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Daniel Dunaief

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Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine presenting the State of the County address. Photo taken from the livestream of the event

By Daniel Dunaief

After four upgrades from bond rating agencies and a comprehensive effort to work together with the legislature, County Executive Ed Romaine (R) believes Suffolk is doing well.

That, however, doesn’t limit opportunities for improvements, particularly in areas such as sewers, water quality, highway and road safety and the opioid war.

In a wide-ranging State of the County address before the 18 members of the county legislature, Romaine began his talk by thanking the group for working well together, setting off a distinction from national and state governing bodies.

“I look at other levels of government” including Washington and Albany and “the partnership is missing there, replaced by partisanship,” Romaine said. Local governments at the level of villages, town and counties, have to “deal with the pragmatic and we have to make sure that things work.”

Indeed, since he took office 15 months ago, Romaine said he hasn’t vetoed a single resolution.

Recognizing the bigger picture challenges of an economy that could suffer amid tariff tumult, Romaine suggested that seasoned political veterans had been through tough times before, such as the pandemic in 2020, the financial market meltdown in 2008 caused by the subprime mortgage market meltdown and the stock market rout of 1987.

“We got through tough times before and we’ll get through this as a team,” Romaine said.

Romaine highlighted how the county had received four bond upgrades. In December, Moody’s Ratings upgraded the county’s debt rating to A1 from A3 due to the county’s improved financial position, sales tax growth and operational oversight, according to the Bond Buyer.

Bond rating upgrades lower the cost of the county selling debt through the public markets, as investors typically don’t require as much interest for borrowing entities that are more likely to pay back their debts. This benefits the county and taxpayers, who don’t have to pay additional interest.

Romaine reiterated that he would never pierce the tax cap, which is the state limit on how much an entity can charge in property taxes.

Additionally, Romaine plans to settle some of the outstanding lawsuits that the county has been facing since before Romaine took office.

Claw back money

On the fiscal side, Romaine suggested the previous administration, run by Steve Bellone (D), had spent about $27 million on cybersecurity.

Romaine said he’s looking to claw back money from spending that “should not have taken place,” he said.

Romaine has hired a chief information officer, who is working with Homeland Security and cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies.

“We have someone on staff and virtual,” Romaine said, in an effort to continue to safeguard infrastructure.

As for the Department of Public Works, he is aiming to improve roads, drainage and sewage, as he suggested infrastructure was “neglected for far too long.”

Sewers are a significant challenge for the county, with 70 percent of the county having cesspools and septic tanks.

In the next three and a half years, Romaine plans to spend over $1 billion in the county on sewers.

Speaking to a representative from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), Romaine challenged the governor to invest in the county, which he would match dollar for dollar on sewers and clean water.

Well water, which can be contaminated, is also a problem for the county.

“Imagine having to drink that water, or bathe your child in that water, or put formula in that water?” Romaine asked.

Residents need a funding source to change their source of water. Romaine plans to work with federal and state governments.

Water quality “should not be based on income,” Romaine said.

Energy

In addressing the likely energy problems created by future storms that threaten to cut off the energy supply when trees topple on power lines, Romaine indicated he’s talking with the Long Island Power Authority and PSE&G about burying their lines over many years to increase resilience.

While Romaine would like to come up with incentive programs to encourage industrial buildings, schools and other public buildings that can structurally afford it to put solar panels on their rooftops, the substations for these energy companies are “inadequate.”

“LIPA, spend the money, invest in substations,” he said. “That’s my very clear message.”

Pointing to another resource, Romaine suggested linking the extensive farm system on Long Island with schools to work to ensure that no one, particularly children, should go hungry.

Schools “can purchase farm products for school lunches,” which are more nutritious and support farmers, he said. “The synergy has to be worked out.”

To celebrate and promote aquatic farmers, Romaine said Smith Point would be the site of the first all Suffolk oyster festival in the third week in August.

Echoing a focus of Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, Romaine focused on road safety.

“When you get on the highway, you don’t have to take your life in your hands,” said Romaine.

The County Executive launched a permanent task force to combat street racing and takeovers. The Suffolk County Police Department recently added nine patrol officers to enhance highway safety and will add more officers in the summer.

In addressing safety from one of the scourges of the island, Romaine asked the legislature to work with him to reform the opioid fund distribution review process.

He would like to get the third round of funding out by this summer. The first two rounds included worthy applicants, such as the Police Department, the Medical Examiner who buried 400 people from overdoses, the probation department, the sheriff’s department and the health and social service department which all received no funding.

These agencies need to know what they have to do to get the necessary funding to make a difference in the lives of people battling addictions to opioids.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

In the typical process of developing cures for medical problems or diseases, researchers explore the processes and causes and then spend years searching for remedies.

Ke Jian Liu. Photo by Jeanne Neville, Stony Brook Medicine

Sometimes, however, the time frame for finding a solution is cut much shorter, particularly when the Food and Drug Administration has already approved a drug treatment for another problem.

This could be the case for hemorrhagic stroke. Caused by a burst blood vessel that leads to bleeding in the brain, hemorrhagic stroke represents 13 percent of stroke cases, but accounts for 50 percent of stroke fatalities.

That’s because no current treatment exists to stop a process that can lead to cognitive dysfunction or death.

A researcher with a background in cancer and stroke, Ke Jian “Jim” Liu, Professor of Pathology and Associate Director or Basic Science at the Stony Brook Cancer Center who joined Stony Brook University in 2022, has found a mechanism that could make a hemorrhagic stroke so damaging.

