Entry Barriers Research Articles

Leveraging audio hardware for underwater acoustics

Both active and passive underwater acoustic systems frequently use purpose built hardware that is designed for a particular application. Transducers, electronics, and data acquisition systems for field experiments, therefore, are often expensive, tailored to limited frequency bands, or packaged for integration with a specific platform. Reliance on custom hardware, however, can make initial experimental investigations of new sensing paradigms cost prohibitive. The expense also creates an entry barrier to experimental work for students and researchers outside the underwater acoustics community. Audio hardware, however, is widely available, easily integrated using commercial data acquisition tools, and is often of relatively low cost. This presentation will describe two efforts to use audio hardware for inexpensive experimental investigations of underwater acoustics topics. The first, AirSAS, uses audio transducers and electronics to investigate synthetic aperture sonar problems in air that are analogous to those underwater. The second, the Citizen Scientist Hydrophone, integrates underwater transducers with consumer audio electronics to make an inexpensive, multipurpose passive sensing device. Challenges and limitations of using commercial audio hardware for underwater acoustics, especially as they relate to accuracy and data quality, will be discussed.

How-to Compute EPRL Spin Foam Amplitudes

Spin foam theory is a concrete framework for quantum gravity where numerical calculations of transition amplitudes are possible. Recently, the field became very active, but the entry barrier is steep, mainly because of its unusual language and notions scattered around the literature. This paper is a pedagogical guide to spin foam transition amplitude calculations. We show how to write an EPRL-FK transition amplitude, from the definition of the 2-complex to its numerical implementation using sl2cfoam-next. We guide the reader using an explicit example balancing mathematical rigor with a practical approach. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our strategy and provide a novel look at a recently proposed approximation scheme.

Effects of interfacial molar ratios of anionic/cationic surfactant mixtures on properties at the gas-liquid interface: a molecular dynamics study

The gas-liquid interface properties and molecular adsorption of the binary mixtures of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cationic surfactant dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC) with different molar ratios were described through molecular dynamics (MD) method with the aim of providing supplements to the experiments at the molecular level. The simulation results showed that the anionic/cationic surfactant mixtures can form a denser interfacial monomolecular layer than single surfactants, and the interface will tend to form equimolar adsorption eventually. The entry barrier of the interface under different molar ratios was investigated, the system with a high SDS ratio has higher the entry barrier, which means that the initial non-equal molar ratio of the interface composition may be more conducive to prolonging the existence time of the interface. The rupture process of the microscopic liquid film was simulated, and it was found that the site not covered by surfactant molecules was the point where the liquid film was prone to rupture. The critical rupture thickness of each models was about 0.8 ∼ 1.2 nm.

Industrial policy, innovative entrepreneurship, and the human capital of founders

Prior research shows that entrepreneurship enhances economic development. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that it is not the number of new startups that matter but rather their quality. This study investigates the effect of a comprehensive industrial policy intervention targeting innovative startups, i.e., the Italian Startup Act, on the composition of innovative entrepreneurs in terms of their human capital endowment. By decomposing the impact of lowering entry and growth barriers and by comparing the “before” and the “after” of the reform, we explore if the industrial policy has modified the composition of innovative entrepreneurs in terms of their human capital characteristics. The findings indicate that the reform, and in particular lowering growth barriers, was particularly able to push individuals with a relatively higher level of industry-specific, managerial, and entrepreneurial experience towards the creation of a new innovative venture. Overall, we show that a policy reform that decreases barriers to innovative entrepreneurship may attract entrepreneurs endowed with greater specific human capital than what occurred before the reform.

