Economic feasibility of growing hops in Nebraska

Master of AgribusinessDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsVincent R. Amanor-BoaduNationwide, the craft brew industry has enjoyed massive growth. Hops are an important ingredient in craft brew beer and rapid growth of this industry has created many opportunities to grow hops. Currently, hops production is concentrated in the Pacific Northwest. That is beginning to change with new hops acres being planted every year across the country. The study looks at how economically feasible it is to plant hops in Nebraska. Is there enough local demand? Finally, given that Nebraska’s weather is dramatically different than the Pacific Northwest, can hops flourish there? The research begins by assessing all costs associated with a starting a three acre hops operation. Estimated yield and income is projected for ten years to establish cash flow. Instances of hail, wind and tornados for Clay County Nebraska for the years 2006-2016 were calculated to determine a probability of those weather events occurring. The probability was then used to determine the effect it could have on yield of hops per year. In addition to cost of production, the study also documented the growth of Nebraska’s craft brew industry to establish demand for locally grown hops. The researched concluded that if production stayed constant and our discount rate at 5%, assuming prices remain where they are or higher, then it is economically feasible to grow hops in Nebraska. Wind, hail and tornadoes do pose a threat in the Midwest but their effect on yield is not enough to deter someone from planting hops there. Access to reliable capital to begin and sustain a hops operation appears to have a greater impact. In addition, Nebraska’s craft brew industry continues to expand rapidly suggesting a strong market for locally grown hops. This information is important for anyone who is considering planting a commercial hops yard. Given how expensive the start-up costs are and how labor intensive the crop is, this research can provide guidance to those seeking to add hops production to their new or existing farming operation

Developing business community portals for SMEs-Issues of design, development and sustainability

Governments worldwide are using funding initiatives to encourage small businesses to adopt e-commerce technology. In Australia both State and Federal Governments have encouraged e-commerce uptake through the funding of Internet portal developments that have a specific community or business focus. The success of such portals, as with many Web developments, has been mixed and there is little evidence of any evaluation of the effectiveness of such investments. This paper reports on research into an Australian B2B business community portal from launch to closure. A survey and in-depth interviews with portal participants were undertaken. The research sought to understand how the portal had been developed, and what factors may have contributed to its demise. The findings identified a number of factors, not discussed in the literature, that are important in portal development. These include: how the development process is undertaken; technological readiness of the small business owners; meeting business expectations; and understanding the business community stakeholders. The results from this study suggest that portal projects such as this are problematic and funding bodies such as governments need to understand the factors that contribute to success before funds are committed.<br /

From websites to portals: success factors For business community portals

Many Governments are using funding initiatives to encourage businesses, particularly small businesses to adopt e-commerce technology. One currently popular approach in Australia, has been to fund internet portal developments with a specific community or business focus. The success of such portals however, as with many Web developments has been mixed. This paper reports on the establishment of a B2B portal in Australia. The paper explores issues and expectations from the perspective of the business people involved. A survey was conducted amongst the participants of the portal shortly after it was launched. Then follow-up interviews were conducted with business owners 2 years later just before the portal closed. The researchers sought to understand what the business community expected from the portal and to identify what factors contribute to success. The research found that in addition to the factors identified through the literature that, technological readiness of business owners, understanding the business community, realizing business value and managing participant&rsquo;s expectations are also factors impacting on success. A model is proposed to describe the success factors.<br /

Resolving environmental drivers of microbial community structure in Antarctic soils

Antarctic soils are extremely cold, dry, and oligotrophic, yet harbour surprisingly high bacterial diversity. The severity of environmental conditions has constrained the development of multi-trophic communities, and species richness and distribution is thought to be driven primarily by abiotic factors. Sites in northern and southern Victoria Land were sampled for bacterial community structure and soil physicochemical properties in conjunction with the US and New Zealand Latitudinal Gradient Project. Bacterial community structure was determined using a high-resolution molecular fingerprinting method for 80 soil samples from Taylor Valley and Cape Hallett sites which are separated by five degrees of latitude and have distinct soil chemistry. Taylor Valley is part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, while Cape Hallett is the site of a penguin rookery and contains ornithogenic soils. The influence of soil moisture, pH, conductivity, ammonia, nitrate, total nitrogen and organic carbon on community structure was revealed using Spearman rank correlation, Mantel test, and principal components analysis. High spatial variability was detected in bacterial communities and community structure was correlated with soil moisture and pH. Both unique and shared bacterial community members were detected at Taylor Valley and Cape Hallett despite the considerable distance between the sites