When a blood vessel in the brain bursts, protoporphyrin, a compound that attaches to iron to form the oxygen carrying heme in the blood, partners up with zinc, a similar metal that’s in the brain and is released from neurons during a stroke. This combination, appropriately called zinc protoporphyrin, or ZnPP, doesn’t do much under normal conditions, but could be “highly toxic” in hypoxic, or low-oxygen conditions.

“We have done some preliminary studies using cellular and animal stroke models,” said Liu. “We have demonstrated on a small scale” that their hypothesis about the impact of ZnPP and the potential use of an inhibitor for the enzyme that creates it ‘is true.’”

These scientists recently received a $2.6 million grant over five years from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health.

Focusing on a key enzyme

After Liu and his colleagues hypothesized that the ZnPP was toxic in a low-oxygen environment, they honed in on ways to reduce its production. Specifically, they targeted ferrochelatase, the enzyme that typically brings iron and protoporphyrin together.

Iron isn’t as available in this compromised condition because it has a positive charge of three, instead of the usual plus two.

Liu discovered the role of zinc in research he published several years ago.

When a hemorrhagic stroke occurs, it creates a “perfect storm,” as the enzyme favors creating a toxic chemical instead of its usual oxygen carrying heme, Liu said. He is still exploring what makes ZnPP toxic.

The group, which includes former colleagues of Liu’s from the University of New Mexico, will continue to explore whether ZnPP and the enzyme ferrochelatase becomes an effective treatment target.

Liu was particularly pleased that currently approved treatments for cancer could be repurposed to protect brain cells during a hemorrhagic stroke. Indeed, with over 80 approved protein kinase inhibitors, which could work to stop the formation of ZnPP during a stroke, Liu and his colleagues have plenty of potential treatment options.

“We’re in a unique position that a clinically available drug that’s FDA approved for cancer treatment” could become a therapeutic solution for a potentially fatal stroke, Liu said.

To be sure, Liu and his colleagues plan to continue to conduct research to confirm that this process works as they suggest and that this possible therapy is also effective.

As with other scientific studies of medical conditions, promising results with animal models or in a lab require further studies and validation before a doctor can offer it to patients.

“This is an animal model, based on a few observations,” said Liu. “Everything needs to be done statistically.”

At this point, Liu is encouraged by these preliminary studies as the subjects that received an inhibitor are “running around,” he said. “You can see the difference with your own eyes. We’re excited to see that.”

Earlier hypotheses for what caused damage during hemorrhagic stroke focused on the release of iron. In research studies, however, using a chelator to bind to iron ions has produced some benefits, but they are small compared to the damage from the stroke. The chelator is “not really making any major difference,” said Liu.

The Stony Brook researcher did an experiment where he compared ZnPP with the damage from other metabolic products.

“ZnPP is several times more toxic than all the other things combined,” which is what makes them believe that ZnPP might be responsible for the damage, he said.

Proof of principle

For the purpose of the grant, Liu said the scientists were focusing on gathering more concrete evidence to support their theory. The researchers are also testing a few of the protein kinase inhibitors to demonstrate that they work.

In their preliminary studies, they chose several inhibitors based on whether the drug penetrates the blood brain barrier and that have a relatively high affinity for ferrochelatase.

“This opens the door for a new phase of the study,” Liu said. “Can we find the best drug that provides the best outcomes? We are not there yet.”

Removing zinc is not an option, as it is a part of 2 percent of the proteome, Liu said. Taking it out would “screw up the entire biological, physiological system,” he added.

Liu speculates that any future drug treatment would involve a relatively small dose at a specific time, although he recognized that any drug could have side effects.

In an uncertain funding climate in which the government is freezing some grants, Liu hopes that the financial support will continue through the duration of the grant.

“Our hope is that at the end of this grant, we can demonstrate” the mechanism of action for ZnPP and can find a reliable inhibitor, he said. “The next step would be to go to a clinical trial with an FDA-approved drug, and that would be fantastic.”

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Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

People don’t generally get married at 9 a.m, with an active, energetic and all-out party that follows immediately after the magical ceremony and that lasts until 3 pm.

No, big events like weddings, birthday parties and even smaller gatherings, like, oh, I don’t know, a pickleball tournament, sometimes start late in the evening and end some time after midnight.

Those are, as we all know, the typically festive party hours, when we welcome, as loudly as we can, the married couple for the first time to the dance floor, when we yell into each other’s ears standing feet from the trumpet and trombone players and when we cheer for the heartfelt sentiments of friends and family who share moving anecdotes about the people at the center of attention.

But what if, like me, you’re a morning person? What if, as the night goes on and everyone else becomes increasingly giddy, the inner child in you begs to go to bed because you know, no matter how hard you try to block out the morning light or to sleep in as late as possible, you will arise early the next morning?

For the past few incredible weekends, in which I visited my son in college where we played in a late night pickleball contest that ended around 1 a.m. and then traveled to celebrate a family wedding for a beloved cousin whom I’ve known since she was four, I have desperately tried to force my mind and body to push through the fatigue.

I recognize, of course, that people can’t and don’t sleep when their bodies and minds demand, such as when they are working several shifts or jobs to pay the bills, when they are taking care of someone late at night, or when an illness keeps them from getting the rest they need. These are clearly much harder and more real challenges than playing in a sporting event or celebrating with family.

I also realize that the academic and working world is geared towards morning people. Important tests and meetings can start as early as 8 a.m., when night owls would otherwise prefer to cruise into the final few hours of a restful sleep. Standardized tests also never started at 10 p.m. Someday, maybe some circadian scientist will offer to give tests at different blocks of time and see if scores improve for those who self select into their hourly wheelhouse.

