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A civic movement instigated by Hurricane Katrina has led to increased public participation in civic issues through their efforts at rebuilding New Orleans. Average Americans are questioning the inept role of the government in these efforts, which might see a change in their political attitudes in the long run.

The rare earth elements (REEs) such as neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium were successfully recovered from commercial NdFeB magnets and industrial scrap magnets via membrane assisted solvent extraction (MSX). A hollow fiber membrane system was evaluated to extract REEs in a single step with the feed and strip solutions circulating continuously through the MSX system. The effects of several experimental variables on REE extraction such as flow rate, concentration of REEs in the feed solution, membrane configuration, and composition of acids were investigated with the MSX system. A multimembrane module configuration with REEs dissolved in aqueous nitric acid solutions showed high selectivity for REE extraction with no coextraction of non-REEs, whereas the use of aqueous hydrochloric acid solution resulted in coextraction of non-REEs due to the formation of chloroanions of non-REEs. The REE oxides were recovered from the strip solution through precipitation, drying, and annealing steps. The resulting REE oxides were characterized with XRD, SEM-EDX, and ICP-OES, demonstrating that the membrane assisted solvent extraction is capable of selectively recovering pure REEs from the industrial scrap magnets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading books is good, rereading good books is [...]

Presents a study which investigated the diet of the Prairie Rattlesnake Crotalus viridis viridis in a multiple land use area in southeastern Alberta by examining the gut contents of road-killed individuals and the composition of scats recovered from sequestered individuals. Materials and methods used; Results of the study; Discussion.