Economics of Ransomware: Risk Interdependence and Large-Scale Attacks

Recently, the development of ransomware strains and changes in the marketplace for malware have greatly reduced the entry barrier for attackers to conduct large-scale ransomware attacks. In this paper, we examine how this mode of cyberattack impacts software vendors and consumer behavior. When victims face an added option to mitigate losses via a ransom payment, both the equilibrium market size and the vendor’s profit under optimal pricing can actually increase in the ransom demand. Profit can also increase in the scale of residual losses following a ransom payment (which reflect the trustworthiness of the ransomware operator). We show that for intermediate levels of risk, the vendor restricts software adoption by substantially hiking up price. This lies in stark contrast to outcomes in a benchmark case involving traditional malware (non-ransomware) where the vendor decreases price as security risk increases. Social welfare is higher under ransomware compared with the benchmark in both sufficiently low- and high-risk settings. However, for intermediate risk, it is better from a social standpoint if consumers do not have an option to pay ransom. We also show that the expected ransom paid is nonmonotone in risk, increasing when risk is moderate despite a decreasing ransom-paying population. For ransomware attacks on other vectors (beyond patchable vulnerabilities), there can still be an incentive to hike price. However, market size and profits instead weakly decrease in the ransom amount. When studying a generalized model that includes both traditional and ransomware attacks, our results remain robust to a wide range of scenarios, including threat landscapes where ransomware has only a small presence. This paper was accepted by Kartik Hosanagar, information systems. Funding: This work has been supported by the Haskayne School of Business' Dean's Research Grant and by an award from the Georgia Institute of Technology Center of International Business Education & Research as part of its funded research program. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4300 .

When Matthew met Matilda: the Argentinean gender gap in the allocation of science and technology public grants

ABSTRACT This article analyses the presence of the gender gap in the process of allocation of public grants for science and technology activity – the Matilda effect – in Argentina. The empirical approach is based on the Argentinean Scientific and Technological Research Projects programme (in Spanish PICT), the main national public grant for scientific and technological projects, for the period 2003–2015. Two manifestations of the Matilda effect are verified. First, entry barriers since female researchers have lower probabilities of being selected for the first time than their male counterparts. Then, persistency barriers are also demonstrated, given that being awarded when funded immediately before is only significant among male researchers. The gap is even larger for the case of science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields of science. The cumulative nature of the Matilda effect calls for deliberated public actions to reduce the gap since horizontal instruments tend to increase the biases over time.

Open and social: portraying the resilient, social and competitive, upcoming enterprise

PurposeThis article seeks to characterize and assess a new type of resilient, socially conscious and competitive enterprise that simultaneously encompasses open and social innovation – aligning both business and social outcomes – and which will gain increasing importance in post-pandemic competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachA mixed method approach based on sequential deductive triangulation analysis (QUAN/qual) is used. First, data gathered from the Chilean innovation survey is used to quantify the percentage of firms implementing open and social innovation simultaneously, and to assess their relative performance in relation to other types of innovative firms. Second, a qualitative multiple-case study analysis reveals the perceptions of senior managers regarding the applicability of this approach in terms of building resilience and strengthening future competitiveness in line with sustainable development goals.FindingsSocial innovation is a relatively rare event (7.2% of firms in the sample). While social innovation occurs equally in monopolistic and perfectly competitive industries, the authors’ findings suggest that in order to adopt social and open innovation effectively, firms need to set entry barriers such as economies of scale. On the other hand, open innovation is a more common event (15.4% of firms in the sample), which correlates closely with absolute and relative performance indicators. Moreover, the results suggest that open innovation enables a greater understanding of societal needs, thus making social innovation more effective.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretical developments coupled with descriptive and qualitative evidence reveal the innovative capabilities that up-and-coming enterprises may possess. The findings suggest that at times of far-reaching technological, social and political change, enterprises should share some of their knowledge and resources with wider society. Only then will more equal, resilient and cohesive societies be built.Originality/valueThis article combines two seemingly unrelated literature streams (open and social innovation) in order to elucidate the enterprise of tomorrow, which will be capable of achieving sustainable development whilst reaching high levels of competitiveness.

