Farmland Conservation in The Netherlands and British Columbia, Canada: A Comparative Analysis Using GIS-based Hedonic Pricing Models

As a result of urban development farmland in many countries is under pressure. Reasons to preserve farmland are related to cultural heritage, food safety, open space, the environment, but also slowing and restricting development is a reason. To protect farmland countries use different land use policies. This paper will look specifically at two jurisdictions: The Netherlands and a particularly rich farming area in British Columbia, Canada. For these areas we will investigate how the institutions and laws present in these jurisdictions contribute to agricultural land preservation. We will analyse farmland values in a GIS-based hedonic pricing framework to answer this question. This combination enables us to analyse direct impacts of laws and regulations within the hedonic pricing framework. Moreover, we can use farm values to analyse farm survivability, and the level of speculation on farmland in the urban-rural fringe, where farmland is under urban pressure.Hedonic pricing models, zoning policies, Geographical Information System, agricultural land values at the urban fringe

Pre-entry Decisions and New Venture Survival in China

This research paper applies the Resource Based View (RBV) to investigate the impacts of pre-entry decisions made by foreign investors on the survivability of new Foreign Invested Enterprises (FIEs) in China. Using a sample of 4,764 new ventures with the Cox survival model, we found that factors including the CATA (Current Assets to Total Assets) ratio, firm size, and technology status of the industries are positively related to new venture survival, and that factors like the inland area dummy variable are negatively related to new venture survival. The result for having a state-owned firm as a partner is not significant in our study. By identifying the key factors mentioned above as unique resources for FIEs, based on the RBV, the results of our research have the potential to help foreign investors to improve their firms? chances of success before they establish their new ventures in the Chinese market

Iowa Public Television’s Planning Targets 2011-2014

Agency Performance Plan, Iowa Public Televisio

Bourdieu's non-material forms of capital:Implications for start-up policy

The role of Bourdieu’s non-material forms of capital (cultural, social and symbolic) in the entrepreneurial process has received little dedicated research attention. Similarly, the link between occupationally distinct entrepreneurship and accumulation of non-material capitals is understudied. Addressing this, we examine the non-material capitals of different nascent entrepreneurs by occupational classification who participated on two enterprise-training programmes funded by the 1997-2010 Labour Government; each with considerably different foci. Findings demonstrate that professional and higher technician entrepreneurs possess valuable non-material capitals, in contrast to non-professional entrepreneurs. Against the backdrop of recent business enterprise policy, findings suggest that policy-makers should prioritise focused support that nurtures the valuable, productive non-material capitals of professional and higher technician entrepreneurs. Furthermore, initiatives should be tailored to improve the less distinguished non-material capitals of non-professional entrepreneurs

Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques

SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability

Strategic Decision Making for Family Business's Survivability; Case of CV Karya Agung

Abstract- Most businesses have a common goal, which is to maximize shareholder wealth. The profit earned by the company will surely increase the shareholder wealth. As a service business which rely on government projects, the orders from the government will continue to decrease with the uncertainty about the number and value of projects to be implemented by the government and the emergence of new competitors. For that reasons, business strategy is necessary for the family business like the object of this study, CV Karya Agung to survive in the competition. This research is intended to provide recommendations in the best business strategy  for the business’s survivability and development of the business.This study began in October 2014 until June 2015. Data collection is done by interview periodically with some key staff in the CV. Karya Agung. From the interview, the obtained data is used to perform business strategy formulation and the data about estimation amount of investment and the estimated profit from each alternatives is used to choose which alternatives is the best using decision tree tools. In the end the output of decision tree is tested by sensitivity analysis how sensitive is the chosen alternative.The results from this research is alternative about expanding business area to Malang city by renting the office. Compared with other alternatives in the given limit time of 1-year period, the other formulated alternatives  could not provide more profit than expansion to Malang with renting the office alternatives.In conclusion, researcher provided recommendations for CV Karya Agung to do the expand business operations in Malang area by renting the office in order to obtain more business opportunities and more profits so that their business can survive in the competition. Keywords: Family Business, Decision Making, Business Strategy, Consultant of Construction, Survivabilit

Optimizing dynamic investment decisions for railway systems protection

Past and recent events have shown that railway infrastructure systems are particularly vulnerable to natural catastrophes, unintentional accidents and terrorist attacks. Protection investments are instrumental in reducing economic losses and preserving public safety. A systematic approach to plan security investments is paramount to guarantee that limited protection resources are utilized in the most efficient manner. In this article, we present an optimization model to identify the railway assets which should be protected to minimize the impact of worst case disruptions on passenger flows. We consider a dynamic investment problem where protection resources become available over a planning horizon. The problem is formulated as a bilevel mixed-integer model and solved using two different decomposition approaches. Random instances of different sizes are generated to compare the solution algorithms. The model is then tested on the Kent railway network to demonstrate how the results can be used to support efficient protection decisions