National security: A propositional study to develop resilience indicators as an aid to personnel vetting

Within the National Security domain there is a convergence of security responsibility across the national security agencies, law enforcement and private security sectors. The sensitivity of this environment requires individuals operating in the domain to be honest, trustworthy and loyal. Personnel vetting is a formal process used to determine an individual’s suitability for access to this domain. Notwithstanding this process, significant breaches of trust, security, and corruption still occur. In psychology, resilience is a well researched phenomenon that is considered a multidimensional construct where individual attributes, family aspects and social environment interact in aiding individuals to deal with vulnerability. There are many understandings and definitions of resilience based on theorists’ different perspectives; however, most agree that resilience is represented by a minimum of two aspects. The first is adversity and second, how the individual deals with adversity that demonstrates situational adaptation in a positive manner. The study is a work in progress and proposes the use of a recently developed Lifespan Resilience Scale. This scale will use resilience markers as an aid to National Security by providing vetting agencies with an additional tool for proactive intervention. The Lifespan Resilience Scale is currently undergoing reliability and validity testing within a student population. Once validated within this population, the scale will be adjusted and tested within the vetting environment using cross validated cohorts and expert opinion. Such a tool will assist National Security through better personnel risk management

Moving from a web presence to e-commerce : the importance of a business-web strategy for small-business owners

More than half of small businesses in Australia (57%) use a website to promote their business. Having an effective website is an important step for small business owners moving towards e-commerce. The research suggests that once a business has a clear online strategy through a website they are more likely to move to e-commerce. While many small business owners have a business strategy, it is often the case that this strategy does not include their Web presence. This paper describes the results of interviews with small business owners and assessment of their websites. We identify elements that are important for small business owners developing a business-Web strategy. The research indicates that many owners see their websites as little more than an advertising medium and few are ready for the move to e-commerce. Identifying the level of maturity of a small business owner\u27s business-Web strategy however can help us understand how prepared a small business owner is to move to e-commerce.<br /

Women in ICT : guidelines for evaluating intervention programmes

Many intervention programmes to increase the number of women in theInformation and Communications Technology (ICT) profession have been implemented over the last twenty years. Detailed evaluations help us to determine the effectiveness of these programmes yet few comprehensive evaluations appear in the literature.The research reported here describes an investigation of the evaluation of the intervention programmes focusing on increasing the enrolment and retention of females in ICT in Australia. This paper describes an empirical study which explores how evaluation has been and might be conducted and concludes with guidelines for evaluation for those developing programmes for increasing the participation of women in ICT.The guidelines encourage evaluation to be considered early, highlight the importance of establishing objective outcomes and promote the publication of results to build knowledge for those planning programmes in the future. Further, the developed guidelines could adapted and used with other ICT intervention programs.<br /

Evaluating small business web sites-understanding users

The cost of developing a website can be considerable and there is ample literature describing how to build effective websites. However, despite this many small businesses embark on the development of a website without any real understanding of what they are trying to achieve, who their audience is and the impact poor design will have on usability and user satisfaction. This paper discusses the results of a study that examined user reactions to a number of small business web sites. In particular it explored the interaction of different design factors on users. The study found that in many cases the websites are not meeting the needs of their audience. Specifically users become frustrated when attention is not paid to the design and quality of the information, the quality of the interface impacts on task completion and sites users find uninteresting are usually those they also had difficulty navigating and interacting with. Whilst none of this should be surprising, what is surprising is the continuing lack of attention paid to website usability.<br /

Women in the IT workplace : learnings for managers

This paper discusses the experiences of women working in the Australian IT workforce. With increasing demand for information technology professionals, organisations need to both attract the best qualified people as well as keep those they already have. In western developed countries in recent years we have seen a decline in women's participation in the IT workforce. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that most IT workplaces are male dominated which many women find less comfortable than more gender balanced workplaces. Based on survey responses and interviews with Australian women working in IT, our research explored women's lived experiences. We found that women continue to find the environment of their workplaces challenging yet report that they enjoy working as IT professionals. Further we identified what would make a difference to women's working lives to ensure they stay and advance in the IT profession. If we are to keep women in the IT workforce we need to be aware of the challenges women face and begin to address these challenges by providing mechanisms to better support women