WoTemu: An emulation framework for edge computing architectures based on the Web of Things

The edge computing model is an approach to Internet of Things (IoT) architectures based on the redistribution of services and infrastructure from centralized clouds to locations closer to IoT devices. The Web of Things (WoT) is another important IoT trend, currently led by the W3C, which aims at solving the IoT interoperability problem by adopting proven technologies and patterns from the Web. The design and validation of IoT deployments based on these paradigms is a complex task that involves multiple services, heterogeneous hardware and diverse communication technologies. Testing such projects in real world conditions usually requires a significant investment of resources. There are simulation tools that can assist in this process with much lower barriers of entry, however, they involve the designer making modelling assumptions that are not always representative of the real systems. This work presents an emulation tool for IoT projects based on the edge computing model that is able to seamlessly scale horizontally by leveraging container orchestration (Docker swarm mode). Furthermore, the W3C WoT model is included as a first-class citizen, enabling the designer to model all actors in the system as Things. The tool can run the real production code with minimal modifications and provides meaningful insights into the behaviour of the proposed architecture. This knowledge serves to rapidly iterate the optimization process, simplifying design issues and the detection of bottlenecks before committing to a real deployment in the field. A real-world scenario is also emulated in order to demonstrate its capabilities and validate its contribution.

A91 CANADIAN FEMALE FELLOW PERSPECTIVES ON TRAINING IN THE BOYS CLUB: ADVANCED THERAPEUTIC ENDOSCOPY

BackgroundUnequal female representation in the field of advanced therapeutic endoscopy (ATE) has been recently highlighted in the United States. Previous attempts to determine the barriers of entry into the career have found reasons including lack of mentorship, patriarchy, inflexible hours/call and exposure to fluoroscopy. There is no current literature describing the landscape of exposure to ATE for trainees in Canada or determining differences in experience based on gender.AimsWe sought to determine the barriers to pursuing a career in advanced therapeutic endoscopy, specifically focussing on the perspectives of Canadian female gastroenterology fellows.MethodsA survey was developed and distributed to the gastroenterology fellows enrolled in Royal College accredited programs across Canada via an online survey platform.ResultsResponses were received from gastroenterology fellows at 12 out of the 14 Canadian universities with Royal College accredited programs. The response rate was 46% (n=42, 16 female respondents, 26 male respondents). An equal proportion of male (42%, n=11) and female (38%, n=6) trainees indicated interest in a career in ATE. 38% (n=6) of female trainees felt that they had inadequate mentorship opportunities/role models within ATE, in comparison to 4% (n=1) of males (p=0.004). Furthermore, 19% (n=3) of females felt that this lack of mentorship/role models was a primary deterrent from pursuing ATE as a career, in comparison to 0% of males (p=0.02). There was equal self-perceived competency surrounding ATE knowledge between both genders.ConclusionsFemale gastroenterology fellows in Canada lack mentorship and role models in ATE, which they also indicated as a primary deterrent from pursuing it as a career when compared to their male counterparts. Recognizing and addressing the lack of female leadership and visibility is necessary to improve parity and encourage women to train in the male-dominated field of ATE.Funding AgenciesNone

Don\u2019t change who we are but give us a chance: confronting the potential of community health worker certification for workforce recognition and exclusion