I recall my first experiences with activities that extended well past midnight. Decades ago, I attended an all night dance to raise money for a worthy cause. I wasn’t sure how I’d do at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., when my body demanded time to recharge and shut down.

Fortunately, my high school friends and I took cat naps and, once the sun appeared, my system came back to life.

High school ski trips also typically left the school parking lot some time around 2 or 3 a.m., which was tough on those who drove us to school, especially if they had early morning activities the next day. After greeting everyone at the bus, I slept against the window, waiting until the sun flicked my “on” switch back into position.

During the recent late night pickleball games and wedding, I did my best to rally beyond my daily routine.

The first few games of pickleball went well, as the excitement of competition and of spending time with my son more than compensated for my fatigue.

The toughest words that night were “let’s run it back,” which my son and his friends said after each game. That meant one more game which turned into at least five more. By the end of the night, I felt like I was playing on four flat tires and I was swatting helplessly at the ball. I definitely cost us the final game, which my son accepted with remarkably good nature.

Fatigue didn’t interfere noticeably at the wedding, particularly because I threw myself around the floor to some of the final songs, including Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”

The after party at the hotel, however, pushed my limit. When someone nearby lit up a cigar, the scent of which overwhelmed my system, I couldn’t continue to stay awake and ignore the smell.

While I didn’t hang out and chat in the lobby until the last moment of the post party gathering, I made it past 2 a.m., which is as late as I can get before closing my eyes for “just a second” turns into a few hours of much needed rest.

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This bar graph shows the various forms of violence victimization over a 24-hour period as reported in more than 12,000 mobile phone surveys of almost 500 adolescent boys. Credit: Rachel Kidman

By Daniel Dunaief

Rachel Kidman

Researchers have long connected exposure to violence, particularly at a younger age, to expressions of violence as people age.

In a recent study of boys between the ages of 15 and 19 years old published in the journal PLOS One, lead author Rachel Kidman, Core Faculty in the Program in Public Health and Associate Professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, however, has made a connection between various types of violence adolescent boys witnessed or were subjected to and violence within 24 hours towards intimate partners.

“Those boys who experience violence that day are much more likely to act out and engage in intimate partner violence against their girlfriend or boyfriend,” said Kidman. 

Adolescent boys are getting “trapped in a cycle” in which they experience and then perpetuate violence, Kidman said.

In parts of Africa, in particular, intimate partner violence could be particularly dangerous as the rate of HIV infection — the virus that causes AIDS — is higher.

This study, which was conducted with 498 adolescents living in Soweto, South Africa who responded to cell phone surveys from November of 2020 to June of 2022, expands the understanding of the development of abuse and violence.

Amy Hammock, Associate Professor in the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University, who has collaborated on research with Kidman but was not a part of this paper, lauded the work for its “strong design” which relies on surveys that measure violence within 24 hours. The surveys allow for “more accuracy in reporting” than a typical question about violence within the last year.

“Many of the boys in the sample experienced significant violence, both at the community level and the interpersonal level,” Hammock explained.

Previous evidence indicates that men who experienced or witnessed childhood trauma or domestic violence between their parents perpetrate intimate partner violence at higher rates.

“We don’t have a lot of evidence of what happens during the teenage years,” said Kidman. “This could be setting the course for relationships in the future.”

Adolescents could be responding to triggers and may not know how to cope with their own emotions, which leads to their own violent actions.

Working with boys

Public health programs typically focus on ways to protect people in relationships, often women, against violence, by encouraging them to take self-defense classes and to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship. Many of these approaches place the onus on the victim, which seems too narrow, Kidman said. As a next step, “we can work with boys, acknowledge the trauma.”

By exploring the link between physical, verbal and sexual violence perpetrated against adolescent boys, researchers are taking a first step towards developing methods that might help boys cope with their own emotions without lashing out at their partners.

“We need to learn more to design the right intervention,” Kidman explained.

Breaking the cycle

The real-time mobile phone surveys revealed a sharp increase in the odds of intimate partner violence (IPV) when teenage boys were victims of violence within 24 hours, particularly sexual violence. Credit: Rachel Kidman

Kidman chose to work with adolescents in this area of South Africa in part because she had forged connections with researchers in the area in previous studies and in part because of the high levels of HIV and violence for an underserved population.

She feels it’s important to understand the epidemics of violence in low and middle income countries.

“The area we work in has a history of apartheid and racial and economic segregation and a long history of violence and a high rate of HIV,” Kidman said.

To be sure, ideally, these adolescents wouldn’t experience any violence. Many of the adolescents who participated in this study experienced intimate partner violence directed against them as well, which could be initiated by a girlfriend or be used by a girlfriend in self defense.

“Some of this may be in the context of bi-directional violence in the relationship,” said Kidman.

Participants in this study could ask to speak with a counselor. Kidman appreciates the adolescents who shared personal and painful details their lives.

“These are not easy topics to talk about and they get a lot of credit for being so open,” she said. “This gives us insights into how we can help.”

Meaningful semester abroad

The direction Kidman’s research has taken springs from research she did during her undergraduate training at Swarthmore College, particularly during a semester abroad in Zimbabwe. She was interested in the social dimensions of HIV. During her master’s degree at the Harvard School of Public Health, she studied the survival and education of orphaned children.

