Richard D

The UDHR articulates in its 30 articles every human being s basic, fundamental rights and freedoms and affirms those rights as universal and unalienable The UDHR directly led to the development of ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a profit opportunity for capitalists, but it presents a crucial choice for the working class. Because the working class is the majority, that crucial choice confronts society as a whole. It is the same profit opportunity/social choice that was presented by the introduction of robotics, computers, and indeed by most technological advances throughout capitalism’s history. In capitalism, employers decide when, where, and how to install new technologies; employees do not. Employers’ decisions are driven chiefly by whether and how new technologies affect their profits.

Prince George's County, DMV elected officials, and State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy were well represented at the 52nd Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference.

Congressman Ivey endorses Alsobrooks for Senate as the race heats up. Jawando adds endorsements, Trone launches new ads.

Many Islamic countries have had difficulty with the principle of changing one s religion, but almost every Islamic country has signed the Universal Declaration, thus pledging themselves to this ...

The bigger question I was asked and I get some version of this question with some regularity was There are still problems in the Convention, and many things are not the way I envisioned they would be ...

The condo management said the town hall was not taped because it was called a town hall. The meeting/town hall was live and video conferenced.

Soil microbial communities play a pivotal role in regulating ecosystem functioning. But they are increasingly being shaped by human-induced environmental change, including intense “pulse” perturbations, such as droughts, which are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change. While it is known that soil microbial communities are sensitive to such perturbations and that effects can be long-lasting, it remains untested whether there is a threshold in the intensity and frequency of perturbations that can trigger abrupt and persistent transitions in the taxonomic and functional characteristics of soil microbial communities. Here we demonstrate experimentally that intense pulses of drought equivalent to a 30-year drought event (<15% WHC) induce a major shift in the soil microbial community characterised by significantly altered bacterial and fungal community structures of reduced complexity and functionality. Moreover, the characteristics of this transformed microbial community persisted after returning soil to its previous moisture status. As a result, we found that drought had a strong legacy effect on bacterial community function, inducing an enhanced growth rate following subsequent drought. Abrupt transitions are widely documented in aquatic and terrestrial plant communities in response to human-induced perturbations. Our findings demonstrate that such transitions also occur in soil microbial communities in response to high intensity pulse perturbations, with potentially deleterious consequences for soil health.

Those who claim a moral equivalency between the Hamas terrorists and the Israeli government betray either a lack of integrity or a seriously demagnetized moral compass

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial for green energy applications due to their unique properties, but their extraction poses sustainability challenges because the global supply of REEs is concentrated in a few countries, particularly China, which produces 70% of the world’s REEs. To address this, the study investigated TK221, a modified extraction chromatographic resin featuring diglycolamide (DGA) and carbamoyl methyl phosphine oxide (CMPO), as a promising adsorbent for REE recovery. The elemental composition and functional groups of DGA and CMPO on the polystyrene-divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) support of TK221 were confirmed using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adsorption kinetics of neodymium (Nd), yttrium (Y), cerium (Ce), and erbium (Er) followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm, indicating monolayer chemisorption. Furthermore, iron (Fe) adsorption reached apparent equilibrium after 360 min, with consistent Fe adsorption observed at both 360 min and 1440 min. The inclusion of Fe in the study is due to its common presence as an impurity in most REE leachate solutions. The Fe adsorption isotherm results are better fitted with the Langmuir isotherm, implying chemisorption. Maximum adsorption capacities (qmax) of the resin were determined as follows: Nd (45.3 mg/g), Ce (43.1 mg/g), Er (35.1 mg/g), Y (15.6 mg/g), and Fe (12.3 mg/g). ATR-FTIR analysis after adsorption suggested that both C=O and P=O bands shifted from 1679 cm−1 to 1618 cm−1 and 1107 cm−1 to 1142 cm−1 for Y, and from 1679 cm−1 to 1607 cm−1 and 1107 cm−1 to 1135 cm−1 for Ce, implying possible coordination with REEs. These results suggest that TK221 has a huge potential as an alternative adsorbent for REE recovery, thus contributing to sustainable REE supply diversification.