BackgroundFor community health workers (CHWs) and promotores de salud (CHWs who primarily serve Latinx communities and are grounded in a social, rather than a clinical model of care), the process of certification highlights the tension between developing a certified workforce with formal requirements (i.e., certified CHWs) and valuing CHWs, without formal requirements, based on their roles, knowledge, and being part of the communities where they live and work (i.e., non-certified CHWs). California serves as an ideal case study to examine how these two paths can coexist. California’s CHW workforce represents distinct ideologies of care (e.g., clinical CHWs, community-based CHWs, and promotores de salud) and California stakeholders have debated certification for nearly twenty years but have not implemented such processes.MethodsWe employed purposive sampling to interview 108 stakeholders (i.e., 66 CHWs, 11 program managers, and 31 system-level participants) to understand their perspectives on the opportunities and risks that certification may raise for CHWs and the communities they serve. We conducted focus groups with CHWs, interviews with program managers and system-level participants, and observations of public forums that discussed CHW workforce issues. We used a thematic analysis approach to identify, analyze, and report themes.ResultsSome CHW participants supported inclusive certification training opportunities while others feared that certification might erode their identity and undermine their work in communities. Some program managers and system-level participants acknowledged the opportunities of certification but also expressed concerns that certification may distance CHWs from their communities. Program managers and system-level participants also highlighted that certification may not address all challenges related to integrating CHWs into health care systems. CHWs, program managers, and system-level participants agreed that CHWs should be involved in certification discussions and decision making.ConclusionsTo address participant concerns, our findings recommend California stakeholders build a voluntary certification process structured with multiple pathways to overcome entry barriers of traditional certification processes, maintain CHW identity, and protect diversity within the workforce. Positioning CHWs as decision makers will be critical when designing state certification processes.

A modification proposal for the reconciliation mechanism of the key exchange algorithm NewHope

Abstract The latest advances in quantum computing forced the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to launch an initiative for selecting quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. One of the best-known proposals is NewHope, an algorithm that was initially designed as a key exchange algorithm. In its original design, NewHope presented a reconciliation mechanism that is complex and represents an entry barrier for potential implementers. This contribution presents equivalent schemes in one, two and three dimensions, which allow anyone to make the transition to the 4D NewHope algorithm easier to undertake. In addition to that, the effect of modifying some of the parameters associated to NewHope’s reconciliation mechanism is studied, which has allowed us to propose different sets of parameters that could increase the security of NewHope implementations.

Research on the Reconstruction Strategy of Public English Ecological Classroom under the Background of “Internet +”

In the era of “Internet plus,” the educational ecosystem is changing under the influence of modern educational technology, with teachers and students as the main players. The traditional teaching method of “books + classroom + large-class teaching” with teachers at the center has evolved into “two masters: teachers leading and students as the main body.” There are also some discussions in foreign language teaching about educational ecology, with a focus on ecological imbalance. Emotion analysis is divided into two categories based on emotional information: positive and negative. It can be considered a unique text classification, despite the fact that it differs from traditional text classification. Using the emotion recognition algorithm, this paper can provide simple access to WEB pages and carry out emotional experiences such as face emotion recognition. Third-party developers, on the other hand, have a lower entry barrier, allowing them to quickly create colorful applications based on their own ideas.

Development of novel-engineering-based maker education instructional model

Attaining equitable education for all is one of the sustainable development goals. Not only the gap of education between urban and rural students but also the gap of access to information and communications technology also exists. Thus, an effort to resolve this gap is necessary. This study combines novel engineering, which is the fusion of engineering and literacy educational methods with maker education, to create a sustainable model of maker education. Through this process, an instructional model for a novel engineering-based maker education is proposed that would enable the utilization of the model in rural elementary school environment. To achieve this, this study analyzed the literature regarding maker education, novel engineering, and design thinking to develop, draft, and verify internal validity through an expert’s review and usability evaluation. In addition, this study includes an example class for rural elementary students with application of the model to verify the model’s external validity and confirm that the model significantly improved the maker mindset. Finally, this study proposes final instructional model by modifying and improving the draft based on the recommendations derived from the validity verification process. The proposed instructional model was developed as a suitable form for rural school students, which can use low-cost teaching tools to lower the entry barrier to information and communications technology education. The model process developed in this study has the advantage of raising convergence problem-solving abilities and the maker mindset, in terms of a making project that fuses literature and engineering, among students.