As she conducted that research, Kidman considered the many adversities affecting children, including violence, child abuse, neglect, and living with someone who has substance abuse problems, among others. The current project is exploring how these experiences during childhood and adolescence, including child abuse, verbal violence and bullying, affect youth and their behavior towards intimate partners.

Indeed, when youth with HIV experience violence, they sometimes don’t take their medications, which increases the health risks to themselves and their partners.

Role models

Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Kidman received considerable support for her broader interests in the world from her parents Joan and Bruce Kidman.

“When I announced that I was going to Zimbabwe for the semester, they were absolutely on board,” said Kidman.

Indeed, both of her parents, who met in college, worked together for the Peace Corps in Micronesia after they graduated. When she was in college, Kidman was eager to learn about a different culture.

Kidman and her husband Sean Clouston, Professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine at SBU, live in Stony Brook with their 10 and 12-year old children Riley and Quinn.

As for her work, Kidman suggested numerous questions remain. She urged further studies that could assist with preventing violence and supporting those people who can be victims and perpetrators.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Even for a family that often lives in fifth gear, this weekend is especially frenetic.

First, on Saturday, we’re going to the wedding for a member of my wife’s extended family. We’ve been looking forward to this for more than a year.

Over 25 years ago, the bride attended our wedding in a white dress that, thanks to my mother in law, matched the one my wife wore. It’s so easy to recall her doe-eyed face when she and her younger brother set a speed record as they raced down the aisle.

We had asked the children on both sides to participate, which they did to the delight of our friends and family.

I’m sure memories of the bride and groom will play through many people’s minds during the wedding. As I sit with my wife, son and daughter, I will likely picture the four-year-old version of the bride, whom I used to throw as high and far as I could from the shallow end into the deep end in my father-in-law’s warm pool.

I’ll hold hands with my wife as we share in the excitement of this ceremony, which marks the beginning of their married life and is an extension of a high school friendship that has turned into something much deeper.

After the ceremony, we will reconnect with extended family, finding out recent details of their lives. We will hug and kiss the amazing grandmother, who has provided unconditional family support since the moment I met her close to 30 years ago.

Our niece will also be a major attraction, as she is the seven-months pregnant matron of honor and is the first member of the next generation on either side of our family who is expecting a child.

And then, ahhh, the dancing! My family will be on the dance floor as long as possible, throwing ourselves around as if we were in some kind of Zumba, aerobics, bodies-in-motion session. 

My shirt will become a much darker color as I sweat through it, and our daughter will somehow know the words to just about every song the band plays.

As the party winds towards its conclusion, we will continue moving and cheering, looking to squeeze every last drop out of this wedding.

The next day, we’ll amble out to a Sunday breakfast and recount some of the excitement from the night before.

But, wait, then there’s part two. We’ll head over to CitiField, where we’ll see my side of the family for a Mets game and, more importantly, celebrate a momentous birthday for our nephew.

We’ll share the excitement of this big birthday as we all become die hard Mets fans for the day, even as we also may share a few memories.

Indeed, when the birthday boy’s brother was born, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I drove to Baltimore. She left earlier than I. My then three-year-old nephew joined us as I walked her to her car.

“Bye, love you,” I said to my wife, kissing her through the rolled down window.

“Bye, love you,” our nephew echoed, standing on his tip toes as he offered an irresistible grin.

We’ll likely compare baseball stories and anecdotes about my nephew who has been married for over a year.

I may even tell the story about a memorable phone call.

His father, who wasn’t a morning person, called me early one Sunday. He asked me about my weekend and my plans for the week. Stupidly, I answered all his questions without thinking of the context for his life.

“Great,” he said, sounding both tired and excited. “Well, guess what?”

I shrugged while he paused either for effect or to take a quick rest.

“You’re an uncle,” he declared.

I jumped out of bed and couldn’t possibly get dressed quickly enough to meet someone I’m as eager to see today and any other day as the day he was born.

While we might wistfully recount such stories, we will also have the incredible gift of family time.Amid all the other times that come and go, we will have a full weekend where we won’t focus on whatever worries us about the world. We will share the joy of staying present, reveling in these magical moments that matter.

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Ben Brown and his wife Maggie. Photo courtesy of Ben and Maggie Brown.

By Daniel Dunaief

Baseball has been Setauket product Ben Brown’s ticket to ride, or, perhaps, more appropriately, ticket to fly.

The 25-year old Ward Melville High School graduate, whose debut season in Major League Baseball was cut short last year by a neck injury, joined the Chicago Cubs this year for spring training.

Even days before the Chicago Cubs prepared to make a trip across the world to Japan, Brown wasn’t sure if he and his wife Maggie would make the longest flight of his life.

“He only knew a couple of days before that he was going,” said Ben’s mother Jo-Anne Wilson. “Then, they’re scrambling to get people to stay at home and watch their dogs.”

While Brown’s mother was thrilled that her son could enjoy an international trip on a world baseball stage, she had some parental anxiety.

“The night I knew he’d be landing at 3 am, I was still up,” Wilson said. She was greatly relieved when her son texted her.

“I could breathe again,” she laughed. Even though Ben is her third child, she can’t outgrow her parental concern for the well-being of her children.

“I’m sure he was surprised when I texted back within half a second,” said Wilson, who promptly fell asleep after the brief exchange.

Brown’s father Jody Brown was more concerned about jet leg, as Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and 16 hours ahead of the time in Mesa, Arizona, where the Cubs play their spring training games.

