Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Flame Retardants on Combustion of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Epoxy Resin

For the first time, next to the flammability tests (LOI, UL-94 HB, VBB, TGA), experimental tests and computer simulation have been conducted on the flame spread and combustion of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resins (GFRER) with 6% graphene and 6% DDM-DOPO flame-retardant additives. The downward rates of flame spread (ROS) in opposed flow with oxidizer and the upward ROS along GFRER composites have been first measured as well as the distribution of temperature over the combustion surface of the composites with flame-retardant additives and without them. The LOI and UL-94 HB tests showed a reduction in the flammability of GFRER when flame retardants were added and predicted a higher effectiveness of DDM-DOPO compared to graphene. Adding DDM-DOPO resulted in increasing the rate of formation of the volatile pyrolysis products and their yield, indicating, together with the other data obtained, the gas phase mechanism of the flame retardant’s action. Adding graphene resulted in an increase in the soot release on the burning surface and an increase in the amount of non-volatile pyrolysis products on the burning surface, reducing the amount of fuel that participated in the oxidation reactions in the gas phase. The developed numerical combustion model for GFRER with a DDM-DOPO additive, based on the action of DDM-DOPO as a flame retardant acting in the gas phase, satisfactorily predicts the effect of this flame retardant on the reduction in downward ROS over GFRER for 45–50% oxygen concentrations. The developed model for GFRER with graphene additive, based on a reduction in the amount of fuel and increase in the amount of incombustible volatile pyrolysis products when graphene is added, predicts with good accuracy downward ROS over GFRER depending on oxygen concentration.
How Reliable Are Gene Expression-Based and Immunohistochemical Biomarkers Assessed on a Core-Needle Biopsy? A Study of Paired Core-Needle Biopsies and Surgical Specimens in Early Breast Cancer

Simple Summary This study aims to assess the reliability of using a core-needle biopsy (CNB) for preoperative tumor characterization using gene expression analysis and conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis for clinical biomarkers in early breast cancer. Obtaining a preoperative CNB is a standard procedure in the evaluation of a primary breast cancer, with previous studies suggesting that it can be considered trustworthy to perform immunohistochemical analysis on CNB samples. However, little research has been carried out to evaluate whether gene expression-based biomarker assessment can be carried out reliably on the preoperative CNB. This information is important as genomic profiling is gaining ever-increasing importance in the treatment of early breast cancer. Abstract In early breast cancer, a preoperative core-needle biopsy (CNB) is vital to confirm the malignancy of suspected lesions and for assessing the expression of treatment predictive and prognostic biomarkers in the tumor to choose the optimal treatments, emphasizing the importance of obtaining reliable results when biomarker status is assessed on a CNB specimen. This study aims to determine the concordance between biomarker status assessed as part of clinical workup on a CNB compared to a medically untreated surgical specimen. Paired CNB and surgical specimens from 259 patients that were part of the SCAN-B cohort were studied. The concordance between immunohistochemical (IHC) and gene expression (GEX) based biomarker status was investigated. Biomarkers of interest included estrogen receptor (ER; specifically, the alpha variant), progesterone receptor (PgR), Ki67, HER2, and tumor molecular subtype. In general, moderate to very good correlation in biomarker status between the paired CNB and surgical specimens was observed for both IHC assessment (83–99% agreement, kappa range 0.474–0.917) and GEX assessment (70–97% agreement, kappa range 0.552–0.800), respectively. However, using IHC, 52% of cases with low Ki67 status in the CNB shifted to high Ki67 status in the surgical specimen (McNemar’s p = 0.011). Similarly, when using GEX, a significant shift from negative to positive ER (47%) and from low to high Ki67 (16%) was observed between the CNB and surgical specimen (McNemar’s p = 0.027 and p = 0.002 respectively). When comparing biomarker status between different techniques (IHC vs. GEX) performed on either CNBs or surgical specimens, the agreement in ER, PgR, and HER2 status was generally over 80% in both CNBs and surgical specimens (kappa range 0.395–0.708), but Ki67 and tumor molecular subtype showed lower concordance levels between IHC and GEX (48–62% agreement, kappa range 0.152–0.398). These results suggest that both the techniques used for collecting tissue samples and analyzing biomarker status have the potential to affect the results of biomarker assessment, potentially also impacting treatment decisions and patient survival outcomes.
An Analysis of the Flouting of Conversational Maxims by Grice on ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ Short Story

