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Exporting is a popular entry strategy into foreign markets, but many firms that could export do not. One barrier to effective exporting may be uncertainty about the foreign environment. This article examines the perceptions of export executives regarding the foreign environment and decision-making uncertainty and their effects on satisfaction and economic performance in the export channel. A mail survey was received from 118 firms involved with exporting agricultural commodities. The results suggest that firms perceive environmental uncertainty and decision-making uncertainty to be greater in export channels than in domestic channels and that these types of uncertainty affect satisfaction and performance. Specifically, environmental dynamism and decision-making uncertainty negatively influenced satisfaction and performance in the export channel, while environmental complexity positively influenced performance. Managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We're being warned of future grain failures--not by the dreams of a biblical Pharaoh, but by modern computer model predictions. Climate science forecasts rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and episodes of increasingly extreme weather, which will harm crop yields at a time when the world's growing population can ill afford declines, especially in its most productive areas, such as the US Midwest. In order to adequately prepare, we call for the establishment of a new field research network across the US Midwest to fully integrate all methods for improving cropping systems and leveraging big data (agronomic, economic, environmental, and genomic) to facilitate adaptation and mitigation. Such a network, placed in one of the most important grain-producing areas in the world, would provide the set of experimental facilities, linked to farm settings, needed to explore and test the adaptation and mitigation strategies that already are needed globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the furor surrounding the offshoring phenomenon, there is little empirical research examining global IT sourcing (GITS) and its potential impacts on the individual, the organization, and society. This article presents the results of a study of the perceived direction of GITS in the United States and its implications for business. Based on information collected from structured interviews with senior information systems executives at ten medium to large corporations in the region, the study specifically examines their perceptions of offshoring trend, its implications for the IT workforce, and steps that must be taken to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Nine of the ten company executives interviewed indicated a slow but steady growth in the level of such offshore engagements and an increasing commitment to strategic partnerships with global information service providers. The primary drivers of offshoring partnerships were cost, access to expertise, and domestic headcount stabilization. Significant concerns were expressed as to the nature of computer science education in the United States and a need to shift from technical skills to those that focused on business domain knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should students be treated as customers or as products? A survey of faculty and students showed that faculty generally prefer the product orientation and students generally prefer the customer orientation, but both believe the other orientation prevails. Significant differences were evident across disciplines; in Business and Arts & Sciences, students felt they got more product orientation and less customer orientation than they wanted. In Engineering and Law, students wanted less customer orientation and were generally satisfied with what they got. In a European university, students perceived less congruence between their preference for customer orientation and a prevailing product orientation than was true for a U.S. state university or a U.S. private university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the age and cardiorespiratory stress of firefighters in the U.S. Discriminant function analysis on heart, oxygen consumption, and inspired ventilation in a simulated fire-suppression protocol; Concurrent validity of the proposed cutoff among the firefighters; Probability of success among firefighters with higher oxygen consumption.

The article offers a report relating to Marvin Herard, a young Northwest American sculptor, craftsman, and assistant professor at Seattle University. The section discusses the life and career of Herard, including information on several of his art works. According to the report, Herard was born in a rural community in Pacific Northwest America, south of Seattle, and is a product of a region of practical arts and practical ideas. Herard's works was described as substantial, demonstrating a sound knowledge of the craft and a trained eye for form, who puts solid ideas in a durable material.

The article offers information on Steven Fuller, associate professor of art at University of Washington, and his methods of teaching leather design. Fuller teaches the techniques of forming objects of leather. He teaches students how to use commercial tools to learn the techniques of tooling, carving and stamping patterns on the leather's surface, then teaches them the lacing and forming of basic shapes from leathers. In his class, students are also taught various dyeing and finishing techniques using natural leathers, After learning the techniques in basic surfacing and forming, Fuller then requires students to create a three dimensional class project of a specific function.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue including the structure and status of plant conservation in the U.S., cryostorage of recalcitrantseeded species, and plant tissue cryopreservation.

Comments on the conservation in a complex and rapidly changing world that exploit a multiplicity if indigenously driven approaches in the U.S. Indication for the use of natural resources for a large number of people; Common denominator among successful approaches; Means for achieving conservation within given social and economic context.

The article examines the effects of population explosion on the environment. It is mentioned that the rapid increase in population is having an adverse effect on the natural resources and also on various species of plants and animals. According to a study by the U.S. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 40% of the tropical forests of the world have been destroyed during the past 150 years for developing human establishments. FAO have estimated that due to population explosion a majority of the remaining tropical forests will also be destroyed during the next 25 years.