Memorable trip to the Embassy

Ben Brown meeting up with another WMHS graduate Anthony Kay, who is also a pitcher. Kay is playing for the Yokohama DeNa BayStars. Photo courtesy of Maggie Brown

Brown’s parents connected with Ben a few times by FaceTime while their son and his conspicuous six foot, six inch frame were traveling around Japan.

The Japanese public was “friendly and so welcoming,” said Wilson. “The kids were very respectful when they were approaching the players for autographs.”

That presented a contrast to some young fans in the United States, who can be aggressive when seeking autographs or pictures with baseball players.

A trip to the American Embassy, where the Cubs attended a party, was a highlight of the journey.

“He said, ‘Mom, you’ve never seen anything like it in your life,’” Wilson said, recalling her son’s delight at the colorful and well-presented offerings. “He never left a table” filled with every type of sushi imaginable.

Brown was impressed with the immaculate condition of the streets.

Brown’s wife Maggie learned about the expectations for garbage the hard way. She had eaten a pastry and was carrying a coffee cup. When she went to throw her garbage in a can in a fish market, she was reprimanded for trying to discard items that didn’t come from the market. People expect to put items in their own trash cans.

The Browns visited Anthony Kay, who is pitching for the Yokohama DeNa Baystars and is another Ward Melville baseball star, while they were in Tokyo.

A well-watched opening game

The first game of the season was a huge draw in Japan, with an estimated 25 million people watching the Cubs and the defending World Series Champion Dodgers take the field at the Tokyo Dome.

Ben Brown interacting with autograph seekers.
Photo courtesy of Maggie Brown

Over 42,000 people flocked to the stadium, paying anywhere between $2,000 and $19,000 a seat, according to Fox News 11 Los Angeles. Three players from the defending World Series champions are Japanese, including hitting superstar Shohei Ohtani, and pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. The Japanese players from the Cubs are pitcher Shota Imanaga, who started game one, and outfielder Seiya Suzuki.

Back in Setauket, Brown’s parents got up to watch the start of the game at 6:10 am, sitting down with a cup of coffee.

Imanaga threw four hitless and scoreless innings, allowing four walks and striking out two.

The right handed throwing Brown came on to pitch in the fifth inning.

After striking out Miguel Rojas, Brown walked Andy Pages, bringing up Ohtani. The Dodgers left-handed hitting star laced the team’s first hit of the season, a single to right fight.

By the end of the inning, Brown had given up three runs, two of which were earned, on three hits.

Brown pitched an impressive fifth and sixth inning, recording four additional strike outs, including of Ohtani.

Brown’s brother James Neppell, who is 15 years older than Ben and who helped ignite his passion for the sport, was pleased with his brother’s outing and with his approach to Ohtani during the superstar’s second at bat.

“He struck him out on three pitches” Neppell said proudly. “That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

Brown’s father was pleased with his son’s 14 swings and misses, “which is more than any pitcher on the Cubs or the Dodgers” that day as well as the five strike outs.

The Dodgers won the first game 4-1, as Brown took the loss.

The Browns shared the excitement of the trip with their son from a distance, while they also mirrored some of his activities on Long Island.

“We had sushi while he was gone,” Jody Brown said.

Next steps

Just before a spring training outing against the Atlanta Braves earlier this week, Ben found out he had been named the club’s fifth starting pitcher.

Brown and his wife Maggie. Photo courtesy of Ben and Maggie Brown

“It’s a real honor,” Brown said during an interview with an MLB broadcast after his 75-pitch outing in which he allowed two earned runs in four and a third innings against the Braves. “To say that you’re a part [of the team] from day one is pretty incredible.”

Brown suggested that the engagement of the fans, which he likened to European soccer style chants, was a “real blast.”

Jody Brown recalls how travel baseball, which now includes a trip across the world, started when his son was young.

“I remember his first [baseball] trip when he was eight years old to Maryland,” said Brown. “The local coach called and said, ‘We need him to come.’ I thought, ‘That’s crazy.’ That was the start.”

At around that same time years ago, Neppell told his friends he thought his brother might make it to the major leagues. His friends, who thought he was crazy at the time, are impressed that the 33rd round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2017 draft has come this far.

The Browns appreciate the thrilling ride they have taken with their son.

“We’re on the same journey,” said Wilson. “We’re enjoying every minute of it, even the stress.”

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Dr. John Inglis Photo from CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

Evolution doesn’t just favor species that have adaptive advantages in a changing environment. It’s also relevant for businesses, as they move into new markets, and even to scientific publishing.

A preprint scientific publishing effort that started in 2013 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with bioRxiv and expanded in 2019 with medRxiv is making changes that its creators believe positions it to grow while continuing to serve the scientific community.

BioRxiv and medRxiv are becoming an independent nonprofit, called openRxiv. The new format, which takes the preprint offerings outside the home of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, will create a product that is outside the realm of a single institution and that has transparent governance.

“We had an independent needs assessment done by a consulting company,” said Dr. John Inglis, Chair of the openRxiv Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. The governance needed to be “more community-oriented, with not just funders, but committees of working scientists.”

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has been the major funder for the preprint services, understood the benefits of transitioning to an independent non profit. They also wanted to “see a diversification of funding” from other sources and contributors, Inglis said.

Up until co-founders Inglis and Dr. Richard Sever, Chief Science and Strategy Officer at openRxiv created these two preprint services, most biological and medical scientific discoveries progressed through the slower pace of peer review publishing that helps them advance their fields while sharing their results.

Preprints, however, greatly accelerated that process by allowing researchers to display their work before peer review. While scientists might need to amend their findings by adding further studies, these preprints enable researchers to do the equivalent of presenting their research to a worldwide audience, the way scientists do at meetings.