This study aimed to analyze the use of flouted conversational maxims found in “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” short story by Ernest Hemingway. This is qualitative research with content analysis research design. The results of the study reveal two main findings. First, from the total data of 50, 27 (54%) data contain the flouted conversational maxims. The highest frequency of flouting is found in the maxim of relevance in which there are 11 data (40.74%) and 4 data (14.81%) represent the lowest frequency which is the flouting of the maxim of manner. The number of flouting in the maxim of quantity and quality is 7 (25.93%) and 5 (18.52%) respectively. Second, those maxims are flouted for certain reasons such as avoiding the speaker to be direct and impolite when talking about darkness and loneliness, being old and nothingness as the themes of the short story. By flouting the maxim of quality, the speaker tries to keep a secret. The speaker avoids responding to negative opinions or showing his disagreement by flouting the maxim of quantity. The speaker’s flouting on the maxim of quality is done to maintain the conversation and to keep a secret the speaker the maxim of manner is flouted. Thus, flouting the conversational maxims is sometimes done by the interlocutors which does not necessarily mean that they do not want to maintain the conversation, yet it is another way to avoid the conversation breakdowns. Based on the result of the research, the study implies that it is important for both interlocutors to have common belief that successful communication requires them to cooperate and maintain the communication either by adhering the conversational maxims or even flouting the maxims due to certain reasons
The role of teachers and parents to improve children’s motivational learning in pandemic situation

This study analyzed the teachers' and parents' synergy in motivating children to take online learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The research instrument consisted of 13 survey questions distributed via Google Form and succeeded in capturing 139 samples of parents of preschool and elementary school students spread across 17 provinces in Indonesia. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to analyze the instrument's validity and test hypotheses. The factor analysis results showed that the 13 instruments used showed an excellent correlation to confirm each variable's structure. The SEM analysis results showed that in the online learning system applied to preschool and elementary school children, parents play a significant role in the children's motivation to take online learning at home. Parents were also a positive and significant mediator variable in the teacher's role in increasing children's learning motivation. These results indicated that parents' and teachers' motivating children to carry out online learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia must be established and continuously improved. The contribution was a reference for those who intend to develop an appropriate online learning system framework for preschool and elementary school children.
Some blowup formulas for ${\rm SU}(2)$ Donaldson polynomials

Donaldson's vanishing theorem [4] settles the question of the behavior of his polynomial invariants under the connected sum operation, provided that both summands have b+ > 0. This leaves open the question of what happens when one adds a negative-definite manifold to a manifold which admits Donaldson invariants. Indeed, this question arises naturally in the differential topology of algebraic surfaces, since the process of "blowing up" a surface X can be realized topologically as the operation of forming the connected sum of X with CP . (Here the bar indicates that the projective plane is given the orientation making its intersection form negative-definite.) Let X be an oriented, simply-connected 4-manifold with b+ > 1 and odd, and let β be some "homology orientation" for X as in [3]. These data determine a sequence of multilinear functions on H2(X), the SU(2) Donaldson polynomials, which are indexed by k e Z and are denoted by γk: S m(H2(X)) -> Z . In the above expression, S d{k) denotes the d{k) symmetric power of the vector space H2(X), and d(k) is given by the relation </(*) = 4 * § ( 1 + * £ ( * ) ) .
The Relationship Between Corporate Internet Reporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from Egypt