TheyBuyForYou platform and knowledge graph: Expanding horizons in public procurement with open linked data

Public procurement is a large market affecting almost every organisation and individual; therefore, governments need to ensure its efficiency, transparency, and accountability, while creating healthy, competitive, and vibrant economies. In this context, open data initiatives and integration of data from multiple sources across national borders could transform the procurement market by such as lowering the barriers of entry for smaller suppliers and encouraging healthier competition, in particular by enabling cross-border bids. Increasingly more open data is published in the public sector; however, these are created and maintained in siloes and are not straightforward to reuse or maintain because of technical heterogeneity, lack of quality, insufficient metadata, or missing links to related domains. To this end, we developed an open linked data platform, called TheyBuyForYou, consisting of a set of modular APIs and ontologies to publish, curate, integrate, analyse, and visualise an EU-wide, cross-border, and cross-lingual procurement knowledge graph. We developed advanced tools and services on top of the knowledge graph for anomaly detection, cross-lingual document search, and data storytelling. This article describes the TheyBuyForYou platform and knowledge graph, reports their adoption by different stakeholders and challenges and experiences we went through while creating them, and demonstrates the usefulness of Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies for enhancing public procurement.

The renewable energy supply chain problem: A new geography of power supply and new species of electricity transmission

The United States faces an increasingly pressing renewable electricity supply chain problem. The problem is manifestly geographical—the best, low-cost, renewable generation sites (in the county’s interior) are inconveniently located far from the population load centers. Transiting such a route means that renewable power often must cross state lines and various organized regional wholesale power markets—a trip that existing US transmission networks (designed first for reliability and second for low-cost regional wholesale power markets) were not designed to accommodate. Overcoming such geographical entry barriers through competitive transmission investment is challenging—but not a new kind of problem for Congress or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The FERC is indeed the world’s expert in such difficult issues relating to the continental geography of competitive energy supply—overcoming such entry barriers with stunning success in US natural gas markets. This paper looks at how Congress and the FERC have motivated competitive interstate pipeline transmission and where/how those lessons can help with the investment and siting problems facing the new geography in renewable generation.

Cultural Affinity, Regulation, and Market Structure: Evidence from the Canadian Retail Banking Industry

We estimate a perfect information static entry game to study the effect of cultural entry barriers on entry and competition in the retail banking industry. Canada provides a favorable setting for analysis due to its high linguistic diversity, concentrated market, and regulatory entry barriers. We find that cultural affinity between customers and financial institutions that share a common cultural origin plays an important role in explaining the comparative advantages of these institutions in certain markets. Using several counterfactual experiments and additional empirical evidence, we show that the effectiveness of regulations intended to foster competition is significantly limited by cultural barriers, which is a key determinant that shapes the competitive landscape of the industry. (JEL G21, G28, L13, Z13)

Data Science and Energy: Some Lessons from Europe on Higher Education Course Design and Delivery

Data science is seen as a key enabler for technologies that help decarbonize global energy use. However, the energy sector continues to struggle to attract and train enough data scientists. The primary reason for this is the lack of emphasis on data science in most graduate programs in energy engineering, and the high barriers of entry for data scientists from other sectors. In this article, we present a snapshot of the data science–related curriculum being taught in graduate energy programs in four different European universities as well as include feedback we received from students and alumni of these programs. While knowledge of data science remains low across the board, students in these programs already recognize data science as an important element of their future professional careers. We also present findings from running three separate iterations of an energy data science course we developed in light of this feedback—one of these iterations was offered only in KU Leuven (Belgium), while the other two were accessible to students at all four universities. In the article, we also discuss challenges and opportunities arising from designing and delivering courses in a cross-university context. This foundational course and others like it are seen as a necessary means to enable students to take more specialized courses in data science, and eventually contribute toward realizing a sustainable energy transition and meeting climate change mitigation objectives.