The preprint servers are “like the biggest conference you’ve ever seen, with millions of people,” said Inglis.

A growing market 

In each month of the last quarter of 2024, bioRxiv recorded between 8 million and 9.7 million page views, with between 4.7 million and 6.8 million downloads, Inglis said. MedRxiv, meanwhile, had between 1.8 million and 1.9 million page views with a million downloads per month.

With more than 110 new articles per day last year, bioRxiv added 11 percent more original preprints last year. MedRxiv grew by 12 percent, adding 12,863 preprints last year, or about 35 new articles per day.

MedRxiv launched the year before the pandemic and quickly became the major channel of communication for pandemic-related preprints.

In 2020, when pandemic related coverage accounted for 80 percent of everything posted, medRxiv shared a total of 14,070 research pieces.

At this point, contributing authors have come from 190 countries. The most prolific contributors are the United States and the United Kingdom. With readers coming from around the world, openRxiv’s primary task is to convert some of the readers from other countries into contributors, Inglis said.

Search for a CEO

OpenRxiv creates opportunities for several executives.

Sever, who had been CSHL Press Assistant Director, will leave the lab to become the chief scientific and strategy officer for openRxiv.

At the same time, openRxiv, which has an annual budget of $3 million, has hired a recruiting firm to lead the search for its first Chief Executive Officer.

The new CEO will need to “believe in the mission, promise, potential and ambition of openRxiv,” said Inglis, as the CEO will be the “principal ambassador” for the effort.

The new leader will also need experience running a complex organization with various stakeholders and that has community engagement.

Inglis described the current employees, which includes eight full time staff, as “fantastically motivated.” He anticipates the new leader could be announced as soon as three or four months from now.

Expanded opportunities

The preprint servers has appealed to academic institutions directly for ongoing repeated support, through a membership model.

Indeed, preprint managers reached out on the 10th anniversary of bioRxiv and received backing from institutions that are listed on every bioRxiv and medRxiv preprint.

“We want to build on that, to reach out to more institutions,” said Inglis. He wants to have a “real dialog with them about what these servers mean to their faculty and how we can be useful in terms of their operations.”

Some academic institutions don’t always know which research studies are appearing on these servers.

OpenRxiv can give universities information for researchers who are posting their studies.

Additionally, these servers have been offering authors the chance to transfer their manuscripts to particular journals. At this point, openRxiv has connections with 45 publishers who oversee 380 journals.

Inglis said they charge a small fee to set that up and described this effort as the “germ” of a business model. He anticipates that openRxiv could provide more of these connections.

Professional pathways

Authors have the ability to correct or amend their work on these servers. The preprints encourage people to explain the changes, while discouraging too many corrections or changes for grammatical reasons. The record for revisions on bioRxiv or medRxiv is seven.

Inglis has heard from numerous researchers who are grateful to increase the visibility of their work and their careers in a timely way.

These non peer reviewed studies can help scientists move up the ladder, getting job offers from other institutions while they await publication in a journal.

Ongoing support

CSHL, BMJ Group and Yale School of Medicine remain key supporters of openRxiv.

“OpenRxiv is the natural evolution and progression of free and open access to scientific information,” Bruce Stillman, President and CEO of CSHL said in a statement. “BioRxiv and medRxiv have revolutionized the field of science and scientific publishing. The establishment of openRxiv will allow for continued innovation in how the latest scientific results are communicated.”

In the last few weeks, openRxiv had the first in a series of webinars they are mounting on their own behalf. They plan to offer them to institutions across the world and believe they are an effective way to engage with the world of international science.

OpenRxiv is in conversation with faculty at an institution in Japan about organizing a webinar and will reach out to institutions in India. Staff at openRxiv plan to expand the scope of this process by contacting authors in potential locations who have multiple articles on the servers.

The response from students is an “encouragement to do more,” said Inglis. “Having more people and more resources will allow us to ramp up educational development of what we’re doing.”

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A debate. Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Do you want to know the honest truth?

No, do me a favor. Lie to me. In fact, come up with something so outrageous that I might crack a broad smile and even allow a chuckle to bubble out of my mouth. 

Whenever anyone asks if you’d like them to share the honest truth, it’s often not particularly positive or flattering and is a way of giving them the opportunity to say that you asked for it, whatever the “it” happens to be.

Here’s the honest truth: you didn’t do all that well in the debate. You said your name correctly and your political party, but after that, you kind of lost the thread of what you were saying, particularly when you forgot where you were and starting picking your nose. Not a good look.

Or, perhaps, the honest truth? I don’t like Chinese food and you always ask if we can go to a Chinese restaurant. I know you like the Peking duck and the moo shu pork, which makes you think of the small funny character from Disney’s “Mulan” voiced by Eddie Murphy, but I’m not a fan and I’d prefer to go somewhere else.

People often use phrases that are a big set up or, despite being unnecessary, have become a part of the way we speak.

Take the phrase “going forward,” as in, we are going to institute a policy in which everyone has to come to the office four days a week going forward. Can we go backwards? Does the going forward part suggest now, as opposed to something that might start in two weeks, two months or two years?

Or, how about “at the end of the day?” People will ask if some change brings any value at the end of the day. How about at the end of a meal or at the end of a sentence?

Then there’s the word “literally,” as in I literally laughed my head off. No, actually, you didn’t, because you’re speaking to me and your head still seems to be attached.