This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate internet reporting (CIR) and firm performance in Egypt. In specific, the study investigates whether CIR has any effect as a moderating variable in the relationship between environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices (independent variable) and financial performance as measures by Return on Assets (ROA) (dependent variable). A sample of 96 companies listed on EGX100 index is used. hypotheses, an ordinary least square regression model is used. The results indicate there is a substantial negative association between CCIR (content score) and ROA. However, TCIR (total score) and ROA have a weak positive relationship, but PCIR (presentation score) and ROA have a weak negative relationship. H1 is rejected. Findings also show a significant negative association between ESG and ROA. H2 is rejected. When testing the impact of the interaction between CIR and ESG on ROA, it is found that CIR is a moderating variable, in relation to CCIR and PCIR. Therefore, H3b and H3c are accepted. Results reveal support for agency theory, signalling theory, resource-based view theory and stakeholders theory.
The Relationship between forward-looking disclosure and performance-related variables in the annual reports of listed Egyptian firms

*Purpose: the main objective of this study is to test the relationship between numbers of variables representing the firm characteristics (performance-related variables) and the extent of the level of voluntary disclosure (forward-looking disclosure) in the annual reports of Egyptian firms listed in Egyptian Stock Exchange. This study empirically investigates hypothesized impact of performance-related variables on the extent of forward-looking disclosure. * Design/methodology/approach: this study uses a list of forward-looking keywords to determine the differences in the level of forward looking disclosure between firms in different sectors. The sample included 49 non-financial firms listed in Egyptian Stock Exchange for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. The statistical analysis is implemented using a multiple linear regression analysis. *Findings: the results show that profitability (measured by earning per share) and liquidity ratio were significantly positive with the level of forward-looking disclosure in years 2018 and 2019. While, they were insignificant with the level of forward-looking disclosure in year 2017.
Message from the Review Board Directors

A visual scanpath refers to the human eye movements that scan the visual field to sample and receive visual information [1]. The main components of a visual scanpath are saccades and fixations, which repeat one after another playing central roles in overt human visual attention. While saccades are ballistic changes in eye position resulting in movement from one location to another, fixations after saccades bring the area of interest onto the high acuity fovea region of the retina for information extraction [2]. Prediction of visual scanpaths that represent the dynamic relationship of information at fixation locations are increasingly being considered as essential to model visual attention, particularly for image understanding [3]. Therefore, visual scanpath prediction for images is an important task to consider and it has recently received great research interest [1]. A visual scanpath on an image is often predicted as a sequence of image locations, which not only provides the important regions in the image but also their order. Several approaches for predicting visual scanpaths have
High-Speed Hybrid Silicon-Lithium Niobate Electro-Optic Modulators & Related Technologies

Author(s): Weigel, Peter Orlando | Advisor(s): Mookherjea, Shayan | Abstract: Electro-optic modulators (EOMs) serve as a technological pillar of the modern telecommunications industry. Without these devices, which convert electrical data into optical data through one of several physical phenomena (depending on the specific technology), telecommunications channels would be severely bandwidth-limited, particularly within data centers. To meet the ever-increasing bandwidth demands of the industry, either more EOMs are necessary (resulting in higher power requirements) or higher bandwidth EOM technology must be developed. This thesis discusses the theory, design, fabrication, and characterization of foundry-compatible hybrid silicon-lithium niobate (Si-LN) electro-optic modulators integrated on a wafer platform, a new technology with potentially far-reaching applications.By bonding a thin film of ion-sliced LN crystal, which retains the crystal properties of bulk LN, to silicon waveguides in the Mach-Zehnder modulator configuration, it is theoretically possible to exceed the bandwidth limitations of all-Si modulators without abandoning the scalable, dense silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. These hybrid devices make use of the favorable linear electro-optic Pockels effect of LN while using the high-index Si waveguide to reduce the optical mode area, so that low-voltage, high-bandwidth devices can be realized. This thesis focuses on developing broadband EOMs with cutoff frequencies beyond 100 GHz. Developing this technology on an SOI wafer platform fabricated via photolithography in a foundry facility presents a realistic path towards next-generation high-speed, low-power integrated EOMs.
M EANINGFUL OR M EANINGLESS ? O RGANIZATIONAL C ONDITIONS I NFLUENCING D OCTORAL S TUDENTS ’ M ENTAL H EALTH AND A CHIEVEMENT

