Exhuming the Regionalist Body

This chapter recounts the author's quest to find the memorial stone of the man who is arguably the Midwest's most forgotten regionalist poet: Jay Sigmund. As of his untimely passing in 1937 at the age of fifty-one, Jay Sigmund had authored at least six volumes of poetry and four books of short fiction, an output made doubly impressive by the demands of his day job as an insurance executive in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today, Jay Sigmund's Waubeek amounts to a ghost of a town, an unincorporated huddle of weathered buildings hugging the south bank of the Wapsipinicon River. Even internet searches come back mostly empty save for the place's coordinates, roads, and time zone. And yet Sigmund grew up there, and later made a summer home in Waubeek in the midst of a successful insurance career. The author sought out the Sigmund memorial stone hard beside the local watering hole in part because the author made it a personal goal to exhume and resurrect the forgotten literary voices of the native Midwest.

Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation products (SCFP) and subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) on feed intake, fermentation and nutrient digestibilities in lactating dairy cows

Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation products (SCFP) and subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) on rumen and hindgut fermentation, feed intake, and total tract nutrient digestibilities were determined in 32 lactating Holstein cows between wk 4 to wk 9 of lactation. Treatments included Control, 14 g/d Diamond V Original XPC™ (SCFPa, Diamond V, Cedar Rapids, IA), 19 g/d NutriTek® (SCFPb-1X, Diamond V), and 38 g/d NutriTek® (SCFPb-2X). During wk 5 and wk 8, SARA challenges were conducted by switching from a 18.6 to a 27.9 % DM starch diet. This reduced the rumen and feces pH. The durations of the rumen pH below 5.6 during these challenges averaged 175.0, 233.8, 246.9, and 79.3 min/d for the Control, SCFPa, SCFPb-1X and SCFPb-2X treatments, respectively. Hence, SARA was not induced under the SCFPb-2X treatment. The feces pH during the SARA challenges was lowest during SCFPb-2X, suggesting this treatment shifted fermentation from the rumen to the hindgut. The SARA challenges reduced the total tract digestibility of DM, NDF (NDFd), and P, but tended to increase that of starch. The SCFPb-2X treatment increased the NDFd from 52.7 to 61.8 % (P < 0.05). The SCFPb-2X treatment attenuated impacts of SARA.

COVID-19 Case Series at UnityPoint Health St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA

A retrospective, descriptive study of all patients tested for SARS-CoV2 on admission for illness to a community hospital in Iowa from 3/21/20 thru 6/14/20 consisted of evaluation as to demographics, presentation and hospital course. Ninety-one patients were SARS-CoV2 PCR+ with 63% being male and a median age of 60. Cardiovascular disease was a significant comorbidity in the PCR+ group. Fever, cough, dyspnea, nausea, emesis, diarrhea, headache and myalgias were significantly more common in that group, as was an elevated CRP, LDH, serum ferritin and transaminases. Overall survival of the COVID-19 patients was 88%, 77% in the critically ill, 59% of those mechanically ventilated and 33% of those requiring new dialysis. Survival was 93% in those not receiving any antivirals. Survival of those treated with hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin was 92%, compared to 86% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. The latter two groups were significantly more ill than the untreated group. A transition from an early intubation strategy to aggressive utilization of high flow nasal cannula and noninvasive ventilation(i.e BiPAP) was successful in freeing up ICU resources.

Chloride Dynamics in Urban Streams: An Eastern Iowa Case Study

A series of urban stream and snowmelt samples collected 2017-2018 provide a localized understanding of seasonal chloride concentrations in urban streams and establishes baseline knowledge of conditions in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Iowa. Results indicate both variability in chloride concentrations based on location as well as conditions under which water was sampled.