I “literally” dropped my fork on the floor. Can you figuratively drop a fork on the floor? I suppose in the “Matrix” world of Keanu Reeves, where there is no fork, you might figuratively drop it on the floor as a part of some epistemological challenge, but most of us live in a world where the utensil we hold in our hands is made of matter and makes a sound when we drop it, even if we’re in a forest and no one is there to hear it.

Then there are all the extra words that delay the punchline. People regularly say, “do you want to know my all time favorite food?”

No, actually, I’d rather know the food you preferred when you were a toddler. Do you remember that one? Was it peas, carrots, or sweet potato? We gave our daughter so much sweet potato when she was young — she seemed to like it and made happy noises when she ate it — that it turned her face orange. And that was the color without any make up.

I might want to know your all time favorite movie, as opposed to your favorite movie for this year or from the 1980’s. I will reluctantly admit that the phrase in such a discussion has merit.

While we’re delving into the language of today, I would like to share a few cliches that, if you’ll pardon the cliche, sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. 

By the way, we should probably retire that because, if you want to know the honest truth, not many people are using chalkboards anymore.

Cliches, yes, cliches, like beating a dead horse, are non specific and overused.

The phrase, “it is what it is,” which is fun to say when people are complaining about the food, the service, the poor play of your favorite baseball team, or the weather, is a logical shrug.

We might as well write, or say, A is A, eh? It’s a tautology. Of course, it is what it is. Maybe we should change it to, “it isn’t what it isn’t,” or, perhaps, “it can’t be what it couldn’t be.”

So, if you want to know the honest truth at the end of the day, I prefer to avoid words going forward that act like fog in front of my all time favorite painting, which, after all, is what it is.

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Vincent Iacono (second from left) with research and PhD. students in 1982. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine

By Daniel Dunaief

When Dr. Vincent Iacono first starting teaching at the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, he was contemporaries with the students.

That was back in 1974, when Gerald Ford was president, when Post-It Notes were invented and when supermarkets first started scanning bar codes.

A great deal has changed since then. One of the constants over the next half century has been Iacono, who has taught every one of the students who has graduated from the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine.

“When I started out, the students and I were about the same age,” said Iacono. “Now, I’m like a grandparent to some of the students.”

From left, Vincent Iacono, Jeanne Garant, Port Jefferson Mayor from 1999 to 2005 and Phil Garant, Dean of the School of Dental Medicine from 1979 to 1992. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine.

Iacono, who is the chair of Periodontics and Endodontics and the Director of Postdoctoral Education at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, has served in a host of roles at the university as well as in professional societies, gathering appreciative admirers along the way and serving as a skilled local doctor, a leader and role model.

“It’s a remarkable achievement for someone to have touched so many lives as a part of their career,” said Dr. Ira Lamster, a consultant for Santa Fe Group, a think tank dedicated to oral health. Lamster was in the first class to graduate from the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine in 1977 and served as Dean of the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.

“I’m proud to have been taught by him,” said Dr. Wayne Aldredge, who works in private practice in Holmdel, New Jersey. Aldredge completed his postdoctoral program at Stony Brook in 1999. Aldredge described Iacono as a “great mentor” and an “encyclopedia of all things related to periodontics and dental implants.”

Indeed, Aldredge suggested that Iacono could “sit down tomorrow and write a paper overnight that would take me three weeks to get done.”

A long-time contributor to education at the dental school, Iacono has earned numerous honors, has served as a clinician and has held a host of leadership positions for national dental groups.

He led the American Academy of Periondotology as president, and was a past Periodontics Commissioner for the Commission on Dental Accreditation. He was also the chair of the Academy of Osseointegration.

Iacono has won numerous awards, including the Isadore Hirschfeld Award and Irwin Scopp Award from the Northeastern Society of Periodontists and the Oral Research Award and Fellowship from the Academy of Osseoointegration. He earned the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he graduated with his DMD in 1972 and earned his Certificate of Periodontology and Oral Medicine in 1974.

“It’s the selfless side of what you do outside school and teaching where he’s had a huge contribution,” said Aldredge.

Building from the beginning

Growing up in Brooklyn and with family who lived in the tri-state area, Iacono was pleased with the opportunity to join Stony Brook after graduating from Harvard.

He felt he was getting in on the “ground floor” and that the early years were an exciting time to build up the school.

“The opportunities continued to grow as I grew in age,” said Iacono.

The Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine is a highly competitive program.

In the class of 2028, the dental school had 1,484 applicants for 46 available spots. The periodontics residency program also had 86 applicants for three spots.

“They want to come here because our dental school’s reputation is phenomenal” and where students get considerable one-on-one interaction with educators, Iacono said.

A defining interaction

When Iacono first started teaching, he was also more involved in research.

Indeed, Dr. Steve Zove, Director of Predoctoral Periodontics at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, recalls walking into Rockland Hall before the start of the dental program. He was searching for a summer research position. When he introduced himself in the building, the first person he saw directed him to Iacono’s lab, where Iacono did microbiological and immunology research.

“Dr. Iacono is the reason I went into periodontics,” said Zove, who graduated from Stony Brok Dental School in 1983. The two are close friends, with Zove’s children referring to Iacono as “uncle.”

Among many other superlatives, Zove called Iacono one of the”best lecturers he’s ever come across.”

Iacono effectively gets students involved in lectures, sharing anecdotal information while bringing the class together, Zove said.

Educational changes

Indeed, education has changed considerably over the years.

In the earlier days, Iacono used a blackboard and chalk. Now, students can download lectures and presentations from the cloud and take exams electronically.

Iacono appreciates the opportunity to learn from and tap into the expertise of residents, who help him stay up-to-date technologically.