Barriers to entry of gig workers in the gig platforms: exploring the dark side of the gig economy

PurposeThe alternative arrangements to traditional employment have become a promising area in the gig economy with the technological advancements dominating every work. The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to the entry of gig workers in gig platforms pertaining to the food delivery sector. It proposes a framework using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) for which systematic literature review is done to extract the variables. This analysis helps to examine the relationship between the entry barriers to gig platforms. The study further proposes strategies to reduce the entry barriers in gig sector which would help to enhance productivity and generate employment opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses interpretive structural model (ISM) to ascertain the relationship between various entry barriers of the gig workers to the gig platforms. It also validates the relationship and understand the reasons of their association along with MICMAC analysis. The model was designed by consulting the gig workers and the experts allied to food delivery gig platforms namely Zomato and Swiggy.FindingsIt was observed that high competition, longer login hours and late-night deliveries are the significant barriers with high driving power and low dependence power. Poor payment structures and strict terms and conditions for receiving the incentives are interdependent on each other and have moderate driving and dependence power. The expenses borne by the gig workers, such as Internet, fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses have high dependence power and low driving power. Hence, they are relatively less significant than other barriers.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is confined to food delivery sector of India, without considering other important sectors of gig economy for generalizing the framework. As the study is based on forming an ISM framework through literature review only, it does not consider other research methods for analysing the entry barriers to the gig platforms.Practical implicationsThe study attempts to dig out the low entry barriers for gig workers in food delivery platforms as there is a dearth of analysis of these factors. This study would weave them using ISM framework to help the gig platforms overcome these barriers at various levels, thus adding to the body of literature.Originality/valueThe study discusses the need for understanding relationship between the entry barriers in the form of ISM model to identify the dependent and driving factors of the same.

Configuration approach for personalized travel mashup

AbstractNowadays, we live in an interconnected ecosystem of heterogeneous services which are available anytime and anywhere. Although these services can be used individually, their combined usage provides end‐users with real added value. Nevertheless, existing mashup solutions are not fully targeted to end‐users. Indeed, these solutions require technical knowledge to deal with the technological heterogeneity in which they are offered. The key limitation of current mashup solutions is their general‐purpose nature, which privileges expressive power over intuitiveness. As the reason for mashups was the desire of end‐users to build applications responding to their situational needs, we propose a domain‐specific mashup approach that “speaks the language of the user.” The article presents (1) a domain‐specific visual language that allows end‐users to easily build mashup‐based compositions, (2) a mashup schema which is a gateway between service implementations and end‐users, providing a high‐level description in order to hide technological issues when including services in composition; and (3) a configuration module that executes the travel mashup query and generates a personalized trip planning. The results of a user study confirm that domain‐specific mashup tools lower the entry barrier to mashup development.

Conformation of HIV-1 Envelope Governs Rhesus CD4 Usage and Simian-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Replication.

ABSTRACTInfection of rhesus macaques with simian-human immunodeficiency viruses (SHIVs) is the preferred model system for vaccine development because SHIVs encode human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoproteins (Envs)—a key target of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies. Since the goal of vaccines is to prevent new infections, SHIVs encoding circulating HIV-1 Env are desired as challenge viruses. Development of such biologically relevant SHIVs has been challenging, as they fail to infect rhesus macaques, mainly because most circulating HIV-1 Envs do not use rhesus CD4 (rhCD4) receptor for viral entry. Most primary HIV-1 Envs exist in a closed conformation and occasionally transit to a downstream, open conformation through an obligate intermediate conformation. Here, we provide genetic evidence that open Env conformations can overcome the rhCD4 entry barrier and increase replication of SHIVs in rhesus lymphocytes. Consistent with prior studies, we found that circulating HIV-1 Envs do not use rhCD4 efficiently for viral entry. However, by using HIV-1 Envs with single amino acid substitutions that alter their conformational state, we found that transitions to intermediate and open Env conformations allow usage of physiological levels of rhCD4 for viral entry. We engineered these single amino acid substitutions in the transmitted/founder HIV-1BG505 Envs encoded by SHIV-BG505 and found that open Env conformation enhances SHIV replication in rhesus lymphocytes. Lastly, CD4-mediated SHIV pulldown, sensitivity to soluble CD4, and fusogenicity assays indicated that open Env conformation promotes efficient rhCD4 binding and viral-host membrane fusion. These findings identify the conformational state of HIV-1 Env as a major determinant for rhCD4 usage, viral fusion, and SHIV replication.