External Interfaces or Internal Processes? Market Positioning and Divergent Professionalization Paths in Young Ventures

We explore how the initial market positioning of entrepreneurial ventures shapes how they professionalize over time, focusing specifically on the development of functional roles. In contrast to existing literature, which presumes a uniform march toward professionalization as ventures scale and complete developmental milestones, we advance a contingent perspective, distinguishing between the development of external interface functions (marketing & sales and customer development) and internal process functions (accounting, human resources, and finance). Specifically, we argue that positioning in an unconventional market space raises demand for external engagement that focuses ventures’ attention and resources toward developing external interface roles. At the same time, such unconventional ventures are less apt to elaborate their internal process roles relative to more conventional peers. We test these predictions using a novel longitudinal data set on the internal organizations of 3,748 U.S.-based entrepreneurial ventures. In contrast to common assumptions of convergent professionalization, our theory and findings advance the perspective that ventures pursue divergent professionalization paths based on their initial market positioning as they scale up.

Language Interfaces in Adult Heritage Language Acquisition: A Study on Encoding of Nominal Reference in Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language

According to the Interface Hypothesis in the field of bilingualism, the interface connecting a linguistic module with a language-external domain (e.g., syntax-discourse) will present prolonged difficulties for adult bilingual learners, as compared with the interface connecting language-internal modules (e.g., syntax-semantics). This study tested whether the Interface Hypothesis is applicable to the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese as a heritage language. An internet-based acceptability judgment task (AJT) was administered to 58 advanced and intermediate adult Chinese heritage speakers to collect data in accuracy and reaction time to investigate the adult heritage speakers’ mastery of referential nominal expressions regulated at the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interfaces, respectively, in Mandarin Chinese. The target linguistic phenomena involved three nominal expressions (i.e., the bare N(oun), the [Cl(assifier)-N], and the [Num(eral)-Cl-N]) under four interface-regulated referential readings (i.e., type-denoting, quantity-denoting, indefinite individual-denoting, and definite individual-denoting). In terms of accuracy, the results showed that (i) for the N and the [Num-Cl-N], regardless of the interface type, the advanced group acquired the target phenomena to a nativelike level, who significantly outperformed the intermediate group; (ii) for the [Cl-N], the advanced group exhibited nativelike attainment at the syntax-discourse interface but not at the syntax-semantics interface, and performed significantly better than the intermediate group at both interfaces. Regarding reaction time, no significant differences were reported between the advanced group and the native group for the target structures at either the syntax-semantics or the syntax-discourse interface, while the advanced group performed significantly better than the intermediate group, regardless of the interface type and the structure type. The findings suggest that the nature of the language interface, i.e., whether it pertains to language-external domains (i.e., the external interface) or not (i.e., the internal interface), should not be a reliable factor for predicting the (im)possibility of nativelike attainment of bilingual grammar knowledge, contra the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis. The present study provides new empirical evidence to show that language-external interface properties are not necessarily destined for prolonged difficulties in heritage language acquisition, and that it is possible for adult heritage speakers to make developmental progress in both accuracy and processing efficiency at different types of interfaces.

Assessment of external interface of autonomous vehicles

The paper deals with the problem of a communication interface between autonomous vehicles (AV) and pedestrians. The introduced methodology for assessing new and existing e-HMI (external HMI) contributes to traffic safety in cities. The methodology is implemented in a pilot experiment with a scenario designed in virtual reality (VR). The simulated scene represents an urban zebra crossing with an approaching autonomous vehicle. The projection is implemented with the help of a head-up display – a headset with a built-in eye tracker. The suggested methodology analyses the pedestrian’s decision making based on the visual cues – the signals displayed on the autonomous vehicle. Furthermore, the decision making is correlated to subjects’ eye behaviour, based on gaze-direction data. The method presented in this paper contributes to the safety of a vehicle-pedestrian communication of autonomous vehicles and is a part of a research that shall further contribute to the design and assessment of external communication interfaces of AV in general.

Research on Educational Information Platform Based on Cloud Computing

The traditional method only pays attention to hardware construction and ignores the data processing steps, which leads to high redundant resource occupancy rate, untimely resource sharing, and low platform data safety factor. In order to solve this problem, this paper establishes an educational information platform based on cloud computing. The platform gives the overall structure of the education information platform, including the business layer and the support layer. Then the external interface is designed. Based on the MySQL database interface, users are allowed to use custom data formats and storage management modes to ensure flexibility in using data resources and improve the compatibility between smart terminals and virtual machines through the remote desktop terminal architecture. Through the educational data compression and educational resource sharing model, the generation of redundant messages is reduced, thereby realizing the design of the educational information platform. Experimental results show that this method can effectively reduce the occupancy rate of redundant resources, save network bandwidth, and improve the data safety factor of the platform. The resource sharing time is always less than 2.0 s, which verifies the effectiveness of the method

