Dept. Astronomy Home Page Dr. Howard L. Cohen Associate Professor Emeritus DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY College of Liberal Arts & Sciences  •   University of Florida Gainesville  •   Alachua County  •   Florida H.L. Cohen's Home Page

Ye Stars! Which are the poetry of heaven – Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Other Miscellaneous Info ♦ The Wheatley School I was a member of the first high school graduating class (1958) of this small public school on the north shore of Long Island in Old Westbury, NY. Material here was prepared for our 50th high school reunion (2008). So, some links or information may not be current. Today the school regards itself as an exceptional school with its student body predominantly college bound. (The March 30, 1998 issue of Newsweek ranked the Wheatley School as No. 1 in its list of the top 100 US Public High Schools.) ♦ ADPKD Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is an inherited systemic disorder that predominantly affects the kidneys and may affect other organs as the liver, pancreas, brain, and arterial blood vessels. Most people have never heard of this disease yet it is one of the most common life-threatening genetic diseases. The frequency of ADPKD outranks most of the more commonly known genetic diseases as Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia, duchenne muscular dystrophy and haemophilia. PKD affects an estimated 1 in 500 people. Parents with ADPKD have a 50 percent chance of passing the disease on to each of their children. There is no cure. My maternal grandfather, mother, fraternal twin all died at an early age from complications of this disease. My brother's niece unfortunately has this disease. However, she had a successful kidney transplant in January 1913 with a kidney donated by her sister. (I donated a kidney to my brother in 1988.) This link relates to material I originally posted in 2006 in memory of my brother Return to Home Page Last Updated 2013 June 19