First Cenomanian dinosaur from Central Europe [Czech Republic]

We describe the first dinosaur skeletal remains found in the Czech Republic, consisting of one complete femur and indeterminable bone fragments. They were recovered from the upper Cenomanian near−shore marine sediments deposited on the slopes of an ancient archipelago, several kilometres north of the larger Rhenish−Bohemian Island that was situated in what is now the middle of Europe. Sediments yielding dinosaur remains are of late Cenomanian age, Inoceramus pictus–I. pictus bohemicusinoceramid zone of the local lithostratigraphic unit, the Peruc−Korycany Formation. These are the first uncontested dinosaurian fossils reported from this formation and also the first Cenomanian dinosaur record in Central Europe. They document a small ornithopod belonging to an iguanodontid species comparable with similar Late Cretaceous European forms. The herbivorous dinosaur lived among a vegetation transitional between salt marsh flora, with abundant halophytic conifer Frenelopsis alata; and an alluvial plain assemblage dominated by lauroid angiosperms

Salt and Water Uptake in Nanoconfinement under Applied Electric Field: An Open Ensemble Monte Carlo Study

Permeation of electrolytes in nanoporous materials underlies many applications in energy and materials technologies. Wetting of apolar nanopores can be enhanced by electric !eld, attracting water and ions from unperturbed electrolyte bath. We study absorption of water and NaCl in the pores by Expanded Ensemble Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulation, which implements particle insertions and deletions through incremental changes in particles’ coupling with the system. We determine the uptake of water and ions in the pores, and concomitant changes in pore thermodynamics, as functions of !eld strength in the pore and salinity in the external bath. Pressure increase and reduction of wetting free energy, !, in the pore intensify near-quadratically with the !eld. Surprisingly, the in uence of bulk salinity on ! can change qualitatively with pore width and !eld strength. Conforming to Gibbs adsorption isotherm, narrow pores with salt molality below that of the bath experience an increase in ! with rising bulk salinity. The !eld can change salt depletion to excess and consequently reverse the salinity dependence of wetting free energy from increasing to declining function of bulk molality. Field polarity continues to play a role, leading to asymmetric wettability at opposing walls as we previously observed in the absence of ions