Database technology for the masses

A wealth of technology has evolved around relational databases over decades that has been successfully tried and tested in many settings and use cases. Yet, the majority of it remains overlooked in the pursuit of performance (e.g., NoSQL) or new functionality (e.g., graph data or machine learning). In this paper, we argue that a wide range of techniques readily available in databases are crucial to tackling the challenges the IT industry faces in terms of hardware trends management, growing workloads, and the overall complexity of a rapidly changing application and platform landscape. However, to be truly useful, these techniques must be freed from the legacy component of database engines: relational operators. Therefore, we argue that to make databases more flexible as platforms and to extend their functionality to new data types and operations requires exposing a lower level of abstraction: instead of working with SQL it would be desirable for database engines to compile, optimize, and run a collection of sub-operators for manipulating and managing data, offering them as an external interface. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of this, provide an initial list of such sub-operators, and show how they can be used in practice.

The computation and suspension of presuppositions by L1-Mandarin Chinese L2-English speakers

The Interface Hypothesis proposes that second language (L2) learners, even at highly proficient levels, often fail to integrate information at the external interfaces where grammar interacts with other cognitive systems. While much early L2 work has focused on the syntax–discourse interface or scalar implicatures at the semantics–pragmatics interface, the present article adds to this line of research by exploring another understudied phenomenon at the semantics–pragmatics interface, namely, presuppositions. Furthermore, this study explores both inference computation and suspension via a covered-box picture-selection task. Specifically, this study investigates the interpretation of a presupposition trigger stop and stop under negation. The results from 38 native English speakers and 41 first language (L1) Mandarin Chinese learners of English indicated similar response patterns between native and L2 groups in computing presuppositions but not in suspending presuppositions. That is, L2 learners were less likely to suspend presuppositions than native speakers. This study contributes to a more precise understanding of L2 acquisition at the external interface level, as well as computation and suspension of pragmatic inferences.

The Derivation of Defect Priorities and Core Defects through Impact Relationship Analysis between Embedded Software Defects

As embedded software is closely related to hardware equipment, any defect in embedded software can lead to major accidents. Thus, all defects must be collected, classified, and tested based on their severity. In the pure software field, a method of deriving core defects already exists, enabling the collection and classification of all possible defects. However, in the embedded software field, studies that have collected and categorized relevant defects into an integrated perspective are scarce, and none of them have identified core defects. Therefore, the present study collected embedded software defects worldwide and identified 12 types of embedded software defect classifications through iterative consensus processes with embedded software experts. The impact relation map of the defects was drawn using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, which analyzes the influence relationship between elements. As a result of analyzing the impact relation map, the following core embedded software defects were derived: hardware interrupt, external interface, timing error, device error, and task management. All defects can be tested using this defect classification. Moreover, knowing the correct test order of all defects can eliminate critical defects and improve the reliability of embedded systems.

A Propose Model Optimal Supply Chain Distribution Network for Farmer Industrial

A supply chain should be operated in the most efficient way in a highly competitive environment, with the goals of cost minimization, shipment delays, inventories and expenditures, and distribution maximization, gain, return on investment, level of customer support, and efficiency. The development of supply-chain distribution networks is therefore an extremely complex task, due to the large physical production and distribution network flows, the uncertainties associated with external interface customers and suppliers as well as the non-linear dynamics linked to internal information flows. This study aims to address a problem in domestic distribution in a supply chain system that includes manufacturers, distribution centers and consumer zones to determine the optimum configuration of the network. We propose a mixed integer linear programming model to solve the problem.

Design and Construction of PIC-Based DC Motor Speed Controller for Small Robots

Because of their good speed control and high torque, DC motors are widely used in many industrial and robotic applications. Robotic application of DC motors often required, in addition to driving loads at constant speed or torque, the ability to vary the speed of the motor. An efficient and economically feasible intelligent DC motor speed controller is designed and constructed based on the rules of closed loop feedback control system. There are two main parts in the hardware development: PIC16F873A microcontroller and its support circuitries and external interface circuitries between motors and microcontrollers. Data processing and control program (firmware program) was run on PIC microcontroller and its on-chip A/D converter, PWM module and external circuitry was used to send and receive the data signal from the motor for control application. The firmware program was written in assembly language and converted to machine language (Hex code) by using Microchip MPASM macro assembler. These machine codes are downloaded into the PIC microcontroller by using EPIC microcontroller programmer. Through prototyping and implementing on a PIC microcontroller, the system was then be tested and used to control the speed of a small DC motor until the required criteria were achieved.