Late Triassic dinosaur tracks from Penarth, south Wales

Evidence of Late Triassic large tetrapods from the UK is rare. Here, we describe a track-bearing surface located on the shoreline near Penarth, south Wales, United Kingdom. The total exposed surface is c. 50 m long and c. 2 m wide, and is split into northern and southern sections by a small fault. We interpret these impressions as tracks, rather than abiogenic sedimentary structures, because of the possession of marked displacement rims and their relationship to each other with regularly spaced impressions forming putative trackways. The impressions are large (up to c. 50 cm in length), but poorly preserved, and retain little information about track-maker anatomy. We discuss alternative, plausible, abiotic mechanisms that might have been responsible for the formation of these features, but reject them in favour of these impressions being tetrapod tracks. We propose that the site is an additional occurrence of the ichnotaxon Eosauropus, representing a sauropodomorph trackmaker, thereby adding a useful new datum to their sparse Late Triassic record in the UK. We also used historical photogrammetry to digitally map the extent of site erosion during 2009–2020. More than 1 m of the surface exposure has been lost over this 11-year period, and the few tracks present in both models show significant smoothing, breakage and loss of detail. These tracks are an important datapoint for Late Triassic palaeontology in the UK, even if they cannot be confidently assigned to a specific trackmaker. The documented loss of the bedding surface highlights the transient and vulnerable nature of our fossil resources, particularly in coastal settings, and the need to gather data as quickly and effectively as possible.

Study on Fire Resistance of Floor Structures in High-speed Train

According to the standard EN 45545, fire resistant tests of floor structures in high-speed train were carried out. Two typical floor structures which were placed in the passenger train were tested. Integrity and insulation are main performance criteria to evaluate fire resistance of floor structures. The furnace temperature is in accordance with the requirements in the standard ISO 834. The surface temperature and deflection were recorded with time. Glass wool and aluminium corrugated sandwich structure in two structures were burned through. The experiments were terminated at 30 minutes and 31 minutes respectively for the two structures. A large amount of smoke and the sound of cracking of the exposed surface of the test piece were produced, although the unexposed surface of test pieces did not reach the failure condition.

Solar Hybrid System Component Study in Low Concentrated Sunlight

The solar energy is increasingly used as a renewable energy source. Raising the efficiency of energy conversion from solar to useful energy (electric and thermal) represents an important research direction in the renewable energy domain. Using hybrid systems for electric and thermal energy cogeneration can be a solution. In this study, a hybrid system (HS) is designed, manufactured, implemented, and experimentally tested under concentrated sunlight with a concentration ratio of 25 suns, obtained using a Fresnel lens as a sunlight concentrator. The HS comprises of four concentrated photovoltaic cells (CPVs), four thermoelectric generators (TEGs), and a solar thermal collector (STC). The HS is studied in three configurations of the exposed surface: only the CPV active area, the CPV active area with ceramic support, and the CPV active area with ceramic support covered with graphite sheet. Results reveal that the efficiency of each system component is affected by the exposed surface. If the efficiencies of the CPVs decrease from 32.3% to 30.8% from the first configuration to the last one, the efficiencies of TEGs and STC increase from 0.12% to 0.44 and from 26.3% to 52.0%, respectively. Increasing the concentration ratio from 25 to 33 suns, the power of the CPVs increases with almost 31%, but the efficiency decreases slightly, instead the efficiencies of the TEGs and STC increase.

Correction: Rajasekharan, S., et al. Effect of Exposed Surface Area, Volume and Environmental pH on the Calcium Ion Release of Three Commercially Available Tricalcium Silicate Based Dental Cements. Materials 2018, 11, 123

The authors wish to make the following correction to the paper [...]

Spinel Zn3V3O8 nanosheets via one - step hydrothermal synthesis with peroxidase-like activity for high-sensitive glucose colorimetric detection in synthetic perspiration

Due to the specific spinel structure, ternary oxide with multi-catalytic sites at high-active exposed surface is recommended to an alternative bio-catalyst. Spinel zinc vanadate with two- dimentional nanosheets (Zn3V3O8 NSs)...