meaning directly predict the experience of meaningless work, which is linked to higher levels of anxiety, depression, and intention to quit among doctoral students . We conducted a cross-sectional study on a sample of N = 204 doctoral students who volunteered to participate by completing a survey with self -re-ported measures. We analyzed data collected via structural equation modelling to test the associations among the variables. The present paper represents one an attempt attempts to investigate doctoral students ’ experience as subsumed to market - driven principles of the neoliberal ideology. Results of structural equation modelling show that higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and intention to quit are associated with the lack of external supporting factors (i.e., PhD support), the perception of broad - based managerial practices as meaningless and instrumental, and a general sense of emptiness at work (i.e., meaningless work). Ultimately, doctoral students may strive to have a meaningful experience in today’s academic environment. The experience of meaningless work leads to the risk of me ntal illness symptoms and quitting intention. suggests to practitioners to improve doctoral students’ well - being with multilevel interventions approach as well as including academic stakehold-ers to have broader practical implications. ran 2,000 bootstrap resamples. evaluated the models fits using established fit χ 2 , root mean square error of approximation standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), the Tucker - Lewis index (TLI), and the confirmatory fit index (CFI). RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.05, and TLI and CFI close to 1.00 was used as cut- off and indicated a good fit. The results are presented at 95% confidence intervals. IBM SPSS v. 22 was used to compute the descriptive statistics. IBM AMOS v. 22 was used to implement the SEMs.
A Password-Based Access Control Framework for Time-Sequence Aware Media Cloudization

—The time sequence-based outsourcing makes new demands for related access control continue to grow increasingly in cloud computing. In this paper, we propose a practical password-based access control framework for such media cloudization relying on content control based on the time-sequence attribute, which is designed over prime-order groups. First, the scheme supports multi-keyword search simultaneously in any monotonic boolean formulas, and enables media owner to control content encryption key for different time-periods using an updatable password; Second, the scheme supports the key self-retrievability of content encryption key, which is more suitable for the cloud-based media applications with massive users. Then, we show that the proposed scheme is provably secure in the standard model. Finally, the detailed result of performance evaluation shows the proposed scheme is efﬁcient and practical for cloud-based media applications.
Measuring Friendship Closeness: A Perspective of Social Identity Theory

Measuring the closeness of friendships is an important problem that finds numerous applications in practice. For example, online gaming platforms often host friendship-enhancing events in which a user (called the source) only invites his/her friend (called the target) to play together. In this scenario, the measure of friendship closeness is the backbone for understanding source invitation and target adoption behaviors, and underpins the recommendation of promising targets for the sources. However, most existing measures for friendship closeness only consider the information between the source and target but ignore the information of groups where they are located, which renders inferior results. To address this issue, we present new measures for friendship closeness based on the social identity theory (SIT), which describes the inclination that a target endorses behaviors of users inside the same group. The core of SIT is the process that a target assesses groups of users as them or us. Unfortunately, this process is difficult to be captured due to perceptual factors. To this end, we seamlessly reify the factors of SIT into quantitative measures, which consider local and global information of a target's group. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposal against 8 state-of-the-art methods on 3 online gaming datasets. In particular, we demonstrate that our solution can outperform the best competitor on the behavior prediction (resp. online target recommendation) by up to 23.2% (resp. 34.2%) in the corresponding evaluation metric.
Statistics of the largest eigenvalues and singular values of low-rank random matrices with non-negative entries

