5th Man were in attendance to accept their awards. It was an unusual year indeed, with only American filmmakers in attendance for the live Q&A sessions following their screenings, but a joyful and celebrated return to the theater.
Virtual passes are now available to view the encore screening of the Festival on IndieFlix Festivals through Aug. 30. Passes for the entire 4 weeks are $85 per household or $25 for a weekly pass. Virtual passholders will be able to watch films multiple times and will have access to a number of features and shorts beginning each Thursday at 7 p.m. through Monday at midnight. Pre-recorded discussions with filmmakers, directors, cast, and crew will be included as well. For more information, call 631-632-2787 or visit stonybrookfilmfestival.com.
Looking out the window on a sunny day, one might notice a not-so-subtle haziness in the sky. However, that haze isn’t harmless clouds or fog, it’s smoke that’s traveled a far distance across the nation from raging wildfires in California and Canada.
As concerns grow over the impact of these wildfires stretching their way over to the East Coast, Long Islanders are beginning to become uneasy about the repercussions the hazy smoke might have among residents.
With multiple reports of poor air quality in the past few weeks, people who have vulnerable conditions such as asthma, emphysema, or heart disease need to be wary and avoid going outside or doing strenuous activity.
“There is something called fine particulate matter, which is very small ash,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “The cause of concern is that this is the type of material that causes respiratory ailments. It irritates the throat and respiratory system, but most importantly fine particulate matter can lodge in your lungs and make microscopic perforations, much like asbestos.”
According to Esposito, It is highly likely the ash will also be deposited into Long Island’s estuary and could affect the marine environment. However, it is uncertain exactly how much will accumulate due to the variables of wind speed and the amount of ash that will be pushed toward the Island.
“The East Coast should absolutely have an increased concern of weather events associated with climate change,” she added. “What we are having right now is an increase of torrential rain, and an increase in intensification of storms which means that hurricanes that might normally be a Category 1 [the lowest] now have the ability to reach 2, 3, or 4.” Esposito said.
Kevin Reed. Photo from Stony Brook University
Although air pollution issues are nothing new to New York, there are always certain times of the year, particularly in the summertime, that fine particulate matter can get trapped. The question of the future frequency of surrounding wildfires still stands.
While Long Island is experiencing a rainy season, California is currently facing one of the worst droughts in history. Within a two-year period, rain and snow totals in parts of the West have been 50 percent less than average.
“Just because Long Island is having a really wet season right now doesn’t mean it couldn’t shift later this year,” said Kevin Reed, a Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences researcher.
According to Reed, the winds that blow from out West don’t always streamline toward the East Coast. Direction in wind patterns could cause the air flow to “wobble,” so it is uncertain whether or not Long Island may face more smoke pollution in the future.
“Drought is certainly becoming more severe, potentially longer lasting, and at a larger extent, which means larger parts of land will be susceptible to wildfire,” Reed said.
Adding that wildfires are typically a natural occurrence and benefits land by replenishing it, Reed said the extent of the current wildfires is most likely a result of climate change and has potential to harm people and the environment.
“Air pollution could really affect our human health, especially to certain groups that are more susceptible to issues with air quality,” he said. “Even if it’s here for one day it could have an impact and of course the impact is going to be multiplied if it’s a longer-term event.”
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