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One of the factors that affects the safety of flight operations is to maintain the airport infrastructure in an appropriate condition, due to importance of proper infrastructure management, including funds and human resources management in particular. Currently applicable methods for determination of surface condition are mainly based on visual assessment of surface deterioration. An innovative approach to assessing the cement concrete airport pavement's technical condition based on the APCI (Airfield Pavement Condition Index) is presented in the article. The method of APCI index determination is based not only on the visual assessment of the airfield pavement's surface condition and the calculation of its deterioration, but also includes parameter of load capacity, evenness, roughness and tensile strength of the surface layer. The presented method can be used as a tool for forecasting the technical condition of cement concrete airfield pavements in the context of planning funds for future maintenance purposes. The impact of considering individual model parameters on the value of APCI index, basing on the results of field tests carried out as part of military airports inspections was presented.

Topological nodal-line semimetals represent a unique class of materials with intriguing electronic structures and rich of symmetries, hosting electronic states with nontrivial topological properties. Among these, ZrAs\\(_2\\) stands out, characterized by its nodal lines in a momentum space, governed by nonsymmorphic symmetries. This study integrates angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to explore the electronic states of ZrAs\\(_2\\). Our study provides experimental evidence of nonsymmorphic symmetry-protected band crossing and nodal lines in ZrAs\\(_2\\). In ARPES scans, we observed a distinctive surface and bulk states at different photon energies associated with nodal lines. Our results, supported by calculations based on DFT, unveil such impervious band crossing anchored at specific points in the Brillouin zone, with particular emphasis on the S point. Surface bands and bulk states near the crossing are elucidated through slab calculations, corroborating experimental findings. These findings enhance our understanding of the electronic structure of ZrAs\\(_2\\).

We have performed electron transport and ARPES measurements on single crystals of transition metal dipnictide TaAs2 cleaved along the (\\(\\overline{2}\\) 0 1) surface which has the lowest cleavage energy. A Fourier transform of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations shows four different peaks whose angular dependence was studied with respect to the angle between the magnetic field and the [\\(\\overline{2}\\) 0 1] direction. The results indicate the elliptical shape of the Fermi surface cross-sections. Additionally, a mobility spectrum analysis was carried out, which also reveals at least four types of carriers contributing to the conductance (two kinds of electrons and two kinds of holes). ARPES spectra were taken on freshly cleaved (\\(\\overline{2}\\) 0 1) surface and it was found that bulk states pockets at the constant energy surface are elliptical, which confirms the magnetotransport angle dependent studies. First-principles calculations support the interpretation of the experimental results. The theoretical calculations better reproduce the ARPES data if the theoretical Fermi level is increased, which is due to a small n-doping of the samples. This shifts the Fermi level closer to the Dirac point, allowing to investigate the physics of the Dirac and Weyl points, making this compound a platform for the investigation of the Dirac and Weyl points in three-dimensional materials.

The possibility of inducing superconductivity in type-I Weyl semimetal through coupling its surface to a superconductor was investigated. A single crystal of NbP, grown by chemical vapor transport method, was carefully characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM, ARPES techniques and by electron transport measurements. The mobility spectrum of the carriers was determined. For the studies of interface transmission, the (001) surface of the crystal was covered by several hundred nm thick metallic layers of either Pb, or Nb, or In. DC current-voltage characteristics and AC differential conductance through the interfaces as a function of the DC bias were investigated. When the metals become superconducting, all three types of junctions show conductance increase, pointing out the Andreev reflection as a prevalent contribution to the subgap conductance. In the case of Pb-NbP and Nb-NbP junctions, the effect is satisfactorily described by modified Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk model. The absolute value of the conductance is much smaller than that for the bulk crystal, indicating that the transmission occurs through only a small part of the contact area. An opposite situation occurs in In-NbP junction, where the conductance at the peak reaches the bulk value indicating that almost whole contact area is transmitting and, additionally, a superconducting proximity phase is formed in the material. We interpret this as a result of indium diffusion into NbP, where the metal atoms penetrate the surface barrier and form very transparent superconductor-Weyl semimetal contact inside. However, further diffusion occurring already at room temperature leads to degradation of the effect, so it is observed only in the pristine structures. Despite of this, our observation directly demonstrates possibility of inducing superconductivity in a type-I Weyl semimetal.

Visceral aneurysms are potentially life-threatening vascular lesions. Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) pseudoaneurysms are a rare but well-recognized complication of chronic pancreatitis. Open surgical repair of such an aneurysm, especially in patients after previous surgical treatment, might be dangerous and risky. Stent graft implantation makes SMA pseudoaneurysm exclusion possible and therefore avoids a major abdominal operation. Percutaneous direct thrombin injection is also one of the methods of treating aneurysms in this area. We report a first case of percutaneous ultrasound-guided thrombin injection to complete SMA pseudoaneurysm exclusion after an unsuccessful endograft placement. Six-month follow-up did not demonstrate any signs of aneurysm recurrence.

The electrical and thermo-electrical transport effects of the TaAs\\(_2\\) semimetal were measured in a magnetic field applied along [-2 0 1] direction. The resulting field dependences of the resistivity as well as the Hall, Seebeck and Nernst coefficient below T ~ 100 K can be satisfactory described within the two-band model consisting of the electron and hole pockets. At low temperature all the measured effects exhibit significant contribution from quantum oscillations. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the oscillatory Nernst signal shows two fundamental frequencies, Fa = 105 T and Fb = 221 T, and the second harmonic of the latter (F2b = 442 T). The ratio between FFT amplitudes of Fb and F2b changes with temperature in an unusual way, indicating that we observe the spin-zero effect caused by temperature change. This is likely related to substantial temperature dependence of the Lande g-factor, which in turn can result from non-parabolic energy dispersion or temperature evolution of the spin-orbit coupling.

The authors report an intravascular treatment in the case of posttraumatic pseudoaneurysm of a stenotic internal carotid artery, using a stent graft.

Mathematical morphology is a powerful methodology for the processing and analysis of geometric structure in signals and images. This book contains the proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Mathematical Morphology and its Applications to Image and Signal Processing, held June 26-28, 2000, at Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, California. It provides a broad sampling of theoretical and practical developments of mathematical morphology and its applications to image and signal processing. Areas covered include: decomposition of structuring functions and morphological operators, morphological discretization, filtering, connectivity and connected operators, morphological shape analysis and interpolation, texture analysis, morphological segmentation, morphological multiresolution techniques and scale-spaces, and morphological algorithms and applications.

The surface and electronic structure of MOCVD-grown layers of Ga(0.92)In(0.08)N have been investigated by means of photoemission. An additional feature at the valence band edge, which can be ascribed to the presence of In in the layer, has been revealed. A clean (0001)-(1x1) surface was prepared by argon ion sputtering and annealing. Stability of chemical composition of the investigated surface subjected to similar ion etching was proven by means of X-ray photoemission spectroscopy.