We compute analytically the distribution and moments of the largest eigenvalues/singular values and resolvent statistics for random matrices with (i) non-negative entries, (ii) small rank, and (iii) prescribed sums of rows/columns. Applications are discussed in the context of Mean First Passage Time of random walkers on networks, and the calculation of network"influence"metrics. The analytical results are corroborated by numerical simulations.
Revisiting Maximum Satisfiability and Related Problems in Data Streams

We revisit the MaxSAT problem in the data stream model. In this problem, the stream consists of $m$ clauses that are disjunctions of literals drawn from $n$ Boolean variables. The objective is to find an assignment to the variables that maximizes the number of satisfied clauses. Chou et al. (FOCS 2020) showed that $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$ space is necessary to yield a $\sqrt{2}/2+\epsilon$ approximation of the optimum value; they also presented an algorithm that yields a $\sqrt{2}/2-\epsilon$ approximation of the optimum value using $O(\log n/\epsilon^2)$ space. In this paper, we focus not only on approximating the optimum value, but also on obtaining the corresponding Boolean assignment using sublinear $o(mn)$ space. We present randomized single-pass algorithms that w.h. p. yield: 1) A $1-\epsilon$ approximation using $\tilde{O}(n/\epsilon^3)$ space and exponential post-processing time and 2) A $3/4-\epsilon$ approximation using $\tilde{O}(n/\epsilon)$ space and polynomial post-processing time. Our ideas also extend to dynamic streams. On the other hand, we show that the streaming kSAT problem that asks to decide whether one can satisfy all size-$k$ input clauses must use $\Omega(n^k)$ space. We also consider other related problems in this setting.
k-Dimensional Agreement in Multiagent Systems

Given a network of agents, each characterized by an initial scalar value, we study the problem of designing distributed linear algorithms such that the agents agree in a generalized sense on a vector quantity that belongs to a k-dimensional subspace. This problem is motivated by applications in distributed computing and sensing, where agents seek to simultaneously evaluate k independent functions at a common vector point by running a single distributed algorithm. We show that linear protocols can agree only on quantities that are oblique projections of the vector of initial conditions, and we provide an algebraic characterization of all agreement protocols that are consistent with a certain communication graph. By leveraging this characterization, we propose a design procedure for constructing agreement protocols, and we investigate what are the structural properties of communication networks that can reach an agreement on arbitrary weights. More broadly, our results show that agreement algorithms are capable of simultaneously solving k consensus problems at a fraction of the communication volume and space complexity of classical algorithms but, in general, require higher network connectivity. The applicability of the framework is illustrated via simulations on two problems in robotic formation and distributed regression.
Every Bit Counts in Consensus

Consensus enables n processes to agree on a common valid L-bit value, despite t<n/3 processes being faulty and acting arbitrarily. A long line of work has been dedicated to improving the worst-case communication complexity of consensus in partial synchrony. This has recently culminated in the worst-case word complexity of O(n^2). However, the worst-case bit complexity of the best solution is still O(n^2 L + n^2 kappa) (where kappa is the security parameter), far from the \Omega(n L + n^2) lower bound. The gap is significant given the practical use of consensus primitives, where values typically consist of batches of large size (L>n). This paper shows how to narrow the aforementioned gap while achieving optimal linear latency. Namely, we present a new algorithm, DARE (Disperse, Agree, REtrieve), that improves upon the O(n^2 L) term via a novel dispersal primitive. DARE achieves O(n^{1.5} L + n^{2.5} kappa) bit complexity, an effective sqrt{n}-factor improvement over the state-of-the-art (when L>n kappa). Moreover, we show that employing heavier cryptographic primitives, namely STARK proofs, allows us to devise DARE-Stark, a version of DARE which achieves the near-optimal bit complexity of O(n L + n^2 poly(kappa)). Both DARE and DARE-Stark achieve optimal O(n) latency.