The change in student demographics means that he has sometimes struggled to find a common vocabulary outside the world of dentistry to communicate.

“If I’m lecturing on bone morphology and I’m describing the shape and pattern of bone resorption around a tooth” and he says the bone resorption is in the shape of a moat, some of his students “don’t know what the word ‘moat’ means. I have to explain a castle with a moat and alligators swimming around.”

He has to express terminology in a way that the class as a whole can understand.

Dental advancements

Iacono has seen numerous changes in periodontics, implant dentistry and general dentistry.

Zove recalled that Iacono was one of the first people to go to Sweden in the 1980’s to study dental implants with the late Per-Ingvar Brånemark, who is considered a pioneer in the field.

Dentists have also enhanced their use of technology to regenerate bone lost to disease and to enhance the esthetic outcomes of surgery.

The use of biologics has already increased exponentially in using growth factors and looking at chemical mediators.

Periodontists also classify the stages of gum disease into one, two and three, a system they didn’t have years ago.

Keeping on

Iacono has enjoyed his work and plans to continue with his teaching and clinical efforts.

He knows it’ll be time to consider retiring when residents don’t come to him for advice in their academic or clinical work.

“If I see that I’m not being asked by my colleagues, by residents for assistance, by students to teach, to provide clinical care, to administrators in developing educational tools to comply with the standards, then I’ll know it’s time to fade away,” he said.

After Iacono has spent more than 50 years and plenty of rinse-and-spit moments at Stony Brook, his colleagues say his help and views remain in high demand.

“He’s one of the most respected individuals within our profession,” said Zove. “He’s a go-to person” in numerous roles, including the accreditation process.

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Shelley Germana. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Performance on tests, essays and presentations can often reflect as much, if not more, about what’s going on with a student outside the classroom as it does during a course.

A sociologist by training who earned her PhD from Rutgers, Shelley Germana, Senior Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stony Brook University, recognized the impact and importance of health, family life, and financial strains when she taught a class of conditionally admitted students to Rutgers University.

“It’s the first time I realized [student performance] was largely about the non-academic stuff,” said Germana. “I was teaching as if it was just about academics, give them theory, give them concepts, break down the information for them. It wasn’t about that.”

Instead, mental health and social challenges, among others, affected how well they did in class.

That realization changed her career path from a plan to become an educator into one in which she dedicates herself to student success.

Indeed, fast forward to today, and Germana helped create the Summer Academic Resilience Program Stony Brook for students in 2024 who were struggling academically after their first year.

The five credit summer course, which was offered as part of a pilot program for 30 students, was given at no cost to the students. While living on campus and having access to dining facilities, the students not only received classroom support, but also had wrap around services.

This includes accessibility support, mental health aid, and employment. Students took a three-credit general education course and a two-credit academic success course for five weeks.

The students in this course had grade point averages that were close to or below 2.0, which could have led to a suspension.

The effort on the part of the students and the school paid dividends, with four students still below 2.0 in the fall and the remainder above that threshold. At the same time, 11 students earned a grade point average above a 3.0 this past fall.

“What this demonstrates is that this degree of structured, holistic support can be really transformative,” said Germana.

The university is preparing for the 2025 summer session and is hoping to increase the number of student participants to 50.

Embracing a bigger role

Provost Carl Lejuez applauded the work Germana has done with this pilot program and her overall efforts on behalf of student success.

Germana “was in the number two role for undergraduate education for many years and everyone was really aware of how hard she worked and how talented and strategic and student focused she was,” said Lejuez. “I was really excited about the possibility of her being in that role and it has worked out in every way I thought it would.”

Indeed, in academic year 2024-2025, Stony Brook had record enrollment, while the university has also managed to increase student retention to around 90 percent.

“That’s because of the holistic approach she takes,” said Lejuez.

Germana credits a number of other parts of the university for the increasing percentage of students who return for their second year of classes.

“Everybody has a hand in student success and retention, from student affairs to faculty,” said Germana. “It’s all part of the package.”

Germana added that student advisors have had a positive influence on success as well.

In a recent Boyer Commission report that looks ahead to 2030, the commission has specific recommendations for advising, including lowering case loads. This enables advisors to meet regularly with students.

The commission also urges advisors to move beyond academic support and into areas like the transition from high school to college.

“The recommended case loads were lower than what we had at Stony Brook,” said Germana. The administration, from the president to Lejuez supported the university’s investments in academic advisors.

Germana and Vice President for Student Affairs Rich Gatteau run a working group that meet regularly to discuss holistic success and have advocated for greater support for advisors.

Two years ago, Stony Brook invested about a million dollars in adding academic advisors.

The university plans to make a similar type of investment again this year.

“What I love about [Germana] is that she understands traditions and best practices and is always working with people to be innovative and think about new ways to do it.”

Flipping the script

Germana suggested that institutions of higher learning have sometimes approached struggling students by suggesting they have a learning deficit.

While she does not dismiss the fact that some students have preparation issues, she prefers to focus on the assets they bring to the classroom, despite the challenges they face in their lives.

“We should not be underestimating what the students bring” to the classroom, Germana said.

“They are clearly capable or they would not have been admitted,” said Germana.

Like some students at Stony Brook, Germana, who is a native of southern New Jersey, is the first member of her family to attend college.

Higher education is a “transformative experience” that has enriched her life.

She added that the college experience and the opportunities that follow are empowering. 

Stony Brook can and should be a “place where they’re going to grow and transform and become citizens of the world,” Germana added.

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